Unboxing the Nano from CO Brewing

[pretzelb]

Well this is odd. Trying an Irish Red recipe with 25.5 pounds of grain and I can't open up the pump at all. Mill is still at 045 which worked great last batch. Only change was I held back 2 gallons from 16.5 for a sparge to avoid overflow. Could that be it?

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[jabba11]

the handle wont throw?

 

[jabba11]

or you cant get it to circulate?

 

[pretzelb]

or you cant get it to circulate?

I had to throttle nearly all the way down to avoid exposing the heating element to air. It was like a stuck sparge. The crush should have been same as last time where I could nearly open the pump fully.

 

[sgraham602]

I held back 2 gallons during my last brew and found that I had to do a lot of work to keep the grain bed from getting 'stuck'. I wondered the same thing. I'm thinking that holding back the two gallons threw off the water to grain ratio enough that it made it difficult for the system to properly recirculate.

 

[pretzelb]

I held back 2 gallons during my last brew and found that I had to do a lot of work to keep the grain bed from getting 'stuck'. I wondered the same thing. I'm thinking that holding back the two gallons threw off the water to grain ratio enough that it made it difficult for the system to properly recirculate.

I decided to create a separate recirc thread to see if anyone in the BIAB forum might have ideas. I did go from 22 lbs to 25.5 lbs and I did hold back 2g of water, but something doesn't seem right about it behaving that different. I had to spin my mash like a blender to get the wort to channel through. I think it took about 45 minutes for it to drain. Had I not used the mash paddle I think the wort might have just stayed as a puddle in the mash bed.

 

[jready]

I had to throttle nearly all the way down to avoid exposing the heating element to air. It was like a stuck sparge. The crush should have been same as last time where I could nearly open the pump fully.

Huh, strange I wouldn't think holding two gallons back would do that.

 

[akthor]

3 and half pounds more grain and 2 gallons less water? Uh yeah of course stuck sparge. The pumps are very finicky and if aren't primed will have trouble.

 

[jready]

3 and half pounds more grain and 2 gallons less water? Uh yeah of course stuck sparge. The pumps are very finicky and if aren't primed will have trouble.

I missed the part about the added grain yep that could be the issue.

 

[pretzelb]

3 and half pounds more grain and 2 gallons less water? Uh yeah of course stuck sparge. The pumps are very finicky and if aren't primed will have trouble.

The pump was fine. The bed was clogged and not allowing flow.

It still seems to me that flow through the grain should be a factor of the crush and not much else. Once water is absorbed it should flow the same unless it is I overly thick or compacted.

Put it this way, when I used to batch sparge I could tell when a crush it grain bill caused a stuck sparge. When the crush was good the water flowed easily no matter the amount. I certainly never saw a pool of wort if my last sparge water was under estimated and thicker than the previous.

 

[jabba11]

have ya tried using rice hulls? I'm brewing my first batch on mine Friday. I don't make nearly the size beers you guys seem to though. My regular session ale is 17 pounds with 17 gallons of water for 12 gallons. Still I use rice hulls every batch.

 

[pretzelb]

Rice hulls for each batch might be the way to go.

 

[sabo38]

I did a blonde ale on Saturday night. 19 pound grain bill and 14 gallons of water. I had to keep an eye on the sight glass to make sure I wasn't recirculating to fast.
I love this system, just going to take a little getting used to. I'm going to do an Oktoberfest next weekend, 28 pound grain bill on that one, I will definitely have to do a rinse for that one.

 

[pretzelb]

I did a blonde ale on Saturday night. 19 pound grain bill and 14 gallons of water. I had to keep an eye on the sight glass to make sure I wasn't recirculating to fast.
I love this system, just going to take a little getting used to. I'm going to do an Oktoberfest next weekend, 28 pound grain bill on that one, I will definitely have to do a rinse for that one.

After my 25.5 grain bill I'm eager to learn how you manage the 28 lb recipe.

 

[jabba11]

Ventilation in place its just about ready for its maiden run Friday morning!

 

[30Bones]

Mine will not get it's maiden voyage until I close on my house in August

 

[jlongstreet]

Ventilation in place its just about ready for its maiden run Friday morning!

Are you moving the fan/hood out of the way when it's not in use? If so, could you post more pictures of that setup? I'm trying to figure out something like that.

 

[30Bones]

I would think the hood could have went above the pulley bar to avoid having to move anything out of the way

 

[jabba11]

Are you moving the fan/hood out of the way when it's not in use? If so, could you post more pictures of that setup? I'm trying to figure out something like that.

