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Unboxing the Nano from CO Brewing
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Siberian
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What I've done for this on my similar system is to measure the difference between the kettle temp and the PID temp in a few batches, then adjust the PIDs temperature like I was calibrating it (it's deep in the settings in mine) to the average gap, in my case that was -3 degrees.
This way it's always pushing a bit hotter water than needed back into the kettle and after this I find the grain bed dials in within a degree of what I wanted it to be, with me just being able to tell the PID to hold it at what I want.
02RedWS6TA
Well-Known Member
I got a tracking number. Better late than never, hopefully get delivered early next week.
Mashed in a Marzen this morning. New pump working fine. 11 pounds of grain 10.8 gallons of water for a 6 gallon batch. pump on full.
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Looking good man! I have 11 gallons of grapefruit sculpin clone ready to keg that plays 5 of a blackberry sour and 5 of a breakfast stout I'm set for awhile
A couple of notes about yesterdays brew session. Its been discussed here about placement of the temps sensor and a difference in the grain bed temp. Yesterday I watched this pretty close. What I found was when the temp reached its desired temp the water in the bed was not at that temp BUT did eventually reach that temp. I stirred it up a couple of times and this helped speed that process. I think no matter what theres gonna be some "lag" . I had my pump on full and it was circulating like crazy but that grain is heavy and locked together to shwile the recirc helps for sure a good stiir or two once you reach desired temp is definitely in order. I was doing some step mashing so it was more prevalent. I tihkn in future if I have one mash temp I will set the temp. Wait for it to get to it then give the bed a good stir or two check temp and maybe do another stir in a minute or two. then you should be good I would think. Yesterday I did a 6 gallon batch for 5 gallons and this was my first time doing that. Everyting worked great BUT my boil off was definitely "off" as I had over 7 gallons when the boil was done. When I did my ten gallon batch it was accurate. I usually don't mind it being off a bit but a gallon and an half had a big effect on my OG. I could have continued to boil off but didn't have time. I also noticed ALOT more grain in my boil pot than last time. Ill put that off to the stirring I did but I may adjust my crush at .047 or something to see of that helps. Efficiency wise the .045 crush I'm using now is plenty high so maybe ill fiddle and try and find a good mix for that. CLEANING...I HAVE to find a method. Terribly laborious right now but I think I'm dialing that in as well. Theres just a lot more "parts" with this thing and I am someone who isn't gonna just run some PBW through it and call it a day. One final note when it was time for cooldown my hydra IC was about 1/2 in the wort BUT it still cooled it down rapidly.
I thought id share this photo of how I am running my recirc during cooldown. I haven't had much luck trying to attach the recirc arm to the sid eof the tun so I attach it here on my hop sider during cooldown. Boil to 72 in about 10 minutes today with water temp at 72.
DarkStormBrewing
Well-Known Member
I bought this system to save time on cleaning...coming from a Kal clone Herms with threaded everything 2 pumps and a CFC. Now with 1 vessel 1 basket and immersion chiller vs 3 vessels 1 false bottom and tons of threaded parts that get broken down I'm estimating saving an hour+on cleanup. I guess if you came from propane biab the cleanup is greater with this system but I'm pumped about half of the equipment to clean them my old setup.
I'm coming out of traditional sparge and ya I had that cleaning process down to the second. The thing about trad sparge is you can clean things during the boil etc so when its done you just have the pot and pump and hop spider and spoon to clean. That takes like 10 minutes. Like I said I just have to develop the method and I think it will be fine. Its just driving me nuts so far. I mean I can brew a lot faster then eat that time up cleaning stuff. it doesn't hep that I spilled 2 gallons of PBW water all over the floor last time..LOL
Hey, how much hose do you need to get this running? And what kind, 1/2" ID?
wildseedgrrrl
Active Member
So funny story I have to share:
I ordered a whirlpool arm to replace the sightglass, since that's useless for me back on June 24th. I kind of forgot about it until another package arrived a couple weeks later. I thought I'd give them another week and then send an email. I wasn't in a big hurry so it wasn't a big deal. Tim, gets back to me pretty quickly with this:
Sorry for the delay, I had it listed as shipped on our paperwork but the tracking showed it never went out, so I did some checking, it looks like the package got knocked off the shipping table and was hiding behind a big roll of bubble wrap. I am sending this priority for you. You should have it in hand on Monday.
