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Help, I'm in the middle of a brew and power went out to both elements. The panel works fine, PID's work fine, pump works fine, but the heating elements won't fire. (50A Panel) Any quick ideas?
 
Zenmeister said:
Help, I'm in the middle of a brew and power went out to both elements. The panel works fine, PID's work fine, pump works fine, but the heating elements won't fire. (50A Panel) Any quick ideas?
Click to expand...

Hmmm, that doesn't make any sense. I got no clue

EDIT: check the CB inside the box after unplug and make sure nothing is off.
 
Last edited:
OK so last test done, the best part is my setup is repeatable and consistent.

This brew I just added 1lb of grain to the recipe to see if all measured up and it did.

Target pre-boil was 1.035 and I hit that with a 78.1% eff.

Target OG was 1.044 to 1.048 and I hit 1.044 with a BH Eff of 64%

all of this was with a course crush straight from my LHBS.

Now to time to mill my own and see where we go from here.

Bottom line is my system is dialed in to what Beersmith predicts. I am happy
 
Quick question for those with Spike kettles. Just got a quote from Spike for a new boil kettle and found out they no longer offer the sight glass as an option. They said they have found it's not really needed with the internal marking in the kettles (and the sight glasses were a pain to keep clean).

Are the markings sufficient? I have a sight glass temp probe on my keggle I could transfer if needed - just need to figure out where to have the fitting welded.

Thanks!
 
^^^^They stopped offering sight glasses awhile ago. Early purchasers complained that they were not very accurate in addition to the reasons they told you.

I own custom BK and MT kettles. The internal markings are sufficient for my needs. When you get your kettle, as with any other piece of equipment, you should pour measured water into it to see if the measured water agrees with their internal markings. I think you will be happy with the Spike kettles.

Good luck!
 
I bought my kettles back in August and didn't want the sight glass and was happy to find out they don't offer them anymore. I too feel the kettle markings inside are sufficient for me.
 
I agree that, in general, sight glasses on kettles are more trouble than they're worth (possible breakage, cleaning, etc.), especially for the BK and HLT. I can see a small benefit for one on the MT during fly sparging where you've got a dynamic "goesoutta/goesinta" balance to maintain. There it could allow you to more easily keep an eye on the level (e.g. using Kal's binder clip trick), rather than frequently having to open the top to look at how things are going. I'm happy not having them.
 
What size (length) temp probe are you guys using in the boil kettle and HLT ? I'm currently using 6" probes because they are mounted in a T with the sight glass on the keggles. I'm guessing 2-4" should be sufficient.
 
TheMadKing said:
Here is how I have mine set up. It realistically predicts my volumes very well

To get my brew day down to 5 hours I do as many things in parallel as possible.
  • I heat strike water and HLT water simultaneously - and weigh out all hops, grains, and water additions while heating
  • I usually mash for 60 minutes tweaking mash temp as needed
  • sparge for about 30 minutes adjusting flow rates to mash the runoff to the sparge flow as needed
  • I have the boil element turned on as soon as its covered in wort so that I'm boiling almost as soon as the sparge is complete
  • As soon as sparge is complete I start cleaning the mash tun by scooping out most of the grain into a bucket and the vacuuming the rest out with a shop vac
  • I spray out the mash tun with pressurized water then vaccuum and repeat.
  • When there's no visible residue remaining, I undo my TC fitting on the mash tun outlet and pull out the dip tube and false bottom to clean under it.
  • When no visible residue is remaining I scrub out the mash tun with barkeepers friend and a sponge and use the rinse/vacuum method repeatedly until I'm confident there's no soap residue
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MadKing, how do you handle cleaning the herms coil? Your process is pretty close to mine, just looking for different ways to save time that is not needed.
 
Bohern said:
MadKing, how do you handle cleaning the herms coil? Your process is pretty close to mine, just looking for different ways to save time that is not needed.
Click to expand...

I run my sparge water into the mash tun through the HERMS coil which cleans it while sparging. I'll run PBW through it every 4th or 5th brew day out of caution but it always runs clean.

