Blichmann BrewEasy

Danam404 said:

...

-The pH meter I use has auto-temp correction. So I'll go ahead and measure at the temperature of my pleasing.
...

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Well just be aware that the mash pH is actually higher at mash temps, by 0.2 - 0.35. Nobody seems sure of the exact number because pH at mash temps is irrelevant -- quoted target ranges like 5.4-5.6 are always at room temp by convention. So if you measure at mash temps, you need to subtract some amount, but nobody seems sure exactly how much since that's not how it's done.

Apparently I need to work on my delivery because I was really trying to help.

Danam404 said:

Posted this on the general forum but I mostly only visit this thread, so figured I'd pop it up here:

Got a chance to do something cool today. Brought in over 100 tons of DHL Asia Freight into Cincinnati, nonstop on this Boeing 747-8. The featured cargo was some stainless steel toys for all the girls and boys from our friends at Ss Brew Tech. Cheers from Hong Kong!View attachment 282783

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NICE! Yeah a ton of their fermenters are on back order. I was contemplating buying a second fermenter last week and saw their stuff isn't shipping until this week, due to back log. Thank you Danam404 for flying in more SS Brewtech gear for us stateside. :rockin:
Got myself a SS Brewtech 14 gallon Chronical and filled it with a pale ale brewed this weekend. Loving it so far. I added the FTSS cooling system and it is SICK! So happy with this purchase and would HIGHLY recommend to folks in warm climate for temp controlled fermentation.

Tone aside, I think SpeedYellow may have a point. I too have been following the advise from Blichmann to make sure that at least 100 ppm of calcium is added to the brew water to overcome the otherwise higher buffering power of the larger volume of mash water. Doing so, however, has put the water mineral profiles out of the typical range for what I've been trying to brew, pale ales and pale IPAs. Not only the calcium levels are out of range, but also the sulfates and chlorides, because you cant add one without adding the others.

Is it gospel to ensure 100 ppm of calcium in the Breweasy system? Shouldn't I be able to achieve the same effect with lactic and phosphoric acids without sacrificing the mineral profile?

(I've been trying to answer these questions myself, but have had a hell of a time without a proper pH meter. Just bought one though because i'm sick of failed batches. I WILL GET THIS RIGHT!)

I'm curious about this as well SwitchBlade. I'm wondering if the BIAB guys could help out as there mashing with the total water volume as well.

SwitchbladeSquirrel said:

...

Is it gospel to ensure 100 ppm of calcium in the Breweasy system? Shouldn't I be able to achieve the same effect with lactic and phosphoric acids without sacrificing the mineral profile? ...

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Switchblade - you should post the question to the Brew Science forum. If the 100 ppm Ca is for mash pH purposes, then your idea sounds solid that acid malt/lactic/phosphoric acid would be a better solution. Otherwise neither the Breweasy nor BIAB could ever get a good lager water profile.

Is anyone using their 10 gall Breweasy for 5 gallon batches? I read what Blichmann's FAQ says about that, I was jus curious is there was any real-world experience out there...

richl025 said:

Is anyone using their 10 gall Breweasy for 5 gallon batches? I read what Blichmann's FAQ says about that, I was jus curious is there was any real-world experience out there...

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Are you curious about the gas or electric version? I have experience doing 5 gal batches in the 10 gal gas version.

richl025 said:

Is anyone using their 10 gall Breweasy for 5 gallon batches? I read what Blichmann's FAQ says about that, I was jus curious is there was any real-world experience out there...

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It's very possible, I've done it a few times, just be mindful that you need at least 5-6 gallons in the brew kettle to keep the electric heating element covered... So sometimes you'll need a thinner mash than usual and then boil the excess off after the mash. Not ideal, but it works.

Danam404 said:

It's very possible, I've done it a few times, just be mindful that you need at least 5-6 gallons in the brew kettle to keep the electric heating element covered... So sometimes you'll need a thinner mash than usual and then boil the excess off after the mash. Not ideal, but it works.

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Hmphh. Thanks Danam - keeping the heating element covered with the electric version is what I was concerned about....

