Unboxing the Nano from CO Brewing

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with that system which Ive had for 5 years you really don't have to pay attention to water amounts in any software just make sure the water is at least 2 to 3 inches above the grain when recirculating, the only reason water comes into play is mash thickness per the recipe but that gets thrown out the door if you don't sparge
 
Thanks, I am going to try going with beersmith's volumes and seeing where it lands me.

Odd that CO Brewing created a equipment profile for Beersmith and their Excel water calculator is almost 3 gallons more for the same grain amount.
 
30Bones said:
Hope this comes across clearly via text.....

DL'ed the Beersmith equipment profile from CO Brewing and making a 10 gall recipe for a simple saison for my first brew session. I have a 25# grain bill, 1.055 SG and it's saying 16 gallons of water needed.

Problem is the profile has my mash tun at 15 gallons, so BS is sayng I need an 18gal mash tun. So effectively with these numbers I need to hold back 3 gallons. Now I realize the kettle is 20 gallons and not all that volume is contained in the "mash tun" and I feel it will be "ok" but want to confirm this with some of you that have used the system
Click to expand...

The profile says 15? Can't you just update it to 20?

My last brew was 25.5 lbs of grain and 16.5 gallons of water. It was close to the top of the basket but it worked. Next time I will probably save 1 gallon, add the grain, then consider adding the gallon right back depending how it looks. But with 25 lbs and 16g you should be close but fine.
 
pretzelb said:
The profile says 15? Can't you just update it to 20?

My last brew was 25.5 lbs of grain and 16.5 gallons of water. It was close to the top of the basket but it worked. Next time I will probably save 1 gallon, add the grain, then consider adding the gallon right back depending how it looks. But with 25 lbs and 16g you should be close but fine.
Click to expand...
Thanks, re-read my post. The BS profile for the 20 gallon system has the MT volume at 15 gallons, which is reality may be 15 gallons. I just view it differently and unsure if I should change it since while the basket maay be 15, the "tun" itself is 20 gallons

Horseflesh said:
Here is how I got Beersmith and the CBS calculator to match.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?p=7683414#post7683414
Click to expand...
Thanks, I will read up and tweak it a bit.
 
30Bones said:
Thanks, re-read my post. The BS profile for the 20 gallon system has the MT volume at 15 gallons, which is reality may be 15 gallons. I just view it differently and unsure if I should change it since while the basket maay be 15, the "tun" itself is 20 gallons


Thanks, I will read up and tweak it a bit.
Click to expand...

I think the profile would be more accurate if you updated the 15 to 20. My basket is 15x16 and IIRC that calculates to only about 13g. So if you go by the measurement of the basket you will have to adjust down even more.

But the basket only holds the grains. The water fills the area in and around the basket. BeerSmith is probably assuming a normal kettle with a false bottom for the mash tun. But even though the basket limits the grains the water still flows to the full size of the kettle. So you might be slightly less than a 20g kettle with a false bottom but I doubt it will be 5g worth.

If you go into BeerSmith and look for the add-ons you will find profiles for the BrewBoss. This isn't the same as the CO Brewing but it also has a basket inside a 20g kettle that sits above a heating element and below the lid and inside the walls. All those have the mash volume setting at 20g and not 15g.

I bet if you change the mash volume setting from 15g to 20g you will find your recipe will fit. The stats I gave you from my last brew indicate you should be fine. If you want to be more conservative you could use a value of 19g or 18g just to be safe.
 
pretzelb said:
I think the profile would be more accurate if you updated the 15 to 20. My basket is 15x16 and IIRC that calculates to only about 13g. So if you go by the measurement of the basket you will have to adjust down even more.

But the basket only holds the grains. The water fills the area in and around the basket. BeerSmith is probably assuming a normal kettle with a false bottom for the mash tun. But even though the basket limits the grains the water still flows to the full size of the kettle. So you might be slightly less than a 20g kettle with a false bottom but I doubt it will be 5g worth.

If you go into BeerSmith and look for the add-ons you will find profiles for the BrewBoss. This isn't the same as the CO Brewing but it also has a basket inside a 20g kettle that sits above a heating element and below the lid and inside the walls. All those have the mash volume setting at 20g and not 15g.

