Brewjacket Immersion Pro

[Wildknight65]

Just thought id share with you my experience of this product. Living in the Uk, I'm forever having problems with getting accurate fermentation temperatures for my lagers/ales. I bit the bullet and ordered a Brewjacket immersion pro, from the states. Ordering/communication and payment was a breeze, and apart from a 20 quid custom charge when it arrived in the UK, i had the item all set up within 2 weeks.

It arrived packed well, All parts accounted for, and surprised it fitted my fermenter with no adjustments/drilling holes etc.

Brewed a Stella Clone Lager for my first test, fitted the fermenter into the supplied jacket, taped the thermostat to the outside of the bin, switched it on, and set the temp to 11 degrees for fermenting. The fan kicked in immediately and the chilled wort temp when initially added to the fermenter (14 degrees, came down to 11 in around 24 hours. It sat there for 8 days fermenting and only fluctuated by around 0.5 of a degree over the week. Took a reading after a week, and missed my FG by a fraction, (not that fussed). Increased temp to around 14 degrees which took around a day to reach temp. Finally i gradually reduced by 1 degree a day during lagering, took a few hours to drop each day, racked at 6 degrees after another week, and now I'm force carbing in a corney.

I have to say I'm very impressed with this product. Its easy to use, very accurate, and well worth the investment. Don't use a acid based sanitiser on the rod, as it can damage it.

Any one else use this and having success?

Simon

 

[Qhrumphf]

How the hell did you get it that fast? Ordered one for home long ago, and several more for pilot brews at work, and if the product weren't great (not as good as advertised, but still the second best thing to glycol jacketing/coil that I've found, one day I'll have a glycol jacketed pilot system...) I'd never want to deal with them again.

Brewery is kept at 70F. I cannot drop it below 44F. It's also not great at restraint of incredibly vigorous fermentation, and their stock blowoffs are undersized prone to clogging in the same. However as long as I don't push em too hard they work great.

Their customer service SUCKS though. Each time it was MONTHS of being led on before having product in hand.

 

[Wildknight65]

How the hell did you get it that fast? Ordered one for home long ago, and several more for pilot brews at work, and if the product weren't great (not as good as advertised, but still the second best thing to glycol jacketing/coil that I've found, one day I'll have a glycol jacketed pilot system...) I'd never want to deal with them again.

Brewery is kept at 70F. I cannot drop it below 44F. It's also not great at restraint of incredibly vigorous fermentation, and their stock blowoffs are undersized prone to clogging in the same. However as long as I don't push em too hard they work great.

Their customer service SUCKS though. Each time it was MONTHS of being led on before having product in hand.

Hi mate, first up COME ON YOU Spurs!! Lol. massive supporter.

I found the customer service really good, I dealt with the mostly on Facebook messenger and never had a problem with reply. I was surprised how quick they responded. When you mention blow off do you mean the size of the black bung which goes in the fermenter lid then connects to the pipe. Ive not had any issues with this yet.! Im about to brew a 7.2% craft, with a big starter, so will look out for problems around the blowoff. You mention you had problems getting it to cool quickly. again no issues. Thanks for the reply though

 

[Qhrumphf]

I've always dealt with them via email/their website. They weren't unresponsive, just always full of excuses as to why shipment would continuously be delayed a few more weeks.

And yes, the little black bung is the choke point. Only been an issue with very high gravity beers. Bigger issue is the inability to reach the 35F below ambient (ie about 35F) that's advertised. Means I can't lager with them. Without taking up precious cold box space.

COYS

 

[DeLiquid]

My initial 2 cents-

I ordered 3 immersion pros in late June or early July 2017 as well as some fermenter lids- 2 fermonster lids and 1 bucket lid. Buying 3 priced the units at about 200$ a pop so it defrayed the cost a bit. The estimated delivery date was late August. All 3 units arrived mid August ahead of expected delivery by a week or so and in excellent condition.

