Sebastian Weetabix
Well-Known Member
At the very least, we have a year of unrestricted brewing to get through!
I, for one will be doing my part to not waste a minute!
I, for one will be doing my part to not waste a minute!
PicoBrew Pico users
- Thread starter jrb03
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Help Support Homebrew Talk:
Where are you getting that info regarding a year out? The last I looked their domain expires in September, presumably with their web hosting fees. The way the Pico is currently configured, best case they won’t be doorstops til after that.
In other news, my buddy’s Pico blew up over this past weekend doing his first manual brew. Right before his last hop addition, he stepped away, came back and the unit was off with water leaking at all 4 corners.
Assuming that Pico is on their way out anyways, he decided to take it apart and see if he could fix it. There is a fairly flimsy piece which looks like a reducer that is not reinforced in any manner. Burst, water splattered all over, electronics all wet. So he is looking at all in ones, and I had started looking at them a couple months back anyways.
I guess we might all have a better idea of where these units stand in a couple days regardless.
In other news, my buddy’s Pico blew up over this past weekend doing his first manual brew. Right before his last hop addition, he stepped away, came back and the unit was off with water leaking at all 4 corners.
Assuming that Pico is on their way out anyways, he decided to take it apart and see if he could fix it. There is a fairly flimsy piece which looks like a reducer that is not reinforced in any manner. Burst, water splattered all over, electronics all wet. So he is looking at all in ones, and I had started looking at them a couple months back anyways.
I guess we might all have a better idea of where these units stand in a couple days regardless.
Well we all knew it was coming....
https://thespoon.tech/rest-in-peace...lkgFAWuvqwN_AUzzz7CXUoyHmr_EZcNoyJO4DJtZwH1gc
https://thespoon.tech/rest-in-peace...lkgFAWuvqwN_AUzzz7CXUoyHmr_EZcNoyJO4DJtZwH1gc
Yes...we did. Anybody have eyes on their next system? Fairly certain I'll end up with a Foundry. Trying to figure out if I'm doing big or small.
![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)
Big noisy souse vide machine.
The Pico C was fun, and I'll continue to use it as long as I can.
I have a 6.5 Gallon Anvil Foundry on order. Looks to be the ideal solution for 2.5-3 Gallon batches.
Also going to experiment with using a Sous Vide immersion circulator for BIAB mashing in conjunction with a standalone induction burner for boiling for small 1-2 gallon batches.
I have a 6.5 Gallon Anvil Foundry on order. Looks to be the ideal solution for 2.5-3 Gallon batches.
Also going to experiment with using a Sous Vide immersion circulator for BIAB mashing in conjunction with a standalone induction burner for boiling for small 1-2 gallon batches.
Lbarouf
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I wonder if one has to buy the whole lot. Like all the pico brew machines or you can bid on 1 or 2. With a way to brew without the their servers, I still like my S unit for a better manual brew.
Looks like the whole lot...
A Eulogy for PicoBrew ... I have one of the very first original units (Maybe the very first one shipped to Canada), as well as having had a whole year of the BrewUnlimited option. I can’t count the number of paks I brewed but I hope I amortized the cost of the unit pretty well!
All that being said, I would honestly say that less than 20% of my brews were “Good” and almost none were truly Great. I could never ever get a really clean IPA, and most Stouts ended up a little on the syrupy side. I even invested in a chest freezer fermentation setup with little success.
In the meantime, the world moved on. The beer scene in Canada is orders of magnitude better than it was, the value of the Canadian dollar dropped by 25%, and I can now get 20L kegs of great fresh beer from at least a dozen great breweries, often dropped off to my door, for less per litre than a PicoPak cost for the raw materials.
So, fun while it lasted, but the announcement will just make it easier for me to toss my machine currently gathering dust in the basement. The 5L corny kegs make great Growlers, and the chest freezer is storing supplies for the Apocalypse
Cheers
All that being said, I would honestly say that less than 20% of my brews were “Good” and almost none were truly Great. I could never ever get a really clean IPA, and most Stouts ended up a little on the syrupy side. I even invested in a chest freezer fermentation setup with little success.
In the meantime, the world moved on. The beer scene in Canada is orders of magnitude better than it was, the value of the Canadian dollar dropped by 25%, and I can now get 20L kegs of great fresh beer from at least a dozen great breweries, often dropped off to my door, for less per litre than a PicoPak cost for the raw materials.