I bet if you change the mash volume setting from 15g to 20g you will find your recipe will fit. The stats I gave you from my last brew indicate you should be fine. If you want to be more conservative you could use a value of 19g or 18g just to be safe.
Click to expand...

That's my thinking as well. I have my recipe made and will run with it. Likely be a Sunday brew day. Thanks
 
Ozarks_Mountain_Brew said:
come on guys theres nothing exact about bib, thats the beauty of it, easy to use, you don't have to think, just brew ...and drink lol
Click to expand...

It bothers me to no end when I don't get the gravity readings I expect. At the end of the day it still ends up beer but when I want a 6% ABV beer I'm not thrilled that I end up with a 4.9% beer.
 
Horseflesh said:
The CBS water calculator has a field for Grain Absorption Rate, C7. The default value is 0.1, which I believe must be in gallons per pound. You can make Beersmith's match this value if you look in the Advanced settings under BIAB Grain Absorb. Beersmith's default value here is 0.586 fl oz/oz. You can make this value match the CBS spreadsheet value of 0.1 gal/lb if you enter 0.8 fl oz/oz.
Click to expand...

Idiot math question - how did you convert from gal/lb to the fl oz/oz.
 
pretzelb said:
I think the profile would be more accurate if you updated the 15 to 20. My basket is 15x16 and IIRC that calculates to only about 13g. So if you go by the measurement of the basket you will have to adjust down even more.

But the basket only holds the grains. The water fills the area in and around the basket. BeerSmith is probably assuming a normal kettle with a false bottom for the mash tun. But even though the basket limits the grains the water still flows to the full size of the kettle. So you might be slightly less than a 20g kettle with a false bottom but I doubt it will be 5g worth.

If you go into BeerSmith and look for the add-ons you will find profiles for the BrewBoss. This isn't the same as the CO Brewing but it also has a basket inside a 20g kettle that sits above a heating element and below the lid and inside the walls. All those have the mash volume setting at 20g and not 15g.

I bet if you change the mash volume setting from 15g to 20g you will find your recipe will fit. The stats I gave you from my last brew indicate you should be fine. If you want to be more conservative you could use a value of 19g or 18g just to be safe.
Click to expand...
Changed it to 20 and I am out of the red. Will see tonight how it all goes.

jready said:
How did it go?
Click to expand...
Delayed until tonight. Finished the temp vent system up. Been sand bagging all weekend and moving people out for a major flood event here.
 
Horseflesh said:
Google ::)

Just type this into Google search:

0.1 gal/lb in fl oz/oz

Google has a pretty smart unit conversion tool.
Click to expand...

I finally rebooted my brain and figured it out. Take the gallons * 128 for fl oz. Take the grains in lbs * 16 for oz. I kept getting caught up in thinking the ratio should be the same but after I tested a factor of 1 lb per 1 gallon and looked at the results it finally woke my brain up.

FWIW, related to the topic of grain absorption I went back and entered in numbers to see what I had. I'm not 100% sure that I collected some of this accurately but the more recent ones should be accurate.

Brew fl oz / oz
10g Pale 0.75
5g Stout 0.47
10g Saison 0.51
10g Red 0.49
10g Pale 0.59

The top one is my most recent. I used a few cups of rice hulls and I used a plastic lid to gently squeeze when the basket was hanging up to drip. I've started a spreadsheet to log more details on each batch so I can do this in the future.
 
First brew on the CO Brewing 20gal single vessel. Brewed a saison, Target 1.050 and 12 gallons into the fermenters. Actually I split it between 3711 and 001 yeast. 001 will get dry hopped like crazy. All Jarrylo hops.

All went pretty well. Need to adjust my trub loss as I was a half gallon short in the fermenters. Shooting for 12 gallons. Overshot my gravity by 5 points. I was 3 points over my preboil gravity after only a 45 minute mash so I did a mashout and drained. 78% mash eff, 79% BH eff. Not bad. Those were the highlights (unsure if the last is a highlight) :D

Low lights. That re-circulation arm mount is a terrible design, I need to come with something better. Had to constantly stir the mash to keep the re-circulation going. Mash temp. PID set to 148, top 4" of the grain bed at 146.5. Plan is to move the temp probe from the bottom of the kettle to the output of the kettle valve and look into calibrating the PID better.

