Unboxing the Nano from CO Brewing

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jabba11 said:
or you cant get it to circulate?
Click to expand...

I had to throttle nearly all the way down to avoid exposing the heating element to air. It was like a stuck sparge. The crush should have been same as last time where I could nearly open the pump fully.
 
I held back 2 gallons during my last brew and found that I had to do a lot of work to keep the grain bed from getting 'stuck'. I wondered the same thing. I'm thinking that holding back the two gallons threw off the water to grain ratio enough that it made it difficult for the system to properly recirculate.
 
sgraham602 said:
I held back 2 gallons during my last brew and found that I had to do a lot of work to keep the grain bed from getting 'stuck'. I wondered the same thing. I'm thinking that holding back the two gallons threw off the water to grain ratio enough that it made it difficult for the system to properly recirculate.
Click to expand...

I decided to create a separate recirc thread to see if anyone in the BIAB forum might have ideas. I did go from 22 lbs to 25.5 lbs and I did hold back 2g of water, but something doesn't seem right about it behaving that different. I had to spin my mash like a blender to get the wort to channel through. I think it took about 45 minutes for it to drain. Had I not used the mash paddle I think the wort might have just stayed as a puddle in the mash bed.
 
pretzelb said:
I had to throttle nearly all the way down to avoid exposing the heating element to air. It was like a stuck sparge. The crush should have been same as last time where I could nearly open the pump fully.
Click to expand...


Huh, strange I wouldn't think holding two gallons back would do that.
 
3 and half pounds more grain and 2 gallons less water? Uh yeah of course stuck sparge. The pumps are very finicky and if aren't primed will have trouble.
 
akthor said:
3 and half pounds more grain and 2 gallons less water? Uh yeah of course stuck sparge. The pumps are very finicky and if aren't primed will have trouble.
Click to expand...

The pump was fine. The bed was clogged and not allowing flow.

It still seems to me that flow through the grain should be a factor of the crush and not much else. Once water is absorbed it should flow the same unless it is I overly thick or compacted.

Put it this way, when I used to batch sparge I could tell when a crush it grain bill caused a stuck sparge. When the crush was good the water flowed easily no matter the amount. I certainly never saw a pool of wort if my last sparge water was under estimated and thicker than the previous.
 
have ya tried using rice hulls? I'm brewing my first batch on mine Friday. I don't make nearly the size beers you guys seem to though. My regular session ale is 17 pounds with 17 gallons of water for 12 gallons. Still I use rice hulls every batch.
 
I did a blonde ale on Saturday night. 19 pound grain bill and 14 gallons of water. I had to keep an eye on the sight glass to make sure I wasn't recirculating to fast.
I love this system, just going to take a little getting used to. I'm going to do an Oktoberfest next weekend, 28 pound grain bill on that one, I will definitely have to do a rinse for that one.
 
sabo38 said:
I did a blonde ale on Saturday night. 19 pound grain bill and 14 gallons of water. I had to keep an eye on the sight glass to make sure I wasn't recirculating to fast.
I love this system, just going to take a little getting used to. I'm going to do an Oktoberfest next weekend, 28 pound grain bill on that one, I will definitely have to do a rinse for that one.
Click to expand...

After my 25.5 grain bill I'm eager to learn how you manage the 28 lb recipe.
 
Ventilation in place its just about ready for its maiden run Friday morning!

13439196_595597937267245_6265250613620515200_n.jpg
 
jabba11 said:
Ventilation in place its just about ready for its maiden run Friday morning!
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Are you moving the fan/hood out of the way when it's not in use? If so, could you post more pictures of that setup? I'm trying to figure out something like that.
 
I would think the hood could have went above the pulley bar to avoid having to move anything out of the way
 
jlongstreet said:
Are you moving the fan/hood out of the way when it's not in use? If so, could you post more pictures of that setup? I'm trying to figure out something like that.
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Yes it moves out the way. I mounted it on two TV arms and obviously its being helped by the pully system that I attached to it and the ceiling. Ill take more pics when I get a chance. I test ran it today and I may move to a 6 inch fan. Ive read a helpful thread on it and felt that with such a short run etc that I would be okay as far as "drippage". I think I was wrong. Go big right away do yourself a favor
 
30Bones said:
I would think the hood could have went above the pulley bar to avoid having to move anything out of the way
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too far away to be useful unless your running a much bigger hood and a really big fan. I considered this and wanted to do it that way but it wont remove enough moisture that way I think. I may try it anyway just to see what happens casue ideally that would be the way to do it
 
