Has anybody used a Brewjacket Immersion Pro with an SS Brewbucket

[NJNewb]

Santa brought me a Brewjacket Immersion Pro and an SS Brewbucket for Christmas. I brewed my first batch for them yesterday. The Brewjacket is supposed to heat as well as cool. I pitched at 68 which is the target temp for the recipe. The unit is set to 68 and I can hear it working but when I left for work this morning it was down to 62.2. It’s not the end of the world if it stays there but if it drops into the 50s I may be in some trouble (yeast is White Labs Cali Ale).

Im fermenting in an in heated garage in NJ and it got into the 20s last night so it might just be that the unit is being overwhelmed but in photos I’ve seen, the insulating jacket covers the fermenter lid which I couldn’t get it to do. It gets to the top of the sides but pretty much the whole lid is exposed. My question is whether this is operator error on my part or if the jacket just doesn’t extend that far. Has anyone used one with this fermenter?

 

[schmurf]

I've used it with brew bucket mini, the jacket covers that fermenter perfectly. The immersion chiller is slow though, and very dependent on surrounding temperature. It also need to have it's rod really down in the wort to be able to chill good.

 

[NJNewb]

Thanks. I think the mini is 9” shorter than the full sized version so maybe that’s my problem. If the temp is down any further when I get home maybe I’ll look at some kind of heating belt to supplement it.

 

[schmurf]

Sorry I didn't pay enough attention to what you wrote, you wanted it to heat... but the same would apply for both chilling and heating, a good cover and the rod deep down in the wort. There is a limit though how much it can heat/chill, I'm not sure about heating capacity but I think chilling capacity is maximum 15 degrees Celsius below surrounding temperature...not sure how much that is in Fahrenheit. I would guess heating capacity is something similar. And that's under the best of circumstances, realistically it's a bit lower.

 

[NJNewb]

It seems like it’s doing a little better now. It’s holding at a little over 63 degrees and bubbling away . I’ll just let it ferment a little longer to account for the lower temp. Maybe I’ll buy the neoprene jacket for the bucket before my next brew.

 

[NJNewb]

Thanks for the help. We had a pretty cold winter and the fermentation temperature dropped into the 50s so I ended up running a space heater near it for a few hours a day. I gave it a couple extra weeks before kegging and it turned out to be the best beer I’ve ever made. Will definitely get the neoprene jacket before the next winter brew and see if that doesn’t keep things a bit more stable.

 

[HighTaps]

Santa brought me a Brewjacket Immersion Pro and an SS Brewbucket for Christmas. I brewed my first batch for them yesterday. The Brewjacket is supposed to heat as well as cool. I pitched at 68 which is the target temp for the recipe. The unit is set to 68 and I can hear it working but when I left for work this morning it was down to 62.2. It’s not the end of the world if it stays there but if it drops into the 50s I may be in some trouble (yeast is White Labs Cali Ale).

Im fermenting in an in heated garage in NJ and it got into the 20s last night so it might just be that the unit is being overwhelmed but in photos I’ve seen, the insulating jacket covers the fermenter lid which I couldn’t get it to do. It gets to the top of the sides but pretty much the whole lid is exposed. My question is whether this is operator error on my part or if the jacket just doesn’t extend that far. Has anyone used one with this fermenter?

I have an Immersion Pro and an SS Brewbucket. The first 5 times it worked real well, not superb performance but good enough. It is very slow to drop the temperature, on occasion taking 2-3 days to reach cold crash temps. On my two most recent brews, it will not even counteract the fermentation temperature rise. I tried testing it, using it in water, it took two days to get from 75 to 60. But in wort it will no longer go below 65, and that's only after fermentation is finished. I don't see myself getting another one, as I'm well past the warranty period, and don't see the point of having this happen again.

I feel the money would be better spent getting a chest freezer ( I have the available room to put one) and an InkBird to control it, for roughly the same money, and have more utility than another Immersion Pro would. I can fit two fermenters in the freezer as well. Not to mention all the talk of how poor the service and response time is with the company.

How has yours been working? Had any issues? And anyone else have thoughts on their BJI Pro?

 

[Newsman]

I feel the money would be better spent getting a chest freezer ( I have the available room to put one) and an InkBird to control it, for roughly the same money, and have more utility than another Immersion Pro would. I can fit two fermenters in the freezer as well. Not to mention all the talk of how poor the service and response time is with the company.

How has yours been working? Had any issues? And anyone else have thoughts on their BJI Pro?

I have a chest freezer. I'm trying to cold-crash a cyser right now, and it's taking 3-4 days to get from 65* F to 35* F. YMMV

 

[HighTaps]

I have a chest freezer. I'm trying to cold-crash a cyser right now, and it's taking 3-4 days to get from 65* F to 35* F. YMMV

Good stuff to know, my opinion may have to be modified.

 

[Newsman]

Yeah.i have ~5 gallons of cyser on my freezer and have the temp set to 35*. I think it was Thursday or Friday I decided it was time to crash it. This freezer will hold 2 corny kegs or 1 BMB.

 

[NJNewb]

Mine’s actually been working well. I’ve done about 5 brews with it and have had no trouble keeping the wort at 65 or lower in a non air conditioned garage with temps getting into the upper 90s. It seemed to have a harder time heating but I was using a sleeve on the rod which may have affected performance a bit. In fairness the garage was getting into the teens some days so asking it to keep the wort over 60 degrees may not have been entirely reasonable.

This winter, I’ll probably use iodine rather than Star San to sanitize and skip the sleeve. I’ll probably also get the neoprene jacket for the Brew Bucket and see if the extra insulation helps.

 

[jtgoral]

I use a Big Mouth Bubbler with the BrewJacket for lagers and get the temperature down to 50F from 72F in 24h.
3 days at 50F, 3 days at 55F, 3 days at 60F and 3+ days at 65F as described by Drew Beechum. No secondary, no cold crash, just keg and then in chest freezer for ~3 weeks before connecting to the tap.

 

[Beerwildered]

If anyone has one of these Immersion Pro chillers that they want to get rid of, I’d like to experiment with one…