PicoBrew Zymatic

Yakima 728
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Pratty said:
can someone please upload a video to youtube of your own picobrew inaction??

It seems that the only vidoes that appear are all the advertising/kickstarter ones and an unboxing video.....it would be great to see an actual consumer using the product.

or have they got some disclaimer about uploading videos?
Click to expand...


I personally would prefer to see a picobrew in action than picobrew inaction........ ;-)


H.W.
 
I don't have much to say about this other than I'm amazed that something like this has come to fruition (I mean that in a good way!). I have a hard time seeing it being successful, it still has a lot of the drawbacks of traditional homebrewing, it really just takes out the mashing, which is probably the most enjoyable part. You still have to clean and sanitize bottles, temp control the ferment, sanitize/clean all the post chill equipment, etc., etc. We all know there's a hell of a lot more to making beer than producing wort.

That aside, it's super slick and I'm extremely impressed with the design. Great job by PicoBrew.
 
Brewed my first batch yesterday! They included their Pico Pale Ale kit as part of the purchase. I read a few of the reviews on their site and people complained about the lack of hop flavor, so I moved around the hop addition times and turned it into a low IBU IPA instead. I may dry hop it as well. The recipe crafter then said the OG would be a little low (.003 SG) for an IPA, but my mash got extended so I'm sure its fine (don't have a hydrometer on hand.)

The bulk of my "brewday" yesterday was actually spent cleaning and rebuilding my kegs, which had sat, disgusting, for several years. I replaced an O-ring on the liquid out post with one that was too small and the pump was unable to get proper suction. I figured this out after I was about 25 minutes into the mash and the mash tun (step filter) hadn't yet filled up and the mash was not holding temperature.

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Everything else when fairly flawlessly after I fixed that - I actually fell asleep during the boil.

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I did a no chill - so I just drained the zymatic and stuck the keg in a snowbank while I cleaned up. Clean up took about 25 minutes because I didn't know what I was doing - probably about 15 in the future.

I'm doing two more brews today and will probably start a thread, both will be no chill brews. I'm getting sent on work travel for a week at the end of the month, so my goal is to bottle all of these brews before I leave, and brew up 2 more batches to start fermenting while I'm gone. :rockin:

I'm going to need friends to come around more often to drink all this beer :tank: so that I can keep playing with recipes :mug:
 
Nice report - and good to hear some troubleshooting advice.

When you "no-chill" are you doing any circulation with the zh attic, or really just shutting down? I do no chill often in the winter as it's tough to deal with water run off when it's near zero in MN, but I'm just curious.
 
I just told the zymatic to drain (10 minutes) and disconnected the keg after it was done- no additional circulation.

The brew that I finished last night went into the basement to cool, but hindsight says I should have at least put it in a bucket with snow/water. If I brew again before the snow is gone I'll do that, or I'll pick up a plate chiller and set it up like I want to. The keg was still at 85F 6.5 hours later this morning so I cooled it to pitching temp with the bucket/snow method.

Even though I rebuilt my kegs I'm still leery of their condition, so really hope these beers don't get infected. There are several things that could have gone wrong.

The pico pale (US05) isn't showing fermentation but my blow off tube may not be fully seated into the keg lid. The DFH clone (Nottingham) I did is bubbling away- I did a more complicated mash on that one and pitched a bit warm. The bells two hearted clone (US05) I did last night just got pitched this morning.
 
FlyDoctor said:
Doesn't the hornwort circulate through downturn whole boil? That should kill anything in there
Click to expand...

Yes. Fingers crossed. First brew has a decent krausen and is chugging along. Second one is blowing off quite nicely. Third brew was pitched about 12 hours ago - should be started soon.
 
I've had my Zymatic for a week now, and it's really an incredible machine. Did back to back batches on Saturday and Sunday. There's a bit of a learning curve with the machine, but I get the sense that once you figure it out, things get progressively easier and more fun.

For me, the best thing about it is the clean up, or lack there of. It's what I hate, HATE, about my normal brew day in the backyard. And with the Zymatic, it really is no big deal.

Loving it so far, and not feeling guilty at all about not spending all day breaking my back in the backyard lifting and cleaning my 20 gallon kettle.
 
I found they Zymatic last weekend.... And I'm pretty sure I've been thinking about it for a couple hours out of each days since lol.
 
Just want to say that Picobrew has amazing customer service. They respond to support tickets in minutes, replaced my machine no questions asked when I had issues with it, paid for shipping both ways, and even threw in some freebies when they sent me the new machine.
Very happy with my purchase.
 
