SSBrewTech - SVBS

[passedpawn]

First brewday on the SVBS today. Went really well, but also some areas for improvement. Generally, brewing on it was a complete joy.

This thing does a great whirlpool, collecting all the crap in the middle. I'm still figuring that out, but I think the key is: start the chilling, divert the pump flow to the whirlpool for a few minutes, turn off the pump and let it settle.

This machine is built like a tank and worked great the whole way. The ONE issue I had is that you cannot toss the hops into the boil. They WILL clog the trub filter on the bottom of the thing, leaving a bunch of wort that doesn't get out of the tank (in theory, all of the wort should get out of the bottom drain. It's not really a big deal - hop spiders, hop bags are pretty common.

My efficiency SUCKED. 55%. Not sure what to attribute this to. I hope to brew a lot with this thing and figure it out.

Cleanup is something I was hoping to ease. With this machine, I'm using a wee battery-operated wetvac (DeWalt) to suck out all the trub/hop matter. Then it's a matter of PBW and the hose sprayer. Never tilted it, worked great.

The grain basket and trub filter are very easy to clean if you spray them with a hose. For basement brewers, I think you really at least a utility sink and a sprayer of some sort.

 

[calandryll]

This machine is built like a tank and worked great the whole way. The ONE issue I had is that you cannot toss the hops into the boil. They WILL clog the trub filter on the bottom of the thing, leaving a bunch of wort that doesn't get out of the tank (in theory, all of the wort should get out of the bottom drain. It's not really a big deal - hop spiders, hop bags are pretty common.

My efficiency SUCKED. 55%. Not sure what to attribute this to. I hope to brew a lot with this thing and figure it out.

Cleanup is something I was hoping to ease. With this machine, I'm using a wee battery-operated wetvac (DeWalt) to suck out all the trub/hop matter. Then it's a matter of PBW and the hose sprayer. Never tilted it, worked great.

Yeah, that's why I'm trying to figure out the best way to do a hop bag or spider.

What crush size did you use? So far 72% for both brews, so you might be able to go with a finer crush.

 

[passedpawn]

Yeah, that's why I'm trying to figure out the best way to do a hop bag or spider.

What crush size did you use? So far 72% for both brews, so you might be able to go with a finer crush.

I've got a SS hop spider that I'm going to use. I think it's better than bags because I can remove the hops at the end of the boil, and 1) they won't get in the way of the whirlpool while cooling / dropping in my immersion chiller, 2) won't slow the cooling, and 3) won't add 5 IBU because I whirlpooled settled for 30m post-boil. If I'm making an IPA, #3 it doesn't matter so much, but for a pilsner (or similar), you really want to get your bitterness ratio correct.

So really, the spider is better than freeballing the hops in there.

I had my newish mill set to 0.035", but did not verify that. The crush looked right.

 

[kevin58]

Clean up is one of the things I really, really don't like so far about this unit. Especially when using loose hops. After the first brew I went back to using my hop spider and I'm considering punching a hole and adding a 1.5" TC fitting for a CIP ball.

 

[calandryll]

I had my newish mill set to 0.035", but did not verify that. The crush looked right.

That's about what I had my mill set at. Really interesting that big of a difference in efficiency between the two.

Clean up is one of the things I really, really don't like so far about this unit. Especially when using loose hops. After the first brew I went back to using my hop spider and I'm considering punching a hole and adding a 1.5" TC fitting for a CIP ball.

In the lid or a different area? I'm waiting to plumb my new sink before I decide on what to do with the lid/steam slayer. Steam wasn't so bad on the second batch.

 

[passedpawn]

@kevin58 @calandryll what chiller are you using?

I thought the immersion chiller did a pretty good job. My therminator would be much quicker, but I'd have to deal with the return to the kettle for the 10 minutes of sanitation and I don't feel like adding any further plumbing.

 

[passedpawn]

I exported the temperature data and annotated. I was in no hurry. Next brew I'll probably shorten the mash period. I'll also be attempting some sort of sparge.

 

[coltr88]

I’ve been crushing finer and have hit 72% on my last few brews, I think I was in the 50’s on my fist one . I’ve just used the Ss brewtech mill at my LHBS at +2 and that’s working great.

I’ve been throwing hops in loose also and just build up my loss by .25 gals and that has been working.

Steam slayer Has been awesome to use with it. The lids pretty thin so be careful if using a hole saw.

Cleaning has been my biggest gripe but I’ve got it down now. I take the basket outside and blast it with a high pressure hose fitting right on the basket. A quick hose down with the trub filter removed and the knockout open to get the gunk out and then a PBW soak takes care of the rest.

