A hidden gem in the Blichmann catalog is the Command Stand. BrewCommander, Therminator, RipTide and even the flow meter can all mount on the stand. Kind of expensive at $199, but all you have to do is bolt it together and bolt everything on the stand.

"It's a lot of stuff!" I fully agree, as that shocked me when I first received it. The Surface is 18 lbs without anything attached. (Someone had asked me, so I had to weigh my tri-clamp version Surface). I agree with the spot welds, as I have a small spot, but I blamed myself. I have the surface version BrewEasy now but have yet to brew with it due to a backlog of videos. And lastly, thank you very much for the shoutouts! (I did a ton of videos just on each attachment 100% because of what you said: "It's a lot of stuff!" I was also overwhelmed initially and felt many new owners would be overwhelmed, too. (I actually walked someone through it over the phone just before I got mine.) I have been wondering with the new BoilerMaker Surface, if I could actually add a larger grain basket since the heating element isn't in the way, but there are still a few things in there. (I do the full cleaning about every 2 to 3 brews based on how far between brews, but CIP after each brew.) Added note: Never use that grain basket for hop additions! Brian had suggested it before testing it, and I actually tested it on camera, and it was a nightmare as it was never intended to be used for hops.

Great video Braj!

I've never been a fan of the Blichmann system - fiddly, overly complicated and emphasis on stuff that doesn't really matter to most home brewers at the expense of stuff that does. I use a Brewzilla gen 4 which is so easy to use and has very granular control with its RAPT system. It's also way more efficient and can brew a higher volume than the Blichmann, which is what brewers are most concerned about

Looks like a neat system, I’m a sucker for extra gadgets but cleaning is never fun 😂 That Riptide pump though 😍 I really want one of those, cheers 🍻

Great Video Apartment Brewer. I have a Brew Easy Classic 2 vessel system and enjoy it. The Riptide and the Brew Commander were the reason I bought the system. I really wanted triclamp ports on my pots, but they weren't available at the time a little over 3 years ago. I nearly bought the Clawhammer at the time, but the Brew Easy system was close in price and closer to a 3 vessel system. I didn't really want a 3 vessel system, but by purchasing the Brew Easy if I need to add a vessel it was going to be a minor addition. I have 3 systems now, and I use them exclusively as kettle RIMS systems. The Blichmann false bottom is another well made invaluable addition to my brewing. I was lucky enough to discover Blichmann's 15 gallon false bottom fit my Bru Gear15 gallon mashtun, rounding out my fleet. Cheers.

I think the cone shape to the basket allows room for all the gadgets / ports at the bottom. They sacrificed mash capacity for this. If the entire kettle were a bit taller they could have a cylinder basket and no problems with larger grain bills. Then the ports would all sit under the basket. Maybe in the next model…

Great review Steve. Convinced me not to buy it. Just to busy of a system for me. To much cleaning. I enjoy my Anvil because of its ease of use and cleaning. And still makes wonderful wort. I did upgrade to the Riptide as the Anvil pump died around 40 brews. Take care.

Looks like this will be on my upgrade wishlist from the Anvil Foundry. I’ve been looking at the Compact Surface or Clawhammer 240v system. 🍻🍻🍻

Nice comparisons. Good job threading the needle and keeping about the pros/cons depending on each persons needs.

Great review. I appreciate the comparison heat up times you mentioned. I have the Blichmann linear valve on my boil kettle. Super easy to clean. I'd like to have the 20g Surface as a single eKettle to replace my 3V propane setup. I think a simple bag and false bottom (to reduce scorching the grain) would be a better option vs Blichmann's tapered basket.

Great review. Guess I'm just a lazy brewer., or just too busy farming and doing my day job. This is why I use Anvil ferment in a kettle system, one easy to clean kettle. I've looked all these systems, as Steve says it's not the equipment its the brewer. FIK It fits in a fridge for lagaering, thermo well and rack arm and a quick kettle clean when done fermenting . Love all this stuff, but at the end of the day all that cleaning is time I just don't have.

