Blichmann BrewEasy

[Pugalicious]

For those that have brewed with this system, after you have recirced and drained the MLT to the kettle, how have you cleaned the pump and recirc lines? Also how have you sanitized them in preparation for transfer to your fermentation vessel.
I have a top tier system that is all gravity fed except for when I transfer to my fermentation vessel (which gravity feeds my pump and pumps through my chiller to my carboy). I do all of my sanitization as I am waiting on the mash to complete. This is a very important step for me, just not exactly sure how you would do it with this system.

Pretty easy. Just close the kettle valves, disconnect the hoses from the kettles (which is really easy with the quick connectors). Stick the intake tube into a bucket of PBW solution and run it for a bit to flush it out. While I'm running the pump with solution, I like to close and open the ball valve on the pump to try to release anything stuck in there. After turning off the pump, I keep the hoses filled with PBW solution and drop the ends of the tubes into the bucket with the PBW to let it all soak while I'm waiting.

A little while before it's time to transfer from the boil kettle through the chiller and into the carboys, I put the intake tube into another bucket filled with sanitizer and pump sanitizer for a bit. Then spray some sanitizer into the female end of the boil kettle valve and re-connect the hose/quick connector to the boil kettle.

Nice and clean and sanitary!

 

[PilotCline]

I just recirculated the boiling wort through the hoses and chiller for last 15 minutes of boil. Easy clean. At flame out turn on the cold water to chiller and continue recirculating until down to almost pitching temp, then straight into the fermenter. I just let the hose from the chiller to the fermenter sit in starsan until I was ready for it. Simple. I also just put the return hose into the hop spider to help filter the wort better while recirculating.

 

[Pugalicious]

I just recirculated the boiling wort through the hoses and chiller for last 15 minutes of boil. Easy clean. At flame out turn on the cold water to chiller and continue recirculating until down to almost pitching temp, then straight into the fermenter. I just let the hose from the chiller to the fermenter sit in starsan until I was ready for it. Simple. I also just put the return hose into the hop spider to help filter the wort better while recirculating.

Good call! I didn't think of that. Hell of a lot easier! Thanks!

 

[Pugalicious]

Here's a quick overview video I took on my first brew day during the mash. More notes and vids coming later.

http://youtu.be/zofO8nJdxos

Enjoy!

 

[wlffmnnn]

I never really thought about recircing the boiling wort through everything. Thats a great idea. Boiling wort is as sanitary as it comes. I usually use iodophor and recirc through everything filling my carboy at the end. Seemed easy then, seems like a lot of work now. Going to try your method PilotCline next brew day to see how it goes.

 

[mash-mongrel]

I gravity feed (drain) from the lower boil kettle using a short 9" hose right into my glass carboy and the wort is Crystal clear

Question, I'm using the hop blocker and I found the hops get sucked through using the pump so the question is, how are you preventing this? Are you bagging your hops? And has anyone used a kettle spider?

 

[Pugalicious]

Here's some info on the temp loss from the sensor to the mash tun. In my test with just water, there seems no be no (or VERY) little loss. Certainly less than a degree. Here's the vid:

EDIT: I removed the URL/Video, as this was not a good test, given that my water temp was too close to the air temp. I'll update this post with a new video when I test again at mash temps.

 

[Ragtop232]

Try that same test with water at mash temperatures and recirculating at mash volumes. I think you'll see a difference.

Also, temps in the grainbed are somewhat misleading. Through many trials, my most accurate temps are taken just as the wort leaves the mash tun during recirculation.

Jim

 

[Pugalicious]

Try that same test with water at mash temperatures and recirculating at mash volumes. I think you'll see a difference.

Also, temps in the grainbed are somewhat misleading. Through many trials, my most accurate temps are taken just as the wort leaves the mash tun during recirculation.

Jim

Jim, you could totally be right. The outside temp was a bit warmer than the water temp I did the test with. If the air temp is in the 50's while running 154 degree mash water, I could see how we might see a higher temp loss. I'll give it another shot with higher temps and let's see what we get.

Also, if anyone has any specific tests, videos, pictures they'd like to see, just let me know and I'll see if I can get to them.