So, fun while it lasted, but the announcement will just make it easier for me to toss my machine currently gathering dust in the basement. The 5L corny kegs make great Growlers, and the chest freezer is storing supplies for the Apocalypse
Cheers
Living in SoCal, I sometimes wonder why I even bother. I have at least 15 breweries within a 5 mile radius of my house, many of whom are multi year GABF award winners. I just started brewing this year, with this Pico that was purchased in December of last year. I brewed approximately 5 paks, all off which were meh. About 3 paks in, I tired of waiting 24 hours and gundecked a cooling solution with my garage sink and an aquarium pump and re-purposed an extra fridge into a fermentation chamber. I went through about a dozen manual brews and some of those were a little better (with some definite drain dwellers!), but quickly came to the opinion that the manual brew process compared to traditional is a massive PITA.
I was going to run through a manual brew this morning just to get rid of some grain that I've got. Stepped through a rinse and said the hell with it.
Perhaps my already jaded opinion of manual brewing on the Pico combined with its impending (current?) death has soured my desire to do anything with this machine. Assuming that it isn't a doorstop in the coming weeks, I'll hand it off to a buddy who might be interested in it.
I was going to run through a manual brew this morning just to get rid of some grain that I've got. Stepped through a rinse and said the hell with it.
Perhaps my already jaded opinion of manual brewing on the Pico combined with its impending (current?) death has soured my desire to do anything with this machine. Assuming that it isn't a doorstop in the coming weeks, I'll hand it off to a buddy who might be interested in it.
I brewed a "Manual Brew" on the Pico C this weekend. I ended up with a starting gravity of 1.049, when the recipe was aiming for 1.057. Disappointed, but it will still be beer!
When emptying the grain bag, I found the reason. Good-sized dough ball right in the center of the grain. It was slightly damp, but was lighter in color than the rest of the grain, leading me to believe that it never came up to temperature and the mash was incomplete. There's not really a good way to deal with this situation on the Pico system. But, this was my 4th brew, and it was the first time I didn't hit numbers (previous brews were 2 Pico Paks and 1 Manual Brew).
I'm thinking of maybe building a mesh basket of some sort that would fit into the step filter to replace the grain bag. It would have an open top (or a lid) so that the grain could be stirred several times during the mash. Although removing and replacing the step filter during operation is not ideal, it's better than having dough balls and incomplete mashes!
I think this might also increase the grain capacity of the Pico C (just a tad over 4 lbs, reportedly, but in actuality, 3.5 lbs. looks like it's pushing it!).
Does anybody know if this has been considered or tried by anybody else? (Apologies if this has been brought up before!)
When emptying the grain bag, I found the reason. Good-sized dough ball right in the center of the grain. It was slightly damp, but was lighter in color than the rest of the grain, leading me to believe that it never came up to temperature and the mash was incomplete. There's not really a good way to deal with this situation on the Pico system. But, this was my 4th brew, and it was the first time I didn't hit numbers (previous brews were 2 Pico Paks and 1 Manual Brew).
I'm thinking of maybe building a mesh basket of some sort that would fit into the step filter to replace the grain bag. It would have an open top (or a lid) so that the grain could be stirred several times during the mash. Although removing and replacing the step filter during operation is not ideal, it's better than having dough balls and incomplete mashes!
I think this might also increase the grain capacity of the Pico C (just a tad over 4 lbs, reportedly, but in actuality, 3.5 lbs. looks like it's pushing it!).
Does anybody know if this has been considered or tried by anybody else? (Apologies if this has been brought up before!)
In my last MB when I got as close as I’ve ever gotten to hitting numbers, I mashed in at 110 for 10 minutes, paused and moved the bag around, mashed at 152 for 60 and paused twice.
Believe I’ve seen people say they out in a bag that encompasses the entire filter so it is open. Makes it easier to stop and stir.
Believe I’ve seen people say they out in a bag that encompasses the entire filter so it is open. Makes it easier to stop and stir.
chiefwigms
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Not sure if you guys are on the pico Facebook user group, but I pushed to GitHub... chiefwigms/picobrew_pico
Lbarouf
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Funny, I was thinking the same the other day while day dreaming. Mine would have been with a paddle. horizontal, coming in from the front, on an axis, and you would push and pull while also turning the handle to help mix the center of the grains. Manufacturing it would be less than easy, but I'm thinking, if I can buy used step filters, I could attempt building it.
Lbarouf
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Thanks Chief.
I don't really do Facebook, but I'll take a look. Thanks!
I think I have a plan of action...
I'm going to fashion a false bottom out of either a stainless steel grill topper or a stainless steel baking/roasting rack (depending on what I find locally). This will replace using the hop cradle to keep the bag away from the step filter valve.
