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h22lude said:
Jaded makes some crazy chillers. It is an immersion chiller and it looks like they made a stand for it so it won't touch the element.
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If I remember correctly, they are calling it "The Electric Chair."

Thanks to all the information in this thread - I just ordered my 15 gal. COFI system! Just need to get some plumbing done in the basement...

:ban:
 
Snicklefritz said:
I had Jaded put custom feet on my old IC. Worked out well until I switched to a CFC. That stand seems a bit overkill.
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I've been considering switching back to an IC from my plate chiller due to all the extra hassle and fuss with the PC. I was thinking about getting their King Cobra with some sort of support to keep it off of the element. I'm curious as to why you switched to the CFC, any thoughts you could share?
 
Brewphish said:
I've been considering switching back to an IC from my plate chiller due to all the extra hassle and fuss with the PC. I was thinking about getting their King Cobra with some sort of support to keep it off of the element. I'm curious as to why you switched to the CFC, any thoughts you could share?
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I had an IC and switched to a CFC. Best upgrade I have made. I found the IC to be annoying to use. CFC takes 1/3 the time. If I used a prechiller it would be even quicker.
 
Brewphish said:
I've been considering switching back to an IC from my plate chiller due to all the extra hassle and fuss with the PC. I was thinking about getting their King Cobra with some sort of support to keep it off of the element. I'm curious as to why you switched to the CFC, any thoughts you could share?
Click to expand...

I use a CFC as well. I have never had it clog on me as of yet and it does work a lot faster than the IC I have. I must admit I have not used one of the ICs from Jade Brewing.

In my case I like to use a stainless steel hop spider because it is easier to clean up and cuts down on straining the wort before going into the fermenter. It is really hard and difficult to fit an IC and 6" hop spider in the brewboss at the same time, so the CFC is a good solution without having to deal with clogging.
 
I want from immersion to plate, back to immersion and now I'm using a convoluted counterflow fromZChillers. The Zchiller is amazingly efficient and easy to clean.
 
I switched to the CFC for a few reasons. A few of which have already been mentioned.

1. It cools a lot faster. Especially on bigger 10 and 15 gallon batches
2. There is no room for it in the kettle with other things that I use (hop basket, whirlpool)
3. Can't get a great whirlpool going while the IC is in there. I would have to continue whirlpooling for a while after removing the IC to get a good trub cone going. I now just recirculate through the CFC and whirlpool at the same time.

The one mistake I made that I wish I hadn't was to get the 3/8" OD internal copper instead of going for the bigger 1/2" size on the CFC. It was like $10 more and would have given me a lot more oomph on my whirlpool.
 
For anyone looking at this post for the first time I definitely recommend the brew boss. I'm on my third version of the system and I've loved each one more than the other. I personally can't wait to see what darin comes up with next
 
My basement is finally set up and ready for my new Brew Boss system. As I wait like a child before Christmas...

So - asking the folks that own a Brew Boss: How long do they typically take to arrive? I know the website says 1-2 weeks. Is that pretty typical? Just curious because of the aforementioned excitement! LOL :D
 
HLSheppard said:
My basement is finally set up and ready for my new Brew Boss system. As I wait like a child before Christmas...

So - asking the folks that own a Brew Boss: How long do they typically take to arrive? I know the website says 1-2 weeks. Is that pretty typical? Just curious because of the aforementioned excitement! LOL :D
Click to expand...

I think it was a day or two short of 2 weeks when mine showed up. A little :off:, back around Black Friday Darin did a special and was hit with so many orders I'm pretty sure it was after Christmas before he was able to fill them all. Your order will probably be a lot more punctual.

I find it fun and exciting to get new brewing stuff, especially if it helps you brew better beer and/or makes brewing more fun, so I understand waiting for the UPS/FedEx/Mailman to show up. Drink a homebrew that will help you calm down. :mug:
 
I was able to brew my first batch with my 15 gal. COFI Brew-Boss yesterday. I didn't want to go too crazy on it's inaugural batch, so I just went with a APA with OG at 1.055. I usually brew big beers in the 1.09+ range so I'll work on getting there with time... :)

Anyhow - I have to say how well designed and high quality the system was! Darin did/does a great job with correspondence and his component choice and attention to detail are right on as well!