 

[Pugalicious]

Through many trials, my most accurate temps are taken just as the wort leaves the mash tun during recirculation.

Jim

Good to know. I did buy a thrumometer. Maybe I can set it up temporarily with a couple short pieces of tubing and use it to test the temp coming into the mash tun and then the temp leaving the mash tun.

 

[Danam404]

I gravity feed (drain) from the lower boil kettle using a short 9" hose right into my glass carboy and the wort is Crystal clear

Question, I'm using the hop blocker and I found the hops get sucked through using the pump so the question is, how are you preventing this? Are you bagging your hops? And has anyone used a kettle spider?

I have been using a kettle spider from morebeer, works great I love it. Only challenge is finding a proper sized bag.

PilotCline: how long does it takes you to get the wort down to pitching temps with that recirc method?

 

[Danam404]

Jim, you could totally be right. The outside temp was a bit warmer than the water temp I did the test with. If the air temp is in the 50's while running 154 degree mash water, I could see how we might see a higher temp loss. I'll give it another shot with higher temps and let's see what we get.

Also, if anyone has any specific tests, videos, pictures they'd like to see, just let me know and I'll see if I can get to them.

Don't forget a water test and a test with an actual grain bed will be very different. Liquids and solid heat and cool at different rates. It's science!

 

[dooman333]

So the way this system works if we were going to do a single step.mash there is no problem.
But if I wanted to do a temp profile there would be a big lag in the middle of the mash?
I just have not read any reports of the accuracy of temp control or ramp rates. How long does it take to ramp up and stabilize at a new temp?
Do we have to adjust the pid for a slightly higher temp to get the mash at our ideal level?
This system has a big loop and losses of degs and lag are bound to happen.
I have some ideas on how to control over shooting temps when the temp probe is inserted into the mash turn but im getting discouraged for the lack of reviews specifically related to actual brew days.
Where are the promised reviews?

Agreed. How long would it take to go from say 145F to 154F? Would over shooting the PID speed this up?

 

[Shuasha]

Just talked to John Blichmann in regards to a my mis-picked breweasy kit. While I had him on the line, I asked about where to put the temp sensor.

He said that it doesn't really matter where you put it since the ToP temp reading will always differ from the mash tun by a little bit. He has put it in the brew kettle and after the pump without much difference. Putting it in the kettle just puts more stuff in the way during the boil and you'll have to be careful when cleaning, so he recommends putting it after the pump.

 

[strangr419]

FIRST BREWDAY ON THE NEW BLICHMANN BREW EASY

Used my 10 gal Blichmann Brew Easy (gas/LP powered) and Therminator this weekend for the first time. I have the G@ kettles, which are great. I love the easy screw valves as they are very easy to clean. I brewed up a Black IPA (the Darth Vader BIPA I found on the recipe forum) that totaled 29 lbs of grain.
I have been using the BIAB method for some time now and can say this was a totally new experience for me.

The Blichmann quick disconnects are KEY! Don't stinge on these. Get them, they are critical. Thank you Bryan from Great Fermenations for making sure I had plenty of the quick connects.

I spent a few hours at home depot working on the connections for the water in line on the Therminator. I basically purchased 6 ft (to connect to my garden hose for the water in) and 15 ft garden hoses (for the water our) and cut the male end off of one of them in order to make the connection to my garden hose for the water in line. I ran some tests prior to mashing to ensure all of the connections to the chiller plate were sealed up and that the water/wort would flow well. I have the Thrumometer as well which has a smaller orifice than the 1/2" line that comes out of the wort out end. I had to use a couple of hose clamps in order to get that line nice and sealed up in order to allow the pump to pull. That took some time to resolve but got it working well at the end of the test. On to the mash...

One issue/question I'd like to pose to the forum is this: how did you calculate your total water volume at the outset? I used this site:
http://www.brew365.com/mash_sparge_water_calculator.php
and wish I would have actually poured in all of the water as I ended up only using 15 gals to start and came up a little short of 10 gallons of fermentable wort at the end of brew day. With the trub at the bottom (I also installed the Blichmann Hop Blocker) there was about 2 gallons of lost wort sitting at the bottom with the trub and break material.