I just had to laugh. I had that happen to me once and it took me months to figure out that I had dropped the envelope behind the couch. He got back to me faster than I expected and the package arrived within days. I can't say enough good things about this company and I'll be upgrading to a much larger system from them.
I've had to slow down on the brewing since I got this system. It's making things too easy.
I ordered a whirlpool arm to replace the sightglass, since that's useless for me back on June 24th. I kind of forgot about it until another package arrived a couple weeks later. I thought I'd give them another week and then send an email. I wasn't in a big hurry so it wasn't a big deal. Tim, gets back to me pretty quickly with this:
Sorry for the delay, I had it listed as shipped on our paperwork but the tracking showed it never went out, so I did some checking, it looks like the package got knocked off the shipping table and was hiding behind a big roll of bubble wrap. I am sending this priority for you. You should have it in hand on Monday.
I just had to laugh. I had that happen to me once and it took me months to figure out that I had dropped the envelope behind the couch. He got back to me faster than I expected and the package arrived within days. I can't say enough good things about this company and I'll be upgrading to a much larger system from them.
I've had to slow down on the brewing since I got this system. It's making things too easy.
Id say that really depends on your configuration and needs. I am using no more than 4 feet Id say. I figured the shorter the better. Mine is 1/2 inch as I recall but either will work I suspect in silicon like im using. When I need to pump to a drain though I have to put on a different hose that is 6 ft long.
That's very helpful--not having used a rig like this, I wasn't sure if I was looking at 2 feet or 20!
02RedWS6TA
Well-Known Member
I got my yesterday, like you guys my box was basically destroyed but the equipment was all in good shape. Missing a couple things and seriously not happy about the pump switch. They were still supposed to include a chugger when I bought mine. I did a water test and needed the pump to pump the water out last night, it leaked all over the place. Have an email in to Tim, hopefully he takes care of this.
the pump was leaking? From the welds? I'm sure they will take care of it. Ive had a few WTF's but Tim and others have always been responsive and eager to make things right etc
02RedWS6TA
Well-Known Member
It leaked out where the plastic top part met the steel bottom of the pump. I'm going to guess there's not a gasket there and should be. I ordered a chugger today so hopefully I can just get a refund on the pump.
Yikes.. I have said that if I didn't have a chugger already I would have requested the refund as well so I get that. I did use the one they sent last weekend and it worked quite well with no problems and I sure liked having it attached direct to the pot so I knew priming wasn't an issue. Flow rate was fine etc. Time will tell with it.
02RedWS6TA
Well-Known Member
Sounds like they take them apart to weld the triclovers on and maybe the gasket didn't get put back in right. Either way Tim is taking care of it. Couldn't ask to deal with a better guy.
02RedWS6TA
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Any idea what the dimensions of the 15 and 20 gal mash baskets/kettles are?
02RedWS6TA
Well-Known Member
It's been a while since anyone's discussed doing calculations for this system. Has anyone got a spreadsheet or Beersmith setup dialed in?
pretzelb
Well-Known Member
Co brewing downloads has a sheet that is simple and pretty accurate. In BeerSmith I downloaded the BrewBoss profile and tweaked it. The profile in BeerSmith is going to be different for everyone. The key values are boil off, loss to trub and chiller, and fermenter loss and that is different for everyone. Lauter Tun deadspace is zero since it's BIAB. The other key is the global setting in BeerSmith for grain absorption rate. BeerSmith assumes if you pick a BIAB profile that you squeeze the bag and thus has a lower rate. I adjusted this to match the rate for normal sparge.
pretzelb
Well-Known Member
On my 20g the basket is around 15" tall x 16" wide
pretzelb
Well-Known Member
A few more tips for anyone that may have had issues with re-circulation. My last batch went very well and I had the pump running full speed with no issues. The only bad news is that I changed a few variables so I can't be 100% sure what made the biggest impact.
This was a 10g batch with 22.5 lbs of grain. I think the type of grain is a major factor. Next time I do something with a lot of wheat or roasted barely I think I'm going to add rice hulls to the recipe to be safe.
- Grain bill - this reicpe didn't have any "difficult" malts except for 4% flaked oats. I think wheat, british pale, and roasted barley can cause issues.
- I set the mill gap to 049.
- I conditioned the grains with a simple spray bottle of water. The downside here is the rollers on my mill are gummy. I will need to get a firm brush to clean them.
