PicoBrew Pico users

[Lbarouf]

This is a very long thread so if this question has been answered, please excuse me for not being able to find the answer.
Can you add adjuncts to the picopaks once you receive it? Like coriander and orange peel, etc.?

The pico is a closed system. Once the pak is inserted, you are able to pause the system, but the pak is sealed, so adding adjuncts in the pak is not possible. The alternative would be to use something like a hop basket directly in the keg. Since the system recirculates the wort from the step filter to the keg, it would the same as sitting in the brew kettle. While I was asking myself the same question early on, I have not brewed a pak yet that I felt like experimenting with. With summer around the corner, I was thinking of doing a weiss with grapefruit peels using the Freestyle pak. If you do, please share what you did and results.

 

[Lbarouf]

Ok thanks for the tip. So would you say a full 36 hours or can I drink tonight after 24 hours.

I use a carbing stone and wait 48hrs before attempting to serve if I plan on drinking soon. If not, I skip the stone and carb over 5+ days. It does happen where the keg was left carbing for more than a week before tapped. Of course, not being in a hurry will help stabilize the beer I find. Even when using the carbing stone, I find that the beer is more mellow after a few more days then when tapped. So I would say, resist the urge to carbonate as fast as possible. Using shaking techniques will carb faster, but I find that the carbonic acid bite is too strong personally. I would rather wait than introducing this taste into it. My 2 cents.

 

[Lax coach]

This is a very long thread so if this question has been answered, please excuse me for not being able to find the answer.
Can you add adjuncts to the picopaks once you receive it? Like coriander and orange peel, etc.?

No you can't add them to the picopaks. But there's nothing stopping you from adding them to the keg, either during the brew or for fermentation.

 

[raysmithtx]

The pico is a closed system. Once the pak is inserted, you are able to pause the system, but the pak is sealed, so adding adjuncts in the pak is not possible. The alternative would be to use something like a hop basket directly in the keg. Since the system recirculates the wort from the step filter to the keg, it would the same as sitting in the brew kettle. While I was asking myself the same question early on, I have not brewed a pak yet that I felt like experimenting with. With summer around the corner, I was thinking of doing a weiss with grapefruit peels using the Freestyle pak. If you do, please share what you did and results.

Thank you for the response. I have my PicoBrew on order and was hoping the lid on the Pico paks could be opened and other ingredients added. I will post my experience with the Pico Brew system, hopefully in the next few weeks.

 

[millsy1981]

Hi All. so I tasted and thoroughly enjoyed my very first brew. It was Belle of the Ball and tasted pretty good.. I was happy with it so I cant wait to brew next time with all of your tips (less yeast etc..)
Here is where the problems started. i took apart the fermenting keg to clean and put back together the out and in posts.. i started brewing and i got an error code every minute or so saying connectors are not on properly.. i have n idea what i did differently and why its saying that. they made me throw out the half done batch of wort because of serious errors.. i wish there was a better manual of how to put those back together (did i put spring the wrong way etc??) so frustrated

 

[Lax coach]

Hi All. so I tasted and thoroughly enjoyed my very first brew. It was Belle of the Ball and tasted pretty good.. I was happy with it so I cant wait to brew next time with all of your tips (less yeast etc..)
Here is where the problems started. i took apart the fermenting keg to clean and put back together the out and in posts.. i started brewing and i got an error code every minute or so saying connectors are not on properly.. i have n idea what i did differently and why its saying that. they made me throw out the half done batch of wort because of serious errors.. i wish there was a better manual of how to put those back together (did i put spring the wrong way etc??) so frustrated

If it is indeed the connectors, check to see that you put the short dip tube and the notched post on the "in" side, and the long dip tube and smooth post on the "out" side. Also note that the dip tubes are keyed, and have to be inserted in a specific direction, otherwise they won't drop down all the way. Then check to see if your ball locks are seated all the way until the retaining ring snaps back down.

