Unboxing the Nano from CO Brewing

Williams 728
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Last night was another successful brew with the recirculation manifold. I barely stirred the mash at all, and running the pump as slow as it could go I had no issues with the mash (though I was short on gravity; might've had some doughballs I should have stirred more). I also upgraded to a whirlpool arm in place of the sight glass which definitely gets a better spin going than the standard arm. In the end I had 5 gallons of Helles wort in the fermentor after a 3 hour brew session which is fantastic!

I also just invested in a small shop vac which really helped cleaning up completely indoors. I need to start tracking all the additional pieces of equipment this system has caused me to buy...
 
hibbleton said:
Last night was another successful brew with the recirculation manifold. I barely stirred the mash at all, and running the pump as slow as it could go I had no issues with the mash (though I was short on gravity; might've had some doughballs I should have stirred more). I also upgraded to a whirlpool arm in place of the sight glass which definitely gets a better spin going than the standard arm. In the end I had 5 gallons of Helles wort in the fermentor after a 3 hour brew session which is fantastic!

I also just invested in a small shop vac which really helped cleaning up completely indoors. I need to start tracking all the additional pieces of equipment this system has caused me to buy...
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I would highly advise against that. Sometimes ignorance is bliss!🤓
 
Mashed in on a 5 gallon batch of Oktoberfest Marzen this morning. Been awhile since I made a 5 gallon batch. it seemed like so little water. Everything went smooth as glass though. Been really cool here for Aug in KS. Got me in a brewin and football mood.

20745985_800856056741431_3019466268606642181_o.jpg
 
jabba11 said:
Mashed in on a 5 gallon batch of Oktoberfest Marzen this morning. Been awhile since I made a 5 gallon batch. it seemed like so little water. Everything went smooth as glass though. Been really cool here for Aug in KS. Got me in a brewin and football mood.
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Good on ya! Taking a day off tomorrow to do a couple of batches. Another juicy IPA and my big Russian imperial stout. 30 pounds of grain for a 6 gallon batch!
 
Attention! This thread has been incredibly valuable for me for the time that I have had my CO system. Unfortunately my life has gone in a different direction and I am no longer going to be brewing. I have listed my system for sale in the "For Sale" section. For anyone following this thread that is contemplating purchasing a CO, I totally recommend it...they are awesome.
 
That's sad to hear... this is hands down the best hobby ever and I truly feel like this system has lived up to every one of my expectations. If I had a drawback it would be the cleaning but I only brew by myself. But that being said, I love this system.
 
Have any of you guys done a high-quality brew yet? I'm always doing stuff around 1.050, and I get 70-72% brew house efficiency and 75-78% mash efficiency. I know that efficiency drops as OG increases but I'm not sure about the details of planning a high gravity brew day. Any tips? All I know is that in general you reduce your estimated efficiency, use more water, and use a longer boil to concemtrate the sugars.
 
Horseflesh said:
Have any of you guys done a high-quality brew yet? I'm always doing stuff around 1.050, and I get 70-72% brew house efficiency and 75-78% mash efficiency. I know that efficiency drops as OG increases but I'm not sure about the details of planning a high gravity brew day. Any tips? All I know is that in general you reduce your estimated efficiency, use more water, and use a longer boil to concemtrate the sugars.
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reserving a couple gallons to pour over the grain basket while you ramp up to boil will help rinse in some more of the high-gravity liquid that would otherwise stay in the grains.
 