That's good news. You would hope a company selling a high end product would have good customer service.

What issues were you running into?
 
Apparently a relay inside the machine broke so it was resetting itself mid-brew.
They were able to diagnose the issue remotely.
They sent me shipping material and a label to send it back, and sent me a new one a couple weeks later.
 
My picobrew is arriving soon. I've had a eHERMS system for about five years and then gave up on it. As much as I loved to use it, it had significant limitations. First, it needed a 220V plug to hookup the heating element. I had this installed once -- but it cost quite a bit, and when we moved, I was in no hurry to pay it all over again.

The 220V was outside, so brew days were relegated to March 15 to late September. I noticed, though, that the brewing season kept getting shorter and shorter due to the weird (and unpredictable) Chicago weather, so I vowed never, ever set up my brewing outside again.

Cleanup was awful. I had a Top Tier stand, two march pumps, 2 Blichmann 20 gallon kettles, and one Blichmann 15 gallon kettle (for boiling wort), and I gradually added more and more gear -- plate chillers, whirlpool pump, hopback -- you name it. It took 2 hours to get set up and have water at the right temp, 1 hour for the mash, 1.5 hours for the boil (give or take), 30 mins for therminator cooling, and then 1.5 to 2 hours for cleanup with starsan and perfume free Oxy Clean. It wore on me.

I loved the beer -- just hated the process. The eHerms, though, was a piece of art. It worked superbly well -- and I could get my beer within a half degree of any target. If someone said to me, "I want to brew outside -- and I don't care about the cleanup -- I would recommend 100% building an eHERMS. So long as your pumps work and your copper coil was clamped tight and had no leaks, it was a touchdown. Sorta like a massive sous-vide machine. In fact, I used it a couple times to sous-vide burgers and steak when we had folks over and I hadn't yet dumped the recirculated water.

Anyway, that's a long way of saying: yeah, no matter how much folks smirk about the Picobrew -- no matter how much you want to debate the semantics of "wort machine" versus "beer machine" (which is odd, because when you think about any HERMS or RIMS setup is just that -- a super-accuratewort machine -- yet you're still making beer when you set up and kick that HERMS into high gear. But you still gotta cool down, oxygenate, and ferment -- and keep everything spotless while you're doing that) -- the picobrew was a nobrainer for me. I love the beer making process -- and I love the idea of repeating brews. It is, when you think about, another sous-vide machine -- and that's fine with me. If you've had a medium-rare sous vide steak at 134F -- and realize that's it's absolutely perfect -- and then can make the same thing 2 days later exactly as the previous steaks -- you realize, okay, I kind dig the temperature control.

My concern is how the finished beer tastes. I've read through this thread and see the various taste-tests -- and that's cool -- but I see a lot of hit-and-misses. "Tastes like plastic" -- "Tastes great" -- "Passable."

I wonder if picobrew needs to add another video about sanitation during the brew process? I know they have cleaning videos, but maybe a video just about StarSan and PBW and the importance of absolutely flawless cleaning of the kegs. I do like the idea of a closed system -- cooling down in the keg while (apparently?) oxygenating at the same time. It's nice not to have to run to Home Depot to pick up another oxygen container when you realize the one you had is empty.

Anyway, I'll start a new thread here with my own observations and photos. It's arriving in a couple days via FedEx. Meantime, I'd love to hear about more finished brews -- and if -- given the proper cleaning regiment -- the finished beers do show an element of consistency.
 
cschweda said:
My picobrew is arriving soon. I've had a eHERMS system for about five years and then gave up on it. As much as I loved to use it, it had significant limitations. First, it needed a 220V plug to hookup the heating element. I had this installed once -- but it cost quite a bit, and when we moved, I was in no hurry to pay it all over again.

The 220V was outside, so brew days were relegated to March 15 to late September. I noticed, though, that the brewing season kept getting shorter and shorter due to the weird (and unpredictable) Chicago weather, so I vowed never, ever set up my brewing outside again.

Cleanup was awful. I had a Top Tier stand, two march pumps, 2 Blichmann 20 gallon kettles, and one Blichmann 15 gallon kettle (for boiling wort), and I gradually added more and more gear -- plate chillers, whirlpool pump, hopback -- you name it. It took 2 hours to get set up and have water at the right temp, 1 hour for the mash, 1.5 hours for the boil (give or take), 30 mins for therminator cooling, and then 1.5 to 2 hours for cleanup with starsan and perfume free Oxy Clean. It wore on me.

