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I used a measuring cup and marked out 1/2 gallon and gallon on the pitcher. I then etched the inside of my kettle with the Q-tip and battery method.
 
Btw, what are you all using under your kettle. Silicon trivets? Just seems crappie to have such a nice system and then have to use these things that don't really fit and are all different colors. I know someone else has come up with a great idea.
 
Warriorcoach, I ordered two cheap rectangular silicone trivets from Amazon for $3 each. I looked high and low for something big enough for my 20 gal kettle but couldn't find anything decent. I think the biggest you'll find is about 12in square.
 
I use this for the measuring. I like that it is clear, durable, and can handle high temps.
Rubbermaid Commercial Products FG321800CLR 4-Quart Bouncer Measuring Cup https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000BC5GME/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

For under the kettle I found this. The 20g pot hangs over a little but it works well and my countertop stays cool. More pricey than the round trivets though.
Extra Large Silicone Dish Drying Mat - Premium Silicone Antimicrobial & Antibacterial - Heat Resistant Trivet 17.8" x 15.8" inch - Grey https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00Y0OTQDE/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20
 
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Beavdowg said:
I completed my wet run on Saturday and noticed that it took a bit to get my pump primed. I had it at the same level as the kettle and even lowered it in an attempt to prime the pump. It eventually worked but took longer than I thought. I'm thinking that the pump really needs to be mounted below the kettle for easiest operation, at least priming. I also noticed that once the pump was pumping water nicely if I opened up the pump valve all the way for maximum flow it would suck the water in the site glass all the way down which caused air to get sucked in from the top of the site glass. This caused the flow of the pumped water to kind of oscillate between full speed and something short of full speed. I found that as long as I didn't let the water level in the site glass get all the way to the bottom it would pump just fine, but as soon as that water level in the site glass got all the way to the bottom by opening up the valve all the way it would begin to suck the air in through the top. I'm wondering if I'm doing something wrong or if this is just the problem with the site glass being in-line with the kettle valve? Anyone install their site glass separate from the kettle valve, and if so, where did you install it? Did you use the same site glass that comes with the system?

Other than that I had no leaks right off the back and everything else seemed to work great. It sure was fun having that much control over temperature and playing around with the Brew Boss software! Oh yeah, how do you exit out of a loaded program in BB? After using the Wet Run program I couldn't figure out how to get out of that into just the manual mode. The brewing timer just kept running and running.
Click to expand...

I had the same issue with the pump "lurching" a bit after installing the sight glass. If you cover the little hole at the top of the sight glass with your finger for a moment, making an air tight'ish seal, it usually corrects the problem. A couple times I couldn't stand there holding it, so I plugged the hole with some gum. At least this nasty nicotine gum is good for something!
 
I found that by closing the pump output valve a smidgen (just enough so a little liquid remains in the sight glass) that solves the lurching problem. It really is only a tiny bit so I don't believe it affects your brewing efficiency.
 
I have only done a wet run with my new 15 gal. Brew Boss so far but I'm wondering from those of you that have actually brewed a batch with it if I need to get a hop filter. I have the Swirl Boss to whirpool but I also have a plate chiller and I want to make sure I don't clog up the plate chiller. Are you guys using some sort of hop filter or are you finding that whirlpooling is enough to keep the hop debris and trub out of the chillers?

thanks:mug:
 
For fear of scorching, I decided to go the spider route and I use muslin bags instead of nylon as i feel that they get better flow. Some small debris still get's through but the whirlpool handles the rest.
 
Beavdowg said:
I have only done a wet run with my new 15 gal. Brew Boss so far but I'm wondering from those of you that have actually brewed a batch with it if I need to get a hop filter. I have the Swirl Boss to whirpool but I also have a plate chiller and I want to make sure I don't clog up the plate chiller. Are you guys using some sort of hop filter or are you finding that whirlpooling is enough to keep the hop debris and trub out of the chillers?

thanks:mug:
Click to expand...

