I'll start using a bigger tub that what I've been using to put my bag in and maybe that will help. I have a sink right next to where I brew so that helps. Finally got a hook installed to use the winch so that helps. Thanks for the input.
Brew Boss Systems
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Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:
I'll start using a bigger tub that what I've been using to put my bag in and maybe that will help. I have a sink right next to where I brew so that helps. Finally got a hook installed to use the winch so that helps. Thanks for the input.
andrewmaixner
Well-Known Member
yup, these tubs work well: https://www.menards.com/main/buildi.../c-5642.htm?Spec_ProductType_facet=Mixing+Tub
Also, 8-gallon buckets for wine fermenting work much better than 6-gal beer buckets, for fitting a brewbag into to dunk or hold.
-- my bag is sized right for my kettle, so I can generally not spill if I am relatively careful, even when I spin/twist the bag to squeeze. Raise it slowly to let it drain, and squeeze some within the kettle also.
-- I keep the huge plastic bags that my LHBS sells bulk grain in, to lower my brew bag into, then up-end it carefully within that plastic bag, and immediately rinse the brewbag in the sink. The nice, tidy, plastic bag of spent grain then goes to the garbage or compost.
Schumed
Well-Known Member
Tried this today....worked like a charm
gatorjeeper
Member
I love my Brew Boss...have really been pumping out the batches. My beer on the other hand has been more hazy than usual...any ideas? I have the deluxe system with the COFI, use irish moss, etc.
Schumed
Well-Known Member
Make adjustments post fermentation...I use gelatin
HLSheppard
Well-Known Member
THIS ^^. I use gelatin and have crystal clear beer after a week in the keezer.
I haven't used Gelatin. Can you point me to a how to you would recommend.
Edit, just googled and found a good answer.
Schumed
Well-Known Member
I always heat up 2/3 cup of water with 1 tsp of gelatin to about 150...stir...pour into keg...shake...wait 24 hours...pour a pint dump...will be cloudy mess...wait another 24 hours...pour a pint dump..should look way better...3rd pint should be about perfect.
Snicklefritz
Well-Known Member
For those of us too lazy for gelatin, time works too. A few weeks in the kegerator will clear up almost anything.
HLSheppard
Well-Known Member
Calling all Brew Boss owners! I brewed an American Barleywine yesterday and didn't come close to hitting my numbers! Looking for some suggestions as to what happened...
Here are specifics:
- I use a 15 gal. COFI system with BeerSmith 2 software.
- I almost always brew big beers (1.080+) and with efficiency set at 62% in BeerSmith - hit my numbers almost perfectly.
- I did a 90 minute mash with hot water "pour over" sparge
- 60 minute boil this time (have done both 60 and 90 minute boils)
- Using iodine - my conversion looked fine
- Pre-boil gravity was estimated at 1.050 and I hit that exactly (via refractometer)
- OG was supposed to be 1.098 but ended up at 1.080
Now - there was dextrose added after boil and some was at the bottom of the pot, undissolved. Not that much, however. Maybe a 1/4 pound if I had to guess (being VERY generous). With an immersion chiller and an Arborfab hop basket - this does happen sometimes with sugar additions. I just don't have room to stir as much as I'd like.
Any thoughts on why I was so far off? Do I need to provide more info?
Just racking my brain as to why this anomaly happened.
THANKS
Here are specifics:
- I use a 15 gal. COFI system with BeerSmith 2 software.
- I almost always brew big beers (1.080+) and with efficiency set at 62% in BeerSmith - hit my numbers almost perfectly.
- I did a 90 minute mash with hot water "pour over" sparge
- 60 minute boil this time (have done both 60 and 90 minute boils)
- Using iodine - my conversion looked fine
- Pre-boil gravity was estimated at 1.050 and I hit that exactly (via refractometer)
- OG was supposed to be 1.098 but ended up at 1.080
Now - there was dextrose added after boil and some was at the bottom of the pot, undissolved. Not that much, however. Maybe a 1/4 pound if I had to guess (being VERY generous). With an immersion chiller and an Arborfab hop basket - this does happen sometimes with sugar additions. I just don't have room to stir as much as I'd like.
Any thoughts on why I was so far off? Do I need to provide more info?