 

[passedpawn]

Cleaning has been my biggest gripe but I’ve got it down now. I take the basket outside and blast it with a high pressure hose fitting right on the basket. A quick hose down with the grub filter removed and the knockout open to get the gunk out and then a PBW soak takes care of the rest.

That's almost exactly what my cleaning process is.

 

[kevin58]

That's about what I had my mill set at. Really interesting that big of a difference in efficiency between the two.


In the lid or a different area? I'm waiting to plumb my new sink before I decide on what to do with the lid/steam slayer. Steam wasn't so bad on the second batch.

I'm thinking in the lid. I would use it for both a steam slayer and CIP ball.

 

[calandryll]

@kevin58 @calandryll what chiller are you using?

I thought the immersion chiller did a pretty good job. My therminator would be much quicker, but I'd have to deal with the return to the kettle for the 10 minutes of sanitation and I don't feel like adding any further plumbing.

I've got the chiller for the system and right now with no water hooked up, I've been running ice water through it and it's worked mostly ok for the last two brews. The last time, I put the chiller in during the entire boiler and hung my hop basket off the cross piece. I'm going to try with out the hop basket next time to see how well the trub screen works.

I'm thinking in the lid. I would use it for both a steam slayer and CIP ball.

Yeah, once I get up the courage of potentially ruining my new system, I'll be putting a hole in the lid.

 

[passedpawn]

I've got the chiller for the system and right now with no water hooked up, I've been running ice water through it and it's worked mostly ok for the last two brews. The last time, I put the chiller in during the entire boiler and hung my hop basket off the cross piece. I'm going to try with out the hop basket next time to see how well the trub screen works.


Yeah, once I get up the courage of potentially ruining my new system, I'll be putting a hole in the lid.

Trub screen works. It's roughly 2" tall. Mine clogged and that 2" was still full of wort when I drained out the knockout. I believe the pump was pulling wort between the pot wall and the rubber gasket on the trub filter. The suction was enough to do that. In the image below, you can see the hop debris on the wall of the filter. This image was AFTER I used a metal spoon to clear some of the debris to allow wort to pass through.

I wonder how hard it is to get replacement parts from SSBrewtech. You might need another lid. I have plans to modify my knockout 3/4" elbow, and if that doesn't go well I'd want another.

 

[coltr88]

I saw on instagram somewhere someone had the Ss brewtech 10 gallon lid and used that for the steam slayer. It was out of stock when I looked last so I just drilled a hole through the one that came with mine. I was worried that the steam would escape that rubber piece but it doesn’t and the steam slayer works awesome, wish I did that along time ago.

I’m interested in the cip, my hole is <2” of the side of the lid, is that to close to the edge for cip?

 

[passedpawn]

I brewed a pilsener today.

• My efficiency is still quite poor, 55%. I even did a single sparge (~ 1g) while the grain basket was suspended over the kettle. I'm not very worried about efficiency though - I'll adjust the grain bill until I get that figured out.
• I used a hop spider that solved all of my clogged trub filter issues.
• Had very clear wort. Turn off heat, turn on chiller, whirlpool for 5m, turn off pump, let sit and finish chilling for 30m. Between that and the hop spider, there was very little trub into the fermentor.
• I'm really perfecting the cleaning routine, mostly CIP. It's getting easier as I optimize things.

 

[passedpawn]

I replaced the short knockout tubing with a piece that is 10'. That way, during cleaning, it will reach my patio sink. I put a SS quick disconnect on there to allow me to remove the tubing (part links below). I thought I would need to use an angle cutter and remove the barbs, but the 1/2 compression fitting slid right over those barbs. Sweet! This afternoon I will add the QDs to the immersion chiller also. I have 15' lines on that (goes to my pool).

https://www.brewhardware.com/product_p/blqdmalecompression12.htmhttps://www.brewhardware.com/product_p/blqd-c.htm

 

[passedpawn]

Sure enough, the compression fitting went right over the barbs of the chiller. Tightened it down good with a couple of open end wrenches, and now I can hang my hoses elsewhere when putting her away. I was sure this would involved some metal-cutting, but it went much easier than expected.

 

[kevin58]

Brilliant! I am adding this to my to-do list.

 

[calandryll]

Perfect! I was just thinking about this the other day. Will be adding it to my list of stuff to buy once I get back from vacation.

 

[passedpawn]

Brilliant! I am adding this to my to-do list.

Perfect! I was just thinking about this the other day. Will be adding it to my list of stuff to buy once I get back from vacation.