I use the immersion pros with new ported 7 gallon fermonsters from morebeer. Prior to this I was using plastic buckets that I shuttled up and down stairs based on temp and then in a temp controlled spare fridge that has since been reclaimed by SWMBO. I was initially concerned about 3 things with my new setup- 1. the smallish blowoff tube, 2. the amount of rod submerged in the beer not being adequate for heat exchange, and 3. the port getting caught up in the brewjackets and causing a leak.

None of my fears have been realized...
1. The 7 gallon fermonsters provide ample head space so that krausen has not even come close to the lid despite pitching over 200 billion cells from a yeast starter per fermenter and very healthy fermentations;
2. Temps can adjusted and maintained without issue despite about 1/3 of the rod being above liquid level; and
3. I just make sure to press out a little pocket of space in the brewjacket where the port faces before inserting the fermenters, slide them in carefully, and slip my hand in after to feel that the ports have a little room.

One minor thing I don't love is that the head units rest on the blowoff elbows and tip the head unit a bit. This wouldn't be an issue if using plastic carboys with the blowoff in the neck or buckets. Regardless, it hasn't yet caused any issue as far as I can tell. Out of curiosity, on my last batch I left one unit a little higher in the bung collar so that it sits above the elbow and a little rod (~1/4") is exposed. That unit displays a 0.1 degree difference in temp compared to unit with it pushed all the way in and resting on the elbow. The temp differential may or may not be related and it could be causing the unit to cycle the fan more often but I haven't noticed it.

All told I have fermented 33 gallons of NEIPA with them in my basement; three 11 gallon batches split between 2 fermenters. I live in central Massachusetts and my brew dates were in late August, early October and mid November (November batch is on day 9 now in the fermenters).

Overall, so far I have to say that they have performed as well as expected and I am very pleased with my purchase. That being said, my basement has been in the 50 to 65 degree range so I am not asking a lot of the units. I have been fermenting at around 66 and then ramping up to the mid 70s after primary winds down. The units have been responding well and I find their simplicity of use to be great. I bumped temp from 68 to 74 in the morning just yesterday and they had hit 74 by the time I got home from work about 9 hours later. I cold crash in kegs in a kegerator so I cannot comment on how they would handle that function and cooling demand.

The only other thing I don't love so far is the fact that you can't use starsan directly on the rods. The first time I used the rods I made 5 gallons of IO and hated dumping it after because it seemed wasteful. The last 2 brew days I made a gallon of IO (easier to measure by the gallon) then filled a spray bottle and dumped the rest but it still seems wasteful. I see on the brewjacket website that they sell a 10-pack of baggies that slip over the rods so you can sanitize the baggies with starsan so I like that they responded to that consumer demand.

Compared to other more expensive or complicated options, I am very pleased with my set up so far. My brew buddy covets them whenever he sees them and wants to buy the 3rd unit from me. I am going to try a lager in the summer and see how they hold up to those demands but until then I dig them and have had no issues other have complained about on other posts.

 

[mbg]

I really like the BrewJacket concept but I tried everything and can only get 27F below ambient with FastFerment. My son has one and got 23F.

Has anyone got to 35F below ambient?

I wanted one of these for lagering. It’s not cutting it. Any tricks or mods to share?

Thanks

 

[mbg]

I really like the BrewJacket concept but I tried everything and can only get 27F below ambient with FastFerment. My son has one and got 23F.

Has anyone got to 35F below ambient?

I wanted one of these for lagering. It’s not cutting it. Any tricks or mods to share?

Thanks

Worked on this a bit - here is the Update:

Brew Jacket on Fast Ferment Conical


I just finished up my first lager with the subject equipment. My FastFerment is wall mounted in a closed off finished room in my basement. This time of year the ambient varied from 63F to 66F. I monitored the fermenter temperature 24/7 with my grill wi-fi controller. It has two probes so sometimes I would use the second to monitor ambient temperature and others to monitor BrewJacket duty cycle by placing the probe in contact with the cooling fins. I also used the rod sleeve for the entire brew.

I was easily able to get to my primary fermentation temperature of 48F. When it was lagering time I dropped the temperature by about 3F per day. The system worked like a champ until I got to around 40F and then it slowed down dramatically. I was able to achieve 37F.