Just racking my brain as to why this anomaly happened.
THANKS
andrewmaixner
Well-Known Member
If your pre-boil gravity was spot-on, that should eliminate a mash/sparge/squeeze issue (presuming all water volumes were correct).
What batch size?
How much wort was collected, and how much boiled off?
How much post-boil sugar additions?
Do you know exactly how much sugar you failed to dissolve?
Are you comfortable just adding sugar or extract to your fermenter to hit your goal, this time?
( I did my first 5-gal batch high-gravity wort yesterday, a 5Gal 1.088 yesterday, and of course almost panicked when my post-mash gravity was only 1.055. Then I remembered I still had boiloff pending, and 2 lbs of dark syrup/dextrose to add in. Ended up being just great, as the grains calculated at 75% mash efficiency and about 5.7Gal of 1.091 into fermenter.
I also used a few PSI of CO2 to push all wort out of the system and counterflow chiller, for almost zero loss
)
What batch size?
How much wort was collected, and how much boiled off?
How much post-boil sugar additions?
Do you know exactly how much sugar you failed to dissolve?
Are you comfortable just adding sugar or extract to your fermenter to hit your goal, this time?
( I did my first 5-gal batch high-gravity wort yesterday, a 5Gal 1.088 yesterday, and of course almost panicked when my post-mash gravity was only 1.055. Then I remembered I still had boiloff pending, and 2 lbs of dark syrup/dextrose to add in. Ended up being just great, as the grains calculated at 75% mash efficiency and about 5.7Gal of 1.091 into fermenter.
I also used a few PSI of CO2 to push all wort out of the system and counterflow chiller, for almost zero loss
)
HLSheppard
Well-Known Member
What batch size? 6 gal into fermenter.
How much wort was collected, and how much boiled off? 8 gal. wort. 1.5(ish) gal. boiled off.
How much post-boil sugar additions? 2.5 lbs.
Do you know exactly how much sugar you failed to dissolve? Not exactly - 1/4 lb MAYBE
Are you comfortable just adding sugar or extract to your fermenter to hit your goal, this time? I have never done that. I suppose I could (good idea). I'm more wondering what happened this go 'round, though.
What's most confusing is that I've not changed anything with regard to HOW I do things. Try to keep my processes as similar and dialed-in as possible.
How much wort was collected, and how much boiled off? 8 gal. wort. 1.5(ish) gal. boiled off.
How much post-boil sugar additions? 2.5 lbs.
Do you know exactly how much sugar you failed to dissolve? Not exactly - 1/4 lb MAYBE
Are you comfortable just adding sugar or extract to your fermenter to hit your goal, this time? I have never done that. I suppose I could (good idea). I'm more wondering what happened this go 'round, though.
What's most confusing is that I've not changed anything with regard to HOW I do things. Try to keep my processes as similar and dialed-in as possible.
andrewmaixner
Well-Known Member
I'd say that the largest unknown is the sugar loss, as I'm guessing it 100% a guesstimate? Let's just ignore it and do the math:
Here's your numbers:
8gal @ 1.050, -1.5gal boiloff, = 6.5gal @ 1.062 before sugar addition.
fully dissolving 2.5lb dextrose (46PPG) would bump the gravity by 0.018, bringing it to 6.5gal @ 1.080
To get to your goal of 1.098, you would have to boil off another 1.2 gallons, bringing the end volume to 5.3gal
So if you had .5gal loss and 6gal into fermenter, the numbers all add up correctly....
Was the estimate of OG 1.098 calculated based on an ending volume of 5.3gal?
HLSheppard
Well-Known Member
That all makes sense (yes - the sugar loss was a total guess). However - why on this batch? I'm wondering if some setting in the background of Beersmith changed with the recent update. Here are the numbers right from Beersmith:
Type: All Grain
Batch Size: 6.00 gal
Boil Size: 8.00 gal
Boil Time: 60 min
End of Boil Vol: 7.00 gal
Final Bottling Vol: 5.00 gal
Fermentation: Ale, Single Stage
Date: 16 Oct 2016
It's almost like it thought I was doing a 90 min. boil (but you can see it was set for 60 min.). Weird!
andrewmaixner
Well-Known Member
Guess it's time to look at the equipment profile in this batch. Did you use the exact same profile as previous batches? Look at all of the various the losses and volumes etc. I've often forgotten to save my tweaks over the previous stored profile, so it only goes into one recipe. (Then I have to go back and edit again in the official saved equipment profile)
The principles outlined HERE have helped me to hit my numbers on bigger beers, good food for thought...