The 3 way valve is the bee's knees. Cleaning is a snap
 
30Bones said:
First brew on the CO Brewing 20gal single vessel. Brewed a saison, Target 1.050 and 12 gallons into the fermenters. Actually I split it between 3711 and 001 yeast. 001 will get dry hopped like crazy. All Jarrylo hops.

All went pretty well. Need to adjust my trub loss as I was a half gallon short in the fermenters. Shooting for 12 gallons. Overshot my gravity by 5 points. I was 3 points over my preboil gravity after only a 45 minute mash so I did a mashout and drained. 78% mash eff, 79% BH eff. Not bad. Those were the highlights (unsure if the last is a highlight) :D

Low lights. That re-circulation arm mount is a terrible design, I need to come with something better. Had to constantly stir the mash to keep the re-circulation going. Mash temp. PID set to 148, top 4" of the grain bed at 146.5. Plan is to move the temp probe from the bottom of the kettle to the output of the kettle valve and look into calibrating the PID better.

The 3 way valve is the bee's knees. Cleaning is a snap
Click to expand...

Those a good numbers. The re-circ issues might be helped with rice hulls or adjusting crush but if you change the crush your numbers will probably change. I'd hold off on moving the probe. I started to watch the temp with a Thermapen and I saw a 3 degree gap at first but that changed to nearly no gap a after 15 minutes. I'm going to keep an eye on this in the future. Also you might try running the re-circ while heating the water then add the grains slowly as the pump is still going full blast. I've done this twice and so far never had to stir during mash and was able to run full speed the entire mash but YMMV.
 
pretzelb said:
It bothers me to no end when I don't get the gravity readings I expect. At the end of the day it still ends up beer but when I want a 6% ABV beer I'm not thrilled that I end up with a 4.9% beer.
Click to expand...

I understand many people think the same way, but really with a brand new system you cant rely on your old way of brewing, it only takes a few batches of trial and error and you'll be right on in no time and back to being king of your brews
 
Going by a set mash thickness may trip you up. Mine was 1.95 ish qt/lb but as my gravities scale or I drop to a 5gal from 10 gal batch that # should change. Brewers friend has a simple quick water calculations that gets me really close.

First brew I had it set to .125 quart for grain absorption instead of .125 Gal(.5 quart). Needless to say I was 2.5 gallons short at knockout.
Usually I calculate by hand from total fermenter volume plus all of my losses along the way.
 
Horseflesh said:
How did you calculate water volume for your first run? I'm still unsure how thick we want the mash to be in this sort of system.

Mine is supposedly getting built this week, the wait is killing me.
Click to expand...

I'm ignoring mash thickness for now and doing full volume. I am looking at crush size and grain absorption. I have Beersmith and a few posts back there are some stats for grain absorption that may help.

The obvious problem with dialing in the start volume is you need estimated losses for every step all the way to the end. This can be hard with new stuff. I'm finally keeping a long list of stats to help me nail it down for my equipment.
 
Ive been doing full volume as well using beersmith and haven't had any real issues. Unless you want to sparge traditionally or make a batch larger than your mash + water can fit Im unaware of any advantage to not doing a full volume boil. My numbers have been pretty much dead on. I know it can be different it might take a few batches to figure it out. Also if you don't do full volume you'll most likely get stuck mashes and have difficulty getting a decent recirc with any batch of reasonable gravity. If you are getting too high a volume after mash then I guess you could hold back a gallon or two and then add back to your pre-boil volume to its estimate. (sparge it through the suspended bed would be a good idea I guess)
 
30Bones said:
First brew on the CO Brewing 20gal single vessel. Brewed a saison, Target 1.050 and 12 gallons into the fermenters. Actually I split it between 3711 and 001 yeast. 001 will get dry hopped like crazy. All Jarrylo hops.



All went pretty well. Need to adjust my trub loss as I was a half gallon short in the fermenters. Shooting for 12 gallons. Overshot my gravity by 5 points. I was 3 points over my preboil gravity after only a 45 minute mash so I did a mashout and drained. 78% mash eff, 79% BH eff. Not bad. Those were the highlights (unsure if the last is a highlight) :D



Low lights. That re-circulation arm mount is a terrible design, I need to come with something better. Had to constantly stir the mash to keep the re-circulation going. Mash temp. PID set to 148, top 4" of the grain bed at 146.5. Plan is to move the temp probe from the bottom of the kettle to the output of the kettle valve and look into calibrating the PID better.