Since the lager process takes a fair amount of time I messed with a few things to try to improve performance:

· thermal paste at rod to control head interface – no noticeable affect

· thin/soft copper washer at rod to control head interface – no noticeable affect

· insulated the rod not in liquid – no noticeable affect

· rod with anodized coating removed at the threaded end – pulled the heat out quicker but didn’t get me to a lower end temperature

· added a FastFerment jacket on top of the BrewJacket – this gave me an additional 2F-3F temperature below ambient

· added heat deflectors just below control head – borrowed an infrared camera to look for hot spots and noticed the BrewJacket is blowing quite a bit of hot air on top of the fermenter

I was able to test two different immersion units and found, with great attention to make sure the jacket was sealed tightly, only 26F to 27F below ambient. With the added FastFerment jacket it got 29F to 30F below ambient. Sill nowhere near the BrewJacket advertised 35F below ambient.

BrewJacket responses are sporadic – sometimes I received almost immediate response but on the performance question nothing. So wondering if anyone else with this setup can compare their performance and possible hints how to get more out of the system or thigs I may be doing wrong. As it is now looks like if you want to lager in mid to low 30F’s I’ll have to do it in winter in an unfinished (cooler) part of my basement.

I like this BrewJacket concept – just want to get closer to advertised performance.

Thanks,


Mike

 

[Redrum101020]

Mbg, nice review. I too have a fastferment and have been looking at this system as an option for fermentation. I live in a similar climate as you - Pittsburgh and I am surprised you can fit the fastferment insulated jacket over the BrewJacket. If you have the room could you add some frozen 2L bottles or similar to lower the temp even more than what you were able to get too?

 

[jturman35]

For those using this chiller, how well has it held up? After losing my second chest freezer I’m looking for other options.

 

[Pointyskull]

I am curious on how well this works.
I do 5 gal batches, and my small fermentation Vissani wine fridge just died.

 

[petemoss]

So, I purchased two of them a while back, when the were doing pre-orders. It took them quite a while past the advertised "Shipping In..." date for them to actually ship.

I have used them in numerous batches in 7.5 gallon plastic bucket fermenters. They have worked quite well at controlling temperatures. I have only called on them to go about 20 degrees below ambient though, so I don't know about lagering, etc.

Pros:
* Set it and forget it.
* Plastic bucket fits well into the jacket.
* Basically does what it says.

Cons:
* Kind of expensive.
* Requires an extra sanitizing solution.
* On a plastic bucket, the hole in the lid becomes the weak point. I have had lids crack when opening them. Once, I didn't notice that it cracked and I ended up with a bajillion little bugs floating dead in there.
* The rod does not hold up well to being in a cider for a long time. The coating kind of wears off. I tried the cook it in the oven thing and it helped somewhat.
* The rod stays about 3 inches above the lid so you don't get full contact. It actually will freeze up above the lid. I have found that I can take a pool noodle and cut it to about 3 inches long and split it. It will then wrap around and insulate the portion of the rod above the lid.

I have actually just purchased a SS BrewTech Brew Bucket. I drilled a hole for the Brew Jacket rod and have just racked my first beer to it 6 days ago. I am pretty stoked about it. The Brew Bucket doesn't have the weak lid issue, I don't think. The rod can go much deeper in the beer so it seems like there will be better efficiency in heat transfer. The only real downside with the Brew Bucket is that Brew Jacket says it is compatible with the regular bucket sized jacket. In practice it is extremely hard to get the Brew Bucket into the jacket. The legs get hung up on the fabric. Plus the jacket won't fully close over the top of the Bucket. It leaves about a 6 inch diameter circle of the lid that is uncovered. So far no issue with hitting my temps or anything, it is just not fully insulated.

Conclusion:
This is a solid way to control the temp of 5 gallon batches. If you wanted to have a bigger fermenter or more than a couple, then there are probably better ways to go. I would like to eventually move to a glycol based system, but that is a big step from where I'm at now. In the meantime I am enjoying fermenting at the temp of my choice.