I couldn't believe how drop-dead awesome it was to just watch the controller hold the mash steps rock solid! As a guy who was using Igloo coolers and propane it makes me think of all kind of new recipes to try! I went from cold kettle to totally done and cleaned up 3 hours and 45 minutes later (with lots of room for improvement on my end).

All in all - I couldn't be happier!

One issue/question for you veteran Brew-Boss owners: I used Beersmith for my recipe and set the efficiency at 60%. All my numbers were hit perfectly. With my old brewing method, I would routinely hit 75% or higher. I know that efficiency isn't everything and grain is pretty cheap - but what are your tips for getting better efficiency with a COFI system?

I'm doing 5 gallon batches in a 15 gallon setup. My crush is .39 and boiling for 60 minutes (this time, anyhow). Our tap water here is pretty awesome and I've never had to mess with it at all to get great results. Thoughts?
 
Welcome to the club :rockin:

I'm sure others will have some efficiency tips for you, the first will probably be to crush finer, but I have the nearly same system (DIY COFI) and crush (.039") and I have BS set to 70% and usually beat it by a point or two. So you may have to explore your water/pH a bit, although that is not going to gain you +10% since you've had good luck with that water on your old system. Every little bit helps though.

For those big beers that you like, I can pretty much guarantee that you will need to incorporate a sparge of some sort. It definitely helped me when going north of 1.065. For those beers I'll spec a 120 min boil so I have more strike water to begin with, then I can reserve a gallon or so to do a pour-over sparge and still have enough water to mash with without it becoming too thick.

Some good background info HERE..

Good Luck and Have Fun!!
 
HLSheppard said:
I was able to brew my first batch with my 15 gal. COFI Brew-Boss yesterday. I didn't want to go too crazy on it's inaugural batch, so I just went with a APA with OG at 1.055. I usually brew big beers in the 1.09+ range so I'll work on getting there with time... :)

Anyhow - I have to say how well designed and high quality the system was! Darin did/does a great job with correspondence and his component choice and attention to detail are right on as well!

I couldn't believe how drop-dead awesome it was to just watch the controller hold the mash steps rock solid! As a guy who was using Igloo coolers and propane it makes me think of all kind of new recipes to try! I went from cold kettle to totally done and cleaned up 3 hours and 45 minutes later (with lots of room for improvement on my end).

All in all - I couldn't be happier!

One issue/question for you veteran Brew-Boss owners: I used Beersmith for my recipe and set the efficiency at 60%. All my numbers were hit perfectly. With my old brewing method, I would routinely hit 75% or higher. I know that efficiency isn't everything and grain is pretty cheap - but what are your tips for getting better efficiency with a COFI system?

I'm doing 5 gallon batches in a 15 gallon setup. My crush is .39 and boiling for 60 minutes (this time, anyhow). Our tap water here is pretty awesome and I've never had to mess with it at all to get great results. Thoughts?
Click to expand...

I also use Beersmith, so the first question I want to ask is - is the mash efficiency or brewhouse efficiency? I have a 15 gallon Brew Boss System with COFI filter, and using a 0.39" single crush I get 75% mash efficiency routinely. My brewhouse efficiency however is 64% as it takes into account kettle hold-up volume and any other losses. I'm happy with my efficiency numbers where they are as I can pretty much hit my OGs exactly every time. I suppose I could try for more efficiency, but I'd have a few trial and errors batches before finding out how high I could go, and franly I can't be bothered so,

I know that's a little :off: but - is it mash or brewhouse you're talking about?
 