Yes it moves out the way. I mounted it on two TV arms and obviously its being helped by the pully system that I attached to it and the ceiling. Ill take more pics when I get a chance. I test ran it today and I may move to a 6 inch fan. Ive read a helpful thread on it and felt that with such a short run etc that I would be okay as far as "drippage". I think I was wrong. Go big right away do yourself a favor

 

[jabba11]

I would think the hood could have went above the pulley bar to avoid having to move anything out of the way

too far away to be useful unless your running a much bigger hood and a really big fan. I considered this and wanted to do it that way but it wont remove enough moisture that way I think. I may try it anyway just to see what happens casue ideally that would be the way to do it

 

[akthor]

Kinda looks like an awful R2D2

Ventilation in place its just about ready for its maiden run Friday morning!

 

[jabba11]

Kinda looks like an awful R2D2

yes someone already suggested that and suggested I call it r2brew2

 

[jabba11]

Day one mashed in. 17 lbs of grain 17.6 gallons of water. it filed the whole thing almost overflowing. My solution to that was to raise the basket some since I actually have so little grain in it this wasn't a problem. Lesson1 learned. Other than that the recirc seems to be working fine with no issues. I can run it pretty wide open if I want etc. I can imagine that when it comes time for "big beers" I will probably choose to do a 7.5 gallon batch versus a full 10.
Post mash now. 90 min mash left 15.5 gallons and hit my est numbers dead on. Boil reached and is boiling nicely at 58% of power at about 209 degrees. I did check my strike water temp with a thermometer against what it read and it was dead on as well. More As I go along. This is a 90 min boil as well with two hop editions

 

[jready]

Day one mashed in. 17 lbs of grain 17.6 gallons of water. it filed the whole thing almost overflowing. My solution to that was to raise the basket some since I actually have so little grain in it this wasn't a problem. Lesson1 learned. Other than that the recirc seems to be working fine with no issues. I can run it pretty wide open if I want etc. I can imagine that when it comes time for "big beers" I will probably choose to do a 7.5 gallon batch versus a full 10.
Post mash now. 90 min mash left 15.5 gallons and hit my est numbers dead on. Boil reached and is boiling nicely at 58% of power at about 209 degrees. I did check my strike water temp with a thermometer against what it read and it was dead on as well. More As I go along. This is a 90 min boil as well with two hop editions

Sounds like a great first day!

 

[jabba11]

completely done in about 5 hours. I started with the water in the pot this morning ready to go though so if I hadn't done that add maybe 20 minutes. it took me forever to clean but I will develop a method to it as time goes by I'm sure. Theres just lots more to clean here. I know some guys don't bother cleaning their pots a lot just rinse it out but I'm a neat freak so that doesn't work for me so well. I had a heck of a time getting all the grain out of the corners of the basket ill think of something for that too I'm sure. I also had to split this batch amongst two fermenters something I don't usually have to do and that added time. All in all the thing performed flawlessly. Couldn't be happier with it. I seriously cant imagine cutting any more time out of doing it than this thing does. I mean I like just brewing too but it can take up a whole day sometimes. Also I will say it was sooooo simple compared to traditional sparge. All my numbers ended up pretty much dead on fwiw. heres a pic with my hydra hanging in it. if it was winter I could have got this down to pitch temp in about 7 mins I bet. As it is my water temp is 69 right now so I got it down to 70 and will just cool it in the fermenter form there

 

[Horseflesh]

I just stumbled into this stuff and you are making it look very tempting!

 

[jabba11]

I'm not gonna kid ya theres a cost associated LOL but so far I am very happy with mine. I just need to tweak a few things here and there.

 

[02RedWS6TA]

Was told mine would ship last week, then this week, emailed yesterday and got no reply I'm ready to brew!

 

[jabba11]

Was told mine would ship last week, then this week, emailed yesterday and got no reply I'm ready to brew!

IMHO they are a bit overwhelmed right now. Mine didn't ship with the pump and it was a problem with chugger as was mentioned before in other posts. I have a pump already so it wasn't needed to set up but it wouldn't be much use without it either. I did talk to Tim yesterday afternoon about the pump and he apologized and said they should be shipping out soon from chugger direct. Bear with them id say it will get there.

 

[sabo38]

I just bought a regular chugged pump since I figure I will use it in the future. I couldn't wait any longer!!!!