I got a 10 gallon electric and it keeps kicking the 220v GFI. It works fine when the tower of power is plugged in by itself(220v), but when you plug in the pump (110v) it kicks the 220v GFI. The pump works fine by itself, but if you plug it in, it kicks the 220. They are independent systems, so I can't figure out why. Thoughts?

strangr419 said:

First off this forum is phenomenal. This appears to be the only place in the known universe we can get real assistance with the process of using the new BE. This has been invaluable.



QUESTION: I brewed my third batch on the BE this weekend. I had trouble getting the RIMS to circulate. The pump seemed to not pull and would not establish pressure/vacuum to begin pulling off the boil kettle/HLT. I disconnected then reconnected everything. Nothing. Tried swapping the hoses and connections, reconnecting the plastic clamps that came with the system. Nada. Finally I disconnected the probe attachment to the pump and reapplied plumbers tape and retightened. I then pumped the lines with my hand by squeezing the silicone hose going from the pump to the MT and it started flowing.



Anyone else have this problem and if so what did you do to establish suction/vacuum/pressure in the RIMS hoses during mash? Thank you!

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I've done this three times, the third time I figured out where I was messing up. If you start the pump with the valve CLOSED on the Inlet of the pump, you make a vacuum in the inlet, and are hopelessly trapped with air, you'll never get the pump to run without getting rid of the entrapped air. You'll need to disconnect the hose, open up the valve briefly to burp out any trapped air, reinstall inlet hose, OPEN the inlet valve BEFORE starting your pump, and you'll have no problem. Now when I do this mistake I know it's me being a dumb ass, and I don't blame the equipment!

strangr419 said:

Out of curiosity for those of you who have the therminator/plate chiller and march pump set up, how often are you taking the pump apart and cleaning it. I've recently lost a couple batches to wild yeast infection in secondary (primary came out looking and smelling great) but was musing today about whether it's time for me to clean out the pump.

Also, what is your protocol for the chiller, do you bake it to sanitize it ever? Every brewday before I get started I run hot PBW through everything, then water, then star san...then I begin to brew. What do you all do?

I'm tossing all my racking equipment and two plastic big mouth bubblers in hopes that this will avoid future lost batches. Brewing this weekend so I'm hoping it all goes well, if I lose another batch I'm going to lost my S!@#t.



Danam, set up looks killer!

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View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1434621637.056822.jpg

I attached my setup on how I use the therminator. Once I'm boiling, I empty the MT, rinse out spent grains, then fill the MT with PBW, hook up to the inlet of the pump and I'll take the hose (shown going to the fermentor on the picture) and recirc back to the MT. After 15 mins or so I pump the PBW back into my homer bucket (I save the PBW), flush the system with water, the repeat the process with starsan, another 15 minute cleaning. Once I'm done with recircing the starsan into the MT, I pump the starsan to the fermentor as shown in the pic. I drain out as much starsan as I can from the TOP, therminator, and pump by loosening up the line on the inlet of the pump and drain out starsan, I fuss with the chiller (put fittings at bottom to maximize draining) trying to get as much of the residual starsan out, then tighten up the inlet hose fitting. When I first start the pump up after the boil is done, and I'm sending wort to the chiller, I'll throw out the first few seconds of wort, it quickly changes color from clear to wort color, then put the hose into the fermentor.

Btw, using the full TOP as shown is really nice, you use the rtd to tell you the wort temperature, and the flowmeter gives you feedback so you can dial in the wort flow going into the therminator.

FWIW, I don't recirc hot wort in the therminator towards then end of the boil, I found that plugged the chiller with too much trub. I really like the idea, but didn't work out so well for me.

Here is what I'm using instead of a hop spider...View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1434623163.686028.jpg

Bought this from here https://utahbiodieselsupply.com/

6" diameter by 12" long, sits 1" above the coil. I don't have to mess with the bag in a hop spider floating up. Works great. Also bought their hop filter for dry hopping in a corney and/or fermentor. Works great as well.