I also got serious errors on one brew where the pak burst and grain got stuck in the step filter drain. This resulted in the step filter filling with wort, rather than draining into the serving keg as usual. Did this happen to you?

 

[BrewingBrian]

Hey Guys - I'm interested in attempting to clone American Beauty from Dogfish Head. It's a double IPA brewed with granola and honey, and is pretty much the best beer I've ever drank to-date. Does anyone have experience with adding either Granola or Honey to your brew? I've read that honey is a little tricky, as it can be added at so many points and by so many methods (boil it, don't boil it, add it during fermentation, add it to the wort, use it for carbonation, etc.). With the granola, I have no idea. I'm assuming it would need to be in the brew pack, but it's not an available option when making a freestyle PicoPak. Oatmeal is about the closest option I see available. Could I suspend my own granola in the brewing keg during the brew process, or add it in a hop sac during fermentation? Does anyone have any experience with either honey or granola in their Pico brewing, or any other ideas on how to clone the American Beauty? Thanks!

 

[millsy1981]

If it is indeed the connectors, check to see that you put the short dip tube and the notched post on the "in" side, and the long dip tube and smooth post on the "out" side. Also note that the dip tubes are keyed, and have to be inserted in a specific direction, otherwise they won't drop down all the way. Then check to see if your ball locks are seated all the way until the retaining ring snaps back down.

I also got serious errors on one brew where the pak burst and grain got stuck in the step filter drain. This resulted in the step filter filling with wort, rather than draining into the serving keg as usual. Did this happen to you?

no, this did not happen to me and maybe it would have had i continues by Pico support asked me to stop the brew process right away. (of note, however, they are replacing the Pack so that is good of them). After chatting with them for a while, i think i figured that i may have not reattached things correctly. In any case they said that since i purchased my machine a while ago and had not used it, i needed to do some procedures to ensure it runs smoothly. In any case, I think its resolved and ready to start another batch..

 

[Lbarouf]

Hey Guys - I'm interested in attempting to clone American Beauty from Dogfish Head. It's a double IPA brewed with granola and honey and is pretty much the best beer I've ever drunk to-date. Does anyone have experience with adding either Granola or Honey to your brew? I've read that honey is a little tricky, as it can be added at so many points and by so many methods (boil it, don't boil it, add it during fermentation, add it to the wort, use it for carbonation, etc.). With the granola, I have no idea. I'm assuming it would need to be in the brew pack, but it's not an available option when making a freestyle PicoPak. Oatmeal is about the closest option I see available. Could I suspend my own granola in the brewing keg during the brewing process, or add it in a hop sac during fermentation? Does anyone have any experience with either honey or granola in their Pico brewing or any other ideas on how to clone the American Beauty? Thanks!

Wow, you feel a bit more adventurous? For the honey, you don't want to add this while brewing for sure. If you believe the yeast needs the extra sugar during fermentation, I would say to add the honey to the keg right after the brew, while warm to dilute. When cool, and ready to pitch, the wort should have the diluted honey in it. If it's rather a priming sugar than I would sanitize, dilute in a bit of boiling water, let it cool to room temperature and add as the priming agent.

As for the grains. If the granola is supposed to be mixed with the grains, then one thing you could attempts, is indeed hang the grains in the wort using a sanitized hop basket or such. Providing there's not too much of it, it may all fit without over flowing. Also, you want to hang it via the keg cover hole. You want that lid closed so it can maintain temperature.

Report back on your "clone" and process please.

 

[BrewingBrian]

Thanks for the input! I'll let you know if I come up with something worthwhile.

 

[Lax coach]

I've done my first couple brews using the Pico C kegs, and have to say it's a huge improvement. So much easier to clean, easier to aerate/throw yeast/dry hop, less likely to jam during the racking process after dry hopping, and the Picoferm attaches more solidly. This lets me keep the small cornys just for carbonating and serving, which doesn't require as vigorous of a cleaning process afterwards.

Time will tell if 2 C's and 3 cornys is the right mix, but it seems to be good so far.