Horseflesh said:
Have any of you guys done a high-quality brew yet? I'm always doing stuff around 1.050, and I get 70-72% brew house efficiency and 75-78% mash efficiency. I know that efficiency drops as OG increases but I'm not sure about the details of planning a high gravity brew day. Any tips? All I know is that in general you reduce your estimated efficiency, use more water, and use a longer boil to concemtrate the sugars.
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My efficiency is pretty steady at about 81% (80-82 really). I recirc below the basket using a whirlpool and pump through the bed with SS manifold. At mash out I also run about 1 and half to two gallons I have held back and preheated to mash out temps and sparge it with my sparge arm as fast as it will go. I do this while the basket is hanging and draining. I have done enough brews this way to be completely confident in saying I get those efficiencies I mentioned every single time
 
jabba11 said:
My efficiency is pretty steady at about 81% (80-82 really). I recirc below the basket using a whirlpool and pump through the bed with SS manifold. At mash out I also run about 1 and half to two gallons I have held back and preheated to mash out temps and sparge it with my sparge arm as fast as it will go. I do this while the basket is hanging and draining. I have done enough brews this way to be completely confident in saying I get those efficiencies I mentioned every single time
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So you split your re circulation above and below the basket 50/50?
 
Nmnbrewer said:
So you split your re circulation above and below the basket 50/50?
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yes I do. I cant confirm that it has any affect on the effientcy I did it originally to help prevent scorching which I do think it helps some. its probably affected most by a thicker mash. the sparge, and my crush size
 
So I finally got CBS to ship me the missing TC clamps and was able to do a test run of the system. After doing leak test and fixing all the leaks, I fired up the element to do a test brew with just water. The element heated up to mash temp, but didn't heat up to boil when I switched over to manual mode. After a few minutes of playing around with the box and checking to ensure that there were no leaks around the element, I noticed that the 240V GFCI breaker was tripped. I reset it and tried again and it tripped when I turned on the element. My guess is that the seal inside the element housing failed when it heated up and shorted out. I contacted Tim and he quickly sent out a new element. The new one worked just fine. After having the system for seven months, I finally get to do my first brew on it this weekend.

xJpWu8Pl.jpg
 
What is everyone using to chill their 20 gallon Nano Home? I have a Jaded Wasp immersion chiller that worked well in a smaller kettle but it's taking forever to get 6ish gallons to a reasonable temperature using ground water (I usually give up around 80F and let the ferm chamber finish it off). In a 5 gallon batch only 3/4 of the chiller is submerged and the element gets in the way. I tried using a counterflow chiller on one batch but didn't like it due to cleaning/sanitation concerns and added complexity. I'm curious how everyone else is getting their wort to pitching temp.
 
I am using a cheap IC from the LHBS. It is mostly submerged in ~6 gal but still can take 30 minutes to cool a batch. This summer when my ground water was 75F, I gave up around 80-85F and finished chilling in the fridge, too.

I would love to find a better immersion chiller solution. Part of that might be a new element that curves out of the way too.
 
hibbleton said:
What is everyone using to chill their 20 gallon Nano Home?
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I'm using the Jaded King Cobra. I got the KC so it would be covered even with a 5g high gravity brew. It works well except when summer heat screws the ground water temps. The Hydra might be better but I'm not sure. I am experimenting with using a pump and some ice in a cooler to make a closed loop in the summer. It should help and reduce the amount of water used but I only tried it twice.
 
I have drawn the line at no more cleaning, so for me, a counterflow or plate chiller is a no-go. Looks like the King Cobra is what I need, the chilling coils are 4" tall. I'll have to double check but I think all of that would be submerged in my typical 5.75 - 6 gal post-boil volume.
 
New system set to show up Saturday. Will hopefully have everything together and my stand built so I can do a brew early November. Pretty excited to get everything together.
 
Horseflesh said:
I have drawn the line at no more cleaning, so for me, a counterflow or plate chiller is a no-go. Looks like the King Cobra is what I need, the chilling coils are 4" tall. I'll have to double check but I think all of that would be submerged in my typical 5.75 - 6 gal post-boil volume.
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Please let us know if you go with this one; I would definitely sell my counterflow and buy the King Cobra if the whole thing fits under the element.
 
I am also looking at a King Cobra since my current IC is rather tall. How are people with the KC suspending it in the wort? Are you hanging it from the pulley or getting a custom bend so it can just sit on the rim of the kettle?
 
Hello all,

This thread has been super helpful! I am looking to order a Nano Brewer Home system in the next month or so and have a couple questions.