Then I'm going to sew a mesh bag that's custom fit to the step filter out of some voile curtain panels that I bought a while back. This should allow me to stir the mash occasionally, avoid those dough balls, and maybe increase the Pico's grain capacity a bit.
Then I'm going to try mashing 5 pounds of grain and see what happens!
I'm going to fashion a false bottom out of either a stainless steel grill topper or a stainless steel baking/roasting rack (depending on what I find locally). This will replace using the hop cradle to keep the bag away from the step filter valve.
Then I'm going to sew a mesh bag that's custom fit to the step filter out of some voile curtain panels that I bought a while back. This should allow me to stir the mash occasionally, avoid those dough balls, and maybe increase the Pico's grain capacity a bit.
Then I'm going to try mashing 5 pounds of grain and see what happens!
rex clingan
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like this?
rex clingan
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From FB group:
rex clingan
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PB Funding Group LLC is the company who have purchased the assets of PicoBrew. The owner is Gregory Whitten.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greg_Whitten
Greg Whitten and Bill Mitchell both worked at Microsoft back in the day.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greg_Whitten
Greg Whitten and Bill Mitchell both worked at Microsoft back in the day.
Yup! Very much like that! I have a pencil sketch that looks a lot like your engineering drawing!
How does that work for you?
The other part of my plan is a custom bag that fits in there allowing the grain to make better use of the space for more complete immersion, and to allow for easy stirring.
Good to hear that the servers will remain up for a while!
Geez...disappear for a few days and lots of news. This is a positive for sure...hopefully?
Sebastian Weetabix
Well-Known Member
Gregory Whitten is a software guy. Mitchell is a hardware guy.
Mitchell is gone, Whitten is the new owner. What if Whitten’s goal was to acquire the hardware patents, farm out the construction of Picos to someone in Mexico or another low labor costs country and re-write the software for ONLY off line brewing.
Whitten would want to keep the servers up and running until he could come up with an update to allow OUR Picos to brew off line.
It would be insane to throw current Pico owners under the bus without any kind of an update simply because of the ensuing bad publicity.
Just my two cents worth.
Mitchell is gone, Whitten is the new owner. What if Whitten’s goal was to acquire the hardware patents, farm out the construction of Picos to someone in Mexico or another low labor costs country and re-write the software for ONLY off line brewing.
Whitten would want to keep the servers up and running until he could come up with an update to allow OUR Picos to brew off line.
It would be insane to throw current Pico owners under the bus without any kind of an update simply because of the ensuing bad publicity.
Just my two cents worth.
Sebastian Weetabix
Well-Known Member
I found on Amazon a foldable grill screen that is an 18”X24”.
Under $12.00
This screen, once separated will take care of my Pico Pro and Pico C.
Just a heads up.
Under $12.00
This screen, once separated will take care of my Pico Pro and Pico C.
Just a heads up.
I found this Stainless Steel Barbecue Topper at my local Target for $14:
It measures about 11.5" x 15.5". Now, to figure out how to cut it...
It measures about 11.5" x 15.5". Now, to figure out how to cut it...
I used an angle grinder with a cut-off wheel to cut the barbecue topper like this:
It was a pretty easy "follow-the-dots" pattern!
IMPORTANT: If you do this, be sure to verify by taking your own measurements! Don't just assume that your topper has the same hole pattern as mine!
Then I switched to a grinding wheel to clean up the edges, and finally cleaned up the edges further with some emery cloth. I'm going to also clean it with a green 3M pad and Bar Keepers Friend. This should help passivate the edges to prevent rust.
And it fits like this:
It was a pretty easy "follow-the-dots" pattern!
IMPORTANT: If you do this, be sure to verify by taking your own measurements! Don't just assume that your topper has the same hole pattern as mine!
Then I switched to a grinding wheel to clean up the edges, and finally cleaned up the edges further with some emery cloth. I'm going to also clean it with a green 3M pad and Bar Keepers Friend. This should help passivate the edges to prevent rust.
And it fits like this:
Recent news is that a bunch of folks that bought units, accessories and paks once Picobrew full knowingly entered receivership (legally meaning they don't know what will happen on the other side) have been given refunds for select hardware (that produced, designed or specific to Picobrew machines) and unused/unbrewed paks. Guess those that went on a brewing spree are a bid sad they missed out on some $$.
Anyways, if they refunded since say February I'm guessing these machines which aren't asked to be sent back are then off the hook for supporting for a year as they at this point are "sorry we shouldn't have sold this to you, but we also don't want them back" type of "gifts" vs legally bound sales/purchases.