I’m so glad you did this comparison. I was really considering this system but I think I’ll stick with the ClawHammer. I do not like all the extra cleaning & being limited on grain/volume. Be cool if ClawHammer did a model upgrade… tri-clamp fittings, whirlpool port, sight glass & update the controller to name a few.

Automate the boil is a misnomer. It’s a pay attention to the schedule to add hops at the right time when the controller beeps system.

I've had some similar experiences with mine. Main gripe is the limited grain capacity, cleaning hassle, and having to keep that probe inserted. Decent system, but I still prefer my BrewEasy Surface Classic. More robust and easier to clean especially for someone like me that also does not have a nearby slop sink to spray clean that mesh basket. Regarding the little o-ring, I had to order a replacement package of them from Amazon because they do tear easily if you do not lube them. Since I use the the Brewcommander probe for both the Classic and Compact BrewEasies, they tear too often.

I currently using the Clawhammer system for my homebrew setup. I’ve used the Blichmann 1bbl 3 vessel system with the ripe tide pump and the Therminator chiller for about 20 brews and really enjoyed it. Now I’m graduated up to the Blichmann 3.5 bbl 3 vessel system for which I’ve been brewing with it for 18 months and not a single issue. Blichmann makes really good quality brewing equipment. Steve makes a great point about being over engineered because they are definitely over engineered. The only downside I see to this system is the grain basket. I’m sure it’s coned shape is because of the ports and gadgets that are cool but it does hinder your ability to higher gravity beers. 🍻🍻🍻

Scorched my last beer due to the immersed element in my brew easy classic

Great vid, appreciate you giving a good amount of opinion commentary in addition to the facts. 14 lbs real grain capacity is a big no go for me. No way to make 5 gallons of a double IPA… what are we even doing here!?!!?

I’ve been thinking about this as a long-term upgrade from my Foundry, which I love. I really want to move to triclamp and away from gross ball valves. It’d double as my HLT when I do 10-gallon batches. Biggest con is cleaning all the attachments… the sight glass, recirc arm, and flow meter look like pains in the butt. Hopefully CIP works well. That o-ring “thermowell” is also a nightmare, they shouldn’t ship with that - dragging a probe around during cleaning to avoid leaks!? No thank you. Nice that there’s no element to clean though. Overall I’m still on the fence. As much as I HATE cleaning the grain pipe and the ball valve of my early-model Foundry, it still makes great beer, and I should probably just use it until it dies. I’ve got 50+ brews on it by now!

Great review! Unfortunately I can confirm the mesh basket construction issue as at minimum a two off issue.

Hey, you should check out the brewtools b40 and b80 brewing systems. I use a B80 + an F80 unitank. This system looks like it belongs in the 90's if you compare it to a brewtools system. Brewtools uses all tri-clamps vs. this system which relies heavily on threaded connections.

Blickman relies on a LOT of o-rings with a lot of their products. I spent time measuring them and ordering extras from other sources as they want to overcharge for a few o-rings. When the o-rings are lubed (just with water) things work well.

Hey man, i been watching your videos and thank you for all your great knowledge! I'm wanting to make your festbier and a traditional recipe of witbier. I can't drink until March, which is also when I have my 30th birthday, and I wanted to make these beers to celebrate I'm Brazilian and i finally managed to control my fermentation temperature. I got a backup fridge for the garage. The room temperature is in the 90ºF ballpark and my fermentation fridge can go reliably to 49ºF I have some questions and the local brew shop isn't very helpful (like when they told me water chemistry doesn't matter because the malt and hops overpowered the water), so if you don't mind, I have a couple questions. 1) I'm going to bottle it. I should let the beer lagger in the fermentation bucket or in the bottles? The fermentation bucket feels better to avoid getting the beer unclear during transportation after laggering. Im not a particular fan of yeast cake... But do I need yeast for bottling or I can bottle normally? I'm want to use Lallemand diamond 2) In my current setup in this time of the year, my temperature options are 49ºF or the room temperature in 85ºF to 96ºF Can I make a diacetyl rest in that high of the temperature or it will throw odd flavors? 3) Can I ferment the witbier with Lallemand wit in thar low temperature of 49ºF? I kinda have access to all Lallemand dry yeast line. I can use the kveik but if possible I rather make a true lagger and a true wit. But if not possible, I can use the kveik.