HLSheppard said:
Oops - should have clarified that. I'm talking brewhouse efficiency. :mug:
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I think the better number to look at is mash efficiency. Brew house efficiency is good to know but it takes how much you get into your fermentor into consideration. If you had great mash efficiency, hit all your gravity readings spot on but left more wort in your kettle than expected, you could have a great mash efficiency but a bad brew house efficiency.

My last batch I got an excellent mash efficiency but left about a half gallon more wort than I usually do which brought my brew house efficiency way down. If i just put that wort in my fermentor my brew house efficiency would have went up.

While it is good to know your brew house efficiency, don't worry if it is low. Work on getting good mash conversion
 
Just as an FYI I use about 70% brewhouse eff in BeerSmith. A few things I do to get the brewhouse eff up is:

1. Increase your mash eff. I usually get about 80% mash eff when I add a sparge step.
2. I cut my trub losses by using a dip tube. Instead of the 1g trub loss in the default profile, I only lose .25g.

Between those 2 I am usually around a 70% brewhouse eff
 
Snicklefritz said:
Just as an FYI I use about 70% brewhouse eff in BeerSmith. A few things I do to get the brewhouse eff up is:

1. Increase your mash eff. I usually get about 80% mash eff when I add a sparge step.
2. I cut my trub losses by using a dip tube. Instead of the 1g trub loss in the default profile, I only lose .25g.

Between those 2 I am usually around a 70% brewhouse eff
Click to expand...

This. I also added a pick up tube to my system, but it was really more for the convenience of not having to lift/tip my kettle to get as much wort as possible out to hit my fermenter volume. I manually adjusted my brew boss profile in Beer Smith to account for it and although my mash efficiency is the same, my brewhouse efficiency went up.
 
Thanks guys! I actually tilted/tipped the kettle but I did not have it accounted for in Beersmith. I ran the numbers and came in right at about 80% mash efficiency so I guess I'm doing OK.

Haven't sparged (yet). Are we talking about just pouring an amount of water over the COFI filter as it drains into the kettle? I also think I will increase my volume/boil time as well. As effortless as this thing maintains boils - why not?
 
MerlinWerks said:
Welcome to the club :rockin:

I'm sure others will have some efficiency tips for you, the first will probably be to crush finer, but I have the nearly same system (DIY COFI) and crush (.039") and I have BS set to 70% and usually beat it by a point or two. So you may have to explore your water/pH a bit, although that is not going to gain you +10% since you've had good luck with that water on your old system. Every little bit helps though.
Click to expand...

Just to make things a little more confusing, some BB COFI users have had better luck with coarse grain milling. My Beersmith Total Efficiency went from mid 50's% to high 60's% when I went from 0.035" to 0.049". Better circulation was obvious and presumably good for mash efficiency. Also, this change seemed to help with my high FG problem too. Long discussion here:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=543873
 
I just did my first brew on my custom 20gal system with a Brew Boss controller (similar to FreddyMar's system ). This was also my first electric batch also. I had been doing pot/cooler/propane infusion mashing, then did some stovetop BIAB this last winter, and decided to go with eBIAB.

Overall, the first brew was faster than my pot-and-cooler would have been, even though there is definitely a learning curve if not using the included basic step files. I expect that to be overcome quickly.

I started with something almost impossible to screw up, a 11 gallons of Centennial Blond with a 45m mash, 30 minute boil, and 30 minute 170F whirlpool (used tap water instead of RO/minerals/acid, for simplicity). I heated 12 gallons for strike, and reserved 1.5 gallons for a pour-over sparge.

The extra steps probably were excessively complicated for my first batch. I was rushed on time getting my STP file programmed, and decided to instead try the BeerSmith XML conversion.
After making a few mistakes (beersmith has multiple different formats which it can export, and I chose the wrong one, then needed to update the BrewBoss App to a new version because of crashing -- issue resolved now, and the current version (1.28?) is much nicer!)