 

[BrewingBrian]

I use a carbing stone and wait 48hrs before attempting to serve if I plan on drinking soon. If not, I skip the stone and carb over 5+ days. It does happen where the keg was left carbing for more than a week before tapped. Of course, not being in a hurry will help stabilize the beer I find. Even when using the carbing stone, I find that the beer is more mellow after a few more days then when tapped. So I would say, resist the urge to carbonate as fast as possible. Using shaking techniques will carb faster, but I find that the carbonic acid bite is too strong personally. I would rather wait than introducing this taste into it. My 2 cents.

What PSI do you set when you use carbing stone? I'm going to try that. My first attempt at force carbing (my double IPA) came up just a little flat; not too bad; still drinkable.

The gravity seems a little low also, so I'm going to adjust my yeast next time. I used full packet before reading all of the suggestions to use less. I got a Tilt on ebay with a 20% off coupon. Waiting on delivery, but will use that with next brew. (None of that related to carbing stone, but giving my full report of first taste test).

 

[Lbarouf]

What PSI do you set when you use carbing stone? I'm going to try that. My first attempt at force carbing (my double IPA) came up just a little flat; not too bad; still drinkable.

The gravity seems a little low also, so I'm going to adjust my yeast next time. I used full packet before reading all of the suggestions to use less. I got a Tilt on ebay with a 20% off coupon. Waiting on delivery, but will use that with next brew. (None of that related to carbing stone, but giving my full report of first taste test).

I followed the instructions that came with mine. Which was to increase 1 psi at a time, for about 5min. So I would step up in increments of 1psi as much as possible, and leave it there for at least 5 min. I did so until the manifold was fully open. It. took about 3 hrs. I would leave it overnight at the full 30 or so PSI. Before pouring, I'd reduce it down to 2-3 psi, otherwise it would foam (I'm using a ball lock to tap adapter, the distance is very short).

 

[raysmithtx]

I just received my Picobrew C. I have looked and cannot find any threads on how to convert an existing (Beersmith) recipe to a PicoPak. How are you guys doing it?

 

[dwiscl]

First time brewer, help with Picobrew mistake:

So, brewing for 1st time with a Picobrew C.
The brew cycle was accidentally reset 2 times about 30 minutes into the roughly 2 hour initial brew/wort making.

Aside from off flavors, will this impact ABV or otherwise be undrinkable?
Trying to decide whether to wait for it to finish fermenting or just toss the whole thing and start a new batch (I only have 1 brewkeg, so it will otherwise be 3 weeks or so before I can start a new batch).
Thanks!

 

[BlatzSplatz]

Has anyone found a way to increase the yield from 1.5 gallons to maybe 3. Using a Pico C, I'm trying to get my moneys worth but the shipping cost is nutty. 23-33 bucks for a 6 pack is insane.

 

[Lax coach]

You can't do 3 gallons in a single batch, but if you buy two or more Paks at a time, shipping is free. Combine that with the sales they do a couple of times per month on 1-3 specific paks at a time, and I actually average under $20 each.

Then there's the math part. I don't know what kind of 6-packs you buy, but in my area they don't have six 28-oz bottles. One batch from the Pico is about thirteen 12-oz beers.

 

[millsy1981]

Hi everyone.. I am now doing my second batch of Belle of the ball. As previously mentioned, I thought the first one was pretty good for my first ever brew. I am now following many of your tips (i.e less yeast) etc... for this batch.. I am just wondering i maybe found that it was a little under-carbonated last time. I force carbonated and when i dialed the regulator up, it never really got past 21/22 and I only left for the 36 hours.. any tips ideas thoughts

 

[Lbarouf]

Hi everyone.. I am now doing my second batch of Belle of the ball. As previously mentioned, I thought the first one was pretty good for my first ever brew. I am now following many of your tips (i.e less yeast) etc... for this batch.. I am just wondering i maybe found that it was a little under-carbonated last time. I force carbonated and when i dialed the regulator up, it never really got past 21/22 and I only left for the 36 hours.. any tips ideas thoughts

I guess it depends on the amount of carbonation you expect, the temperature at which you are carbonating, and in what (corny or serving keg). I have my CO2 tank at room temperature as much as possible while my keg is inside the fridge. Or, I carb at room temperature. In the fridge, I will often get mid 20s. As for how long, I would say, leave it as long as possible, with 4 days minimum. Or get yourself a carving stone and follow the instructions. Waiting is best though, IMHO.