As an aside, has anyone measured the wort loss under the false bottom during transfer after mashing? I am curious so I can incorporate that into my water calcs to start next time.

So I set the auto sparge setting on the Tower of Power LTE at 154 and let my pump start pulling hot liquor through the lines. Everything went very smoothly with flow of hot liquor/sparging. However, I am curious as to other's experiences with the temps and controlling the mash temp with the "auto" setting. I found that the thermometer on the tower of power LTE only measures the temp of the water coming out of the hot liquor/boil kettle and not the mash tun. This is kind of an issue because it was circulating much hotter mash water to the mash tun than necessary. I found the temps of the sparge water to continually rise up beyond the temps I needed to mash. For example, the actual temp of the water coming into the LTE from the hot liquor tank were at about 165 and I had it set to 154. I ended up turning off the burner in order to stop this very hot water from ending up in the mash tun as I didn't want to ruin the wort and burn away the enzymes.

You can't rely on the thermometer on the hot liquor tank/boil kettle to give you an accurate reading because the water levels are always below the thermometer probe.

Have others had this problem? Is this an error on my part? Not sure. Help is appreciated.

I had some issues with the floating ball/auto sparge as well. I couldn't figure out how to properly set it so it would shut off when necessary. Any pointers?

Another question/issue...Mashing out. So I turned the burner back on and set the auto temp on the LTE to 170. However, the temps on the mash tun thermometer never reached 170. I didn't want to overdo the mashout step and frankly it felt like I was mashing out way too long as well so I cut it at around 15 minutes of mashing out. How have you all done your mash out step?

We ended up with a stuck sparge due to our error, I assume. Somewhere along the line someone stirred the mash and disturbed the bed/natural drainage. I solved this by disconnecting the line going into the top of the mash tun, closing the drain line on the mash tun and placing the line into the bottom of the mash tun drain line and turning on the pump. This must have cleared the blockage and the stuck sparge was solved. The mash drained relatively quickly after that.

This was really the craziest part of brew day, mashing. I felt like a newb no doubt. Hopefully, you all can assist with your experiences with:

1- starting water volume
2- mash temps with the auto LTE recirculating very hot liquor into the mash tun

The boil was obviously very smooth. Nothing out of the ordinary to report. I knew once the mashing was done and the wort was in the boil kettle it would be business as usual and that was the case. I can report that i drained about 11.5 gallons of wort from the mash tun. I ended up with a tad under 10 gallons at the end of the 60 minute boil. Also, there was about 1.5-2 gallons of trub/wort/break material at the end.

I believe we got some hop/break material into the Therminator, first time using a chill plate for me, as the flow of wort into our fermenter stopped right when the boil kettle had reached the bottom. I raised the stopper on the hop blocker and saw some flow but then it stuck again. I ended up just pouring that into the fermenter anyways, as I always used to pour it all into a fermenter following a BIAB anyways, no harm to have the break and trub settle out during fermentation.
Lots to clean at the end of brew day, certainly much more than my old BIAB system. Nevertheless, we had a great brew day. Many lessons learned. I'm already stoked for the second go round on the Brew Easy. It's a really nice set up. I would recommend it to anyone on the fence about it.
Looking forward to anyone's input on their experiences with the system as well.
This is a great forum and seems to be the only place to get info on the Brew Easy as this is such a new system and there isn't a whole lot of info on it out there in cyberspace.
Happy brewing everyone. Cheers!!!

 

[strangr419]

I have been using a kettle spider from morebeer, works great I love it. Only challenge is finding a proper sized bag.

PilotCline: how long does it takes you to get the wort down to pitching temps with that recirc method?

I use 5 gallon paint strainers from Home depot.

 

[PilotCline]

I have been using a kettle spider from morebeer, works great I love it. Only challenge is finding a proper sized bag.

PilotCline: how long does it takes you to get the wort down to pitching temps with that recirc method?

