PicoBrew Pico users

[msav]

One thing I noted. The part that typically clogs up it right when it goes into the heater. There is a little metal plug (not really a plug since it has a hole in it) most probably to create back pressure or to limit the amount of water goes to the heater. it has a small hole that gets plugged. I was able to push a thin metal rod through it to remove the clog on mine. After that it worked great. However I have had a couple repeated heat cycles that did not reach brew temp. That doing back to back cleans with Hot water in the keg remedied. This typically happens after not using the picobrew for a couple of months. so I think as the tubes dry out some funk hardens and then get pushed through and clogs. I have taken to doing repeated cleans after a brew until the cleaning water comes out with no particles and then I do one more. I recently moved and have not got my brew room setup back up for going on 5 months. Hopefully I do not run into problems my next brew

 

[Trevor Mack]

Last order of PicoFree is starting to arrive (yesterday). Everyone that got into this last order enjoy. For those that weren't able to the last few units will be released after majority of orders have been delivered and the reserve isn't needed for replacements of lost or broken units. Expect this to take another 4-6 weeks to settle out.

 

[Yeast of the Beast]

I got my Picofree pack, everything looks good except some of the holes in bottom don't seem like they were drilled all the way through. However, my brew didn't go great. When it got to mashing the temp was constantly jumping around, so I am wondering if I have a bad sensor. Main thing is I had an error telling me to secure the hoses to the keg, which probably stopped the brew atleast a dozen times. Also my mash didn't drain at all.

 

[Yeast of the Beast]

Update: My pico works fine as does the picofree box. It was user error on my part.

 

[spark146]

A question: do unused, unopened pico packs have value? Would the brew still be good?

 

[Trevor Mack]

Hops are likely rancid and the DME could be compacted into a brick depending on the Pak.

There isn't a simple answer without seeing, smelling and in some cases opening the Pak itself. That said you can always cut it open and replace ingredients if you don't have a PicoFree style bin.

At this point all PicoPaks expired well over a year ago so mileage may vary.

 

[Trevor Mack]

If you haven't heard yet. I have secured ~150 luerlock sample ports and am offering them up for the community (all profits after fulfillment will be donated to a local charity out in the Boston / New England region).

Should be self explanatory, so here just go to the source and order at Luerlock Sample Port

If you have any questions feel free to reach out directly.

 

[tjdeerinck]

Dang! Looks like I am late to the game! I have an unused Pico Pro. I read about Pico-Free and was wondering if anyone has one to sell? Please let me know.

~TJ

 

[Trevor Mack]

@tjdeerinck every once and awhile, if your patient enough, someone has a system or a left over box available in the PICOBREWERS Facebook community.

Rarely one will show up on eBay or the like. I already gave away my extra.

Good luck. In the meantime you can still do an automatic multi step mash with manual hop additions with an offline server in place.

 

[Trevor Mack]

Cross posting for Jon from the Picobrewers Facebook group.

Please help out !!! Please order Pico-Free

Hi Everyone,
To all of you who have ordered, thank you. To all of you who have donated extra to increase our donations to No Kid Hungry... THANK YOU.

As some of you may know, I have placed my final PO for the Pico-free product and paid my deposit to the factory, based on the 233 packs that you all have ordered. THANK YOU.

Unfortunately the factory has pulled a nasty on me, and is forcing a minimum of 500 even though we had agreed on 250.

So I am now looking at losing money on this order. I WILL fulfill all orders. Guaranteed. I am simply asking for help.

If you want another to play with, make drain hole size adjustments, or other experiments, or if you know anyone with a Pico C, S, or Pro please send them to the website.

I really hate to ask for the help. I don't mind losing money, if I still get to fulfil all orders, but I would rather not lose money and continue to donate to No Kid Hungry, and my wife would like to have the garage for her car.

Please spread the word as much as you can, that is all I ask, if you want to do more, then please.

Thanks everyone.

Jon

www.pico-free.com
keeping picobrew machines alive.