I'm pretty anal about my plate chiller, and I never felt like a I good hop penetration, let alone Irish moss penetration, in the wort if I put them in bags or a spider. So I feel like I have to dump them in whole. After the boil, I empty my hot wort into a kettle lined with a bag (same mesh as my BIAB bag), taking cautions about hot side aeration. Then I run this filtered wort through my plate chiller to cool it down. It adds about five minutes to the brew day. After the brew I clean out the plate chiller--the whole system actually--with hot water; then I run PBW through it for 10 minutes one way, and then reverse direction the other way. Then I run Star Sans through it. It sounds like a lot more work, but this is all happening while I'm cleaning up.

Even though I filter the hot wort like this, I still catch a few particles when I'm running PBW through the system (which starts in a clean kettle lined with another bag, goes through the system, then dumps back into the filtered kettle.

As I said, I'm kind of anal about this part of the brew, but as I read these posts, it seems every brewer is anal about something! Hope this helps.
 
That's an extra step that I don't want to have to take. I'm hoping to hear from anyone that has tried to brew w/out a hop filter and how it went, particularly if they use a plate chiller.
 
Beavdowg said:
I'm hoping to hear from anyone that has tried to brew w/out a hop filter and how it went, particularly if they use a plate chiller.
Click to expand...

I was at a buddy's house that was not using a brew boss, but a conventional 3 tier system. He used a plate chiller with no hop filter and it turned out really, really bad. The plate chiller clogged up and would not pass any wort though it. He had to flush a bunch of water the opposite way to get most of the hop gunk out of it. Even then I'm not sure if he had to dissemble it. I ended up getting my counter flow chiller for him and that worked. Even then I was worried it might clog, but it did fine.

I guess you can get away with free floating hops and a counter flow chiller, however in my opinion, unless you are using an immersion chiller I would highly recommend a using some sort of hop filter. If you have a false bottom you could go the route of the nylon paint strainer. I use a stainless steel hop spider. Darin also sells one. From what I have seen, I would very much recommend against having free floating hops and a plate chiller.
 
Keeping hop debris out of the chiller and fermenter has been a bit of an obsession of mine and something I have researched thoroughly over the years. I definitely agree that free balling the hops would be the best method for utilization and flavor extraction, but I've yet to find a viable way to keep them in the kettle.

I've tried a bazooka screen, stainless scrub pad, whirlpooling, etc. Everything either ends up clogging with cold break or requiring extras steps/equipment, like filtering the wort hot and then chilling (I used to do that too).

When I designed my current system, I came up with what I think is a reasonable compromise between utilization and filtering. As I mentioned a few posts back, I decided to go the spider route and I use cotton muslin bags because I feel that they get good flow. I added a step to my boil to get better flavor and utilization from the hops (especially late additions).

With 10 minutes left in the boil, I crank up the heat and recirculate through my CFC and into the whirlpool inlet to start sanitizing everything. As you all know, this kills the boil momentarily. Once the boil is back up and running. I turn the three way valve at the whirpool inlet which sends the near boiling worth through another hose that runs into the center of my spider. This way I get 10 minutes of a hot wort shower on top of the hops in the kettle at the end of the boil. I took things one (likely unnecessary) step further and drilled out 15 inch long piece of copper, similar to the COFI rod. I sick that in the other end of the tubing and it works as an infuser inside of the muslin bag.

Now, I've only brewed one batch on my system and it was an OMS so I can't really say if this is truly more effective than any other method, but it seems to make sense that it would help with extraction.

Making an IPA next so I'll take pictures when I do this.

img_4161-66749.jpg
 
Prior to getting my Brew Boss system I just batch sparged in a keggle. I would wrap a copper scrubbie around the end of my pick up tube. I brewed many batches this way most of which were APA's and IPA's and never had a single problem with plugging up my plate chiller. The BB doesn't have a pick up tube so I can't do that same thing. Part of me is tempted to just shove that copper scrubbie into the port in the side of the kettle to act as the same filter as it did when I wrapped it around the end of the pick up tube. And, in my old system I never whirlpooled, whereas I have the swirlboss now on my BB system so that would add an additional layer of protection. I never used pellet hops so I don't know how my solution would of worked with pellet sludge.

