I have had hose trouble as well. I’ve had to correct multiple bends in poorly routed hoses to avoid leaks. Are all your hoses relatively rigid? All mine but one seem pretty flimsy, and those are the ones that are kinking. How do you remove those black clamps you are talking about?
PicoBrew Pico users
- Thread starter jrb03
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Help Support Homebrew Talk:
I have had hose trouble as well. I’ve had to correct multiple bends in poorly routed hoses to avoid leaks. Are all your hoses relatively rigid? All mine but one seem pretty flimsy, and those are the ones that are kinking. How do you remove those black clamps you are talking about?
rex clingan
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I assumed they were zip ties. Diagonal wire cutters aimed at the fattest point is how I'd go at it.
Hi everyone. Wooo, it's been a long time since I've been on this site. I used to do all-grain BIAB a few years back and had many thousands of dollars wrapped up in the setup. I loved it but, life happened and I ran out of time. Couldn't see myself ever having enough time to pull a full brew day anymore so I gave all my equipment to a buddy. Of course, the desire to homebrew never left.
A few weeks ago my boss tells me Pico is having a PicoC sale for $199/each. I'd heard about Pico before but kind of wrote it off. But, at that price, I couldn't really say no. So I dove in.
So far I've only done one batch and it's actually fermenting right now so I can't attest to the finished product. That actually starts out one of my biggest concerns about the thing: I don't understand how the airlock/fermentation is supposed to work and I can't find any good literature that explains it. I have hundreds of all-grain brews under my belt so I know how it's supposed to work but the little umbrella valves make me nervous. I think next brew I might just rig a standard airlock into it so I can watch it ferment.
Overall the appliance was very, very easy to use. I brew the "half-squeezed" IPA picopak and it was painless. Smelled great, temps looked good watching it on the log, and it was cool seeing it go through a stepped mash. Lots of hops and they smelled fresh-ish; grain seemed good too. Of course everything was sealed but not vacuum sealed so that means it had a chance to oxidize. We'll see when I finally get to taste it. I'm definitely ordering the "unpak'd" kit so I can take all my old recipes and modify.
I opened up the grain pak when it had cooled down so I could check the crush and the utilization. To my dismay, there was a section along of the walls that was dry. This is to be expected, of course, when you only have one inlet for water and no way to stir the mash. I also noticed that there were multiple crushes. Maybe each grain was a different crush or it was all standard 2-row crushed different ways; I don't know for sure but it obviously affected the flow and absorption. The dry grain had a good crush, same as what I would crush to when I was brewing BIAB, but the other grain/crush was way too fine and compacted and probably did not get a good sparge. Luckily it was towards the back and not along the bottom or I think it might have gotten stuck.
Pre- and post clean was super easy, but without being able to look inside I can't tell how effective it was. I used a distilled water and star-san solution for both rinses. I'm super paranoid about sanitization with brewing and as any old hat will tell you, DON'T FEAR THE FOAM, so when I buttoned up the fermenter and resevoir there was starsan foam and it caused no issues. I did read a review somewhere from a user that did a pre- and post-rinse after every brew, and did a deep clean and still got some debris out of it so I'll probably do a deepclean a bit more frequently than the every 3 uses they recommend. We wait too long for good beer and it's not worth waiting for spoiled beer!
Back to the fermenter, I just can't bring myself to ferment at the high temperatures they suggest for "fast fermentation." It goes against everything I know and I sure don't want a banana flavored IPA because I brewed at 77F. No thank you, I'll wait. Thankfully I still have my temperature controlled fermenter (aka deep freezer, natch) and I'll let it sit for 14 days and cold crash. But again, I really don't like not being able to see the activity and I'm just sitting here wondering if I have a stalled fermentation. Argh!
I think it's a good system, and I look forward to many more uses. Not having to bust out all the equipment and fire up the propane burner and clean clean clean is nice, as well as not having to monitor the mash. Oh, another thing I don't like is not having a counterflow chiller anymore. Taking a hot fermenter and just letting it sit until it cooled down takes away another step of something I used to have control over. I guess I just need to relax and trust the system. Maybe when i can finally take a sip of that first beer.
tl;dr- I like it.
A few weeks ago my boss tells me Pico is having a PicoC sale for $199/each. I'd heard about Pico before but kind of wrote it off. But, at that price, I couldn't really say no. So I dove in.