I run PBW through my brew kettle, wort pump and chiller at 2 oz per gallon - so a full pound of PBW in my boil kettle - at the end of every brew day. I'll let that circulate for 40 minutes and then rinse with cold water, then rinse with hot water. When I do the herms coil I just add it to that loop and go from:

BK out -> Pump in ->
Pump out ->chiller in ->
chiller out ->HERMS in->
HERMS out->BK in

btw, that strength of PBW will keep your heating element shiny as the day it was made and it won't have that white film on it anymore. Oxyclean doesn't seem to remove that white film like real PBW does.
 
TheMadKing said:
I run my sparge water into the mash tun through the HERMS coil which cleans it while sparging. I'll run PBW through it every 4th or 5th brew day out of caution but it always runs clean.

I run PBW through my brew kettle, wort pump and chiller at 2 oz per gallon - so a full pound of PBW in my boil kettle - at the end of every brew day. I'll let that circulate for 40 minutes and then rinse with cold water, then rinse with hot water. When I do the herms coil I just add it to that loop and go from:

BK out -> Pump in ->
Pump out ->chiller in ->
chiller out ->HERMS in->
HERMS out->BK in

btw, that strength of PBW will keep your heating element shiny as the day it was made and it won't have that white film on it anymore. Oxyclean doesn't seem to remove that white film like real PBW does.
Click to expand...
Thanks for tip on the amount of PBW for the element I’ll try that.

Our process is the same for the most except I have been doing my herms coil every brew and making that as part of cleaning my mash tun. I would rinse the tun of any grain and then use the leftover water in the HLT to recirc pbw through tun and herms and then rinse. But I am going to give your method a try next brew day.
 
TheMadKing said:
I run my sparge water into the mash tun through the HERMS coil which cleans it while sparging. I'll run PBW through it every 4th or 5th brew day out of caution but it always runs clean.

I run PBW through my brew kettle, wort pump and chiller at 2 oz per gallon - so a full pound of PBW in my boil kettle - at the end of every brew day. I'll let that circulate for 40 minutes and then rinse with cold water, then rinse with hot water. When I do the herms coil I just add it to that loop and go from:

BK out -> Pump in ->
Pump out ->chiller in ->
chiller out ->HERMS in->
HERMS out->BK in

btw, that strength of PBW will keep your heating element shiny as the day it was made and it won't have that white film on it anymore. Oxyclean doesn't seem to remove that white film like real PBW does.
Click to expand...

Good approach. Only suggestion I would add is that if you use a plate chiller, then to run your cleaning sol'n from the Pump out to the the Chiller out (i.e. reverse the chiller flow), which backflushes any debris out.
 
@TheMadKing I be damn, you were right! I upped my PBW and now my boil kettle element is nice and shiny.

On another note, I love this system and I have it dialed in on beersmith. I used my monster mill today and started milling my own grain. I was able to backup a previous brew day where I did the same and match my numbers.

Cheers and happy brewing gang.
 
I've had two brew sessions on my Spike 20g system. The first one I missed my OG significantly. I hit 1.043 when my target was 1.062. I didn't measure gravity after the mash, but I wasn't thinking and put all 15g of water into the mash tun for 22lbs of grain. I figured that was the reason my OG was off.

For my second batch I tweaked my equipment profile to match what I observed with my first batch. I used basically the same recipe, just changed slightly based on actual boil off and losses. I had a good mash this time and had 1.052 (as expected) going into the BK. However, after the boil the OG was 1.048. No idea how this went down. I'm using a Steam Slayer, so my boil off was only 0.75g. It's possible that my measurements are off slightly, but 1.048 is a long way from 1.062. It's also a recipe that I scaled up from 5g, so I could have messed that up.

I tried measuring pH during the mash and got very low around 4.0 using test strips. I haven't really started understanding pH and it's impacts, but I realized that was low.

So, how did I screw up?
 
^^ My only thought with the OG going down after / during the boil is you were somehow getting water into the boil?? Not sure but that is all I can come up with off the top of my head.
The only way to figure this out what was your pre-boil and post boil volume?

I know PH has effects on a brew but without having the experience above I can't say. My only suggestion to this would be to toss the strips and get a PH meter and get your water tested.
 
tmschmal said:
I've had two brew sessions on my Spike 20g system. The first one I missed my OG significantly. I hit 1.043 when my target was 1.062. I didn't measure gravity after the mash, but I wasn't thinking and put all 15g of water into the mash tun for 22lbs of grain. I figured that was the reason my OG was off.