 

[Lbarouf]

I just received my Picobrew C. I have looked and cannot find any threads on how to convert an existing (Beersmith) recipe to a PicoPak. How are you guys doing it?

I have not found a way to directly translate. I take my style first, and estimate the amount in Oz of the grains I will need. The tool increases in steps, so sometimes I don't get precisely what I expect. The one that is the closest, I typically try. But I often have to play with it and actually try other recipes instead. The choice of grains is still very limited in my opinion. I was able to get a few good ones close enough to my recipe.

Hope this helps.

 

[raysmithtx]

I have not found a way to directly translate. I take my style first, and estimate the amount in Oz of the grains I will need. The tool increases in steps, so sometimes I don't get precisely what I expect. The one that is the closest, I typically try. But I often have to play with it and actually try other recipes instead. The choice of grains is still very limited in my opinion. I was able to get a few good ones close enough to my recipe.

Hope this helps.

Yep that helps. When I received my first picopak I took the lid off the container (It's basically hot glued in a few places and came off pretty easy). It appears that I could add some grains in small porous bags if I want to. Hops look the same way. They calculate the hop additions a little odd. The first .1 oz. adds 10 IBU and each additional .1 oz. only adds an additional 5 IBU. Beersmith looks a lot different in this regard. I think I'll try adding adjuncts in the keg and dry hop for my flavor and aroma hop additions.

I set up a Beersmith equipment profile that mimics the Picobrew website for grain and hop additions so I think I'm gonna give it a shot.

I'm definitely gonna try to make some of my favorite recipes this way to see if I can do it. Since I'm the only one drinking my beer I really don't need to make 5 gallons every time. That's what I'm hoping the PicoBrew C will let me do.

Let the adventure begin.

 

[Lbarouf]

I guess it depends on the amount of carbonation you expect, the temperature at which you are carbonating, and in what (corny or serving keg). I have my CO2 tank at room temperature as much as possible while my keg is inside the fridge. Or, I carb at room temperature. In the fridge, I will often get mid 20s. As for how long, I would say, leave it as long as possible, with 4 days minimum. Or get yourself a carving stone and follow the instructions. Waiting is best though, IMHO.

lol... a carbing stone... not a carving one. BTW, if you plan on having multiple kegs available at a time, say more than 6-8, you may look into Blicmann quick carb. The price of 8 carbing stones and lids vs a quick carb, makes the purchase in the realm of reasonable in my opinion. A quick carb can get your keg ready in as little as 1 hour. Personally, I prefer a slower method, the little aging it gets during that time, gives it better character. At least that's what I believe and I'm sticking with it.

 

[Lbarouf]

Yep that helps. When I received my first picopak I took the lid off the container (It's basically hot glued in a few places and came off pretty easy). It appears that I could add some grains in small porous bags if I want to. Hops look the same way. They calculate the hop additions a little odd. The first .1 oz. adds 10 IBU and each additional .1 oz. only adds an additional 5 IBU. Beersmith looks a lot different in this regard. I think I'll try adding adjuncts in the keg and dry hop for my flavor and aroma hop additions.

I set up a Beersmith equipment profile that mimics the Picobrew website for grain and hop additions so I think I'm gonna give it a shot.

I'm definitely gonna try to make some of my favorite recipes this way to see if I can do it. Since I'm the only one drinking my beer I really don't need to make 5 gallons every time. That's what I'm hoping the PicoBrew C will let me do.

Let the adventure begin.

