Klarstein Maischfest Boiler Mash Kettle

[Berrylands Brewer]

I am thinking of purchasing one of these mash tuns, the 25 litre size for about £200.
I can only find one review which has several criticisms of the unit.
Will it increase the mash efficiency?
How have other owners found it?
Thanks, Berrylands Brewer.

 

[Berrylands Brewer]

https://www.klarstein.co.uk/Home-ap...ch-Stainless-Steel-25-Ltr.html#productReviews

 

[Rodcx500z]

If i was buying one i would go the extra 30 quid and get the 35L well 20 cos you get a tenner off if you sign the news letter, i have the fullhorn and love it

 

[Dads_Ale]

I posted this on another thread.

Hi. I have the 30ltre version and whilst I use it for all my brews now I don't use it as it was intended and just use it as a boiler (which it is very good at)

These are the issues I have found with the mash side:
The grain basket seems to be a badly designed afterthought. It is too small and there is a lot of dead space around it.
There is no hop filter and the basket sits too low to fit one (I tried a bazooka one there may be another type that would fit) prior to the mash and you can't fit one afterwards as it is full of hot wort.
It is awkward to lift and fit the basket support as it does not lock automatically. (you also need to carefully measure your sparge water as you cant see how full it is getting)
You can't really rely on the temp gauge for mashing as the probe sits at the bottom so only really measures the temp of the water rather than the mash basket.
At one point I just ditched the basket and fitted a bazooka filter to the back of the tap and used that as the mash tun. Worked really well although you do need an additional vessel to collect the wort during sparging. The grain can then be cleaned out and the unit re-used as the boiler. I stopped this as the extra vessel was an old mash tun so I just use this for the mashing now.
I also added so extra insulation around the out side just to keep a bit more heat in.

Having said the above it is a good boiler. The 3kw element allows it come up to boil fairly quickly and the 1500w element maintains the boil (3kw is a bit too vigorous). Again don't rely on the temp readout as it can lag behind (possibility of a boil over)

So you can use it as is but there are a few issues with the mashing side.

 

[Berrylands Brewer]

Thanks for the useful comments. Its a shame its a good boiler as I was hoping to use it a as a mash tun to improve my mash efficiency which I struggle to achieve 75%.

 

[MickDundee]

Thanks for the useful comments. Its a shame its a good boiler as I was hoping to use it a as a mash tun to improve my mash efficiency which I struggle to achieve 75%.

A lot of people would love an efficiency as high as 75%. Even with my Brewdevil I’m only getting about 72%.

 

[Slid]

Thanks for the useful comments. Its a shame its a good boiler as I was hoping to use it a as a mash tun to improve my mash efficiency which I struggle to achieve 75%.

Have to agree with Mick here - it took me quite a while to get up to 75% using the Grainfather!

I got the 35L recently as it was on offer, but it is still in its box unused! It was to be a replacement for the Peco Boiler I use for heating sparge water and then boiling after the GF unit I possess cuts out at ~80C. Since it seems a good boiler, I will perhaps give it a whirl next time!