For my second batch I tweaked my equipment profile to match what I observed with my first batch. I used basically the same recipe, just changed slightly based on actual boil off and losses. I had a good mash this time and had 1.052 (as expected) going into the BK. However, after the boil the OG was 1.048. No idea how this went down. I'm using a Steam Slayer, so my boil off was only 0.75g. It's possible that my measurements are off slightly, but 1.048 is a long way from 1.062. It's also a recipe that I scaled up from 5g, so I could have messed that up.

I tried measuring pH during the mash and got very low around 4.0 using test strips. I haven't really started understanding pH and it's impacts, but I realized that was low.

So, how did I screw up?
Click to expand...

Hi tmschmal,

I also have 20 gal Spike kettles. I use BeerSmith and have it pretty well dialed in for my 12 gallon batches. 1.048 is not a bad beer, just not what you were expecting, so don’t beat up on yourself for batch two. You provided lots of good info for helping us troubleshoot the issue. So, here are some of my thoughts.

How are you measuring gravity (hydrometer, refractometer)? You mentioned SG readings may be off slightly. I use a refractometer and getting consistently accurate readings is tough during sparge and boil. My temperature compensated refractometer can vary 6 points based on the sample or refractometer temperature. If my OG was lower than the pre-boil gravity, I would assume the pre-boil measurement was incorrect. OG values measured at pitching temperatures are usually good for me.

My boil off rate (no steam capture) is 1.4 - 1.5 gallons per hour and often I gain 6 – 8 gravity points during a 1 hour boil. If the 1.052 pre-boil value is good, to make the 1.062 OG value with your 0.75 gallon/hour boil off rate is good, your boil time could be ~2.5 - 3 hours.

You mentioned tweaking your equipment profile, so I’m assuming you are also using BeerSmith. Understanding volumes used in your system and updating the BeerSmith equipment profile to match your experience is important to achieve consistent efficiencies. You didn’t mention mash, sparge, pre-boil or post boil volumes which could be helpful when troubleshooting. I try to match The BeerSmith pre-boil volume, then adjust boil times to achieve the post boil volume. By the way, my sight gage typically reads 0.75 gallons lower and the internal markings read 0.25 gallons higher than the actual kettle volume.

You mentioned PH. I suspect PH is not a significant contributor to your SG issue. Like Bohern, I would suggest getting a PH meter if you want to monitor PH. I use a Milwaukee MW102 and find it provides consistent results when calibrated every 6 months. From your previous posts, I believe you live in the Seattle area. I live I Maple Valley, so we probably use similar water. Depending on the grain bill, I often add ~3 ml lactic acid to sparge and mash to achieve a 5.2 PH.

I hope this helps.
Cheers

CottonBrew
 
Thanks guys. I think its safe to assume that my pre-boil gravity was inaccurate. I took three measurements with a hydrometer. The first two were crazy high, and then low. The third was near perfect, but I didn't test again. For OG I used a hydrometer and a Tilt.

Your point on needing to boil 2-3 hours I think is the key. It looked like a large increase in gravity with only losing 0.75 gallons, but I didn't give it much thought.

I'm using BrewersFriend. I updated my recipe to base volumes off of the ending kettle volume instead of the fermenter. This got the pre-boil and OG to be within a few points of each other which makes more sense. I had to add more grain to the recipe to get the OG/ABV I was going for. My new pre-boil is 1.058 and OG 1.061.

I guess now I have to brew again to check :)
 
tmschmal said:
Thanks guys. I think its safe to assume that my pre-boil gravity was inaccurate. I took three measurements with a hydrometer. The first two were crazy high, and then low. The third was near perfect, but I didn't test again. For OG I used a hydrometer and a Tilt.

Your point on needing to boil 2-3 hours I think is the key. It looked like a large increase in gravity with only losing 0.75 gallons, but I didn't give it much thought.

I'm using BrewersFriend. I updated my recipe to base volumes off of the ending kettle volume instead of the fermenter. This got the pre-boil and OG to be within a few points of each other which makes more sense. I had to add more grain to the recipe to get the OG/ABV I was going for. My new pre-boil is 1.058 and OG 1.061.

I guess now I have to brew again to check :)
Click to expand...
I too have a steam slayer and I adjust my pre-boil volume and still boil for an hour I just turn the heat down and don’t collect as much wort from the sparge
 
agreed. I wasn't planning to boil for 2-3 hours. If i wanted to raise the gravity that much I would have needed to.
 