I'll be replacing those worm gear clamps with oetiker clamps. The worm gears are convenient, but they interfere a bit with the quick disconnects.

 

[passedpawn]

BTW, although those QD fittings are 1/2", I stayed with the smaller 3/8" silicone tubing. I find it is much easy to handle, and the reduced flow rate isn't a big deal for me. The 3/8" tubing stretches fine over the larger barbs.

 

[passedpawn]

The QDs worked great. 3 batches on my new machine today.

 

[passedpawn]

Regarding cleaning the grain basket and trub filter. I live in FL, and I brew outdoors, so it's pretty easy for me to spray it out in the grass. I'm gonna continue doing that, works for me.

However, tonight, I decided to do an experiment. I put those parts in my dishwasher. It's very easy to remove my DW top rack, and likely your's too. I put a couple of scoops of PBW in there. Worked much better than I expected. Note that this is after 3 batches in a row for those parts - they were dirty. There was not a SINGLE grain particle left on that basket. Couldn't believe it.

Before and after pics:

Before

After

 

[beerdoog]

I brewed a pilsener today.

• My efficiency is still quite poor, 55%. I even did a single sparge (~ 1g) while the grain basket was suspended over the kettle. I'm not very worried about efficiency though - I'll adjust the grain bill until I get that figured out.
• I used a hop spider that solved all of my clogged trub filter issues.
• Had very clear wort. Turn off heat, turn on chiller, whirlpool for 5m, turn off pump, let sit and finish chilling for 30m. Between that and the hop spider, there was very little trub into the fermentor.
• I'm really perfecting the cleaning routine, mostly CIP. It's getting easier as I optimize things.

Sorry to jump in on this. I’ve got the SVBS arriving Monday. Working on getting things ready for first brew. This thread has been great and answered a lot of questions.

Here’s a dumb one - how are you obtaining pre-boil gravity sample?

 

[passedpawn]

Sorry to jump in on this. I’ve got the SVBS arriving Monday. Working on getting things ready for first brew. This thread has been great and answered a lot of questions.

Here’s a dumb one - how are you obtaining pre-boil gravity sample?

Refractometer. Post, hydrometer.

 

[user 338926]

Interesting thread to be sure.

I brewed a Pilsner today and made some of the crush tweaks and used the diffuser properly.

Brewhouse was up to 70%. I did have to boil at 85% to hit 1.5/hr loss.

Cleaning the basket is my only gripe so far, using a toothpick to pick out grain sucks. Other than that I am still loving this system.

Might be easier to let it dry out then take another shot at cleaning it.

If your dishwasher isn't as big as the one shown above, why not try a scrub brush and just rinse with that. It should push all the gunk out of the holes

I've got the chiller for the system and right now with no water hooked up, I've been running ice water through it and it's worked mostly ok for the last two brews. The last time, I put the chiller in during the entire boiler and hung my hop basket off the cross piece. I'm going to try with out the hop basket next time to see how well the trub screen works.


Yeah, once I get up the courage of potentially ruining my new system, I'll be putting a hole in the lid.

I would imagine a hole saw in stainless is not all that fun to do. Maybe try one of these if your hole size isn't that critical. I have a old made in the USA set of these for doing electrical box work. You simply drill a pilot hole and then use this thing with an impact wrench or a socket wrench and it will punch a clean hole for you. They're awesome. I can't speak to the quality of these HF ones but the ones I have will punch 1/8 inch steel.

https://www.harborfreight.com/knockout-punch-kit-10-piece-60575.html

 

[Brooothru]

I can’t help but think competitors have eaten their lunch. This thing was announced over 4 years ago and folks like Anvil and Spike not only announced but also released their versions well within that time frame. It’s release date became a bit of a joke on the SSBT Facebook page and even I gave up waiting and bought a Solo.

That said, I think it’s cool. Very clean and streamlined.
+ I like that 3 valve manifold and currently investigating what it would take to make something similar to avoid having to move hoses around.
+ Grain basket initially looks like it fixes issue with dead space found on the Solo.
+ Controller is nice and I’m perpetually confused why more PIDs don’t have a nice modern simple interface similar to this rather than relying on the 40+ year old segmented led with a ton of non intuitive button presses.

- Suffers the same fate as all other AIO’s in that if one thing fails it pretty much becomes a paperweight. The difference though between this and things like the Foundry, Mash & Boil, etc is that it’s a 3x more expensive paperweight.
- NEMA L6-30P instead of a more standard 14-30R found in basements.
- Is that a 3/4” TC outlet? Not huge deal if true, but kind of a pain from flexibility standpoint.
- Looking at the initial renderings, it looks like you would have to tip the thing upside down to get all the water out of the plumbing after a cleaning cycle. Maybe someone with a Brau or Grainfather or something else with integrated pump can enlighten me and tell me this isn't actually an issue.

