Originally I was going to buy Brewie, then I saw the pre-sale of the Z2. I thought maybe we would get them by December at the latest. Had I known about the delays, I would have gone with Brewie. In the end, I’m glad I waited.
Picobrew Z
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rangercup84
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Still no shipment despite promise from last week. I emailed again and was told it may ship today, Monday, or Tuesday. I'll believe when I see it. At this rate I won't be surprised id they drag me along till fall.
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Think of those waiting for a Z3 or Z4
banjo-guy01
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I’m still waiting for my buy back money for my Zymatic. Why the long wait to receive the payment?
doublea
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Did you even ship back your zymatic?
This weekend confirmed a new feature in the Z firmware called "group brewing" where you can use one head unit to start brews on the other Z1s you might have linked via your PB account.
This isn't the "single head to control them all" concept, but definitely makes the need to rotary dial in brews on each unit less.
This isn't the "single head to control them all" concept, but definitely makes the need to rotary dial in brews on each unit less.
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Just wondering how long before the final part of the orders are sent - remember all the other stuff they promised? Or, when they'll be taking back the Zymatics
banjo-guy01
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I haven’t shipped my Zymatic back yet. I received my Z in February.
It makes me nervous that Pico isn’t completing the deal we had for rebates and ordering perks.
doublea
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On May 15th when I last asked then, they said: "We're waiting on a couple items to arrive and then will be getting perks shipped out to those that have already received their Zs."
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Always keep in mind that if they go out of business, then your cloud based product will no longer work.
I'm sure you can sell your Zymatic for $600 to most anyone and avoid the hassle of sending it back to Picobrew. Plus, you get your money now.
Goblism
Well-Known Member
Keg cozy perk is being abandoned I see, frustrating to go from a cozy they value at $50 on their website(that we all know is too much) to a $10-15 a hat. I emailed asking for a standard keg cozy, could care less about special edition aspects as I want another cozy as promised!
I did the same. I... kind of wonder if they're going to end up reverting to the keg cozy on this one. I completely understand supply chain issues, but TBQH that's their problem, not mine. I want what I paid for, and it included a second keg cozy.
doublea
Well-Known Member
I agree the hat is sort of lame but out of curiosity, what do you guys want to do with the second cozy? I had a Zymatic for years and never needed a second one or had any issues with it.
I paid for the cozy. What do I want with the hat?
petebrewman
GOAT
Finally got my Z2 this week (14 month wait). Ran my first brew yesterday. It went flawlessly. Loved the process, the technology, the software (a little quirky), and being able to get some real work done in my office while brewing in the man-room. Only issue was the gravity came out on the low side. Based on some other zymatic forums it's likely due to me using pre-crushed grains from MoreBeer. Guess I'm buying a crusher.
I'm posting this mainly because I'm tired of reading all the cynical posts on this thread, especially from people that haven't even used a Z. Sure, the Zymatic may have had issues (gen 1 after all), but my out-of-the-box and first brew experience with the Z has been great. I choose to be an optimist.
Call me a fanboy (I am so far) but I'd urge those waiting on the fence to jump in.
I'm posting this mainly because I'm tired of reading all the cynical posts on this thread, especially from people that haven't even used a Z. Sure, the Zymatic may have had issues (gen 1 after all), but my out-of-the-box and first brew experience with the Z has been great. I choose to be an optimist.
Call me a fanboy (I am so far) but I'd urge those waiting on the fence to jump in.
Cynical posts are usally made from direct interaction.... But I'm glad your first session went great. No one ever said it wasn't going to be an upgrade from the Zymatic. The jury is still out on the longevity of the product or whether they actually solved the issues with the Zymatic, though. My first brew session on the Zymatic was flawless as well and I hit all my numbers and brewed a really great beer. I am waiting to see what happens in six months....that's likely when we will start to see issues pop up and what the big hitters are.
Plus, weren't you complaining about "remote monitoring"? You know PB does that. They have a database full of everyones data and even if you delete data from your profile...they still keep it (as was told to me by Doug at picobrew). And since you signed their service agreement by purchasing the product they have every right to sell that data for whatever they can get.
Plus, weren't you complaining about "remote monitoring"? You know PB does that. They have a database full of everyones data and even if you delete data from your profile...they still keep it (as was told to me by Doug at picobrew). And since you signed their service agreement by purchasing the product they have every right to sell that data for whatever they can get.
Did you do 5 gallon batch or two different 2.5 gallon batches? I agree with you. The system is awesome
Brewfreedom
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Most of the cynicism is from dealing with them post sale and 50 to 100 brews in. A whole lot of other issues but thankfully they let people bail from the kick starter.
