10.5 gallon Anvil Foundry All-in-One Brewing System with Recirculation Pump Kit

The Anvil Foundry was the perfect solution for me because I was ready to upgrade or replace most of my equipment at the time of purchase. The build quality is superb and the engineering was clearly designed for simplicity and ease of use. I've only used the system once so far, but I have no major complaints. I did miss my efficiency on my first brew by quite a bit, but I assume this will improve as I become more familiar with the equipment.

I’ve use the system twice now, and I’m liking it. Background : Home brewing 25 years now, lots of kits, lots of partial mash, worked with fresh hops, grew my own hops for a while and used them in brewing. Limited all grain brewing experience, but some. I bought from AiH because of my previous purchases, and their helpfulness along the way. I peppered them with questions before hand and as usual they were a big help. The Anvil ships from the mfgr. and the process was- maybe a week? Unpacking was fine, the unit was in expected, new condition, but I was missing the recirculation pump and the eyebolt for the top perforated disk and nuts didn’t match. I was able to use the foundry anyway for a partial mash brew. I got the pump and replacement parts pretty quickly. Used the unit for an all grain batch and noticed my 2nd brew went a little more smoothly. The timer delay for firing up the heat is a real time and effort saver. I brewed on 110v and did see some time spent heating up, but as compared to a propane burner? I didn’t do a side by side comparison, but yeah, it was a little longer to go from 170 to boiling. I was checking the temp with my thermometer during the mash and found the Anvil was within a degree of my thermometer. Mashing went pretty smoothly for me, the recirculation pump worked well. About the only thing I can knock is that I’ve ready many tales of woe cautioning about not allowing too much flow, and I wasn’t able to really slow the flow down to a level I thought was right, but no stuck mash so maybe it was fine after all. 170-212F was a bit on the long side, again using 110v, but not horrible. I was surprised how quickly the chiller got temps to low 100’s, and only a few minutes longer to get to pitch temps. Cleanup was easier than I had expected. The kettle itself is a bit of a chore but doesn’t take long. Maybe 30 minutes or so to have things ready for putting away. Instructions are pretty good with the unit, could be a bit bigger font, but definitely enough to get you going. All in all I’m satisfied with the unit performance and I’d buy it again knowing what I know now.

I ordered 1/29. Website states it would ship mid February. I received today 2/12. It's the new version with the display up top. I cleaned and inspected it. No issues very well made. If there is 1 concern it's that with the display up on the system, that the cords would get hot as they are between the outer and inner layer of steel. I'm not going to worry about it though. Like I said very well made. I made sure that everything was put together and tested. It works as advertised. On 120v I was able to get from 65 degrees to 114 degrees in 30 minutes. Once it got past 100 degrees, the temperature started to ride higher. Overall I'm extremely happy with the purchase and can't wait for my next brew day!

Excellent product.

The grain basket was dented from shipping. The flow clamp treads poorly threaded won't clamp down.

I have used the brewers edge mash boil without a pump previously and liked that system. However, the Foundry solution with external pump increased my brew efficiency. I pick this system with external pump over other systems with internal pumps as it looked and proved to be easier to clean. Have not tried the 240v option but hope to soon - should shorten brew day. Full system clean up was easy.

Foundry was delivered in excellent condition and setup was a breeze. On my first attempt to brew I hit a snag, it wouldn’t heat. I tried contacting the manufacturer but it was Friday afternoon and they were closed till Monday. I opened the foundry and found a wire that had not been connected. Fixed the problem and everything worked as expected. On 120v, water heated quickly. The boil went well, it came to a rapid boil with 6.5 gallons of wort. I would have given this a 5 star rating but for the minor electrical issue.