The BXML to stp file conversion isn't quite perfect, and on the old 7" tablet which would have came with the controller early last year, the current BrewBoss's in-app STP File editor was unusably slow (literally 10 seconds between each operation). I will have to try it next on a different tablet that isn't bottom-of-the-line.
I pulled the STP file out and used the http://brewingintheburgh.com/brew-boss/index.html web page to tweak it. Halfway through the brew I realized that I still didn't have it perfect, and switched over to manual mode to complete.

Got to use pumped recirculation with a 25' immersion chiller. Was easier than manually stirring with chiller, but slower than I'd like, so I may move to a Hydra or a counterflow in the future. Followed it with a whirlpool to pile the hops up, another first. Ended up hitting 77% efficiency into the fermenters.
Couldn't think of a quick-and-easy way to clean the whole system, will have to brainstorm that some. Probably finished cleaning in about 30 minutes.

Overall, seems like I'll need to make my own template for STP files and then copy in the batch-specific operations in the future, and as I get used to it, things will get to be pretty easy.
 
A few of you Brew-Boss owners have discussed doing a sparge for big beers. Could you detail specifically HOW I do with with a COFI filter? When I used Igloo coolers, I always fly sparged - just not sure how to accomplish this with my Brew-Boss.

Feeling thick-headed...
 
HLSheppard said:
A few of you Brew-Boss owners have discussed doing a sparge for big beers. Could you detail specifically HOW I do with with a COFI filter? When I used Igloo coolers, I always fly sparged - just not sure how to accomplish this with my Brew-Boss.

Feeling thick-headed...
Click to expand...

I have an older version of the BB (pre COFI) so forgive my ignorance. If you can take the COFI unit out, you can just dunk that into a thing of water and stir. That will remove more sugar. You could also remove the COFI and pour water slowly over the grains. Just remember you need to use less water in your mash.
 
h22lude said:
I have an older version of the BB (pre COFI) so forgive my ignorance. If you can take the COFI unit out, you can just dunk that into a thing of water and stir. That will remove more sugar. You could also remove the COFI and pour water slowly over the grains. Just remember you need to use less water in your mash.
Click to expand...

That makes sense, h22lude. I hang the COFI from a hoist and let it drain for a few minutes and then squeeze the grains. I can just pour water as it's hanging to extract some extra sugars. Sounds like something to try next round and see what (if anything) improves.


I also am going to try conditioning my grains to see how that affects flow-through during the mash.
 
HLSheppard said:
That makes sense, h22lude. I hang the COFI from a hoist and let it drain for a few minutes and then squeeze the grains. I can just pour water as it's hanging to extract some extra sugars. Sounds like something to try next round and see what (if anything) improves.

I also am going to try conditioning my grains to see how that affects flow-through during the mash.
Click to expand...

I could be wrong, but I don't believe flow-through will increase draining appreciably, especially since the COFI can compress it some.

Anyway, if you are going for maximum extraction efficiency on a high gravity recipe, reduce strike water, drain and press COFI, then decompress it and slowly pour water through it. making sure to get all of the grain some. Then compress again, and done.
(if low gravity recipe, just bump up the grain a pound or 3)
 
I just finished up brewing a 10 gallon batch of English Brown that used 23 lbs of grain with my 15 gallon COFI system. When I finished mash out and raised my COFI, With about 3 gallons of water heated to 168 degrees, I just slowly ladled the hot water over the top so the COFI. I added enough water to give me my desired pre-boil volume 13 to 14 gallons. Another way I can do it is: using a large pan, I set my COFI into when I pull it, decompress the grain bed, ladle water, and then just add the liquid into the boil. I am getting about 80% efficiency.
 
I have done a sparge on a high grain bill by lifting the COFI by the handle and pouring the rest of the water over the grains. If you can't lower the COFI back in because of the water level you can rest it on a board to hook it to the eye hook and compress the grains.
I'm guessing the water will flow through the grains better lifting it by the handle than the eye hook.
 
stlblues5010 said:
I have done a sparge on a high grain bill by lifting the COFI by the handle and pouring the rest of the water over the grains. If you can't lower the COFI back in because of the water level you can rest it on a board to hook it to the eye hook and compress the grains.
I'm guessing the water will flow through the grains better lifting it by the handle than the eye hook.
Click to expand...

