If you're a proud BrewZilla owner like us, you know how versatile and efficient this brewing system can be. After many brews and countless hours of research, we've compiled a list of essential accessories and tips to enhance your BrewZilla experience.
Neoprene Jacket/Parker
The neoprene jacket is a must-have for your Brewzilla. It insulates the boiler, making it more efficient by speeding up the heating process and maintaining a constant temperature during mashing. They're made specifically to fit the BrewZilla and have cut outs for the handles and tap
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| 35L Brewzilla with neoprene jacket |
Tip: Be sure to remove the neoprene jacket when cooling your wort to avoid unnecessary insulation which can hinder the cooling process.
Hop Spider
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A hop spider is a fine mesh cylinder that contains your hops during the boil. There is a metal hook at the top that allows it to hang neatly from the top of the BrewZilla.
While some brewers prefer free-floating hops for better utilization, using a hop spider reduces the risk of clogging the pump with hop material, and less hop debris in the wort, and potentially your fermenter.
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| Brewzilla with hop spider attached with clip |
Tip 1: Use a bulldog clip to attach the hop spider to the top edge of the Brewzilla for better positioning - see image above
Tip 2: Run the recirculation hose through the hop spider while waiting for your BrewZilla to come to the boil to filter out stray grains.
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| Run the recirculation hose through the hop spider to filter out any grains before boiling |
Whirlpool Arm Attachment
Whirlpooling helps settle the trub in a cone at the base of the boiler, making cleanup easier. It also keeps the wort circulating during cooling which can improve cooling speed/efficiency.
Tip 1: Point the whirlpool arm so the wort flows opposite to the water in the immersion chiller.
Tip 2: Attach a small piece of silicon tube/hose to the end of the whirlpool arm to help guide the wort flowing out of it around the outside of the BrewZilla unit
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| Silicone tube attached to end of whirlpool arm (closeup) |
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| Silicone tube attached to end of whirlpool arm |
Immersion Chiller
The immersion chiller is a standard inclusion when purchasing the Brewzilla - which is great. It's made of stainless steel, which is decent, but not the most efficient in terms of heat exchanging properties (copper is better, but more expensive). Here's a couple of quick tips to get the most out of the immersion chiller;
Tip 1: Cover the connections with old rags or shirts to catch any leaks.
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| Immersion chiller in action - note the old shirts over the connections to help with drips/leaks |
Tip 2: Jiggle the chiller up and down in the wort to speed up cooling.
Tip 3: Use the previously mentioned whirlpool arm to keep the wort moving around the chiller to speed up cooling
Camlock Fittings
Many Brewzilla users have reported issues with the camlock fittings (used to hold attachments onto the pump outlet such as the whirlpool arm attachment or standard recirculation arm attachment) coming loose. We noticed this as well with our Brewzilla - when pumping wort through the recirculation arm, the slightest bump on the arm would often be enough to dislodge it and lead to wort suddenly leaking out everywhere - far from ideal, and when dealing with boiling or near boiling liquids, is dangerous.
Tip: Use a zip tie (or two smaller zip ties connected together as I have) to create a loop that is then placed over the camlock arms to prevent them from opening and secure the cam lock connection in place.
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| Zip-ties in a loop over camlock fittings to prevent them from opening unexpectedly (secured) |
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| Zip-ties in a loop over camlock fittings to prevent them from opening unexpectedly (unsecured) |
Boiler & Malt Pipe Extensions
You can upgrade your BrewZilla with a boiler extension and larger malt pipe to allow more grain and water to be used in your BrewZilla. Very useful for those stronger beers that require a larger grain bill!
Check out our article providing more detail on these below;
BrewZilla - Boiler & Malt Pipe Extensions to Increase Capacity
Sergeant Sparge Head
Sergeant Sparge Head is a wort sprinkler that can be used to aerate the wort during transfer to the fermenter, or to help evenly distribute the wort over the grain bed during recirculation in the mash. Check out our full review of the Sergeant Sparge head for more info.
Premium Stainless Steel Drill Powered Mash Stirrer
A really simple piece of equipment - the drill powered mash stirrer as the name suggests connects into your standard house-hold drill, and can be used to quickly and efficiently stir and mix your grain.
This ensures all the grain is wetted, breaks up dough balls and in our experience has led to a slight increase in efficiency.
Check out our full review of the Premium Stainless Steel Drill Powered Mash Stirrer for more details.
RAPT Bluetooth Thermometer
Of all the products and tips we've listed here, this one is the probably the most useful. The RAPT Bluetooth Thermometer can be used to accurately measure the temperature of your grain bed to ensure your mash temperature is exactly where you need it to be.
One of the biggest problems with the BrewZilla is that the inbuilt temperature probe is located at the base of the unit - near the heating elements. This means that the temperature on the BrewZilla display will rarely match the temperature in the middle of the grain bed.
By using the RAPT Bluetooth Thermometer, you can insert the long temperature probe into the middle of the mash, and just the BrewZilla temperature accordingly.
If you're using one of the Gen 4 BrewZilla models, you can pair the thermometer to the BrewZilla unit using Bluetooth and have it automatically adjust the heating power accordingly, rather than just using the in built temperature probe on the bottom.
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