One bonus of using the filter as shown in the picture, I can place the lid on the BK, it allows some venting, but condensate drops back into the BK. I'm guessing someone will tell me I'm gonna get DMS, I'll find out in a few weeks when I try the beer. My thought process is the following: a commercial brewing operation near my house has a roughly 12" diameter vent to the atmosphere for their massive kettle, why does my 10 gallon pot, at roughly 13" in diameter, need to be fully vented? The brewery doesn't have a 12 FOOT diameter vent, eh? Just a thought...

Oh, one item I found when installing the hop blocker, and can be seen in my picture....man was that difficult to install with the boil coil. It too me a good hour or two to figure out a method to get the drain fitting to snap into place. Only part of the Breweasy assembly that I struggled with. I'm glad I don't need to remove the hop blocker every brew day, as I CIP, and it's sanitized by the hour long boil. I think the name "hand blocker" is more appropriate! If you don't have a boil coil installation is really easy.

I insulated my MT as shown, but I'm still struggling with really slow ramp times. I'm gonna do my fifth brew this weekend, I'll try the three to four degree higher set point than desired mash temp. View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1434624865.552063.jpg

Besides toying with set points, any other tricks to cut down on the mash ramp times? That is my only source of frustration with the blingmann Breweasy. For the amount of money I spent, it doesn't seem like it should take me 5 or 6 brews of effing around to find the best set points, offsets, etc. seems like that should all be spelled out in their documentation. Look at page 4 of the TOP manual. If my mash bed temp could get those results, I'd be thrilled, but I'm not REMOTELY in the ballpark! See attached pic.View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1434625240.043832.jpg

SwitchbladeSquirrel said:

Tone aside, I think SpeedYellow may have a point. I too have been following the advise from Blichmann to make sure that at least 100 ppm of calcium is added to the brew water to overcome the otherwise higher buffering power of the larger volume of mash water. Doing so, however, has put the water mineral profiles out of the typical range for what I've been trying to brew, pale ales and pale IPAs. Not only the calcium levels are out of range, but also the sulfates and chlorides, because you cant add one without adding the others.

Is it gospel to ensure 100 ppm of calcium in the Breweasy system? Shouldn't I be able to achieve the same effect with lactic and phosphoric acids without sacrificing the mineral profile?

(I've been trying to answer these questions myself, but have had a hell of a time without a proper pH meter. Just bought one though because i'm sick of failed batches. I WILL GET THIS RIGHT!)

Click to expand...

Switch, you are right, IMO. Adjust your water with minerals for target mineral profile for your style purposes, the. Use acid malt or lactic or the like to bring down ph further as necessary. This makes sense to me...

scullerkurt said:

I insulated my MT as shown, but I'm still struggling with really slow ramp times.

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The faster the system can recirculate, the faster temps will rise. Use the biggest orifice your system came with or no orifice (you'll need a gasket for this) and control drainage from the MLT with the linear control flow valve (G2). Watch your sight glass and open the flow valve slowly and to avoid stuck mashes.

scullerkurt said:

I've done this three times, the third time I figured out where I was messing up. If you start the pump with the valve CLOSED on the Inlet of the pump, you make a vacuum in the inlet, and are hopelessly trapped with air, you'll never get the pump to run without getting rid of the entrapped air. You'll need to disconnect the hose, open up the valve briefly to burp out any trapped air, reinstall inlet hose, OPEN the inlet valve BEFORE starting your pump, and you'll have no problem. Now when I do this mistake I know it's me being a dumb ass, and I don't blame the equipment!

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Thank you scullerkurt! Appreciate the responses. I'll make a note and employ this next brew day!

Took me a while to figure this out as well... I may look for some type of air bleeder valve to install there, it really is a pain to disconnect that hose to let air out

Danam, I was wondering if you had a checklist for the BrewEasy? I am looking to go from winging brewing to paying more attention to get better results. I have made good beer so far but I want to get more consistent results and brew faster by not scrambling.

chewymatingcall said:

Danam, I was wondering if you had a checklist for the BrewEasy? I am looking to go from winging brewing to paying more attention to get better results. I have made good beer so far but I want to get more consistent results and brew faster by not scrambling.