The 3 way valve is the bee's knees. Cleaning is a snap
Click to expand...


Sounds like a good brew day after a tough week. Happy for all that the rain has let up!!

Now I gotta razz you a bit. Bee's Knees??? How old are you? [emoji3][emoji3][emoji3]

I'd think I'd rather overshoot gravity than undershoot. After about 7-8 batches with a healthy mix of 10 and 5 gallon batches and no beer left undrank I am trying to focus on the art not the science. All have come out fantastic and to rave reviews from those who have tried it. Above or below my expected gravity. Just gonna try to enjoy the journey and not get lost in the data.
 
Well i have to say you guys have sold me on this system. After 2 days and 59 pages my decision is made. Im think I'm going with the 20 gallon setup. Once I pull the trigger I will let you guys know, and again thank you all for all the information on this setup.
 
Horseflesh said:
How did you calculate water volume for your first run? I'm still unsure how thick we want the mash to be in this sort of system.

Mine is supposedly getting built this week, the wait is killing me.
Click to expand...
Beersmith profile supplied on CO Brewing's website, with some tweaks for boil off, mash capacity and trub loss

pretzelb said:
Those a good numbers. The re-circ issues might be helped with rice hulls or adjusting crush but if you change the crush your numbers will probably change. I'd hold off on moving the probe. I started to watch the temp with a Thermapen and I saw a 3 degree gap at first but that changed to nearly no gap a after 15 minutes. I'm going to keep an eye on this in the future. Also you might try running the re-circ while heating the water then add the grains slowly as the pump is still going full blast. I've done this twice and so far never had to stir during mash and was able to run full speed the entire mash but YMMV.
Click to expand...
Grains crush was set to 0.045" per CO Brewing instructions. I like the recirculating during mash in. I will try that next.

jready said:
Sounds like a good brew day after a tough week. Happy for all that the rain has let up!!

Now I gotta razz you a bit. Bee's Knees??? How old are you? [emoji3][emoji3][emoji3]

I'd think I'd rather overshoot gravity than undershoot. After about 7-8 batches with a healthy mix of 10 and 5 gallon batches and no beer left undrank I am trying to focus on the art not the science. All have come out fantastic and to rave reviews from those who have tried it. Above or below my expected gravity. Just gonna try to enjoy the journey and not get lost in the data.
Click to expand...
I am 44, get a lot of my lingo from my late grandfather. :mug:
 
30Bones said:
Beersmith profile supplied on CO Brewing's website, with some tweaks for boil off, mash capacity and trub loss





Grains crush was set to 0.045" per CO Brewing instructions. I like the recirculating during mash in. I will try that next.





I am 44, get a lot of my lingo from my late grandfather. :mug:
Click to expand...


Damn I have two years on you! I have been accused of the same plus I tell really bad dad jokes.

One of my favorite beers I've done so far is a kettle sour. (Blackberry and now Apricot) It's a crowd pleaser for those who don't like hoppy beers and is also something I could have never done with my old propane system. I love the ease and added safety of the electric set up. It also makes whirl pooling the Vermont style IPAs really easy.

It is finally cooling off in Nashville so I am looking forward to increasing my output! Time to get some stouts and porters in the que!
 
Anybody brewing today? I've got an IPA that I will be brewing.

Wort Boil Time: 90 Minutes

Grain
------
81.6% - 10.00 lbs. Rahr 2-Row Brewers Malt
8.2% - 1.00 lbs. Flaked Corn (Maize)
6.1% - 0.75 lbs. Weyermann CaraPils
2.0% - 0.25 lbs. Weyermann Acidulated Malt
2.0% - 0.25 lbs. King Arthur All Purpose Flour

Hops
------
1.38 oz. Magnum (Pellet, 11.50% AA) @ 60 min.
2.00 oz. Simcoe (Pellet, 14.00% AA) @ 0 min.
2.00 oz. Galaxy (Pellet, 12.00% AA) @ 0 min.
3.00 oz. Galaxy (Pellet, 12.00% AA) Dry Hop Primary
3.00 oz. Simcoe (Whole, 14.00% AA) Keg Hop

Extras
-------
0.50 tsp Yeast Nutrient @ 8 min.
0.50 Whirlfloc @ 8 min.
 