I have made a 5/8 inch 50ft immersion chiller. See here https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f11/lowes-having-great-sale-5-8-inch-copper-pipe-477182/

I put that into a homer bucket and fill the bucket with ice then top off with water. When I turn on the cold water to the chiller, it goes through this pre-chiller first. Otherwise using AZ groundwater averages 88 to 65 deg F. Way to warm on most days to chill with. So while it is recirculating I constantly stir the ice water in the homer bucket to keep cold water moving around the copper coil. Using this method I was able to bring the whole 11.5 gallon batch down to 68 deg in aprox 9 minutes. Well, about 80 degrees into the kettle, one last run through the chiller on the way to the fermenter brought it to 68. Hope that helps.

I also use the 5 gallon paint strainer bags from Home Depot. In the paint section near the paint sprayers. Good Luck!

 

[wlffmnnn]

I have the same problem with water temps in the summer months in central OK. This year I am going to try different approach with prechilling. I am going to go with the ice cream method and put rock salt on ice. I read a few articles on what the rock salt does to the freezing point of the ice and it is astounding. Just a 80/20 Ice to rock salt mixture will lower the freezing point of the ice to around 10 degrees which should in turn lower the temperature in the emersion chiller at least another 10 degrees. I'm really geeked to try it out.

 

[PilotCline]

I had that same idea, but I figured I didn't need to go that extreme for my last batch brewed at the end of Nov. Maybe I will try it in the summer.

 

[drksky]

I use a pre-chiller in the summer when my groundwater is around 70°. I don't use salt, but a bag of ice with enough water to just float it. Usually have to stir both chillers, though.

 

[mash-mongrel]

FIRST BREWDAY ON THE NEW BLICHMANN BREW EASY

Used my 10 gal Blichmann Brew Easy (gas/LP powered) and Therminator this weekend for the first time........

Happy brewing everyone. Cheers!!!

Thanks for the review. I have two runs under my belt now and your review sounds just like my first run.

Here are my findings

There is a lot of water left in the mush tun when draining to the boil kettle and also when draining the wort from the hops to the fermenter. The kettles seem to stop siphoning at the 90 degree bend inside the pot on the drain spicket sooooo,,,,,, whatever water volume is left at the 90 degree bend in both kettles is lost. The boil kettle however I ended up tilting it on a slant towards the elbow to drain a bit more, with this method, what was lost is not worth mentioning. If you used the pump to suck out the finished wort, I'm sure not as much would be left behind, to bad for the mush tun. I did a rinse with fresh hot water to dilute the volume of wort not drained from the mush tun.

I too had the problem of the thermometers not touching the liquid in both kettles at the same time. I relied upon the one it the mash tun till I got fed-up and just added more water to the system.

The lag time for heating temps between the two kettle is long, very long. What I did to speed this up, I heated the wort in the boil kettle to the desired temp, then I pumped as much as I could in the mash tun filling it to the brim of the kettle, stirring the grain bed, allowing the sparge to happen. I did this twice and the temps caught up rather quickly.

I was able to keep my temps between the two kettles by a difference of 1 to 2 degrees Celsius the entire time while the enzymes did their magic, all while siting on the couch and I have no controller, just a propane burner that has very fine tuning.

Another complaint would be the auto-sparge arm, it was too short right from the get-go. I have the 15 and 20gal G2 pots, the arm is ok for a ten gallon batch but any less than that, you'll need a longer arm. Why not just make it 9inches to accommodate any batch size instead of selling 3 different lengths. 1/4 inch stainless threaded stock works nicely.

I messed around with the hop blocker before I managed to get a crystal-clear wort. I tried everything, I ended up draining NOT siphoning or sucking (using a pump) to the fermenter using a 9" piece of hose. It was the clearest. Also the hop blocker was plugged with hops at first so when I first tried to drain the wort, no matter what, hops would come through. I decided to open the drain tap full and clear the hop blocker of hops in a mason jar. When it ran clear, I poured the mason jar back in the kettle slowly and drained the clear wort into the fermenters. The hop blocker holds up to it's claimed 90% to 95% clear wort.

Grains blocked the sight glass tube in the mash tun giving an improper reading most of the time so I couldn't rely on it but no big deal.