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You know, being a pilot, you would think I would've made a checklist! Alas, I do not have one... But I probably should. Next time I brew I will draw one up and post it here on the thread... Being that I only brew about once a month, it would certainly be helpful.

Danam404 said:

You know, being a pilot, you would think I would've made a checklist! Alas, I do not have one... But I probably should. Next time I brew I will draw one up and post it here on the thread... Being that I only brew about once a month, it would certainly be helpful.

Click to expand...

Here is the checklist I put together. I think I did most things but I did not follow it to a "t".

Recipe Formulation
Create Recipe
Adjust hops for AA differences
Determine water profile
Determine Salt Additions

Before buying ingredients
Check equipment (tubing, disconnects, etc.) for missing pieces
Buy Yeast and DME (if needed)
Make starter
Obtain RO water (if possible)
Check propane

Buying Ingredients
Call ahead for malt grinding
Adjust hops for AA differences
Buy propane if needed

Night before brew day
Measure salts
Measure hops (not necessary)
Setup boil kettle with water
Add salts
Cold crash starter (if ready)

Equipment needed on brew day
PH meter
Thermometer
Throughmometer
Refractometer
Lighter
Chugger Pump
Sump Pump
Mash paddle
Therminator

Brew day
Fire burner
Cold crash starter (if ready)
Start recirculation when near mashin temp
Turn off recirculation and close mash drain when at temp, fill up top kettle
Add malt
Stir
Wait 10 minutes and then recirculate
Wait 5 minutes then take pH
Chill pH sample then determine pH
Make any necessary additions
Finish initial mash step and then ramp (according to schedule)
Finish mash schedule
Stop recirculating, replace gasket to slow drainage flow
Slowly heat the boil kettle while draining.
Once draining has finished, remove the mash tun, add any FWH hops and reach the boil
Decant starter and put in the fermentation chamber
Empty and clean mash tun
Reach boil and follow boil and hop schedule
Set up cooling loop
Sanitize fermenters
Start recirculation with 15 minutes left in the boil and add whirlfloc
Turn off burner
Either whirlpool or start chilling
If summer, use ground water until the water reaches ~100 degrees then switch to ice bath
Once pitching temperature is reached, move the worth to the fermenters, measure gravity
Add yeast and oxygen
Start fermentation schedule

Fermentation tasks
Swirl beer periodically
Check gravity before crash
Dry hop
Crash (unless cloudy style)
Add gelatin
Bottle

Bottling
Obtain bottles, caps, and sugar
Clean and sanitize bottles
Determine beer volume, beer style carbonation, and calculate sugar needed
Make syrup
Add and swirl syrup

Danam404, one of your post I believe I read you may be brewing with water from your hot water tap. By all means it's your decision but I would never cook or drink with water from a hot water tank.

Now I said it, now I will try to explain it, this is taken from Health Canada, a government website.

"Use only cold tap water for drinking, cooking and making baby formula, since hot water may contain more lead or other contaminants (hot water will more easily dissolve contaminants and hot water often can sit for long periods of time in your hot water tank and pipes."

I have a drilled well, when I brew, I let the water run until I'm sure all the water in the tank and system is renewed with fresh water from underground, probably 20gals or more. I never use enough hot water here at my place to say that the water in the tank is fresh.

I made a 10 gallon yeast starter on Sunday for a 40 gallon brew I have planned as soon as the starter is ready. I checked my ground water temperature at the time, it was 50 Fahrenheit after it ran, much more appealing than water that's been sitting around heating and an Anoid made of Aluminum and Magnesium dissolving in it.

Play safe.

mash-mongrel said:

Danam404, one of your post I believe I read you may be brewing with water from your hot water tap. By all means it's your decision but I would never cook or drink with water from a hot water tank.

Now I said it, now I will try to explain it, this is taken from Health Canada, a government website.

"Use only cold tap water for drinking, cooking and making baby formula, since hot water may contain more lead or other contaminants (hot water will more easily dissolve contaminants and hot water often can sit for long periods of time in your hot water tank and pipes."