I loved the beer -- just hated the process. The eHerms, though, was a piece of art. It worked superbly well -- and I could get my beer within a half degree of any target. If someone said to me, "I want to brew outside -- and I don't care about the cleanup -- I would recommend 100% building an eHERMS. So long as your pumps work and your copper coil was clamped tight and had no leaks, it was a touchdown. Sorta like a massive sous-vide machine. In fact, I used it a couple times to sous-vide burgers and steak when we had folks over and I hadn't yet dumped the recirculated water.

Anyway, that's a long way of saying: yeah, no matter how much folks smirk about the Picobrew -- no matter how much you want to debate the semantics of "wort machine" versus "beer machine" (which is odd, because when you think about any HERMS or RIMS setup is just that -- a super-accuratewort machine -- yet you're still making beer when you set up and kick that HERMS into high gear. But you still gotta cool down, oxygenate, and ferment -- and keep everything spotless while you're doing that) -- the picobrew was a nobrainer for me. I love the beer making process -- and I love the idea of repeating brews. It is, when you think about, another sous-vide machine -- and that's fine with me. If you've had a medium-rare sous vide steak at 134F -- and realize that's it's absolutely perfect -- and then can make the same thing 2 days later exactly as the previous steaks -- you realize, okay, I kind dig the temperature control.

My concern is how the finished beer tastes. I've read through this thread and see the various taste-tests -- and that's cool -- but I see a lot of hit-and-misses. "Tastes like plastic" -- "Tastes great" -- "Passable."

I wonder if picobrew needs to add another video about sanitation during the brew process? I know they have cleaning videos, but maybe a video just about StarSan and PBW and the importance of absolutely flawless cleaning of the kegs. I do like the idea of a closed system -- cooling down in the keg while (apparently?) oxygenating at the same time. It's nice not to have to run to Home Depot to pick up another oxygen container when you realize the one you had is empty.

Anyway, I'll start a new thread here with my own observations and photos. It's arriving in a couple days via FedEx. Meantime, I'd love to hear about more finished brews -- and if -- given the proper cleaning regiment -- the finished beers do show an element of consistency.
Click to expand...


+100

You're spot on about the Zymatic. Fyi, it seems most of the taste issues were with the first batch.
I would put it through a full cleaning cycle before brewing on it.
Enjoy!
 
jaywhy said:
+100

You're spot on about the Zymatic. Fyi, it seems most of the taste issues were with the first batch.
I would put it through a full cleaning cycle before brewing on it.
Enjoy!
Click to expand...

+1

I did a rinse before using mine for the first batch, and then it got infected from my old keg (I tore it down again today and could hardly believe I had already cleaned it) but to eliminate as many variables as possible I'd do a full clean.
 
I finished the first default included recipe (I'm one week into bottle carbonation) and tried one bottle to check flavors / carbonation. It tastes good in my mind for only a week in, and for what the recipe is. No off flavors. Just need to clean / sanitize all parts beforehand.

I suspect the people who get off flavors either don't clean / sanitize or only partially do so (i.e. don't clean the keg, or some other singular component). I opted to do a deep clean w/o detergent and still the obligatory rinse as well, followed by running the parts through the dishwasher (BTW, don't use any dry-heat cycles on the step filter ... I didn't but I suspect it's best avoided from what I can tell) as well as PBW on the keg. When it comes to the dishwasher, I'll probably run it only through my "eco" cycle on the step filter to keep the temperature as low as possible on the step filter while cleaning.

Long story short, the first taste has me excited to have a very regular rotation of brews, which I couldn't achieve before due to my schedule.
 
I've given my initial one but haven't had a chance to brew with it since- bulk grain should be coming in next weekend so hope to be able to brew more if I don't have to sit down and think out a recipe a weeks in advance.
 
Mine came three weeks ago (after being delayed 3 times)... right as we were moving! Should have it out next weekend to try.
 
Already brewed two batches with this. This thing works *incredibly* well. Very surprised. Coming off a big HERMS and many years of backyard brewing -- the idea of brewing on a table in my basement is fantastic.

And using a corny to ferment? Love it.

Tranferred my first batch (smoked porter) from a 5gal to 3gal corny, force carb'd, and let it sit for a few days. It's still green -- but the taste is fantastic. Easily, the best -- and certainly the most low-stress beer -- I've brewed.

Planning to brew three more batches this weekend.
 