Maybe I'll try this on a wet run with some old whole leaf hops I have.

I love the idea of using a SS hop filter like from Utah Biodiesel or Arbor Fab but they aren't too cheap and I think I might be running out of understanding from my wife on spending money for my brew system after the big hit from buying the BB system.
 
Beavdowg said:
I love the idea of using a SS hop filter like from Utah Biodiesel of Arbor fab but they aren't too cheap and I think I might be running out of understanding from my wife on spending money for my brew system after the big hit from buying the BB system.
Click to expand...

FWIW, I used to have one and found that it didn't get enough wort flowing through to make me feel ok about extraction efficiency. The hop resin and break clogged the heck out of it.
 
FreddyMar3 said:
Keeping hop debris out of the chiller and fermenter has been a bit of an obsession of mine and something I have researched thoroughly over the years. I definitely agree that free balling the hops would be the best method for utilization and flavor extraction, but I've yet to find a viable way to keep them in the kettle.

I've tried a bazooka screen, stainless scrub pad, whirlpooling, etc. Everything either ends up clogging with cold break or requiring extras steps/equipment, like filtering the wort hot and then chilling (I used to do that too).

When I designed my current system, I came up with what I think is a reasonable compromise between utilization and filtering. As I mentioned a few posts back, I decided to go the spider route and I use cotton muslin bags because I feel that they get good flow. I added a step to my boil to get better flavor and utilization from the hops (especially late additions).

With 10 minutes left in the boil, I crank up the heat and recirculate through my CFC and into the whirlpool inlet to start sanitizing everything. As you all know, this kills the boil momentarily. Once the boil is back up and running. I turn the three way valve at the whirpool inlet which sends the near boiling worth through another hose that runs into the center of my spider. This way I get 10 minutes of a hot wort shower on top of the hops in the kettle at the end of the boil. I took things one (likely unnecessary) step further and drilled out 15 inch long piece of copper, similar to the COFI rod. I sick that in the other end of the tubing and it works as an infuser inside of the muslin bag.

Now, I've only brewed one batch on my system and it was an OMS so I can't really say if this is truly more effective than any other method, but it seems to make sense that it would help with extraction.

Making an IPA next so I'll take pictures when I do this.

img_4161-66749.jpg
Click to expand...

FreddyMar3, I'm curious why you chose to use tri-clover + camlock fittings for your hoses on the kettle side. What advantage does that get you over just using a direct TC-to-hosebarb fitting?
 
I just wanted to be able to easily remove most of them for cleaning. I ended short a few connectors so just used tc to barbs that I had on hand to finish it off. I only have to remove one hose clamp and the rest are cam
 
FreddyMar3 said:
I just wanted to be able to easily remove most of them for cleaning. I ended short a few connectors so just used tc to barbs that I had on hand to finish it off. I only have to remove one hose clamp and the rest are cam
Click to expand...

OK. When cleaning, do you remove the silicone from the camlocks, or just clean the whole tube assembly as one piece? (I'm still figuring out exactly how I want to build my system, and thought that the main point of tri-clover was ease of cleaning)

Also, I seem to recall that you mentioned getting your element installed as low as possible. Does it allow you to do a half batch (2.5gal) if desired, or is 5 the realistic minimum?
 
I do not remove the tubing from the cam locks. I'll probably do a more thorough cleaning every so often but every piece of wort tubing on the system has boiling wort recirculated through it before flameout and hot pbw recircd through after.

I am not sure what the minimum batch size is but 5 was no issue at all so You could probably go smaller if you wanted. 2.5 would be tough though.
 
What does everyone recommend for a chiller with the Brew Boss. I've been researching all the different options. I was thinking that a whirlpool immersion chiller would be good.
 
b3b said:
What does everyone recommend for a chiller with the Brew Boss. I've been researching all the different options. I was thinking that a whirlpool immersion chiller would be good.
Click to expand...