That's the spirit! That's why the brewhouse is in disarray? ;-) If you can share the results... and the equipment profile! And I would agree, when/if I ever add adjuncts to my brews, it will be in the keg itself, and well filtered so nothing ends up clogging a filter somewhere. Or worst...a pump.

 

[raysmithtx]

That's the spirit! That's why the brewhouse is in disarray? ;-) If you can share the results... and the equipment profile! And I would agree, when/if I ever add adjuncts to my brews, it will be in the keg itself, and well filtered so nothing ends up clogging a filter somewhere. Or worst...a pump.

I created a new equipment profile in Beersmith with 0 boil off and 0 trub loss. In the actual recipe I set the Batch volume to 1.5 gallons and the efficiency to 80%. These settings get the OG to be the same as the Picobrew website when adding 12 oz. of grain (1.015) and the IBU's added with .1 oz. of hops is 9.6 vs. the Pico website showing 10. Pretty close. Right or wrong, that's what I cam up with.

I will be taking a known 5 gallon recipe and making a Pico recipe making sure the grain percentages and IBU's correlate with the original. Except for how Pico adjusts additional hops at 50% of the initial value so the hops percentage will be higher than my Beersmith recipe since apparently Pico does not extract the IBU's as efficiently.

The 'disarray' is because my name is Ray.

 

[bford]

Does this deserve its own thread?

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/picobrew/pico-u-brew-everything?ref=discovery&term=picobrew

I think I'm going to have to get in on this at 189.... brewing coffee, tea and other drinks, plus the occasional pico pak... and sous vide...

 

[bretn]

I feel like it does. It's a significant change in price and capability that will interest a lot of people like us that weren't convinced by previous models (especially if can be hacked), and there doesn't seem to be much activity in this thread of late.

 

[Juice56]

Hi everyone... I'm currently cold crashing my first brew, Coronado Stingray, brewed with the Pico C. Thanks so much for all the info I've been able to glom by scouring this thread for the past month or so. I purchased the pro upgrade kit, and I'm eager to rack in a day or two. Can anyone detail to me how I will rack from the C brew keg to the ball-lock keg I got with the upgrade kit using the C, so that I can then force carb from there? I'm not sure what I can use to connect from the C keg out connection to get the beer in to the ball-lock keg. Thanks for any help.

 

[Lax coach]

If you have the Pico Pro upgrade kit, you'll need the Keg adapter in order to connect the ball lock transfer tube to the liquid out port on the C keg. This will allow you to do a closed transfer.

Alternatively, just use the racking tube that came with the C to do an open transfer into the ball-lock keg, the same as you would do into the serving keg.

 

[Juice56]

If you have the Pico Pro upgrade kit, you'll need the Keg adapter in order to connect the ball lock transfer tube to the liquid out port on the C keg. This will allow you to do a closed transfer.

Alternatively, just use the racking tube that came with the C to do an open transfer into the ball-lock keg, the same as you would do into the serving keg.

Ahhh, yes thank you. I see how that does what I need. Unfortunately it looks like it ships in “1-2 weeks.”

I was really looking forward to force carbing and avoiding the dreaded serving keg, in which case I guess I would go the open transfer route. Unless this is highly frowned upon. Otherwise I’m stuck natural carbing in the serving keg.

 

[JohnSand]

Welcome aboard Juice56.

 

[Lax coach]

Ahhh, yes thank you. I see how that does what I need. Unfortunately it looks like it ships in “1-2 weeks.”

I was really looking forward to force carbing and avoiding the dreaded serving keg, in which case I guess I would go the open transfer route. Unless this is highly frowned upon. Otherwise I’m stuck natural carbing in the serving keg.

Don't worry about the open transfer. Anything is worth avoiding the silly serving keg.

 

[Juice56]

Excellent, thank you. So i’ll Just open the metal keg lid and drop in the racking tube from the “out” connector on my C keg. Any tips for doing this most efficiently? I assume I should keep the tube right up against the floor of the pro keg.