My thought exactly. It's just as easy to hoist it by the handle as the lift ring. Then, I can switch it up for the "compress" step.
 
I've tried the sparging and haven't really seen a difference. I see the real difference in mashing longer ...instead of 60 minutes go 90 minutes.
 
Schumed said:
I've tried the sparging and haven't really seen a difference. I see the real difference in mashing longer ...instead of 60 minutes go 90 minutes.
Click to expand...

That's also on my list. I don't want to do TOO many variables at once but - it's all part of the fun of learning a new system! :thumbup:
 
Schumed said:
I've tried the sparging and haven't really seen a difference. I see the real difference in mashing longer ...instead of 60 minutes go 90 minutes.
Click to expand...

I've found this as well. I usually do a 75 minute. I do see a difference with the sparge but rarely do it though. It's Just easier to add a few more handfuls of grain and account for the lower eff. I'll still do it on bigger beers when possible.
 
Snicklefritz said:
I've found this as well. I usually do a 75 minute. I do see a difference with the sparge but rarely do it though. It's Just easier to add a few more handfuls of grain and account for the lower eff. I'll still do it on bigger beers when possible.
Click to expand...

I am planning to do a big RIS and (using Beersmith) I ended up having to use more grain than I think the COFI filter would hold. :-(

I'm all about just adding a few more pounds but I know that also makes efficiency go down.

I think for this next go-round: boiling and mashing longer and, if needed, just adding some DME to hit my OG.
 
HLSheppard said:
I am planning to do a big RIS and (using Beersmith) I ended up having to use more grain than I think the COFI filter would hold. :-(

I'm all about just adding a few more pounds but I know that also makes efficiency go down.

I think for this next go-round: boiling and mashing longer and, if needed, just adding some DME to hit my OG.
Click to expand...

15 gallon cofi can hold right at 25lbs of grain ...I pulled off 1.13 SG for my imperial of 28lbs...3lbs of the dark malt was cold steep before hand and that extract was added during the boil... another trick is to use some dme
 
Schumed said:
15 gallon cofi can hold right at 25lbs of grain ...I pulled off 1.13 SG for my imperial of 28lbs...3lbs of the dark malt was cold steep before hand and that extract was added during the boil... another trick is to use some dme
Click to expand...

I didn't realize it would hold that much. I thought I had read that a 15 gallon COFI would max out at around 20 lbs. I haven't yet used more than 15 lbs so I was unsure about the upper limit. I am planning to brewing an imperial stout soon so your information is helpful.
 
HLSheppard said:
I am planning to do a big RIS and (using Beersmith) I ended up having to use more grain than I think the COFI filter would hold. :-(

I'm all about just adding a few more pounds but I know that also makes efficiency go down.

I think for this next go-round: boiling and mashing longer and, if needed, just adding some DME to hit my OG.
Click to expand...

This is part of the reason I had my own mesh basket created instead of going with the COFI as sold by Darin. I can accommodate about 3-4 more lbs of grain in mine as its a bit wider and closer to the element.
 
Both Brewboss and Brewhardwarde sell ripple elements with 1.5" TC fittings welded on. They list the length of the element but not the height/thickness of the folded back coils. I hope I am being specific enough. If anyone knows these dimensions or could measure there's, that would be great. Thanks.
 
So - this is what a stuck sparge looks like with a COFI filter. This is with the pump VERY restricted. :-(

This was my first time conditioning my grains. Did a great job keeping dust down - not so good for circulation. I was able to salvage the batch and them skim all the grain out of the wort prior to boil (took a while).

Turns out that after the initial grain overflow that much of the central COFI tube was clogged with hulls. Took forever to clean even using an air compressor!

Live and learn!

View attachment 1469459267175.jpg
 

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