So far I've only done one batch and it's actually fermenting right now so I can't attest to the finished product. That actually starts out one of my biggest concerns about the thing: I don't understand how the airlock/fermentation is supposed to work and I can't find any good literature that explains it. I have hundreds of all-grain brews under my belt so I know how it's supposed to work but the little umbrella valves make me nervous. I think next brew I might just rig a standard airlock into it so I can watch it ferment.
Overall the appliance was very, very easy to use. I brew the "half-squeezed" IPA picopak and it was painless. Smelled great, temps looked good watching it on the log, and it was cool seeing it go through a stepped mash. Lots of hops and they smelled fresh-ish; grain seemed good too. Of course everything was sealed but not vacuum sealed so that means it had a chance to oxidize. We'll see when I finally get to taste it. I'm definitely ordering the "unpak'd" kit so I can take all my old recipes and modify.
I opened up the grain pak when it had cooled down so I could check the crush and the utilization. To my dismay, there was a section along of the walls that was dry. This is to be expected, of course, when you only have one inlet for water and no way to stir the mash. I also noticed that there were multiple crushes. Maybe each grain was a different crush or it was all standard 2-row crushed different ways; I don't know for sure but it obviously affected the flow and absorption. The dry grain had a good crush, same as what I would crush to when I was brewing BIAB, but the other grain/crush was way too fine and compacted and probably did not get a good sparge. Luckily it was towards the back and not along the bottom or I think it might have gotten stuck.
Pre- and post clean was super easy, but without being able to look inside I can't tell how effective it was. I used a distilled water and star-san solution for both rinses. I'm super paranoid about sanitization with brewing and as any old hat will tell you, DON'T FEAR THE FOAM, so when I buttoned up the fermenter and resevoir there was starsan foam and it caused no issues. I did read a review somewhere from a user that did a pre- and post-rinse after every brew, and did a deep clean and still got some debris out of it so I'll probably do a deepclean a bit more frequently than the every 3 uses they recommend. We wait too long for good beer and it's not worth waiting for spoiled beer!
Back to the fermenter, I just can't bring myself to ferment at the high temperatures they suggest for "fast fermentation." It goes against everything I know and I sure don't want a banana flavored IPA because I brewed at 77F. No thank you, I'll wait. Thankfully I still have my temperature controlled fermenter (aka deep freezer, natch) and I'll let it sit for 14 days and cold crash. But again, I really don't like not being able to see the activity and I'm just sitting here wondering if I have a stalled fermentation. Argh!
I think it's a good system, and I look forward to many more uses. Not having to bust out all the equipment and fire up the propane burner and clean clean clean is nice, as well as not having to monitor the mash. Oh, another thing I don't like is not having a counterflow chiller anymore. Taking a hot fermenter and just letting it sit until it cooled down takes away another step of something I used to have control over. I guess I just need to relax and trust the system. Maybe when i can finally take a sip of that first beer.
tl;dr- I like it.
Good Afternoon All.
I'm interested in how the hops and adjuncts are handled by the Picobrew, I've not found one but is there a diagram or schematic or even a good text description of how it works anywhere?
I've found the patient drawings but that's about it.
Thanks. Aamcle
I miss the thread tools, search in thread
I'm interested in how the hops and adjuncts are handled by the Picobrew, I've not found one but is there a diagram or schematic or even a good text description of how it works anywhere?
I've found the patient drawings but that's about it.
Thanks. Aamcle
I miss the thread tools, search in thread
So.... what #'s do y'all use for manually brewing on the Pico C?
I estimated the following:
(based on Pico Pro Crafter https://picobrew.com/Z_Crafter/Z_BiB.cshtml)
Brew-house efficiency: 50%
Hop utilization: ~35% of normal utilization (3.5%-14% range, this is terrible)
Do you all design the manual brew recipe on ProCrafter, then buy your own ingredients?
For example, I took the recipe I built in ProCrafter and tried to replicate the recipe in brewersfriend.com :
https://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/view/923671/juicy-banger-pico
I estimated the following:
(based on Pico Pro Crafter https://picobrew.com/Z_Crafter/Z_BiB.cshtml)
Brew-house efficiency: 50%
Hop utilization: ~35% of normal utilization (3.5%-14% range, this is terrible)
Do you all design the manual brew recipe on ProCrafter, then buy your own ingredients?