For adding dextrose to the boil I started pulling some hot wort from the boil (about 10 - 20 minutes before flameout) to dissolve the sugar thoroughly in a separate pitcher, then simply dump it back in. Since I'll be recirculating anyway no real need for manual stirring and no scorching either...
HLSheppard
Well-Known Member
BRILLIANT! Thanks!!
Turns out - some of the setting in BeerSmith were off. Not sure if that was an update or what. Funny thing is, I lost one of my cloud recipes as well.
Also - now that I have the Brew Boss dip tube in my kettle - there is WAY less left over in the kettle after the boil. I think this all contributed.
However - love the simple solution!!
If your pre-boil gravity was spot-on, that should eliminate a mash/sparge/squeeze issue (presuming all water volumes were correct).
What batch size?
How much wort was collected, and how much boiled off?
How much post-boil sugar additions?
Do you know exactly how much sugar you failed to dissolve?
Are you comfortable just adding sugar or extract to your fermenter to hit your goal, this time?
( I did my first 5-gal batch high-gravity wort yesterday, a 5Gal 1.088 yesterday, and of course almost panicked when my post-mash gravity was only 1.055. Then I remembered I still had boiloff pending, and 2 lbs of dark syrup/dextrose to add in. Ended up being just great, as the grains calculated at 75% mash efficiency and about 5.7Gal of 1.091 into fermenter.
I also used a few PSI of CO2 to push all wort out of the system and counterflow chiller, for almost zero loss
Care to share how you are doing this? I'd like to be able to at least push the wort completely out of the counter flow chiller. Is it just a quick disconnect fitting?
Also, I did buy the new pick up tube but found that a lot of trub build up around it and shut down my pump. Maybe I should have turned it a bit to the side but I still had a lot of issues getting my pump to start pumping.
HLSheppard
Well-Known Member
Wow - I didn't have that happen at all. I was using a hop basket though so maybe that helped. I had mine straight down. Have to keep an eye on that, esp. for hop-heavy batches.
andrewmaixner
Well-Known Member
Nothing fancy, I just stuck a CO2 gas hose (3PSI on regulator) into the inside hole of a tri-clamp (the one which had been connected to my kettle pickup), and held on tight. All the wort blew out in a matter of seconds.
C02 line --> pickup tube line --> pump --> chiller --> recirculation hose --> into fermenter
I have seen various fittings designed for it (FFL on TC/QD/CL fittings) but they are targeted at keeping positive pressure on a fermentor when cold crashing to avoid oxygen exposure. Not needed at all for a quick line clearing.
I have a hops basket on order so maybe that is the problem. It will be here when I brew my next batch.
I understand that. Guess I was curious how you were pressurizing the kettle but now that I have reread it I don't think you are.
andrewmaixner
Well-Known Member
You definitely could lightly pressurize a kettle. Just need a silicone gasket between kettle and lid, some clamps, and an input. That's done on some of the brew-in-a-conical systems, for example, for fermenting under pressure, racking via pressure, kettle souring, etc.
Thanks for the info. I'll definitely start using CO2 to blow my chiller out.
FreddyMar3
Well-Known Member
Anyone else have issues with the element housing rusting and cracking? View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1477527502.371362.jpgView attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1477527526.072755.jpg
Beavdowg
Well-Known Member
My element housing doesn't get much water on it- On purpose.
HLSheppard
Well-Known Member
No - but my element is the one with the integrated plug / TC fitting. Like Beavdowg said - I do my best to keep water away from it!
JonHopstein
Member
My element housing also cracked, but there was no rust. I noticed at the same time that my system tripped the GFI whenever I turned on power to the controller. Darin took care of it and the replacement element has performed flawless since then.
Those cracks look unrelated to the rust. Look how straight they are.
stlblues5010
Junior Member
Anyone with the new diptube??!! How has it been working? Not too many comments about it.
HLSheppard
Well-Known Member
I have it and it's great. I posted a few pics a couple pages back. Top quality and you get a LOT more out of your kettle!