It's a good review, but they apparently botched the fermentation -- so the tasters were not impressed.

My kegged brews so far from the Pico have been superb. Far better than anything I've made with my old backyard HERMS. I suspect my 64F basement has a lot to do with it, too. I, too, had issues with fermentation temps which caused off-tastes with my HERMS gear. I've since moved, and my basement seems able to hold a steadier ambient temp -- no windows, no light -- and I think makes all the difference.

I've used Safale-05 with all but one of my brews (I tried Denny's Fav 50 yeast -- and while I like the mouthfeel, the attenuation was far less than I expect -- around 70% or so -- even with a starter -- for a 1.070 OG porter. Porter tastes fine -- but I wasn't used to the yeast, so I'll stick with 05 from here on out.)

05 for me tends to go in the 75-78% range consistently. I use the high efficiency mash schedule in the Pico.
 
I would call the review fair, and I don't mean balanced. The review comes from the perspective of wanting an instant beer machine, not from the perspective of an experienced brewer. The experienced brewer who assisted, has some deep philosophical objection to the concept of automation. Somehow despite cleaning and sanitizing and having boiling wort running through the device they still had infection? Don't understand that. And they blame the zymatic for poor body? Come on now...
 
I've brewed nearly 20 batches in my Zymatic now -- and while I love the automation, I realize it's far from an "automatic" process. It's still labor intensive in terms of sanitation and cleaning -- and I still need to watch my fermenation process -- but the results -- every single one -- have been superb.

The only thing I struggle with is hop aroma -- and I struggled with this with my HERMS, too -- but I'm starting to add hops to a tea ball added to the keg at racking, so I'm hoping -- fingers crossed -- that the first "keg hopped" brew when it's ready in a week or so will have a more pronounced hop aroma. The dry hopping I've done in the ferm keg was much like the dry hopping I did in carboys: great at racking, but within 2 weeks, all gone. This is normal, I know, but it's frustrating. Bitterness-wise my Pico brewed beers have been spot on, but the aroma is still elusive.

My next addition -- and I hesitate to do this because it means more gear (which I want to avoid) is to look into some some of randalizer -- a Blichmann hop rocket maybe -- that I push the beer through moments before drinking in order to get the last minute aroma. We'll see ...
 
I'm ordering one today - and I fully realize that it is not automatic. What info look forward to is automated mash temps, hop additions etc so I don't need to carve out 4-5 hours on a Saturday to brew. Being able to mow the lawn, go to the grocery store, play with my kids while mashing and boiling are key, as is reproducibility and in-place sanitation.
 
I think magically expecting the machine to do better than what you'd expect from a standard process, however, seems off base. The work is still in recipe formulation and fermentation management! Where the magic really happens. I derive no soul soothing from fretting over mash temp and watching a timer for hop additions.
 
Congrats on ordering one. It really is a great machine -- and their support is out of this world. They have folks there on the weekends -- and they can talk you through (via email) most issues.

Couple tips I've learned:

- Be sure to not to get any stray grains outside of the wire screens. Any stray grains -- any -- will clog the system and screw up the batch.

- Make sure the hop screen is pressed down and pressed back to give the fluid arm room to pour the water between the hop compartment and grain compartment. I use an upside spoon between grain screen and top plexi-screen to force the grain screen down even more. Not necessary, but I've seen a couple of forum posts about it -- and it seems to help.

- Make sure to use ethernet instead of wifi. Wifi is getting better on the Pico, but ethernet makes it very easy to make sure you don't lose connection during a brew.

- If you want some quick and easy "get up to speed" recipes, I highly recommend Northern Brewer's 3-gallon BIAB recipes. Very easy to dump and go (once you've entered the recipe). I used to use 5 gallon NB recipes on my old system, so these allowed me to compare the taste between the Pico and my old system. They're also the perfect size for the Pico -- about 6-8 pounds for a good 1.050-1.070 brew -- my normal range on the Pico.

- Experiment with ice cooling versus overnight cooling versus chillers. I've moved to overnight cooling after I cool the wort down to 90F with a bucket (and about 3 changes of ground water). No impact on flavor.

- Have a Windows laptop available just in case you need a quick firmware upload. I had an issue with drainage, and it required me to flash the firmware to a pump-specific firmware (to test both pumps individually) -- and then to flash back to the machine firmware. I only had to do this once, but I've since got a laptop located beside my Pico to watch my brews, craft recipes, and upload and emergency stuff like the pump firmware they sent me (on a Saturday afternoon!). No Mac firmware flasher -- only Windows.