For example, I took the recipe I built in ProCrafter and tried to replicate the recipe in brewersfriend.com :
https://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/view/923671/juicy-banger-pico
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Good Afternoon All.
I'm interested in how the hops and adjuncts are handled by the Picobrew, I've not found one but is there a diagram or schematic or even a good text description of how it works anywhere?
I've found the patient drawings but that's about it.
Thanks. Aamcle
I miss the thread tools, search in thread
There are four spots for hops or adjuncts that can be added at different times during the "boil." Each spot has it's own jet of water and can be timed to add early or late depending on the amount of utilization you want out of your hops.
![Craft A Brew - Safale BE-256 Yeast - Fermentis - Belgian Ale Dry Yeast - For Belgian & Strong Ales - Ingredients for Home Brewing - Beer Making Supplies - [3 Pack]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51bcKEwQmWL._SL500_.jpg)
Sebastian Weetabix
Well-Known Member
If you are asking about the Pico C, then why duplicate a recipe for the Z? Your grain bill is over the amount for the C by nearly a pound.
What am I missing?
Has Everyone seen this, if not I will just leave it here for digestion.
Picobrew Up for Sale!
GeekWire Article
Picobrew Up for Sale!
GeekWire Article
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From Kevin, PicoBrew employee, posted on Pico Brew forum:
- Picobrew in financial difficulty
Kevin - 31 min ago
As you may have heard, we are currently in the process of being sold through the WA State Receivership process. The party of investors who have been funding the operation of our company over the last year have submitted a bid and plans to continue its support during this process. We anticipate no interruption of sales or support to our valued customers during this period.
Yeah but I have seen that as well from Brewie when they went under. Marcel told everyone they will be fine then lights out.. I hope what Kevin says is true.
I brewed my first "manual" brew in it last night and I was pleasantly surprised that it is a much different process than brewing with a PicoPak, and is almost exactly like doing a BIAB with a recirculator. I doubt I'll ever buy a PicoPak again (which is fine, I brew so I can brew my own ideas.) I'll use it for test batches and when I hit something good I'll use a full scale setup for 5 gallons of drink.
Kevin posted on the official PicoBrew forums. Quoted below..
As you may have heard, we are currently in the process of being sold through the WA State Receivership process. The party of investors who have been funding the operation of our company over the last year have submitted a bid and plans to continue its support during this process. We anticipate no interruption of sales or support to our valued customers during this period.
As you may have heard, we are currently in the process of being sold through the WA State Receivership process. The party of investors who have been funding the operation of our company over the last year have submitted a bid and plans to continue its support during this process. We anticipate no interruption of sales or support to our valued customers during this period.
You know, I was literally just talking to my girlfriend about this scenario yesterday. There is a short story that takes place in the near future called "Unauthorized Bread" where the protagonist has a toaster that won't work because the company went out of business and the toaster can no longer "authorize" bread to be toasted, since it can't verify that it is "vendor-approved" bread. The dishwasher had gone out months earlier because of the same issue; company ran out of money and then the machine couldn't scan the dishes to ensure they were partner-collaborated dishes. So she hacks the toaster and is astonished at the joy of having the ability to toast anything she wants.
Pretty ridiculous that it doesn't at all seem like fiction.
Sebastian Weetabix
Well-Known Member
I have a Pico Pro and a Pico Model C along with two picoferms, so this news was not well received. How-ever, what happens will happen whether I like it or not.
I am hoping that PicoBrew will release the picos into the wild without needing their servers. Since the Manual Brew update to the software, I ONLY brew manual.
But I have been brewing for a number of years, so if I have to go back to the Stone Age, then so be it.
I don't cry over spilt milk.
But spilt BEER is another matter!
I am hoping that PicoBrew will release the picos into the wild without needing their servers. Since the Manual Brew update to the software, I ONLY brew manual.
But I have been brewing for a number of years, so if I have to go back to the Stone Age, then so be it.
I don't cry over spilt milk.
But spilt BEER is another matter!
Lbarouf
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Has anyone experimented with the RESt call server on Github? It's based off the Zymatic and dates 2015. I wonder if the Picos could use it? For manual brewing it would be good worse case. But I guess nothing we can do for paks.
On a side note I just happened to go to my Multibrew Kickoff page, happened to run across it in my email when I was looking for something else, and it is not there. I guess the kickoff is dead, wonder if the multibrew is.