Good observations. Regarding the integrated pump, my gen 1 Braumeister needs to be lifted and dumped to drain the last of whatever is in the kettle. Later versions have a diverter valve and low point drain, and some owners of older models have retrofitted a similar setup, but it requires cutting into existing plumbing.

I really like the upward flow pattern of wort through the grain bed. It’s not a foolproof pathway however and channeling can result in ‘wort fountains’. That’s not a common occurrence but does require attention to grain crush and works better with a high water to grist ratio.

They came out with a low-oxygen kit a few years ago that resulted in a higher maximum grain capacity in addition to virtually eliminating splashing of hot wort during a long continuous mash. A professional brewer friend calls it my continuous vorlauf. I usually get 84%+ mash efficiency and generally 70~71% brew house efficiency.

I like the all-in-one systems, having started with Igloo coolers, moved to 3 vessel, then BIAB, before buying the Braumeister over a decade ago. The system is dialed in pretty tight, and there are few surprises on brew day.

 

[beerdoog]

Refractometer. Post, hydrometer.

sorry, I mean how are you getting a sample out of the kettle? my current set up has a ball valve at the bottom of my kettle that I BIAB and boil in, so I just open it and take a sample. Do you do the same by opening the 'knockout' valve? If you do this pre-boil then you're leaving the tubing circuit full of unboiled wort... Do you just dip a ladle in the kettle to pull some wort out? Just trying to see if you've got a better solution that what I've come up with so far..

thanks

 

[passedpawn]

sorry, I mean how are you getting a sample out of the kettle? my current set up has a ball valve at the bottom of my kettle that I BIAB and boil in, so I just open it and take a sample. Do you do the same by opening the 'knockout' valve? If you do this pre-boil then you're leaving the tubing circuit full of unboiled wort... Do you just dip a ladle in the kettle to pull some wort out? Just trying to see if you've got a better solution that what I've come up with so far..

thanks

Ah I see. I use a long spoon. Just need a few drips for the refractometer.

That knockout valve and tubing are a little concern. I spray it with starsan before brew session

 

[beerdoog]

instructions say to run non-foaming sanitizer thru the pump circuit prior to brewing. is everyone doing that or using a different approach, such as just running boil thru it?

 

[passedpawn]

instructions say to run non-foaming sanitizer thru the pump circuit prior to brewing. is everyone doing that or using a different approach, such as just running boil thru it?

Sanitizing that circuit, then filling with dirty grain doesn't make sense. I don't do it. The path from the pump to the knockout is the only thing that concerns me, but that gets hot soak of PBW, so I think it's clean enough. It's a risk I take I guess. Regardless of your sanitation efforts, you WILL have bacteria in your wort. If it's minimized, and you have a raging fermentation a day or two later, it'll be fine. Anyhoo, that's my thoughts. If someone else takes sanitation to the next level, they are a better brewer than I am (but their brewday will be longer).

Something might do in the future is to open the knockout during the boil and pump through that port and back to the kettle. As long as it's clean, it will almost instantaneously sanitize the path.

 

[passedpawn]

Sorry to jump in on this. I’ve got the SVBS arriving Monday. Working on getting things ready for first brew. This thread has been great and answered a lot of questions.

Here’s a dumb one - how are you obtaining pre-boil gravity sample?

Did you see my post above regarding firmware upgrade? It was very easy. I posted a link to the firmware page. I did not see any change in performance, but three must have been something.

 

[Brooothru]

Sanitizing that circuit, then filling with dirty grain doesn't make sense. I don't do it. The path from the pump to the knockout is the only thing that concerns me, but that gets hot soak of PBW, so I think it's clean enough. It's a risk I take I guess. Regardless of your sanitation efforts, you WILL have bacteria in your wort. If it's minimized, and you have a raging fermentation a day or two later, it'll be fine. Anyhoo, that's my thoughts. If someone else takes sanitation to the next level, they are a better brewer than I am (but their brewday will be longer).

Something might do in the future is to open the knockout during the boil and pump through that port and back to the kettle. As long as it's clean, it will almost instantaneously sanitize the path.

Doesn't heat convect from the pump to the knock-out? Even if those components aren't in direct contact with boiling wort, it seems like they would at least heat up to a Pasteurization temperature long enough to destroy most nasties.