Conclusion

I'm not bashing Blichmann, I love my beautiful pots and can't wait till I get a few brews under my belt. Remember I have never brewed all grains before and only one kit that didn't turn out. I have only made two runs in my life, both are with the Blichmann. To sum this all up, I'm a beginner, virgin, it's not fair to make an opinion against Blichmann based on my experience but on the other hand, I was able to get 9 gallons of brew my first time. I brewed a simple pilsner first, then I found out about beersmith, after adding an improper amount of water based on beersmith, not fully understanding my equipment, I ended up with a wort of 1.060. BS says I have an efficiency of 72% and an estimated efficiency of 75%, I don't understand how to calculate efficiency on paper yet so I'll let BS do that for me.

 

[Pugalicious]

Finally getting around to sharing some notes from the first brew day. I'll try to share the second brew day's notes tomorrow.

My first brew was a 9 gallon batch (don't ask) IPA. Here are the planned numbers vs the actuals. Water volume, strike temp, and etc. all came from BeerSmith by using the BIAB mash profile and the BrewEasy 10 gallon equipment profile.

Total water: 14.5 gal
Total grain: 22.5 lbs

Strike water temp: 169
Actual: 170

Estimated temp after dough-in: 151
Actual: 146

Mash Temp: 151 @ 45 min
Actual:
146->151 @16 min (ramped from 146 to 151 after doughing in)
153->151 @10 min (overshot 151 on ramp up and had to cool down to 151)
151 @40 min

Controller temp set during mash: 151
Actual: 154.2 (Had to keep the temp sensor set a few degrees higher to keep the mash at the planned temp of 151)

Mash out temp: 165 @15 min
Actual: NONE (given the longer mash than planned I skipped mash out - Wish I would have gone ahead with it though)

Bottom kettle volume during mash: 7 gal

Top kettle volume during mash: 7.5 gal (Calculated based on total water at start 14.5 and the bottom kettle reading 7 gal - The glass site read 8.25 but the site can't be trusted during recirculation)

Mash PH: 5.5
Actual: 4.2 (I forgot to buy something to raise it if need be! It stayed this low for most of the mash time - I'm assuming this screwed my efficiency)

Number of time bed raked: 4
Actual: 4

Outside temp during mash: 48

Pre-boil volume estimate: 12.62 gal
Actual: 11.25 gal

Pre-boil gravity: 1.048
Actual: 1.045

Efficiency: 68% (This is what I set it as in BeerSmith given what I read in previous posts)
Actual: 62.42%

Outside temp during boil: 35

Boil length: 60 min
Actual: 72 min (Went longer to try to get my gravity higher - Was an IPA so I didn't mind the extra IBU's)

Post-boil volume: 9.62
Actual: 9.5

Post-boil gravity: 1.065
Actual: 1.066

Carboy volume: 9
Actual: ~7+ (Lost about 2 gallons to trub but I used 3oz of whole hops, which I think absorbed a LOT of water)

Notes:

Overall it went fairly well. I did more messing around with the controller temp setting than I'd like, but I guess not horrible for the first time using it. Each time trying to heat up the strike water or mash temp, I was setting the controller for much higher than the temp I was trying to get to. My line of reasoning was that it would heat up faster with hotter water. However, this made things too hard to control overall. In the future, I'm going to just set the controller for 3-4 degrees higher than my goal temp and let the whole system level out with as much time as it needs.

The auto-sparge took a while to get the hang of, but I think I've got it nailed down now:
1) Allow the top mash tun to fill up to the desired level.
2) Turn off the pump and close the kettle valve
3) Press the float ball up until the sparge valve closes completely.
4) Unscrew the fastener
5) Push the valve end with your finger so the valve stays closed.
6) Push the float ball until it's submerged 3/4 of the way (not 1/2 way like the instructions)
7) Tighten the fasteners
8) Open the kettle valve and turn on the pump

I didn't really have any "bouncing" issues with the auto-sparge like others have mentioned. It did start to bob heavily a few times while messing with the float height, but I just held it down with my finger until it smoothed out.

Worth noting is that the boil kettle valve clogged with the whole hops I used. I couldn't get a drop to come out! I had to wait until it cooled enough to siphon out! That sucked. I think I'm going to try getting a hop spider for next time.

Overall I really like the equipment! I'm confident that I'll get it figured out and be able to consistently hit my numbers eventually.