- Clean the machine after each batch. I do two rinses after each batch and a full cleaning cycle (which is essentially a full brew -- but without grains and with a dishwasher tab) after every 4 batches. Rinse like crazy, though.

- Have a clean-up plan for the spent grain and hops. I use two garbage bags in a 5 gallon Home Depot bucket. Clamp the bags to the sides. Then I dump the hops first (boiled hops are potentially deadly for dogs -- so be sure to keep the spent hops away from floors or the ground or anywhere dogs can get at them) -- and then the grains (with my hands -- use brewer's gloves). Then I rinse the plastic step filter, hop cages, screens, and plexi-top. Cleanup for me is down to 6 minutes flat. Once clean, I start the first of the two rinses -- and then seal up the garbage bags with grains and hops.

- Finally -- be very, very careful when inserting the silicon keg stopper. I cut my hand on the side of the keg when I pushed it too hard and it went into the keg. Now I insert the stopper at the start of the brew and DO NOT remove it -- ever -- until fermentation is finished (2-3 weeks later). I bought a couple of funnels for pouring in sugar (during boil) or yeast (post-boil). The stopper has a hole in the middle of it -- so the funnels make it easy to add anything I need. Also -- make sure if you decide to remove the stopper, it's dry -- not wet. A wet stopper is more likely to fall into the brew (and potentially screw up batch). I can't stress this enough. Be very, very careful when inserting the stopper. I've since gotten a pair Blichmann's brewer's gloves -- and will only insert the stopper when I'm wearing gloves. My cut was bad -- really bad -- so I really, really want to emphasize the care you need to take when pushing the stopper into the keg opening. If you're a gentle touch, it works fine -- but if you push too hard, you risk serious injury (and a screwed up batch).
 
Great tips! Thank you.

A few follow-up points/question:

1) Windows....I'm strictly a MAC guy. Does the software work on MAC? I don't understand what a firmware flasher is - so sorry if you already addressed this. The website doesn't specifically mention anything about OS compatibility.

2) Sorry about the cut - sounds nasty - and I really appreciate the warning!
 
FlyDoctor said:
Great tips! Thank you.

A few follow-up points/question:

1) Windows....I'm strictly a MAC guy. Does the software work on MAC? I don't understand what a firmware flasher is - so sorry if you already addressed this. The website doesn't specifically mention anything about OS compatibility.

2) Sorry about the cut - sounds nasty - and I really appreciate the warning!
Click to expand...


No Mac version. I run Parallels on my MacBook -- so it's possible you can run it under Parallels running Win 8.x on a Mac -- but I haven't tried it yet.

If you're ordering now, you'll probably get the most recent firmware (1.19). Pico just updated it a couple days ago. I'll flash eventually, but I want to wait and see if there are any issues.

I've been using 1.18 (what shipped with my Pico when I bought it in April) -- and it works fine. No issues whatsoever -- except Wifi. I believe they've tweaked the wifi under 1.19 (as well as sped up the heating a bit). Still, if you have a Mac and get a Pico with 1.18 -- you'll be fine. 20 batches in, and I've no glitches at all from the software side.

(If you order one now, you might ask -- or check -- to see what firmware it's running.)
 
I also have a Mac and will be trying to use Parallels to update the firmware later this week. Shouldn't be an issue. I can use a dinosaur Dell laptop or figure out something else if it doesn't work.

Congrats on the purchase FlyDoctor - I know you've been following my thread - hope it was moderately helpful.
 
I've now brewed 11 batches and have overall been very happy with the machine. My favorite thing about it is the ease of cleaning and consistent mash temps. My only complaint is that I don't think late addition hops using the hop compartments give you the same aroma/flavor as you get in a traditional set up when you add hops directly to the kettle. I've begun to add whirlpool hops directly to the brewing keg at the end of the boil instead of using the compartments and this has made a huge difference in both hop flavor and aroma.

In terms is cooling, I use an IC to cool all of my hoppy beers because I don't like what over night chilling does to hop aroma and bitterness on hoppy beers. For malt forward beers, I'll overnight chill and I've had good results.

Anyway, solid product that has allowed me to better integrate brewing into my life without it taking over my weekend. Really happy about that.
 
jmadway said:
My only complaint is that I don't think late addition hops using the hop compartments give you the same aroma/flavor as you get in a traditional set up when you add hops directly to the kettle. I've begun to add whirlpool hops directly to the brewing keg at the end of the boil instead of using the compartments and this has made a huge difference in both hop flavor and aroma.
Click to expand...