I'd be curious to see how many brews Ron and other early "alpha" unit customers have done on their Z1 setups and any and all constructive feedback they have provided. Where either Picobrew changed something or even if they haven't.
I have ran a couple brews through my Z2 with no issues. From what Ron as said on the Picobrewers Facebook group he has done like 60+ brews with no issues now.
doublea
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Can you say more (or link to details)? I also am hitting low but buy pre-crushed grain from MoreBeer.
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Not an 'alpha', but I have 21 brewings on Z1 since 3/23/19.
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So far the only issue I've had has been that a hose was misrouted and would collapse. So maybe a couple of those batches were actually failures from the hose not being installed correctly. I have noticed that my OG from Zymatic recipes would come out a bit higher on the Z1 than was expected. What I really don't like is the seemingly hundred times you have to acknowledge this and that to run a recipe or clean or whatever - I love to be able to turn off all those extra acknowledgements that I never read but have to waste my time.
Because this system was built for people who have no clue about brewing...maybe they need an advanced mode of operation. But's that automation for you.
I do agree with all the acknowledgements that are required. I get sick of clicking yes all the time.
alestateyall
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Does this mean you have to babysit the Z for the entire brewing process just to click yes periodically?
Only to start the brewing process. I’m curious what it’s like for a delayed start.
Goblism
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You can also have it set to click to start the cooling process, so it can essentially pause at the end of the brewing cycle and press the button once you want the device to recirculate.
petebrewman
GOAT
Doing my second batch on my new Z2 so pulled up this thread again. A few responses - sorry for the delay:
Wasn't me complaining about "remote monitoring". In general it doesn't bother me (yet).
I started with just one 2.5 gallon batch and doing the same today. So crazy simple do get a batch up and running (<30 minutes). I'm not really monitoring this one other than pulling up the real-time report while getting some real work done in my office. Here's the report:
Wasn't me complaining about "remote monitoring". In general it doesn't bother me (yet).
I started with just one 2.5 gallon batch and doing the same today. So crazy simple do get a batch up and running (<30 minutes). I'm not really monitoring this one other than pulling up the real-time report while getting some real work done in my office. Here's the report:
petebrewman
GOAT
I saw a post on another Zymatic forum where someone posted that his low g was related to MoreBeer's crappy crushing. I just did a quick search and couldn't find it - sorry. My next batch will be crushed by me so I'll post with the results. Hopefully that's the issue.
cheesemonster
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As far as gravity.... Yes if you have grain that is crushed too finely you will get lower gravity. One sure sign is between steps there is a drain process. If the grain does not fully drain during that you know it is not porous enough and not letting enough water through. I believe the drain steps are 8 mins. I try to get it where it is drained in 5 mins.
Also another thing is that the water amount needs to be very precise. If you are 5% too much water which isn't much in a 2.5 gal brew, you will be 5% low on OG. So even 1 pint of water off makes a pretty big difference where it wouldn't in a 5-10G batch.
I find that if when I measure after mash that it is trending low, I remove the keg seal to let steam off when it is "boiling". This concentrates the remaining liquid a bit more and raises gravity. It isn't going to fix 10 points but will when you are a few down. After the heat break at 175 or so, I find I don't have to worry about it foaming over.
MoreBeer premilled stuff is crushed pretty fine, and then crushed even more when stacked up and shipped. so also perhaps some rice hulls in there would help.
Also another thing is that the water amount needs to be very precise. If you are 5% too much water which isn't much in a 2.5 gal brew, you will be 5% low on OG. So even 1 pint of water off makes a pretty big difference where it wouldn't in a 5-10G batch.
I find that if when I measure after mash that it is trending low, I remove the keg seal to let steam off when it is "boiling". This concentrates the remaining liquid a bit more and raises gravity. It isn't going to fix 10 points but will when you are a few down. After the heat break at 175 or so, I find I don't have to worry about it foaming over.
MoreBeer premilled stuff is crushed pretty fine, and then crushed even more when stacked up and shipped. so also perhaps some rice hulls in there would help.
cheesemonster
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I wouldn't do that because the trub and also junk from the mash/boil are in there. Under pressure and after a while that is going to give the beer a soapy taste. I usually put the lid on it, and use CO2 along with the bridging tube they give us to have it rack into another keg if I ferment in the keg. Usually I prefer to have the wort go one pass through counterflow chiller into a conical fermentor and rack into serving keg from there.
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What I do is brew two 2.25g batches (1st one in sometimes just a 3g keg as it will hold over 3g of water to start with), then push that into the 2nd batch that uses a 5g keg. Once fermentation is done of the ~4.5g in the 5g keg, I filter through either a 5 micron (or sometimes 1 micron) filter to a final keg.
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