Great to hear you are getting the equipment profile to match your experience. Not sure about BrewersFriend but BeerSmith has a boil off rate that is set in the equipment profile.
 
CottonBrew said:
Great to hear you are getting the equipment profile to match your experience. Not sure about BrewersFriend but BeerSmith has a boil off rate that is set in the equipment profile.
Click to expand...

I'd love to see what you have for an equip profile, here's my Spike+ 20
 

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BigBangBrewing said:
I'd love to see what you have for an equip profile, here's my Spike+ 20
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Hi BigBangBrewing,
Attached is my profile. Looks like we are pretty close. I use 78% brewhouse efficiency for 12 gallon batches and 72% for 5 gallon batches. My 1.42 gal/hour boil off is an average over about 20 batches and equates to 75% power for the boil PID.
 

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How many of you guys are running the HERMS coil with the "push to fit" fittings? First brew with new Spike HLT. Had a bad leak at first test but that was because I didn't have the coil pushed in all the way. Fixed that and proceeded to brew. Seemed to work fine but considering changing to compression fittings with the plastic ferrules.
 
Deric said:
How many of you guys are running the HERMS coil with the "push to fit" fittings? First brew with new Spike HLT. Had a bad leak at first test but that was because I didn't have the coil pushed in all the way. Fixed that and proceeded to brew. Seemed to work fine but considering changing to compression fittings with the plastic ferrules.
Click to expand...

I had a problem once when I was auto tuning the system (didn't have it pushed in all the way). Now every brew day I make sure they are pushed in before I fill the HLT. Also I never take out the herms coil from the HLT. I did however order replacement o-rings for herms coil and other fitting just to be safe. since then, no issues
 
Bohern said:
I had a problem once when I was auto tuning the system (didn't have it pushed in all the way). Now every brew day I make sure they are pushed in before I fill the HLT. Also I never take out the herms coil from the HLT. I did however order replacement o-rings for herms coil and other fitting just to be safe. since then, no issues
Click to expand...

I had this issue, and raised it with Spike who said that I probably didn't have the connections pushed in all the way. I am 100% sure that I did, and after thinking about it, I am pretty sure I know the root cause of the problem. The standard configuration is to have valves on either end of the HERMS. If you ever have the HERMS filled with liquid and both valves closed, and then heat your HLT, then the trapped water will expand. With the fluid being essentially incompressible, it has nowhere to go but to begin pushing out the HERMS from its fittings. Liquid expands about 3.5-4% from 70-200F, and so there is no doubt this can happen. I described this to Spike, but they said they had never seen this before. But trust me, it is real, and it happened to me again (because I am a dufus and accidently let it happen again!).

To solve this potential problem (i.e. idiot-proof the system), I removed the valve from the top HERMS connection. I also removed the top valve from the MT port (since you typically will have a hose connecting the two), otherwise you can still be exposed to this "trapped liquid" situation. In most situations, you really don't need to ever isolate the HERMS on each end and don't need these valves.

Hope this helps you in case that was your issue.
 
Gozie Boy said:
I had this issue, and raised it with Spike who said that I probably didn't have the connections pushed in all the way. I am 100% sure that I did, and after thinking about it, I am pretty sure I know the root cause of the problem. The standard configuration is to have valves on either end of the HERMS. If you ever have the HERMS filled with liquid and both valves closed, and then heat your HLT, then the trapped water will expand. With the fluid being essentially incompressible, it has nowhere to go but to begin pushing out the HERMS from its fittings. Liquid expands about 3.5-4% from 70-200F, and so there is no doubt this can happen. I described this to Spike, but they said they had never seen this before. But trust me, it is real, and it happened to me again (because I am a dufus and accidently let it happen again!).

To solve this potential problem (i.e. idiot-proof the system), I removed the valve from the top HERMS connection. I also removed the top valve from the MT port (since you typically will have a hose connecting the two), otherwise you can still be exposed to this "trapped liquid" situation. In most situations, you really don't need to ever isolate the HERMS on each end and don't need these valves.

Hope this helps you in case that was your issue.
Click to expand...
But the valves are added bling value?...

On a serious note I have self sealing quick disconnects on the connection points of the chilling coils in my conicals and I have seen the exact same thing from the pressure due to temp extremes when doing CIP on those unless I relieve the pressure at one end prior to cip.
 