 

[JimSY]

Evening all,

I've just bought an Immersion Pro and I'm looking forward to using it. However...

The recommended sanitisers aren't exactly cheap and I've heard some concerning stories about iodine-based sanitisers (harmful to aquatic life, harmful to humans if consumed in even small quantities over a period of time, etcetera).

How did you all get on with sanitising the rod?

Many thanks in advance - Jim

 

[petemoss]

Evening all,

I've just bought an Immersion Pro and I'm looking forward to using it. However...

The recommended sanitisers aren't exactly cheap and I've heard some concerning stories about iodine-based sanitisers (harmful to aquatic life, harmful to humans if consumed in even small quantities over a period of time, etcetera).

How did you all get on with sanitising the rod?

Many thanks in advance - Jim

I use Iodophor. It works out to 1ml to an average sized spray bottle. Then prior to inserting the rod I just spray it down for a few minutes. Seems to work. No bad batches so far. Using 1ml at a time is quite cheap.

 

[surista]

I purchased a Brewjacket (Immersion Pro) in late 2016. Delivery definitely took longer than promised, and communication was...poor, at best. However, it did finally arrive, and I've been really really really happy with it - it's definitely nowhere near as 'quiet' as they claim (the idea of having this in the living or bedroom...LOL no way) but it does work brilliantly, both heating and cooling.

You can sterilize the rod by putting it in the boiling wort for 30 minutes. Easy-peasy. You can also put it in the oven at 250F (120C) for an hour.

Overall, I've been happy with the purchase - it was a bit expensive but it both heats and cools, with a small footprint.

HOWEVER - the company is still rubbish at communication. Support emails are ignored. Questions posed on the forums are ignored - literally, it's crickets. I would have assumed that the company had essentially disappeared, except now they're promoting a new Kickstarter campaign for an automated desktop brewing machine.

Any interest I might have had in such a piece of equipment is utterly negated by the knowledge that follow-up support from the company will be essentially nil.

Caveat emptor.

 

[SerenityNexus]

Hi All,
I've just had a frustrating experience with these guys and there isn't a spot on their website to post reviews (the Community section is currently down). But just to put this out into the community as a warning:
I bought 3 of these in the summer of 2017 and began using them around August of that year. It took me one or two batches to get the new system down (as expected) but by batch 3 I was confident and was easily fermenting lagers in the 50's and ales in the 60's. I make an effort to keep the sideroom where I ferment around 60-62 F, and have a fan going when the brew jackets run, as the instructions state that ventilation is an important factor.
Things went according to this pattern for 6 or more months, and then I started having issues. I would ferment lagers in a 60 F room with the fan going on the unit, and set the unit to 55 F for a festbier ferment. I pitched at around 58 F, and within the first hour the temp probe was reading 65. By the end of the day (the fermentation had not yet started, so the yeast were not likely responsible for this temp increase) it was at 73 F. That fermentation eventually came back down to 68, but the beer was a loss.
I double checked that the rods were in good condition (I always wash them by hand with unscented dish soap and have done periodic boiling in de-ionized water, as recommended) and couldn't find any issues there. Over the next couple of batches, I decided to be meticulous about rotating units to see if perhaps I just had one bad unit. I had the same issue with a rauchbier that fermented in the low 80s (ambient still in the 60s). Ok, I've now lost 2 batches and am sitting on some expensive, malfunctioning equipment.
I contacted Brew Jacket and told them about the issue. I asked if it was possible for me to just send the items back to them, and receive a partial refund rather than asking them for a repair job. I'm not interested in dumping a batch every so often just so I can use the Brew Jacket. They said they would have to get back to me, but that they were willing to do a partial refund after some internal discussions about what a fair amount would be. That sounded fine, but a month later I had not heard anything back. I re-contacted them and was told that because they could not find a record of me having this issue, they would not issue any refund. And that's the final word.