Day one mashed in. 17 lbs of grain 17.6 gallons of water. it filed the whole thing almost overflowing. My solution to that was to raise the basket some since I actually have so little grain in it this wasn't a problem. Lesson1 learned. Other than that the recirc seems to be working fine with no issues. I can run it pretty wide open if I want etc. I can imagine that when it comes time for "big beers" I will probably choose to do a 7.5 gallon batch versus a full 10.
Post mash now. 90 min mash left 15.5 gallons and hit my est numbers dead on. Boil reached and is boiling nicely at 58% of power at about 209 degrees. I did check my strike water temp with a thermometer against what it read and it was dead on as well. More As I go along. This is a 90 min boil as well with two hop editions
 
jabba11 said:
Day one mashed in. 17 lbs of grain 17.6 gallons of water. it filed the whole thing almost overflowing. My solution to that was to raise the basket some since I actually have so little grain in it this wasn't a problem. Lesson1 learned. Other than that the recirc seems to be working fine with no issues. I can run it pretty wide open if I want etc. I can imagine that when it comes time for "big beers" I will probably choose to do a 7.5 gallon batch versus a full 10.
Post mash now. 90 min mash left 15.5 gallons and hit my est numbers dead on. Boil reached and is boiling nicely at 58% of power at about 209 degrees. I did check my strike water temp with a thermometer against what it read and it was dead on as well. More As I go along. This is a 90 min boil as well with two hop editions
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Sounds like a great first day!
 
completely done in about 5 hours. I started with the water in the pot this morning ready to go though so if I hadn't done that add maybe 20 minutes. it took me forever to clean but I will develop a method to it as time goes by I'm sure. Theres just lots more to clean here. I know some guys don't bother cleaning their pots a lot just rinse it out but I'm a neat freak so that doesn't work for me so well. I had a heck of a time getting all the grain out of the corners of the basket ill think of something for that too I'm sure. I also had to split this batch amongst two fermenters something I don't usually have to do and that added time. All in all the thing performed flawlessly. Couldn't be happier with it. I seriously cant imagine cutting any more time out of doing it than this thing does. I mean I like just brewing too but it can take up a whole day sometimes. Also I will say it was sooooo simple compared to traditional sparge. All my numbers ended up pretty much dead on fwiw. heres a pic with my hydra hanging in it. if it was winter I could have got this down to pitch temp in about 7 mins I bet. As it is my water temp is 69 right now so I got it down to 70 and will just cool it in the fermenter form there

13512230_596348443858861_2068782307581260039_n.jpg
 
I'm not gonna kid ya theres a cost associated LOL but so far I am very happy with mine. I just need to tweak a few things here and there.
 
02RedWS6TA said:
Was told mine would ship last week, then this week, emailed yesterday and got no reply :( I'm ready to brew!
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IMHO they are a bit overwhelmed right now. Mine didn't ship with the pump and it was a problem with chugger as was mentioned before in other posts. I have a pump already so it wasn't needed to set up but it wouldn't be much use without it either. I did talk to Tim yesterday afternoon about the pump and he apologized and said they should be shipping out soon from chugger direct. Bear with them id say it will get there.
 
I just bought a regular chugged pump since I figure I will use it in the future. I couldn't wait any longer!!!!
 
I'm with you @jabba11 I clean everything when I'm done and it does add about 30-45 minutes to my day, but with the recessed areas because of the welded ports I feel like there are too many areas for unwanted growth. At the same time I'm usually done with brewing in 3.5 hours which is a good trade off. The added time to clean is worth it. My whirlpool arm arrived and I'm headed to the brewery supply place to get a valve this week.
 
Finally used my system for the first time. This was also my first all grain batch. Overall the system worked great. Very easy to use and work through all the steps. That being said, I had a couple of challenges with my process. First, it looks like I overshot my initial water volume by 1.25 gallons. This had a big impact on my gravity. I did a water test before my first batch and measured a boil off rate of approx 1.75/hour. However, this being my first batch I was not sure how vigorous to boil. For some reason a power percentage of 90 seemed right to me. I know 60 % is a recommended starting point but at this rate, it struggled to keep a boil.

The estimated boil off rate per colorados water calc spreadsheet showed 1.65 for my 15 gallon system.

Once I started my first batch, the wort boil seemed much better at a lower percentage 65-70 %. So I went with that. The problem appears that my boil off rate was more like .90 gallons/hour. As opposed to 1.75.

Has anybody else seen a boil off rate this low in comparison to the estimates from colorado? Does .90 seem to small?
 
It's been a long time coming, but I finally brewed my 1st batch (NB Caribou Slobber) in my CBS kettle last night! I have the 10G kettle w/no stand. I have my own controller from my previous RIMS system, which I recycled. Overall, I feel things went well. I did have a few challenges, which I hope to work through.

1) Like many here, I was not able to maintain a "suspended" mash. However, I was able to throttle the flow to just the correct amount so that I was recirculating the same amount that I was sucking out the bottom. To make this easier, I used a clip on the sight gauge. If the water kept dropping, I'd throttle back. If the level climbed, I opened it up a bit. Now, if you don't have a sight gauge, that technique might be difficult.

2) It didn't dawn on me until the mash was over to check the temp of the actual mash bed. I wanted a temp of 153, and that's what I set on the PID. Unfortunately, the mash bed in the basket was only 149 at the end of my 60 minutes. Sounds like I'm going to have a drier beer than intended. That aside, it makes sense now that I think about it. The element is on the bottom, as is the temp probe. I've got 153 degree water on the bottom, which I suck out via the pump, where it loses a few degrees moving through the hoses/pump, and likely returned to the top well below my intended mash temp. :-( Doh!! Something I'm going to spend a bit more time evaluating and experimenting during my next batch to make sure the mash is at the right temp and not rely on the PID temp.