I have a drilled well, when I brew, I let the water run until I'm sure all the water in the tank and system is renewed with fresh water from underground, probably 20gals or more. I never use enough hot water here at my place to say that the water in the tank is fresh.

I made a 10 gallon yeast starter on Sunday for a 40 gallon brew I have planned as soon as the starter is ready. I checked my ground water temperature and it was 50 Fahrenheit, much more appealing than water that's been sitting around heating with and Anoid made of Aluminum or Magnesium touching it.

Click to expand...

I use water directly from my water heater but use a carbon filter designed for hot water. I fill my HLT slowly to let the filter do its job then begin heating. Since I'm starting & 120°Fit only takes 15/20 minutes to reach my strike temperature.

govner1 said:

I use water directly from my water heater but use a carbon filter designed for hot water. I fill my HLT slowly to let the filter do its job then begin heating. Since I'm starting & 120°Fit only takes 15/20 minutes to reach my strike temperature.

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Cool, I'm not saying do or don't. I've never used hot water for any consumption, ever; I guess it was something my mother taught me. I don't worry about the extra time it takes to get the water up to temp, I'm more concerned about the quality of water than the time spent heating it.

I was only stating a well known fact that it my not be healthy to use water from a hot water tank and anyone can google lots of reputable websites that suggests the same.

I like to dough in at 105 Fahrenheit for 15 minutes and adjust PH at 72° so starting at a cooler temperature for me is optimal.

I'll chime in on this post with my BrewEasy experiences so far. Might get long-winded once the flood gates open, so apologies in advance. Hopefully if you're thinking about picking one up, there's information of value.

I've had mine since January, a 5G G2 Gas Turnkey kit. Somewhat unfortunately, I was so excited when I got it that I brewed four times in two weeks, so I haven't used it since February. I've finally got room in my pipeline for another batch so I'm looking forward to firing it up again. (Talk about first world problems, right?) I've had a lot of time to think about ways I might be able to improve then process, so I'm looking forward to trying them, as well as reading through this massive thread for nuggets.

I actually got the breweasy as opposed to some other easy options, such as braumeister, picobrew, etc because I still wanted the process. I liked the minor set it and forget it aspects, such as mash temp control as well as the reduced footprint, but didn't want to let go of relatively involved brewing either. My experiences have been excitement combined with frustration.

First off, regrettably I got the 5 gallon BE. Most of my beers are of relatively high gravity, and it's been a real problem with big grain bills - So far I've managed, largely due to recipes that utilize Candi sugar and/or corn sugar, but I don't recommend that version to anyone - the MT is just too small and the real volume is less due to the auto-sparge operation. Of course, a little DME can solve the problem, but you hate to undercut your efforts with extract if you don't have to. The worst part is I had the 10G in my cart, and changed my mind at the last minute due to the wort's inability to reach the brewmometers, which wouldn't actually have been a problem in reality...So please, if you are thinking of spending that much on this system, GET A 10G, please!!

Another issue with the 5G is the orifice for flow-rate control. The hole is so small that it ends up getting clogged if any husks happen to slip through the false bottom. You look away for a few minutes while it's supposed to be magically tending to your mash only to find that it's basically stopped recirculating, and the temps are out of whack because the burner keeps firing thinking the temps are low in the mash. The Mash is dropping, and what's in the boil kettle is near boiling. I used a larger orifice and noticed immediate bed compaction, so ultimately I had to ditch the orifice and try to maintain the flow rate with the G2 valves, which are actually amazing, but harder to manage by eye than the good-old handles. It was really easy to line up the handles at the exact same angles and know that your flow rate was damn near exact. With the knob, you have to look at the threads or how far you turned them. I LOVE the design overall, but having to use them to sync adjustments is a step down that wasn't supposed to be a problem.

Overall, in many ways thew brew easy is more difficult to use than was my previous brew hard setup consisting of a 15G boil kettle, 10G kettle for pre-heating water, 10G beverage cooler MT and 5G beverage cooler HLT. That stuff was bulky, and there was more to do in many ways, but at the same time you just knew when you sealed the lid on the MT that you were pretty well set. My luck with the temperature control of the BrewEasy has resulted in considerably more difficulty maintaining a steady temperature than the expected slight loss over time with the coolers.