 

[tjdeerinck]

Trevor, You are the man! I was about to give up and sell my brand new unit and logged in to the forum to post. I just saw your message above and was able to order one from Pico-Free.com. Looking forward to trying the PicoBrew out with a PI server.

~TJ

 

[goldberg44]

Cross posting for Jon from the Picobrewers Facebook group.

Hello Trevor. I couldn't figure out how to get a new thread going, so I'm kind of changing the subject here (also, my Picobrewers Meta account is pending, so I might get an answer there once I can access it.) I had not used my Pico C in years, and didn't realize Picobrew had shut down until recently. No matter, i figure I can still use it as a Sous Vide appliance. I attempted a deep clean, and also attempted the Sous Vide function. Both of them resulted in error about two minutes into the process. Error stated to securely place hoses to keg posts. Although this is not listed as an instruction for the deep clean cycle, or for Sous Vide, I attempted the instructions and placed the hoses on my sealed, empty keg. The same error occured. My guess (and admittedly, my trouble shooting sucks) is that the machine is acknowledging the vacuum pressure as too low and stopping the process, as it "thinks" the hoses are not creating a vacuum. Any ideas on how this could be remedied?

 

[Mutant]

You likely need to prime the pumps. I don't know the recommended way. I would attach the plastic tubes that go on the hose ends, fill with some water and keep blowing it down the line until the pumps gets primed. Just my thoughts.

 

[RampantOctopus]

Agree with the above— use a plastic tipped syringe to inject some water (idk, 25ml’s or more) into the black tipped hose while running a cycle (circulate or whatever), once you got a little suction going, switch the tube over to a c keg or water and let the session continue!

Water will soon start returning from the gray tipped hose so make sure it has somewhere to go!

 

[Trevor Mack]

Hello Trevor. my Picobrewers Meta account is pending, so I might get an answer there once I can access it.

You should be in. I'm one of the active admins of that group.

Regarding the issues with the hose and suction I'd agree with the two above stating you need to likely prime the pump that has run dry if not used in a long while.

However, given PB is out of business I do believe even the sous vide sessions require the servers to be available and reachable... Which may error in another way for a subset of devices out there due to the insecure certificate and various server errors that have cropped up over the last 3 years in PB's active absence.

 

[Trevor Mack]

[Update 7:05pm Eastern] If you have run into an error with PayPal checkout, try opening the link in a system browser and not from within your mobile social application on your mobile device. Several have mentioned to me the checkout flow works from a native browser (Chrome, Safari, Firefox) where it fails for them through, for example, Facebook's embedded "captive" experience.

A few of us have been working on Stainless Steel replacement options for the Pico C/S/Pro filter plug and am proud to announce that the preorder site is setup and ready. Currently I've priced out a batch of 100 to get us a steeper discount, though this will only be possible if I can get a minimum order quantity close to 100 to be able to cover the product unit cost and international postage to get these to my house (and a member based on UK) for final fulfillment to your home brewery.

https://trevor-mack.com/products/316-stainless-pico-filter/
Have any questions feel free to reach out to me directly or via this post. We have included UK/EU, US/CA as well as AU/NZ options for shipping. If you live in another country or destination that isn't allowing checkout via PayPal let me know in a direct message and I'll put together a custom shipping quote for you.

Worried about flow or fit? There have been 10 folks already participating in testing out the fit and a few have reported back already with great success and fantastic grainbed flow through keeping mash going as good if not a little better than with the plastic fin design from Picobrew originally (thanks to @RampantOctopus for the video that I've included on the site).

Anyways costs are better than originally expected and the initial batch of 10, if and only if we can hit the MOQ as mentioned. Will keep everyone updated as we approach various milestones to keep you all abreast of our progress.

Check out Stainless Steel Picobrew C/S/Pro Filter Plug for order details. Payment is only via PayPal, if you have special needs let me know.

 

[Trevor Mack]

We have secured the 100 unit order discount level and are moving through phases of production fabrication.

Here you can see 100 (first run) of these filters were machined this morning on the laith.

Link in the earlier post to get in on this replacement item.