Now I have wasted about $700, and lost 2 batches of beer for my investment. Customer service all along the way has been slow to respond. And now my only recourse is to either pay shipping to send them the equipment for repair so I can potentially have the units work for another 6 or 8 months and then be back where I am now or to just throw away the units. After my experiences, these will be going in the dumpster. I cannot state enough that I am a low-income person (most homebrewers I know are not wealthy either) who is hit heavily by this investment being a dud. I will be relying on a converted chest freezer from now on.

DO NOT BUY A BREW JACKET IMMERSION PRO. BE QUICKER ABOUT IT AND PUT YOUR MONEY DIRECTLY INTO THE TOILET. DO NOT BUY A BREWJACKET IMMERSION PRO.

 

[Pointyskull]

Well, my BrewJacket just arrived yesterday.
Here's hoping it works as planned - I will be brewing a Belgian Strong in a week or so.

 

[doogster]

Well, my BrewJacket just arrived yesterday.
Here's hoping it works as planned - I will be brewing a Belgian Strong in a week or so.

How long did it take to receive your order?

Let us know how it works for you

 

[Pointyskull]

Took less than 10 days to arrive - and they provided some email updates and the tracking number.
I will post here after brew day......

 

[surista]

I own a Brewjacket. I love it. So far, it's been working great (going on almost two years now).

However - I would be very very very cautious on buying anything from them anymore.
For starters, Support has steadily deteriorated. Response time used to be a couple of days, that stretched out to weeks, now it's hit or miss if they will respond at all. Numerous people were complaining at the lack of response on the Community forums - and now the forums have been taken down, which is a Very Bad Sign.

They recently had a new Kickstarter campaign for a counter-top brewer/fermentation device, 'Beermkr' (continuing the extremely annoying and staggeringly pretentious habit of leaving out vowels). Anyway, it got funded, and the last post after it was funded was over three weeks ago. Not a peep from them since. Maybe they're ignoring everything else to work on Beermkr, but that's a horrible sign - if you buy a Beermkr from them, expect to be ignored in a year or two when another shiny bauble captures their attention.

I've had no problems with my Brewjacket itself, but numerous others have had issues - basically 'stops working' - and have found trying to get Brewjacket to respond a massive frustration, if they respond at all. I've also had them ignore repeated emails from me when I was trying to ask a question about the cooling rod.

I wouldn't dream of buying anything from them again until I see some evidence that they actually still exist as a company, willing to stand by their products.

The difference between these guys and the Tilt guys - it's night and day.

 

[doogster]

Good info. I did notice their site just got updated, and the forums were gone. Including the post about "new pricing" where they documented (but wouldn't honor last week) their discounts for bundle pricing if you buy 2, or 3 units at a time.

Disappointing

 

[Pointyskull]

Followup to my earlier post (#18)

Brewed on Saturday 11/10/18
I have my BrewJacket set tp 67.5 and I am experiencing issues getting the temps under 72.
May be a calibration issue - and I found their FAQ a bit lacking in clarification.
Sent them an email and am awaiting response.

I am hoping it is some user setup error on my part.

Noise level is akin to computer server fan. Not terrible.


**UPDATE 11/13/18
I may not have had the rod tightened enough on the head unit. Adjusted it yesterday, and temp has dropped to my target 68 degrees.
Of course initial temps ran a bit high, but it's a Belgian so I can hope the end result won't be too off.

 

[doogster]

$75 bucks off the Immersion Pro for Black Friday sale at brewjacket.com That did it for me. I pulled the trigger tonight.

 

[nsurround]

I have used the original Brewjacket and head unit for about 4 years. Had to to replace the top of the head unit as it somehow stopped working. Generally have been pleased as can move lager fermentation to different locations easily if needed. However there are some short comings. One is since the carboy is surrounded by the jacket with the head unit on top cannot easily see fermentation going on. It is also hard to take samples for gravity readings as you will need to disconnect the temp probe cable and take the head unit and rod out, take the sample and then put rod and head unit back in/on and reattach the temp probe cable etc. This could possibly lead to sensitization issues if not careful. It is also not easy to put carboy into the jacket or take out for one person. All in all it was not a bad purchase at the time but not sure now I would purchase vs getting a small chest freezer with temp control. I think it depends on where you ferment your beers and the location size you have.