I got sick of tipping it.
Same here. Works perfectly and is a quality piece. Definitely worth the extra few bucks.
Agreed, it is a very quality piece. I finally have a hops basket so hopefully my issue with hops debris clogging things up won't happen this weekend when I brew.
Edit: Brewed today with a new hops basket, grain basket and the dip tube. Wow! Makes life so much easier.
bowtie
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Jan 23, 2016
- Messages
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Works perfectly. I use fresh hops with a basket and it sucked the kettle dry with no clogging or tipping!!!
Can we see a pic?
HLSheppard
Well-Known Member
Pics are on posts #1248 and #1252. Enjoy!
stlblues5010
Junior Member
Compliments to Darrin
I started having problems awhile back where my boil detect would indicate boil starting at about 185 degrees F. I contacted him, he suggested increasing my boil detect time. Sometimes it would work sometimes it didn't. Then on a batch I was having a problem while heating to strike temp of 156F it would show a temp of like 135F or 140F then I'd turn around and it would say strike temp reached, I'd look at the temp and it would show 185. I restarted the brew session a couple of time, I finally got through it.
A few days later I decided look into it, I found wiggling the temp probe would bounce between the temp 32-185F. I sent the temp probe and circuit board to Darrin he verified the probe was bad. I had to pay for the replacement probe but he covered shipping.
Just a warning be careful around the temp probe they damage easily.
Darrin was super quick to respond to my emails and once he got the parts he tested them and got a resolution quickly. He got them shipped back and I was up and running in a week.
Like several people have said here he has great customer support.
Thanks Darrin and staff.
I started having problems awhile back where my boil detect would indicate boil starting at about 185 degrees F. I contacted him, he suggested increasing my boil detect time. Sometimes it would work sometimes it didn't. Then on a batch I was having a problem while heating to strike temp of 156F it would show a temp of like 135F or 140F then I'd turn around and it would say strike temp reached, I'd look at the temp and it would show 185. I restarted the brew session a couple of time, I finally got through it.
A few days later I decided look into it, I found wiggling the temp probe would bounce between the temp 32-185F. I sent the temp probe and circuit board to Darrin he verified the probe was bad. I had to pay for the replacement probe but he covered shipping.
Just a warning be careful around the temp probe they damage easily.
Darrin was super quick to respond to my emails and once he got the parts he tested them and got a resolution quickly. He got them shipped back and I was up and running in a week.
Like several people have said here he has great customer support.
Thanks Darrin and staff.
HLSheppard
Well-Known Member
Compliments to Darrin
I started having problems awhile back where my boil detect would indicate boil starting at about 185 degrees F. I contacted him, he suggested increasing my boil detect time. Sometimes it would work sometimes it didn't. Then on a batch I was having a problem while heating to strike temp of 156F it would show a temp of like 135F or 140F then I'd turn around and it would say strike temp reached, I'd look at the temp and it would show 185. I restarted the brew session a couple of time, I finally got through it.
A few days later I decided look into it, I found wiggling the temp probe would bounce between the temp 32-185F. I sent the temp probe and circuit board to Darrin he verified the probe was bad. I had to pay for the replacement probe but he covered shipping.
Just a warning be careful around the temp probe they damage easily.
Darrin was super quick to respond to my emails and once he got the parts he tested them and got a resolution quickly. He got them shipped back and I was up and running in a week.
Like several people have said here he has great customer support.
Thanks Darrin and staff.
Do you have an idea as to how it was damaged? Just curious...
stlblues5010
Junior Member
Not sure. Darrin suggested it can happen if the probe is dropped. There is ceramic inside of it that can crack. I don't recall dropping it so another possibility is the COFI filter hitting it going in and out. It's also possible the wiring between the probe and plug got damaged. I imagine it's fine wires in there and wouldn't take much to break them.
HLSheppard
Well-Known Member
I *know* I've bumped mine a time or two with the COFI filter... <EEEEK>
That's what I was hoping you wouldn't say. LOL
stlblues5010
Junior Member
It's hard not to because you have the temp probe opposite the COFI inlet connection. I'm wondering if you couldn't move the COFI inlet to the same side as the temp probe and plug the other hole.
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