Thanks for the interesting review and comparison. If I were in the market for a new system, I would go for the Blichmann. Unfortunately neither system is available in the EU except for a copycat version of the Clawhammer system. Cheers!

Nice review. Shame neither the Blichmann nor Clawhammer are available in the UK

Wow, excellent review. I’m using the Clawhammer 120v system, I’m wondering if you have a detailed review of that also. Yesterday I completed my second batch with the Clawhammer. I have had temperature control issues with it using the Thermowell, and I finally decided to just keep the temperature probe in the kettle. Because of my concerns with temperature control, I also used a ChefMate probe, one probe on the outside of the basket and the other in the mash. My grain bill was 11 lbs, aiming for a mash temperature of 150F. Right away the temperature climbed to 160, even though my set temperature was 150F, and there were wide temperature differences between each probe. We stirred the mash several times to bring the temperature down,and we even lifted the grain basket a few times to loosen the mash and allow for better circulation. Quite a pain. We stood there for the full hour babysitting the mash trying to determine how to get the temperature down to 150F. The result was a highly efficient mash at 1.075, but I didn’t expect to put in this amount of work. I’m wondering if you’ve had a similar experience with the Clawhammer system. Please recommend your review if you have one.

You mentioned the rotating dip tube to remove wart without the trub. Question - -Do you set the angle before hand? If so how do you know where? -Do you rotate it at the end to get the last bit out? I have no idea how to set mine in my fermenter, as I have no idea how much trub will be at the bottom when it's done.

Looks like you have to remove the recirculating arm to lift the basket? Is that fairly simple to do

I feel like this system has a lot of fundamentally good designs aspects that were muddled by other poor design choices and then shoddy execution (mainly, the grain basket sucks). Thermowell should have been the default option, same with the three-way valve allowing simultaneous WP/recirc as the riptide flows WAY more than you can send up top anyway. Sight glass should be an option along with the flow meter. There's just too much effort put into non-value added accessories. The one I would really like to see compared against the Clawhammer is the SVBS. Personally I brew with a Unibrau V3 that's been modded quite a bit. I'm using a bag inside a modified extended basket with a whirlpool arm and a thermowell in the bottom of the kettle along with a riptide pump. It's not perfect but has its positives over most of the off the shelf systems. It's good enough to get cool clean wort into my fermentor. The real magic happens from there.

Yeah the cleaning was what I thought of when you started the video

You never mentioned the Braumeister Brew Kettle, which is what I have. Where would this fit into your categories?

Do you happen to have links to Short Circuited or Bitter Reality talking about the three-way valve for recirculating through both the recirc arm and the whirlpool? I can't find anything where they talk about that... thanks!

I just recently purchased the Clawhammer 10.5 gal 120v system and I’m starting to think I made a mistake in the 120v. I do have access to 240v but thought going worth the 120 wouldn’t restrict me as much to areas where I can have my brew day. It’s being delivered to me on the 18th of this month. Should I just send back and get the 240v? Just curious on your feelings on the two. I understand it will make my brew day long due to heat up times and I my main concern is the boil doing it’s job.

What efficiency were you seeing?

I think you don't have to take everything apart to clean it, since it's sealed if you think about it. I won't go for the clawhammer one

Have some anvil stuff.

mesh basket seems a really odd design choice

They dropped the ball not making this with a bottom drain or a side drain of sorts.