I found a little bit of residue (brownish, maybe grain/husk) in the bottom of the HLT after brewing which is why I asked. Pressure makes sense.... Not too worried as it seems to work OK for now. I have spare o-rings if needed.

I also noticed the HERMS coil is "slightly" resting on the element. I assume that's no real concern. But...if I went with compression fittings (and maybe slightly tweaked the coil) it may hold the coil slightly higher in the kettle... Just a thought.
 
Deric said:
How many of you guys are running the HERMS coil with the "push to fit" fittings? First brew with new Spike HLT. Had a bad leak at first test but that was because I didn't have the coil pushed in all the way. Fixed that and proceeded to brew. Seemed to work fine but considering changing to compression fittings with the plastic ferrules.
Click to expand...

Hi Deric,
On my first brew I noticed mash liquid in my HLT. I am certain the HERMS coil was fully pushed in. I replaced the HLT push to connect with compression fittings on the next brew as I didn't want to worry about this issue. No problems seen since and I am glad I did. I used stainless fittings with stainless ferrules from MoreBeer https://www.morebeer.com/products/stainless-compression-fitting-12-mpt.html. I believe that over time the push to connect fittings will leak due to the weight of the HERMS coil on push to connect o-rings, pump pressure, and back pressure from the HERMS coil.
Good luck with your brews!
CottonBrew
 
It absolutely a pressure problem. When I clean up for the day, I run CO2 through my coil (I found some gunk in it once, so now I’m paranoid) to blow out all the water when I’m done. Well, being goofy one day (one day) I left a valve closed because I wanted to build up a little pressure and see it condense on release, and wouldn’t you know it, both of the seal popped out a little bit. Not enough for the seals to fail completely, but just enough to let out some pressure. I replaced to o-rings and haven’t built pressure up since.
As far as weight on the coil goes, I had a harder time with my SS compression fittings leaking until I changed to the ferrules and cranked the bajezzus out of them. Made them impossible to take off, but didn’t leak.
I like my Spike connectors, not the price. I think if there was a cheaper than $20 a connector, I’d probably use them in more places. augiedoggy, any ideas on where to maybe get some?
 
NCMedic522 said:
It absolutely a pressure problem. When I clean up for the day, I run CO2 through my coil (I found some gunk in it once, so now I’m paranoid) to blow out all the water when I’m done. Well, being goofy one day (one day) I left a valve closed because I wanted to build up a little pressure and see it condense on release, and wouldn’t you know it, both of the seal popped out a little bit. Not enough for the seals to fail completely, but just enough to let out some pressure. I replaced to o-rings and haven’t built pressure up since.
As far as weight on the coil goes, I had a harder time with my SS compression fittings leaking until I changed to the ferrules and cranked the bajezzus out of them. Made them impossible to take off, but didn’t leak.
I like my Spike connectors, not the price. I think if there was a cheaper than $20 a connector, I’d probably use them in more places. Augiedoggy, any ideas on where to maybe get some?
Click to expand...
https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_fr...w=1/2+stainless+compression+fittings&_sacat=0 where I get all mine now...
 
I have been brewing for two years on the system with push to connect I had the hlt coil issue once but was totally user error. If all the way pushed in I have had no issue. That being said I plan to upgrade to TC fittings at some point. I bought my system about 6 months too early for the TC fittings and wish I had them.
 
I had problems with the fittings leaking at the coil connection the first couple of Brews. It all had to do with how we hooked it up. Originally we tried adding the connectors to the kettle with the triclamps, then adding the coil to the connectors. It leaked.

We changed to add the connectors to the coil first through the ports, then use the triclamps to hook the connectors to the kettle. Never had a leak since.
 
I had the coil leak on the first batch. I thought I had it pushed in all the way (and it’s a freaking pain to get the coil on right) Turns out I didn’t have it pushed in completely. Never had a leak since. I also fill the MT first and run it through coils to check for leaks every batch. That’s my experience.
 
I don’t have TC fittings. I have spare o-rings on hand if needed. Pretty sure coil was seated all the way but will double check. Other than the small amount of residue in the HLT it seemed to work OK once I reseated it.

Still don’t like the way the coil sags slightly and rests on the element. Will likely order some compression fittings to have on hand just in case. Will also look into tweaking/bending the coil slightly if needed.

Thanks!
 

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