Also, I really wish the turnkey breweasy was extremely well documented, and it was actually easy. It isn't, and the documentation I received is almost entirely the documentation for the a-la-cart parts you can use to build one with from scratch. When you drop over 2k on a turnkey brew system, all of the issues you are likely to encounter should be clearly documented in a beautiful brew-easy specific manual, and there should be some serious effort made to make the buyer feel like it really is Easy to nail Mash Temperatures. Further, if you get the turnkey kit, maybe the Tower of Power should be calibrated FOR a BrewEasy with some ability to reset it to stock if need be. At a minimum, it should be CLEARLY stated that all of the thermometers are going to read different temperatures - here's what to look at when, don't worry about this one during this step, set this one about 3 degrees hotter than you need and then leave it alone, etc, etc. I fully understand how the system works, what every part is for and why, and yet I found myself wanting so badly documented effort by Blichmann of the issues that I encountered immediately. I refuse to believe that if there was any sort of pilot program that these issues, or moments of uncertainty weren't encountered by most of the testers.


Anyway, I know this all comes off as pretty negative, but at the same time I love the system. It's gorgeous, and when it's operating perfectly it is just awesome to watch. I'm hoping that more brews under my belt, I'll be able to recognize the issues as soon as they are popping up, not after they've become a problem. And, despite my less than steady mash temps, the beer has all come out pretty good so far.

Wondering how to use bru'n water with the BE? Do I just put the entire water volume into the mash water portion?

Heres the breweasy system checklist ive created:

BrewEasy Checklist (electric)

Pre-Mash:
Hoses: AS DESIRED
Pump: OFF
Kettle valves (mash and boil): CLOSED
Boil kettle: FILL
Water chemistry: ADJUST
Controller: ON
Controller power: AS DESIRED
Controller Mode: ON
Controller Temp: AS DESIRED

*when water in kettle reaches at or slightly above target mash temp (or other target temp, use kettle brewmometer)

Pump valve: OPEN
Kettle valve: OPEN
Mash tun valve: OPEN
Pump: ON
Controller Temp: VERIFY AND SET
Controller Mode: AUTO

*pump valve: adjust for flow when mash tun volume reaches target for dough-in. When tun volume and target temp is reached, Dough-In

Dough-In:
Mash tun valve: CLOSED
Pump: OFF
Pump valve: OPEN
Controller: OFF
Kettle valve: CLOSED

*dough in grains, wait 10 mins for grain to settle then Mash

Mash:
Hoses: AS DESIRED
Tun oriface: INSTALLED
Auto-sparge: SET
Controller: ON
Controller temp: SET
Pump valve: OPEN
Controller mode: AUTO
Controller power: AS DESIRED
Kettle valve: OPEN
Mash tun valve: OPEN
Pump: ON
Ph: CHECK

Post Mash / Pre Boil:
Pump: OFF
Kettle valve: CLOSED
Controller: ON
Controller power: AS DESIRED
Controller mode: ON
Mash tun valve: AS DESIRED

Boil:
Auto sparge hose: REMOVE
Kettle valve: CLOSED
Mash tun valve: CLOSED
Mash tun: REMOVE
Mash adapter: REMOVE
Controller: ON
Controller mode: ON
Controller power: AS DESIRED

Pre Flameout:
Hoses: AS DESIRED
Pump valve: AS DESIRED
Kettle valve: AS DESIRED
Pump: AS DESIRED

Flameout:
Controller: OFF
Hoses: AS DESIRED
Pump valve: AS DESIRED
Kettle valve: AS DESIRED
Pump: AS DESIRED

Commentary:

The TOP controller has four items i refer to: "controller" refers to the on/off switch. "controller power" refers to the power in % on top of the unit. Mode switch and temp should be self explanatory, but i will say that "controller temp: SET"means "select the temp and hit the enter button". Ive messed that up at least a few times in my own experience lol.