That is a lot of magnum at 60. I did that once and now do maybe a half ounce tops then most everything else is towards the end with a huge whirlpool/hop stand at 120ish

Going to do a 5 gallon big ol RIS when I get back from vacation next week, then a 10 gallon Schwarzbier to go in my newly acquired 10 gallon corny :)
 
30Bones said:
That is a lot of magnum at 60. I did that once and now do maybe a half ounce tops then most everything else is towards the end with a huge whirlpool/hop stand at 120ish

Going to do a 5 gallon big ol RIS when I get back from vacation next week, then a 10 gallon Schwarzbier to go in my newly acquired 10 gallon corny :)
Click to expand...


Yeah it's been awhile since I've done one with that big of a bittering charge we will see! It is a recipe from the mad fermentationist so I wanted to do it as stated the first time although I overshot OG by quite a bit.

I've got some stouts/porters planned soon now that fall is finally here!
 
For those of you that have bought the system how long did it take from when you ordered it? The site say 4-5 weeks and I was curious how accurate that is. I ordered mine about two weeks ago, can't wait for it to get here.
 
I ordered 8/16 and I am still waiting. I inquired about 2 weeks ago and Tim thought mine should ship this week, but I haven't seen any production updates from their system.
 
mine was in the driveway before there was an update to its status LOL but I did get a notice form UPS I think that it was on the way
 
Well shoot, I posted this in the wrong thread about the Co Brew systems. I tried to delete it but I think I'm too late so here is the same post but I hate to repeat it ...

I thought I'd post some unusual brew day stats even though they might not really say much about the system. I brewed a wheat wine yesterday from a recipe found at BYO. The basics are:

13 lbs Wheat Malt
6 lbs Pale 2 row
1 lb Crystal 40L
1 lb rice hulls (rinsed)
1.25 oz Galena (60)
.5 oz Cascade (15)
.5 oz Cascade (5)
Fermentis S04 (2 packages)

I'm trying to dial things in and rely on BeerSmith. Here are some of the stats, measurements, and settings.

  • Mill gap set to .045
  • BIAB grain absorption set to 0.745 fl oz /oz
  • 9.5 gallons full volume mash
  • 152 mash temp
  • Boil off 1.60
  • Mash pH measured at 5.58
  • Pre boil volume 7.76
  • Pre boil gravity 1.066
  • Volume into fermenter 4.88
  • OG 1.081

I have a lot more detailed stats but I think I'll save that for another post. Here are some general notes and observations.

  • I actually have 2 sparge arms. One is just a straight tube. The other has a narrow tube and some side holes. I started with the narrow tube but it caused foaming because it was just a 5g batch so I switched to the other arm.
  • If you start the re-circ and then add grains you can usually run full speed.
  • I tried stirring the mash and that seemed to ruin the drainage. So much I actually burned wort on the element without knowing it.
  • When the re-circ was left alone it seemed to flow quickly.
  • I noticed the mash bed on top was much cooler than the temp sensor below the basket.
  • It is nice when your hydrometer comes in a plastic container to protect it. But it really sucks when the bottom of that container breaks and your hydrometer hits the floor.
  • I took gravity readings during mash and at 60 minutes I had 15.3 brix which went to 15.8 at 75 and 16 at 90 minutes.
  • After hoisting the basket to drain I tried to patiently wait for the dripping to stop. Then I took measurements and used a plastic lid to "squeeze". The volume went from 6.75" to 7.25" and the gravity went from 16.2 brix to 16.4 brix.
  • This time I tried something new and instead of going right to the carboy I drained into a bucket. I lost about 1/2g from this.
  • Fermentation is strong and dirty. The blow off is filled with junk. It builds pressure the blows into the stanitizer every so often with vigor. I think this is the wheat.

Wheat wine is such a crazy recipe I'm not sure much can be learned from this but I thought I'd share anyway. I'm still not sure what I've learned from the numbers but at least I have some good data.
 
These systems need 30A, 4-wire outlets.

The outlet my electrician installed looks like this:

txEQwQl.png


However, I can't actually find a matching plug. I can only find pigtails--plugs with wires attached.

How did you guys do your electrical hookup? Did I get the wrong 4-wire receptacle, or is there a source of these dryer-style 4-wire plugs?
 

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