Tune in tomorrow for my stats for the second brew day, where I didn't learn from the mistakes of my first brew day!

 

[strangr419]

Pugalicious, how do you set this up on BeerSmith? I don't see any equipment setting (or other settings for that matter) for the Brew Easy system. I have BeerSmith 2.0 on my phone and a 10 gal Brew Easy system.
Thank you!

 

[30Bones]

The app does not have all the power of the PC version from my findings. I use my iPad a lot, but it doesn't have all the add ons of the full version on your PC.

 

[Pugalicious]

Pugalicious, how do you set this up on BeerSmith? I don't see any equipment setting (or other settings for that matter) for the Brew Easy system. I have BeerSmith 2.0 on my phone and a 10 gal Brew Easy system.
Thank you!

I haven't used the phone version, but in the standard version, you have to download the add-on (File -> Add-ons...).

I should also note that since my first two batches, I've adjusted the "Loss to trub and chiller" setting from .25 gallons to 2 gallons, which is what my approximate loss was in both batches from the boil kettle to fermenters.

 

[avmech]

My first brew with the BE went pretty smooth. I had a grainbill of 25lbs so I calculated that I needed 16 gallons of water. I set strike temp at 159 and let it come up to temp. The BK obviously hit 159 first and then it took about 15 minutes for the MT to stabilize. After dough-in I set the temp for 152 and let it run. While at this temperature I got out the lab thermometer and checked to make sure the dial thermometers were calibrated. After a few adjustments I had all four reading in unison. I did not experience a temperature drop from BK to MT.

After an hour of circulation I drained the MT into the BK and cranked up the power. Within 15 minutes I had a good rolling boil. After everything went into the fermenter I calculated 62% efficiency.

My only challenges for the day stemmed from operator error and accidental liberation of hops from the hop bag. This caused hop material to collect at the temp probe and some made it to my plate chiller. I have determined that free roaming hops are the biggest weakness of this system.

After a lot of reading about different opinions on BK filters I have opted to employ a large stainless steel mesh basket (10.5"D x 16"H) and the hoprocket to help prevent downstream clogging. If I am going to make a beer that does not benefit from late hop additions I will pack the hopback with copper scrubbies. I may be overly cautious but with a plate chiller I need to keep particles to a minimum.

All in all I am very happy with the system. I'm looking forward to the next batch. I'm not sure if I'm ready to do a light lager on it yet, I need to make sure processes and procedures are shored up a little better. I may have to go for a big Belgian and stretch the limits of the system to see what my upper boundaries are.

 

[Pugalicious]

I have determined that free roaming hops are the biggest weakness of this system.

My first batch definitely suffered from this very issue. Looking to get a hop spider for future batches. Curious as to why you ended up deciding on the hop blocker. Care to share?

 

[mfabe]

I've really enjoyed reading this thread and feel I already have a leg up on the BE. I should get mine by the end of the week and am looking forward to my first brew day with it! Its a 240v 10 gal version...

Thanks to all the early adopters that have posted their experiences!

 

[avmech]

My first batch definitely suffered from this very issue. Looking to get a hop spider for future batches. Curious as to why you ended up deciding on the hop blocker. Care to share?

I am an aircraft engineer...everything I do has redundancy

I felt the large stainless steel basket would be great at containing hops of all forms, but doesn't do much for trub. I like the idea of having a trub collector in line as well.

My old BK was a keggle with stainless steel braid around the perimeter. I brewed almost exclusively with whole hops that would settle out first and filter the trub before making its way to the pump and plate chiller. I don't have that feature on the BE so the hoprocket should perform that same function.

I like hops. I like aroma hops. I probably won't make very many beers that wouldn't benefit from a hopback.

I like toys too. Why not add another toy to the mix?

 

[avmech]

My first batch definitely suffered from this very issue. Looking to get a hop spider for future batches. Curious as to why you ended up deciding on the hop blocker. Care to share?

I'm sorry, I misread where you referenced the hop blocker and not the hop rocket.

I do not have the hop blocker and I decided against it because I didn't like the design or the reviews. I felt a spider-ish design and a hopback was a failsafe design. I could be wrong, time and experience will tell.