Lbarouf
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I have seen banners on the site for it, and the page is still up. https://picobrew.com/multibrew.
That’s the project I thought you were talking about. I have heard it did work at one point but it is all http based. The new picobrew setup is https. So that project will not work anymore. I have not sniffed the packets myself but did see a log posted by someone that did. It is not impossible to impersonate a server for https traffic but it is not easy either.
I am not sure if they are signing it or not. As I stated I have not sniffed the traffic my self I just saw a log that someone else did that showed it was HTTPS traffic. I have been meaning to sniff the traffic and take a good look but I have not had time to sit down and do that.
Yes if it is not signed by Pico then we could setup a relay server and basically take control of everything ourselves. This is basically what the project on github did with the OGZ. But if they are signing everything then it is almost impossible to take over anything.
On my side note, yes I see the multibrew page is still up but that is a branch of the main pico server. I was talking about the contest page they had for getting different people to signup for their email list and qualify for free coffee, enter for a Ember ceramic electric battery operated coffee mug, and something else but I dont remember what the last item was. Here is a link that I used to have to the contest. It is dead and just lands you on a landing page not found.
https://picobrew.us11.list-manage.c...55e5300f5291fa2a6e&id=d139e657e0&e=ac2738f45d
Yes if it is not signed by Pico then we could setup a relay server and basically take control of everything ourselves. This is basically what the project on github did with the OGZ. But if they are signing everything then it is almost impossible to take over anything.
On my side note, yes I see the multibrew page is still up but that is a branch of the main pico server. I was talking about the contest page they had for getting different people to signup for their email list and qualify for free coffee, enter for a Ember ceramic electric battery operated coffee mug, and something else but I dont remember what the last item was. Here is a link that I used to have to the contest. It is dead and just lands you on a landing page not found.
https://picobrew.us11.list-manage.c...55e5300f5291fa2a6e&id=d139e657e0&e=ac2738f45d
Lbarouf
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Ahhh.... yeah,, I sent a whole bunch of email addresses their way then never heard back. I know my friends get the annoying ads. Don't know what happened there, but no surprise in light of the efforts to getting bought.
On a side note, I wonder how the others are doing if PicoBrew, the most successful of them all in my opinion, is looking for a buyer. With ABInBev now owning indirectly the GrainFather... one could think they would have an interest in PicoBrew.
Sorry, I was corrected. BSG, who acquired the GrainFather company, is owned by Rahr, not by an InBev branch. My mistake. Maybe an even better fit than InBev actually!
On a side note, I wonder how the others are doing if PicoBrew, the most successful of them all in my opinion, is looking for a buyer. With ABInBev now owning indirectly the GrainFather... one could think they would have an interest in PicoBrew.
Sorry, I was corrected. BSG, who acquired the GrainFather company, is owned by Rahr, not by an InBev branch. My mistake. Maybe an even better fit than InBev actually!
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Lbarouf
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This does not look good. They are being liquidated it seems.
auction stage now...
http://murphyauction.com/Auction/Details/8236
auction stage now...
http://murphyauction.com/Auction/Details/8236
Sebastian Weetabix
Well-Known Member
I guess this means that Picobrew will”rest in pieces”!
yeah...better get familiar w/the manual brew process.
Friend of mine captured traffic from beginning to end of a PicoPak brew (Turning on, obtaining DHCP address, etc. to End Brew.) Pico traffic is in the clear (port 80) and provides only a smidge more detail than the raw data log you can get via your Brewhouse portal. There doesn't appear to be any type of auth mechanism, at least not in the traffic itself. Anticipate that the UID is associated with your account on a backend database, which is how YOUR portal shows what you've done w/your machine.
Friend of mine captured traffic from beginning to end of a PicoPak brew (Turning on, obtaining DHCP address, etc. to End Brew.) Pico traffic is in the clear (port 80) and provides only a smidge more detail than the raw data log you can get via your Brewhouse portal. There doesn't appear to be any type of auth mechanism, at least not in the traffic itself. Anticipate that the UID is associated with your account on a backend database, which is how YOUR portal shows what you've done w/your machine.
So does this mean we won't need to connect to anything to brew? And/or we can take over the tracking process somehow if we can get a copy of the backend db?
Potentially more complicated than that. Looks like the device "needs" to talk to picobrew.com or it will throw an error and you're stuck. Might be worth trying to spoof the site locally and see what happens. I'll see if I can try this over the weekend.