That's what I've been thinking also. "already have it" + a cheep tangential pump attachment, versus $200-250 for a good counterflow heat exchanger. It's slower to chill, but you can't clog an immersion chiller either. Maybe put an CCF or exchilerator on the wish list though.
 
I use a diy IC with a pre-chiller coil and a diy whirlpool arm. I usually go from boil to 62F in 16 min or less. Certainly not as fast as a CFC or plate, but easy to clean and use, no plans to change...
 
I'm using a plate chiller (30-plate long Duda) but have only done one brew on the BB so far. Prior to that I was using a DIY IC which I am keeping around to have the option of using it on brews with huge hop additions, or at the very least to use as a pre-chiller in the summer.

The batch I did do with the Duda went fine, but I was using whole hops in bags so not much worry about clogging there. I will be making a backflush adapter so I can use my garden hose to blow all the crap out since that provides much better pressure than the pump. But just running some hot/warm PBW back through using the pump while cleaning the system seemed to do a good job. It's a little more work than the IC, but it cools so much faster that I think I'm breaking about even or perhaps saving a little bit of time. I'll be recirculating hot wort for 10 minutes or so before each use, so I'm not super worried about it being spotless.

Learned a few things from doing a 5 gallon batch in the 20G system. First is that the wort level is so low that getting whole leaf hops in bags to be in full contact with the wort without getting near the element is very tricky. I normally use a hop spider setup, but ended up clipping a couple bags to the kettle instead. Second issue with the smaller batch size in the 20G kettle is that the swirl-boss was way above wort. I know Darin recommends that it not be submerged, but it was at least 4-6 inches or so above and wasn't creating much of a whirlpool. Going to have to see if I can come up with a secure way to extend it down further.

Due to the same low wort level, I don't think an IC would work very well for small batches in the larger kettles.

For those of you using the COFI and an IC, how are you keeping the IC off of the element? I'm assuming the BIAB guys just sit the IC on the false bottom.
 
b3b said:
What does everyone recommend for a chiller with the Brew Boss. I've been researching all the different options. I was thinking that a whirlpool immersion chiller would be good.
Click to expand...

I use my immersion chiller (50' of 1/2") and then clip the whirlpool arm to it when needed.

I will have to adjust the bends of the IC though as it was made originally for a narrow pot and currently doesn't fully submerge, especially on smaller batches.

Last brew (5 gal) took about 15 minutes to chill from boil to 70F with only half the IC submerged. Last 10 gal batch took about the same not counting the hopstand that naturally cooled a bit and most of the IC was submerged.

I haven't ever used a plate chiller or CFC, but like the ease of IC even if not the most efficient. And I do collect about 15 gal of cooling water for cleaning, rest goes to the trees/garden.
 
I am using the exchillerator counterflow chiller. On my first batch it was a hop slurry. I then picked up the hop spider from Duda Diesel but to be honest I don't like it. The flow rate through it is just horrible. I really need to do some tests brewing a batch with and without it and see if anyone can really notice if there is a lack of hop utilization.

I have played around with my system a bit. I have installed a pickup tube as well and I have the swirlboss. I have found with the pickup tube there is really nothing left over in the kettle when I am done. I am going to try a brew without the pickup tube and see if I can get a cone of break material when I am done. Darin has recommended tipping the ketting to get the last amount but I have found that doing that, holding the hose into the fermentor, and hitting the pump stop button is juggling two many plates for my liking. I like the pickup tube but I want to try to keep out the break material. Although there are plenty of discussions where people just send it all into the fermenter with no ill effects. (something I am doing right now)

I will say that is you have a sight glass that is inline with the pump and you install a pickup tube you cause the sight glass to suck in air and cease pump activity. To fix this I just use the pinky part of a latex glove over the end of the sight glass so it can't pull air. When I need a reading I just all air in.
 