 

[strangr419]

I have the Blichmann Hop Blocker attached to my BK. I purchased it separately from Great Fermenations. I can say that the initial flow of wort into the chiller was great. However, something must have come through towards the end and got stuck into the Therminator/plate chiller. I have a hop spider that my old man manufactured in his sheet metal shop but I neglected to use it on the first run of my Brew Easy. I will definitely employ it on the next brew. I'll post the events of Brew Easy brew day II when it happens. I'm excited to tackle this again and make some more beer on this system. Still some kinks to be worked out by me in the process (particularly the mash phase), but all in all I'm happy
with it.

I also noticed that there is about 2 gallons of trub loss at the end of transfer through Therminator to chill pate to fermenter. I think that's a safe trub loss estimate to plug into software or any calculations going forward.

Has everyone experienced the strike water temps going way above the temp set on the auto sparge/tower of power LTE? Looking back I recall the temps of the strike water during auto sparge/mash rising uncontrollably even though I had set it to 154 "auto." How did you fix this?

 

[aamcle]

If the controller is a PID retune it, most have auto-tune. Others than that and probably the quickest option is phone Blichmann and ask!

Atb. Aamcle

 

[the_mc]

I have the Blichmann Hop Blocker attached to my BK. I purchased it separately from Great Fermenations. I can say that the initial flow of wort into the chiller was great. However, something must have come through towards the end and got stuck into the Therminator/plate chiller. I have a hop spider that my old man manufactured in his sheet metal shop but I neglected to use it on the first run of my Brew Easy. I will definitely employ it on the next brew.

I am going to try this:
http://www.theelectricbrewery.com/hop-stopper


Here is what a few people have said about it including Kal the creator:

http://www.theelectricbrewery.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=25519

 

[mash-mongrel]

I also noticed that there is about 2 gallons of trub loss at the end of transfer through Therminator to chill pate to fermenter. I think that's a safe trub loss estimate to plug into software or any calculations going forward.

I too found the loss to be high, I do not like the fact that it is this high.

I'm new to brewing, is a loss of two gallons a big deal, is it normal for other systems to have such a high loss?

 

[Jeffbeckley]

I really like the bling factor and reputation and quality of this system but after following this thread it has become apparent this system is great for single step mashes. Not so much for multi step.
The location of the temp probe makes for inaccurate readings with nowhere to really locate it effectively. Overshoots and undershoots and really slow ramp ups are worrisome for a two thousand dollar kettle. I'm still a fanboy and would like to see a solution. But what's the benefit of having a pid controlled device if we have to compensate add adjust to overcome inaccuracys?

 

[aamcle]

Its an update of the Brutus20, all full volume mashing (biab n so on) will be slow to change temperatures because ALL the wort has to reach the new temperature.
The temperature offset is just due to cooling in the long wort return tube, I don't know about gas systems, but there is no reason for temperature fluctuations if your PID is properly tuned. That is assuming no pump failure and that the float valve (easy sparge) doesn't move and restrict the flow.

Atb. Aamcle

 

[strangr419]

Keep in mind this is a totally new system for everyone and it'll probably take everyone a few brew days to perfect it's use. I'm hopeful that everyone on here will continue to post their experiences and we'll nail this down in time.

 

[flokason]

Just got my 20 gallon electric turnkey system
Did more than one floating arm come with the auto sparge?

I can now just find the shortest floating arm
Not sure if I lost the longer one while unpacking or whether it wasn't included

 

[strangr419]

I only received one. Yes, it is very short. It should be longer quite frankly in order to allow for 5 gallon batches. Maybe they'll manufacture one and put it out on the market or someone on here will come up with a clever way to deal with this.

 

[mash-mongrel]

They offer a 9" and a 12" besides the 6" that comes with the auto sparge.

I took my sparge arm to Home Depot and pick up a piece of 1/4 stainless threaded stock for cheep. I measured and cut two different lengths. The lengths are not the optional 9" & 12" because what I did cut seemed to work better. When I get home I can measure them.

The threaded stock is cheaper than what blichmann wants for one arm and its 3 feet allowing you to make several different lengths to suit your needs.