 

[passedpawn]

Doesn't heat convect from the pump to the knock-out? Even if those components aren't in direct contact with boiling wort, it seems like they would at least heat up to a Pasteurization temperature long enough to destroy most nasties.

I haven't noticed, but I'll check it out and get back to you. It's possible you're correct (hope so!). But there is a valve that isolates the knockout from the pump, so the heat conduction to the knockout would need to be through the kettle body to the welded TC port. See the red path below.

If you haven't seen the valves that SS Brewtech uses, you should check them out. Turn the knob and squeeze the tubing closed. Tubing is replaceable (well, it is on their standalone valves, probably not in the SVBS without some work. Second image is the Pure Flow Valve - a version of that is used inside the SVBS.

 

[Brooothru]

I haven't noticed, but I'll check it out and get back to you. It's possible you're correct (hope so!). But there is a valve that isolates the knockout from the pump, so the heat conduction to the knockout would need to be through the kettle body to the welded TC port. See the red path below.

If you haven't seen the valves that SS Brewtech uses, you should check them out. Turn the knob and squeeze the tubing closed. Tubing is replaceable (well, it is on their standalone valves, probably not in the SVBS without some work. Second image is the Pure Flow Valve - a version of that is used inside the SVBS.

View attachment 819623


View attachment 819622

Yeah, I've been following the discussions including the Pure Flow valves and how they work. Interesting concept, but it seems at first blush that they'd be more susceptible to harboring bacteria in the neoprene sleeve than in stainless steel plumbing, that could certainly insulate it from heat sufficient to allow Pasteurization. Originally I had considered a retrofit I had done on the drain port of my Braumeister AIO where I'd replaced the original dinky spigot lever valve with a collar, TC fitting and a honkin' big SS butterfly valve. It certainly gets warm during an extended boil, warm to the touch (160F, maybe) but not enough to burn. I clean the fittings between uses to get rid of the gunk I can see, but don't worry so much about those that I can't see when transferring from hot side to cold side through the drain port. Of course all transfer lines and fittings are hit with some Star San before use. No infections yet that I'm aware of.

 

[passedpawn]

instructions say to run non-foaming sanitizer thru the pump circuit prior to brewing. is everyone doing that or using a different approach, such as just running boil thru it?

Did you get your new toy?

 

[beerdoog]

I did. It's pretty awesome. I've been brewing on a home-built system, using a milk crate to support my burner and a kettle that I punched holes in for thermometer, outlet valve and whirlpool arm, for 15 years. Pretty excited to have a purpose built system!

I'm in the process of organizing all of my brewing stuff into a clean/dry area of my garage, so I don't have to lug everything down two flights of stairs for brew day. Hopefully will be organized enough after this weekend to clean and passivate, shooting to brew a nice simple WCIPA next weekend.

Realized the brewcube is not a lot of help without the casters to move it around, so waiting on those to show up also.

 

[passedpawn]

I did. It's pretty awesome. I've been brewing on a home-built system, using a milk crate to support my burner and a kettle that I punched holes in for thermometer, outlet valve and whirlpool arm, for 15 years. Pretty excited to have a purpose built system!

I'm in the process of organizing all of my brewing stuff into a clean/dry area of my garage, so I don't have to lug everything down two flights of stairs for brew day. Hopefully will be organized enough after this weekend to clean and passivate, shooting to brew a nice simple WCIPA next weekend.

Realized the brewcube is not a lot of help without the casters to move it around, so waiting on those to show up also.

I see you chose to put the cube shelf on the left side. Even though the knockout is on the right, it doesn't interfere. I'm right-handed, so that's where I put my shelf. I did think about it a bit though.

I've thought about getting the casters, but I don't really move mine much. And, mine sits on pavers, and rolling around would be a little awkward. 3" wheels, though, might do it fine.

That was some impressive shipping materials, huh?

 

[passedpawn]

@beerdoog I've got that exact same hop basket. I hang it from the chiller center bar. This is why I put the chiller in at the beginning of the boil. Otherwise, I'd have to remove that messy hop basket to get the chiller in near the end of the boil.

 

[calandryll]

instructions say to run non-foaming sanitizer thru the pump circuit prior to brewing. is everyone doing that or using a different approach, such as just running boil thru it?

I run the non-foaming starsan at the beginning of my day. What I've done so far is run it while I'm getting everything else ready for my brew day. Probably not needed as mentioned about but I'd rather be safe than sorry.

 

[kevin58]

instructions say to run non-foaming sanitizer thru the pump circuit prior to brewing. is everyone doing that or using a different approach, such as just running boil thru it?

I use Saniclean.