Also, everyones process will be a little different, so ive attempted to allow for those differences. However, i do assume everyone is beginning with 100% of their water volume in the boil kettle for initial heating, and transitioning to recirculation once the water comes up to temp, but before dough-in.

Any input is appreciated!

Cheers!

Has anyone attempted hooking up a counter flow chiller with their BE?

If so, what did it entail?

samandbekah said:

Has anyone attempted hooking up a counter flow chiller with their BE?

If so, what did it entail?

Click to expand...

I use a plate chiller but there is little difference. I have the kettle on top of the burner. The wort goes from the exit to the pump to the plate chiller and then either back into the kettle or into the fermenter.

If you have enough height, you could gravity feed. I use 1/2" silicone tubing and Camlock quick disconnects for the beer side. For the hose side, I use garden hose quick disconnects. QDs make everything easier.

Has anyone used the electric BrewEasy to kettle sour? Seems like the perfect setup for doing so, as the system would be able to easily maintain a constant 110 degrees. I do have reservations about leaving a 240v appliance running continuously for days however. Think it would be dangerous?

Can someone with a BrewEasy give me a rundown how you clean everything end of brew? Trying to understand how hard it is. Chiller as well.

Hey there,

Just had a long post typed up on how I clean mine and my phone browser crashes.. Grr. Long story short I circulate 180* PBW or Oxiclean for 15 mins thru the whole system included the chiller, back flushing it, then let it soak overnight. Next morning I come out and dump the solution, rinse with fresh water. Store the chiller dry.

Hope this helps!!
Welcome to the Brew Easy thread

More information here:

http://youtu.be/gDJLzAXZbFw

Danam404 said:

Hey there,

Just had a long post typed up on how I clean mine and my phone browser crashes.. Grr. Long story short I circulate 180* PBW or Oxiclean for 15 mins thru the whole system included the chiller, back flushing it, then let it soak overnight. Next morning I come out and dump the solution, rinse with fresh water. Store the chiller dry.

Hope this helps!!
Welcome to the Brew Easy thread

Click to expand...

Similar to my regime as well. Will add that while the boil starts, I'll dump the spent grains and have rinsed the mash kettle with a hose, reassembling everything after brewing to circulate PBW. I don't do the overnight soak, but circulate for about 15 minutes before pumping the PBW out, circulating clean water to rinse and repeating several times.

Disassemble, stack everything to air dry and go to bed - it's usually pretty late by then... and I might, just maybe, have been sampling some prior product, for quality control purposes of course!

Finally finished the ultimate of redneck hoods and will be doing my third batch since converting from gas to electric and my first indoors on the BrewEasy this weekend.

Each batch is a little better than the last as I learn and tweak, so fingers crossed that continues.

Cheers,

M

To answer the question of how I clean, first check out the picture of my system (which hopefully shows up, it's a pic when I'm doing a fly sparge).

With higher grain bills (Belgian beers) I was struggling with stuck mashes. Because you need to keep the electric coil fully submerged in the BK, you basically get handcuffed on your mash thickness in the MT. I did rice hulls and other tricks, but I still struggled with stuck mashes when grain bill was high. I also really couldn't stand how long the temperature control (in auto) took to hit setpoint. So besides the handcuff that I mentioned, you also have a greater volume of water that you need to heat in the BK, so I decided to get rid of the lag time (due to the volume) by controlling my mash temp with the RIMS rocket, plus I can run thinner mashes. I also wanted to use the hopback feature, which I just did yesterday on an IPA using homegrown hops.

For my first batch with the RIMS rocket, the temperature control was very cyclical. Next batch I spent a hour or so trying to figure out the temperature controller settings before I brewed, I did some digging online and found a delta temperature controller user manual that looked VERY similar to the Blichmann temp controller. I noticed the temp controller was programmed to ONLY use gain, no Integral or Derivitive (all P, no I or D). Temperature control systems are one of the few loops the typically use P, I, and D (most loops only use P and I). I didn't have they instrumentation and control loop tuning toys I had when I was an engineer, so I relied on the auto tune feature (look at your temperature controller, see on the lower left where you see AT...that lights when the controller is performing an auto tune). Very snappy controls after auto tuning, without overshoot as the other attached picture shows (hopefully you can see the pic).