Have you compared this to doing a whirlpool hop addition while cooling using the advanced editor? I'm just wondering because I have yet to use this feature but I plan on doing this and a pre-boil hop addition for my next hoppy beer - I love a large amount of flavor and aroma and I have also found the PicoBrew wanting.
 
Baja_Brewer said:
Have you compared this to doing a whirlpool hop addition while cooling using the advanced editor? I'm just wondering because I have yet to use this feature but I plan on doing this and a pre-boil hop addition for my next hoppy beer - I love a large amount of flavor and aroma and I have also found the PicoBrew wanting.
Click to expand...

I'm still not clear on the programming for the whirlpool with the Pico. I know the reference is always to the Catfish IPA to see it -- but I've included the recipe in my library and didn't notice anything different in the advanced editor. Do you add the final addition, drain, and then what? Simply set a temp point for X minutes -- and then drain again to start chilling?

Plus, I'm not keen on the current advanced editor since I always lose my edits when I make recipe changes. That's one of the major bugs (features?) that's been really bumming me out. I tend to tweak, and I forget that I can't tweak ingredients once I make advanced editor changes.

On another point: I'm finding that I'm getting better attenuation when I don't use the high-efficiency mash schedule. I just program a mash -- and then let it step up to it, do it for 90min, and then go directly to boil. My "high efficiency mash" beers -- again, in general -- have gotten, yes, better efficiency (and a higher OG) but significantly less attenuation (70-72% with Safale-05 versus 78-80% with the normal mash schedule). How do you mash -- the simple schedule or the step schedule?

Obviously, there may be other factors at play -- but for the time being, I've reverted back to the normal, simple schedule -- and my IPAs (especially) have been happier (and drier). I use Safale-05 exclusively, so it may be different with other yeasts.

re: hops

I've started to add NB's hopshot about 2 minutes before the boil is over. I've been using a single syringe, but I may step up to 2 at the end of the boil for my next IPA. I know it needs some time in the hot wort to fully dissolve (otherwise it's a sticky nightmare) -- but I figure 2 mins is probably enough. We'll see. I've got a Belgian going where I've tried this for the first time -- and apart from serious sulfur out of the fermenter, I'm smelling intense hops. Might be a bad thing since that smell is probably my hop aroma dissipating -- but I'm going to keep tweaking. :) Also, I say, I ordered a bunch of teaballs from Amazon, so I'm hoping the keg hopping will at least add some aroma. Later this week I'm brewing a Dead Guy clone, so we'll see if the hopshot(s) give it a good boost.
 
bobbytuck said:
I've started to add NB's hopshot about 2 minutes before the boil is over. I've been using a single syringe, but I may step up to 2 at the end of the boil for my next IPA.
Click to expand...

If you are using Hop extract enough, check this out:

http://www.yakimavalleyhops.com/CO2HOPExtractCan_p/extractco2cans.htm

One can will net about 15 syringes of 10ml. Not sure about the NB hop extract, but this stuff is 10ibu/ml. So each syringe is 100ibu. I add the can to a slow cooker with water, let it heat up to thin the extract, then fill syringes.
 
johnsnownw said:
If you are using Hop extract enough, check this out:

http://www.yakimavalleyhops.com/CO2HOPExtractCan_p/extractco2cans.htm

One can will net about 15 syringes of 10ml. Not sure about the NB hop extract, but this stuff is 10ibu/ml. So each syringe is 100ibu. I add the can to a slow cooker with water, let it heat up to thin the extract, then fill syringes.
Click to expand...

Wow -- cool -- I just ordered a can. For $21, it's quite a bit cheaper than HopShot (I've got loads of syringes, too -- bought when I wanted to a nice sized syringe for the Pico's sample port.)

How much water do you add to the can? How long do you leave it in the slow cooker?
 
bobbytuck said:
Wow -- cool -- I just ordered a can. For $21, it's quite a bit cheaper than HopShot (I've got loads of syringes, too -- bought when I wanted to a nice sized syringe for the Pico's sample port.)

How much water do you add to the can? How long do you leave it in the slow cooker?
Click to expand...

No water added to the can, the water is added to the slow cooker, then you put the open can in the water...like this:

fsgiSNd.jpg


I believe I had it in the slow cooker for about an hour on "High"...though it may be dependent on your specific slow cooker.
 

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