- I added the basket to the kettle then added the grains to the kettle. I have tried adding the grains to the basket then adding the basket to the kettle but I think this is a bad idea.
- I attached the re-circulation arm and started the pump before I added grains. I think this helps and avoids dough balls.
This was a 10g batch with 22.5 lbs of grain. I think the type of grain is a major factor. Next time I do something with a lot of wheat or roasted barely I think I'm going to add rice hulls to the recipe to be safe.
02RedWS6TA
Well-Known Member
Made my stand today:
First brew day is tomorrow
First brew day is tomorrow
FYI there is a beersmith file now available on the downloads page at CBS
02RedWS6TA
Well-Known Member
Brew day did not go well. Stuck mash, added grains way too early (we were videoing the brew, just not thinking at all), scorched element.
Hopefully the beer turns out OK. The sample didn't taste burnt and the OG was spot on. Did a 10 gallon version of Yoopers Oatmeal stout. Fingers crossed it turns out. Brew day 2 is scheduled for next week.
Hopefully the beer turns out OK. The sample didn't taste burnt and the OG was spot on. Did a 10 gallon version of Yoopers Oatmeal stout. Fingers crossed it turns out. Brew day 2 is scheduled for next week.
DarkStormBrewing
Well-Known Member
By "adding grains too early", are you saying before hitting strike temp? Iced yet to brew on mine yet, trying to absorb everyone's experiences until I do get the chance.
Doing an Oktoberfest Ale this weekend, did an Irish Red last weekend, everything went very good. I just needed to watch/adjust the pump output to make sure I didn't suck the bottom of the pot dry. Once I found the right amount to recirculate I didn't have to adjust again. I am still using my original pump and not the brush-less one that CB sent. So far I am loving this system and the clean up times compared to the old way with a Coleman cooler. The only thing I want to play around with now is grain bed temperature compared to PID temperature.
Does the PID controller they supply let you calibrate the temperature probe?
I think it can be but its not discussed in the owner/operators stuff. You might ask Tim at CBS if nobody here knows. Mine seems to be accurate but it would be handy to know in case I ever needed to know that info. Its a pretty common PID I think so if others can be Id think this one can be as well. it may be a complicated process and so they don't want people fiddling with it too. if ya tell people they can adjust something, they will, and when they screw it up, they call you. LOL
02RedWS6TA
Well-Known Member
Yes, we were videoing a how to and trying to catch it from a first time all grain brewer on a new system. Walking through the steps at the beginning from milling the grain to a protein rest at 120*.
Milled the grain, showed the crush on camera, showed how to set the PID, and then without thinking just dumped the grains in. I got about half of the second bucket before I realized what I did. From there out just more and more and more went wrong. We made it through but at what cost I'm not sure. I haven't looked into what happens if you add the grains before you heat the water. We didn't want to throw in the towel and we ended up with the correct gravity wort in the carboy.
On the plus side the boil off chart that CBS has seems to be spot on. I followed it and ended up exactly where I should've.
andrewmaixner
Well-Known Member
Adding grains before heating to strike temperature is just fine, worst case you will get a more fermentable beer, lower gravity. You basically just did ramped step mash. I know people that intentionally do most of their mashes that way.
My last problem was that despite my calculations, somehow I overshot my mash-in temperature estimate by 10F. Ended up with a 1.017 FG IPA instead of a 1.010 FG.
Still don't know how I did it, but I'll be ramping up to target in the future instead of striking down.
My last problem was that despite my calculations, somehow I overshot my mash-in temperature estimate by 10F. Ended up with a 1.017 FG IPA instead of a 1.010 FG.
Still don't know how I did it, but I'll be ramping up to target in the future instead of striking down.
pretzelb
Well-Known Member
My first batch also included a scorch but it tasted fine. I also have a theory that with a large amount of dark grains you are at higher risk of getting the screen stuck.
pretzelb
Well-Known Member
Yes. It is from Auberins. I just downloaded the manual from them. I think mine was adjusted 3 degrees.
Good news there.
Do you mean yours came with 3 degrees dialed in, or that you just made the change yourself? Not that it matters I guess, just curious.
Do you mean yours came with 3 degrees dialed in, or that you just made the change yourself? Not that it matters I guess, just curious.
pretzelb
Well-Known Member
I made the change myself after realizing I never checked the readings against my Thermapen. Hardest part was getting the text big enough to read on my phone.
Calibrating to Thermapen was my plan too!
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