I see people are replacing the sight gauge with a second whirlpool fitting - I am interested in this as I want to prevent scorching the element. Can you request this be done by Colorado Brewing or do you do this yourselves? Any additional costs?

People have talked about sparging at the end of the mash especially for big beers - I am curious what is your system/process for rinsing out the grains? My current process is batch sparging with an igloo cooler, so not really used to fly sparging.
 
I can guarantee it won't fit under the element, there's not 4" of room. There may be 4" of liquid above it in a 5 gallon batch, though. I'll verify that next time I brew in a day or two.
 
I am not convinced you need a second whirlpool. The only scorching I got on my element happened when I had a defective element with a hot spot, and one other time when I over-pumped and exposed it. For the boil, I run 100% power up to 207F, then cut power to 55% for cruise. (5 gallon batches)

More movement can't hurt but I don't want to give up my sight glass.
 
Horseflesh said:
I am not convinced you need a second whirlpool. The only scorching I got on my element happened when I had a defective element with a hot spot, and one other time when I over-pumped and exposed it. For the boil, I run 100% power up to 207F, then cut power to 55% for cruise. (5 gallon batches)

More movement can't hurt but I don't want to give up my sight glass.
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is the sight glass helpful? i read it's worthless during the boil since the wort is, well, boiling so you can't get accurate volumes. i admit i never had one before on my equipment tho.
 
I imagine it is more helpful during mash. That way you can see if the wort level under the basket is dropping.
 
I find the sight glass very useful but it takes some extra steps to make it work. If you just attach it, any marks you have made are likely off due to differences how it's leaning, and floor level if your unit doesn't stay in exactly the same place, and even the rotation of the kettle contributes.

So, I put new marks on the sight glass every time I use it. Say I am putting in 8.5 gallons. I add 5 gallons, and then use a dry erase marker to put a mark on the sight glass. Then I add 1 gallon, and do it again, and do it again, then add the last 0.5 gallon. Now I have a full volume of mash water and trustworthy tick marks at 5, 6, 7, 8 gal.

Now I can use the glass during the mash, and to check volume after the mash, and after the boil. It's not so important for the boil because my boil off rate is steady, and I am generally right on my expected post-pash volume... but I like to be sure. My post-mash volume is generally set a little under target though, so I can do about 0.5 gal pour-over sparge. It's helpful to know exactly how much volume I need to make up, so I really don't want to do without the glass.

Putting in the ticks sounds like a hassle but it just takes a few extra minutes. If you pour slowly the water doesn't bounce around too much and you can mark the glass right away.
 
I don't get what downsides there would be with counterflow vs immersion chiller... as i see it, counterflow chiller is not needed to clean at all.. simply just circulate boiling hot wort through it a few minutest before starting to chill.. then it is sanitized....
After cooling and wort is transfered to fermenter, simply just circulate fresh tap water through it - and if you are paranoid, hot PBW.
I changed to a counterflow chiller, because there was alot less cleaning that immersion chiller - and it is always mounted to my brew-bench.
By the way, on my system which is essentialy the same i have both sight glass and whirlpool tube, and i love it..
Also i have now tried ONE brew with my new basket, which uses 600 micron mesh at bottom... seems alot better than the old 400 micron i had.
So now i have tried them all - 400 micron mesh sided, 400 micron solid sided, 600 micron solid sided. The 600 micron is the winner... 400 micron mesh sided does have great circulation, but efficiency is not very good. 400 micron solid sided does have circulation issues.
 
My CFC is all copper. After a brewing session, I back-flush pump, plumbing, and CFC with hot water to get the sticky stuff out. I don't worry about the CFC until a day or so before the next brew day. I throw the CFC in the oven at 350 deg for half hour or so. Nothing is going to live through that. After it cools I give it about a 10 min soak in a 5 gallon bucket of starsan. Rinse and flush and it looks brand spanking new. I just don't see a reason why I would ever want to go back to an immersion chiller. If a bus ever runs over my chiller, I'd buy another CFC in a heartbeat.
 

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