3) Not really a problem, but an observation. It's also not something most people will need to deal with since they have the stand. Man, that basket with 10# of soaked grain is heavy! I had my kettle at waist height on a table. It was tough lifting that basket high enough (probably neck high) to get it out of the kettle to drain. Any larger than 10G and there's almost no way to man handle the basket!

4) Still working on dialing in my losses. For those who are wondering, I after the boil started, I lowered the output to 55% (bumped to 100% when I added my immersion chiller then lowered again at boil). I ended up with 1 gallon evaporated in 60 min. Then I ended up with about .3 to .4 gallon (guestimation) less once in the fermenter. I chalk that up to kettle deadspace and cooling shrinkage.

I'm looking forward to my next brew session and working through these bugs.
 
I agree 100% with #3! I saw that somebody in this post had the pulley system on a track so that it would slide out for easy removal. I wish I would have seen that before I ordered mine.
 
jgoldsworthy said:
2) It didn't dawn on me until the mash was over to check the temp of the actual mash bed. I wanted a temp of 153, and that's what I set on the PID. Unfortunately, the mash bed in the basket was only 149 at the end of my 60 minutes. Sounds like I'm going to have a drier beer than intended. That aside, it makes sense now that I think about it. The element is on the bottom, as is the temp probe. I've got 153 degree water on the bottom, which I suck out via the pump, where it loses a few degrees moving through the hoses/pump, and likely returned to the top well below my intended mash temp. :-( Doh!! Something I'm going to spend a bit more time evaluating and experimenting during my next batch to make sure the mash is at the right temp and not rely on the PID temp.
Click to expand...

I'm almost ready to pull the trigger on this system, however this is the one thing that I've been wondering about. Because of the placement of the probe the system isn't measuring the temperature of the mash, its measuring the temperature of the water at the bottom by the heating element. How are you guys dealing with this? By setting the PID up a few degrees above desired mash? How then do you measure the actual mash temperature, by sticking a probe thermometer into the middle of the mash? I was thinking of maybe using a wire probe like this one: http://www.thermoworks.com/PRB-T-37X-T
Thoughts? Thanks for the help, this thread has been extremely useful during my decision making process!
 
molson said:
I'm almost ready to pull the trigger on this system, however this is the one thing that I've been wondering about. Because of the placement of the probe the system isn't measuring the temperature of the mash, its measuring the temperature of the water at the bottom by the heating element. How are you guys dealing with this? By setting the PID up a few degrees above desired mash? How then do you measure the actual mash temperature, by sticking a probe thermometer into the middle of the mash? I was thinking of maybe using a wire probe like this one: http://www.thermoworks.com/PRB-T-37X-T
Thoughts? Thanks for the help, this thread has been extremely useful during my decision making process!
Click to expand...
I'll have to remember to check my center-of-mash temperature on my next brew, as my setup also has this style of equipment configuration, with the probe/thermowell even with the element and 3 inches apart, under the false bottom. (Only used my system once so far)

Maybe this is why the UniBrau eBIAB systems put the temperature probe inline with a T pipe adapter, at the point of liquid return to the mash.
 
molson said:
I'm almost ready to pull the trigger on this system, however this is the one thing that I've been wondering about. Because of the placement of the probe the system isn't measuring the temperature of the mash, its measuring the temperature of the water at the bottom by the heating element. How are you guys dealing with this? By setting the PID up a few degrees above desired mash? How then do you measure the actual mash temperature, by sticking a probe thermometer into the middle of the mash? I was thinking of maybe using a wire probe like this one: http://www.thermoworks.com/PRB-T-37X-T
Thoughts? Thanks for the help, this thread has been extremely useful during my decision making process!
Click to expand...

Rate of flow is going to play a part in this as well Id say. For me I didn't see any real difference (I had mine running pretty fast as I only had 17 lbs of grain and 17 gallons of water) in the temp at the probe and in the mash. As I recall it was maybe .3 degrees difference which is none really. I did make sure my probe was reading what my thermometer was reading as well in my test run and it was dead on. If you have to throttle way back then I can see how the time in the tubing etc may make it a bit cooler plus the top of the mash may be a little cooler as well. if you can run it wider open this isn't gonna be as big a factor. it would be wise to check it every time and adjust accordingly as I thin kit will be different with every batch. If you make the same batch a lot you can take notes and will have a starting point.
 
andrewmaixner said:
I'll have to remember to check my center-of-mash temperature on my next brew, as my setup also has this style of equipment configuration, with the probe/thermowell even with the element and 3 inches apart, under the false bottom. (Only used my system once so far)

Maybe this is why the UniBrau eBIAB systems put the temperature probe inline with a T pipe adapter, at the point of liquid return to the mash.
Click to expand...

if one wanted to you could do this with our systems as well. Of course theres a cost associated with that but it would be simple to do and maybe something to consider if I find it a constant issue that's affecting my ability to repeat my process accurately etc
 

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