Onto the cleaning question. After I sparge, I unplug the RIMS rocket and relocate the plug into the BK. (My brew day is slower than it could be if I spent $500 on another TOP controller, I could boil while I sparge, but for an additional 30+ mins on brew day (=1 more beer to drink) I'm cool with a slightly longer brew day.)

I put the HLT away, I dump the MT and hose out as others mentioned. I'll pull out the RIMS rocket (real easy to clean manually) and replace that with the HX. I put PBW in the MT, then pump room temp PBW from MT through the pump, HX, flow meter (I have the full TOP), RTD and back to the MT. Run PBW 15 mins, dump PBW into a bucket for next brew day, water rinse the system, then run Star San for 15 mins. I dump the star san into another bucket, loosen up fittings to drain starsan from HX, pump, etc...then you're ready for chilling. I whirlpool when I chill my wort, when I first turn on the pump, I'll pitch a few hundered mls of wort, I figure it probably has a good bit of StarSan that I didn't drain.

In using the TOP to whirlpool, I find it to be pretty handy because you can see your wort temp leaving the HX on the RTD, and you can see the temp in the BK. My city water temp is real warm (mid 70's) so I use my former immersion chiller to pre-chill the city water in two 20 lb bags of ice (ice is in a cooler).

One interesting thing that I noticed now that I don't use the BK for "K-RIMS," there is WAY less crud stuck on the BK heating element. My LHBS owner, whom is also a beer judge, thought my beers had a carmalized taste to them, since going to RIMS rocket, he doesn't taste that anymore, FWIW.

Oh, after brew day is run, I'll do the official 160 deg F PBW cycle, water rinse, and acid sanitize.

You now have read a summary of 15 batches of knowledge using the breweasy which I purchased in late May. While the RIMS rocket added more expense to an already pricy system, I'm really happy with the control, flexibility, and efficiencies I'm getting now. The beer of course tastes great, but I thought my beers tasted great when I was an extract brewer. We'll save the AG vs extract debate for another day

Question for owners of the system, how long is your typical brew day? People on the blichmann Facebook group are saying its taking them 8-12 hours. That seems kind of long. I would of thought it'd be more like 5.

molson said:

Question for owners of the system, how long is your typical brew day? People on the blichmann Facebook group are saying its taking them 8-12 hours. That seems kind of long. I would of thought it'd be more like 5.

Click to expand...

At first thought 8-12 hours seems long, but looking at my last brew log, maybe not:

2-hours to collect and heat 17 gallons of RO water to strike temperature.
10-minute dough-in
90-minute mash
20-minute mashout (10 to raise temperature + 10 to hold)
25-minutes to heat to boil
90-minute boil (I use a lot of German Pils)
15-minutes to chill to pitching temp
Maybe another hour to hour-and-a-half to basically CIP, rinse and tidy up afterwards...

Yeah, 8+ hours isn't unreasonable from start to finish including cleanup.

Curious to hear what other's experiences are, especially if doing a step mash.

Mike

Curious daman mentioned adding 100ppm of calcium to the water for all batches. Is this the consensus for everyone else?

I brewed yesterday & from start to finish it took 6.5 hours. Only a 60 min boil.

But, for the second time I could not get my burner working correctly. I once again had to remove the solenoid & control the heat by lighting the burner manually every time, not using the tower of power. I replaced the red ignition cable & it still didn't work. Has anyone had this problem & know what the fix is? The igniter just keeps clicking & thinking there is no flame when it has a great flame. It doesn't have a normal thermocouple but I'm guessing the red cable sends a signal via a resistance change that the igniter is hot.

For mashing out on a Breweasy system, do you simply ramp up the mashtun to 168F and recirculate for 10 minutes, or get the mash tun to 168F, shut off the pump, close the mashtun drain valve and let it sit for 10 minutes at 168F before doing a slow drain?

Which do you do?

It seems one doesn't have any more benefit over the other.