 

[Lax coach]

That would most closely emulate the process using the transfer tube, where it connects to the out post and the dip tube adds the beer from the bottom of the keg.

 

[millsy1981]

Hey guys and gals. I think I broke the cheap serving keg after my first brew. I now have a belle of the ball ready to cold crash. The only kegs available at my local store are 7 and 10 litre kegs. What happens if I rack 5lutes of beer into a 7 or 10 litre keg?

 

[Lax coach]

Nothing at all. The standard picobrew keg is 1.75 gallons. 7 liters is 1.85 gallons.

 

[Lbarouf]

Hey guys and gals. I think I broke the cheap serving keg after my first brew. I now have a belle of the ball ready to cold crash. The only kegs available at my local store are 7 and 10 litre kegs. What happens if I rack 5lutes of beer into a 7 or 10 litre keg?

More headspace that needs to be filled with CO2. Not a big deal, unless you are just using the small 16g co2 cartridges. If you do, consider getting something bigger for carbing and serving, like a paintball or sodastream bottle. Maybe a used CO2 tank. But no big deal. If you get a 10L keg... why not fill that keg with a second batch instead? ;-) I use 3Gal kegs.

 

[Juice56]

That would most closely emulate the process using the transfer tube, where it connects to the out post and the dip tube adds the beer from the bottom of the keg.

So that went off smoothly thanks again for the input Lax coach. Gonna start a second pak tonight or tomorrow. At risk of sounding like a dope, do I need to run the "First Rinse" before every pak or is that just a first time out of the factory thing? If so, I'll need to grab some more distilled water. Or maybe I'll just run it anyway... better safe than sorry.

 

[Lbarouf]

It's after e

So that went off smoothly thanks again for the input Lax coach. Gonna start a second pak tonight or tomorrow. At risk of sounding like a dope, do I need to run the "First Rinse" before every pak or is that just a first time out of the factory thing? If so, I'll need to grab some more distilled water. Or maybe I'll just run it anyway... better safe than sorry.

It's after every brew. You should really do it, asap. And every 3 brews, it will tell you it need a deep clean with a dishwasher tablet.

I would say, no1 thing with brewing (not just pico brew) it's clean clean clean. The worst that can happen, is infection. All this for nothing. So, don't cut corners. A clean machine will reward you with good wort and working system. Clean and sanitized equipment will make the yeast happy and reward you with good beer. so keep everything squeaky clean. And your wort at steady temperature when fermenting. Big fluctuations are not good.

 

[Juice56]

It's after e


It's after every brew. You should really do it, asap. And every 3 brews, it will tell you it need a deep clean with a dishwasher tablet.

I would say, no1 thing with brewing (not just pico brew) it's clean clean clean. The worst that can happen, is infection. All this for nothing. So, don't cut corners. A clean machine will reward you with good wort and working system. Clean and sanitized equipment will make the yeast happy and reward you with good beer. so keep everything squeaky clean. And your wort at steady temperature when fermenting. Big fluctuations are not good.

Oh, Im quite aware of the importance of cleanliness, anyone I've ever talk to about brewing doesn't shut up about it, jk. There is a rinse process that I certainly ran after my first brew that involved putting an empty bucket in the step filter. I was specifically asking about the "FIRST RINSE" cycle that is on the menu.

I asked support at the same time that I posted here and they replied that it's really just for the first time you use the device, to ensure its working properly in addition to cleaning. They said its not necessary for every brew, for what its worth I had already done it anyway because I ran out and grabbed a few extra gallons of distilled water. Thanks so much for the response though.

I just started a "Half Squeezed" pak. I still haven't gotten an alternative yeast, but I am going to scale back how much I pitch based on the previous comments here. Sounds like a half teaspoon is the consensus of the us-05?

 

[Lbarouf]

;-)
Yeah, in that case, first rinse is really just that.

For the yeast, I'd say 1 full teaspoon (1tsp). I have also added 1 tablespoon on other packs, and frankly never saw much difference, I am sticking with 1 teaspoon.