I used to really stress about getting clear wort into the fermentor but I stopped caring about a year ago and I've not noticed any difference in the taste or quality of my beer. I have a hop spider but I dont even use it anymore if using 4oz of hops or less. Its more important with a plate chiller as those can clog but I wouldnt be too worried about clogging the exchillerator with pellet hops.

Great idea about the latex glove on the sight glass. I always used a piece of tape.
 
Snicklefritz said:
Great idea about the latex glove on the sight glass. I always used a piece of tape.
Click to expand...

Yeah I used duct tape for the first few brews but on the colder days I would have condesation and then the duct tape would slip a bit and I would find myself with my finger on the sight glass. :)
 
I wanted to let you guys know that you will suck air through the site glass even if you don't have a pick-up tube. I have the inline site glass but DO NOT have a pickup tube and if you open the pump valve all the way air gets sucked in and disrupts the flow of fluid. I've only done a couple wet runs but I've found that as long as I don't let the fluid level in the site glass get all the way to the bottom it works fine. Plus, there doesn't seem to be much of a flow difference between closed enough to keep the site glass from sucking in air and open enough to get a fast flow of fluid. My point is that it has nothing to do with the pick-up tube. Having said that, it sure would be nice to have the site-glass off-line from the pump.

Cheers:mug:
 
Beavdowg said:
I wanted to let you guys know that you will suck air through the site glass even if you don't have a pick-up tube. I have the inline site glass but DO NOT have a pickup tube and if you open the pump valve all the way air gets sucked in and disrupts the flow of fluid. I've only done a couple wet runs but I've found that as long as I don't let the fluid level in the site glass get all the way to the bottom it works fine. Plus, there doesn't seem to be much of a flow difference between closed enough to keep the site glass from sucking in air and open enough to get a fast flow of fluid. My point is that it has nothing to do with the pick-up tube. Having said that, it sure would be nice to have the site-glass off-line from the pump.

Cheers:mug:
Click to expand...

The sight glass installation instructions do note that the pump outlet needs to be restricted to keep wort above the valve level but IMO it's a bad design. I understand that there's not much you can do without adding another hole to the kettle but at the very least they should include a stopper to plug the tube when pumping. Even better would be to add a small valve right at the bottom of the tube that you can close when the pump is on.
 
So from the 1.2 update mentioned earlier:
Added support for the upcoming Hops-Boss with "Hot Break" detection.
Click to expand...

Does anyone know if this is out? a boilover protection sensor would probably move the hops-boss from "neat gimmick" to "buy that" for me...
 
andrewmaixner said:
So from the 1.2 update mentioned earlier:


Does anyone know if this is out? a boilover protection sensor would probably move the hops-boss from "neat gimmick" to "buy that" for me...
Click to expand...

I don't know if the hot-break detection is out but I did run across this that was recently published on how to control boil overs.

On a different note, has anyone been able to get email alarms to work? I've been able to re-configure my Brew-Boss for my home WiFi network and put my email address in the parameters screen but I don't get the emails. When it gets to an alarm stage there's a pop-up window saying that email was successfully sent but I don't get anything.
 
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mdime said:
On a different note, has anyone been able to get email alarms to work? I've been able to re-configure my Brew-Boss for my home WiFi network and put my email address in the parameters screen but I don't get the emails. When it gets to an alarm stage there's a pop-up window saying that email was successfully sent but I don't get anything.
Click to expand...

I just tested and it worked sending to my gmail account. That was with the test alarm and email menu option, and a mash out complete alert. I'm running the app on a Kindle Fire.

Have you tried a different email address? Maybe blocked as spam or filtered some other way?
 
Brewphish said:
I just tested and it worked sending to my gmail account. That was with the test alarm and email menu option, and a mash out complete alert. I'm running the app on a Kindle Fire.

Have you tried a different email address? Maybe blocked as spam or filtered some other way?
Click to expand...

Good call. I tried another email account and it worked right away. The original one I would like to get working was the text service from my mobile provider, [email protected]. It's strange because I've had no problem using that service from another email account but it just won't work with the Brew-Boss.
 

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