Unboxing the Nano from CO Brewing

[milo_leon]

is the light near the panel or power cable? Is it led or CFL? might be some kind of plasma field type thing causing it. I have a PID and the light goes on and off yes when it nears temp as it is ramping down so it doesn't overshoot.

that is what we thought - it was our first experience with PID so we thought we broke something at first lol.

the ceiling flights flickering was better today for some reason - they are old school fluorescent tubes and our electrical said it is probably a sensitive light bulb and nothing to worry about in a old house.

 

[Horseflesh]

it is the element switch on my control panel.

OK, thanks. On mine the element switch lights up green if the element is armed, but that's it.

 

[prosperbrews]

water test went very well today! fixed a leak in the sight glass, pump works well, and tested the mash manifold from ss brewtech.

one thing i was not expecting was when the system hits the temp i set, the blue element light on the panel will start flickering. is this normal? i am assuming the system is turning the element on/off rapidly to throttle down the power to 50-55%?

also - for some reason, when the element light on the panel is flickering, a ceiling light next to the system will start to subtly flicker too. this is really weird since the light is not on the same circuit/breaker as the brew system. is this something i should be concerned about? we plan to contact our electrician to double-check as well.

How is your sight glass setup? I can’t get mine to stop leaking. mine Has a white and red o ring at the top , but nothing at the bottom where the glass and metal pieces screw in. Wondering if I’m missing an o ring for the bottom

 

[milo_leon]

How is your sight glass setup? I can’t get mine to stop leaking. mine Has a white and red o ring at the top , but nothing at the bottom where the glass and metal pieces screw in. Wondering if I’m missing an o ring for the bottom

i dont think i have an o-ring at the top of sight glass, but it may be at the bottom of the glass to create a seal - i will need to check. i did use plumbers tape on all the threads like where sight glass screws into the base, and the cap at end of base.

 

[prosperbrews]

i dont think i have an o-ring at the top of sight glass, but it may be at the bottom of the glass to create a seal - i will need to check. i did use plumbers tape on all the threads like where sight glass screws into the base, and the cap at end of base.

Let me know what you find - I think there should be some type of gasket/o ring on both ends to prevent water from leaking on either end.

The element light flickering is normal as it cuts power when it gets close to set point.

 

[milo_leon]

there is a small opening in the cap at the top of the sight glass to equalize pressure - that is where i got my leak from when i did 15+ gallons of water. if i remember right, the o-ring was at the bottom of the glass tube, then you tighten the top cap to press down and create a seal.

seems that the max amount of water you can do is 15 gals? unless i am missing something.

 

[Horseflesh]

I needed to use Teflon thread tape to stop the leaks.

There is a hole in the cap on mine, it isn't intended to be water-tight at the very top.

 

[jabba11]

first brew day went well! still need to dial in the system and get used to it. sight glass gave us some trouble cuz it seems to only max out at 15 gals of water, anything more then it will start leaking from the top. i do wish the kettle had volume markings so we can nix the sight glass. maybe we can add that some day - will need to figure out measurements.

we used the beersmith profile that's on their website for a 12 gal batch. it called for 16 gals total for 25 gals of grain and i held back one gal to sparge. but i messed up and accidentally added 2 gals total at sparge, but that actually got us close to the pre-boil vol of 14 gal lol. had less wort dripping out after mash than i excepted, maybe need to leave it dripping longer or raise the basket slower. SS brewtech manifold worked like a dream, pump was at full speed and we hit our pre-boil OG right on the money.

we did have some issues figuring out the right % for the boil at as the system kept going from 210 degrees to 211.8 and never touching 212. I had to set target temp to 212.5 and element to 65-70% to get a decent boil. Once I added the wort chillers and start recirculating the wort through the pump at 15m, I boosted the cruise% to 75% to get a nice boil to sanitize everything.

we ended up a little under 12 gals, about 5.75ish into each fermenter. will need to figure out how to account for hop absorption when i remove my hop spider and fiddle with my volume calculations.

all in all, i think the whole day took us about 6 hours from start to finish since everything was new to us plus we had a 30 min whirlpool. cleaning up took longer than we expected due to so. many. parts. will figure out an effective routine over time.

BTW - what is the best way to clean the element? we did a pbw cycle with warm water circulating through pump to clean everything, but should i turn on the element and run a hotter cleaning cycle? would that work and what temp should we aim at/how long to cycle? element did great with no scorching, but still had trub/gunk on it at the end of the day.

the sight of this at the end of the day is worth a long brew day.

Mine never reaches 212, ever. I don't "set it" there either. You simply put the element to 100% and wait for it to boil then I back mine down to about 67% for a 10 (12gal) gallon batch and usually around 62% for a 5 (7gals). In other words I only "set temp" when I am mashing. I clean mine in place. I pump to the fermenter then I take a blue scotchgard scrubbie and rub off the trub etc. I add any of my misc parts that need cleaning to the bottom of the kettle and add my silicon gaskets etc AFTER it has reached temp and Ive shut off the element Then I run PBW and water in it for a couple hours at about 150 degrees and pump that out to drain then IU rinse with cold water and pump that out to a drain. This cleans the pot AND the pump and hoses etc. All I have to clean otherwise is the basket and ss manifold.. Ive taken my pump apart once in two years about 6 months ago.. There was NOTHING in it. It was spotless. I also use a hop spider though so very little hop particles get run through my system. Some guys aren't fans of this feeling you don't get enough hop utilization. I pump worth THROUGH the hop spider during my boil (if you do this you should know you need to watch things otherwise it CAN overflow the hop spider). I cant be convinced that letting them roam free creates any better utilization.

 

[Horseflesh]

Mine never hits 212F either. I did a lot of tests with water when I first got it, and though I am at sea level, it just isn't possible. Closest I got was about 211F. I eventually concluded that it was pretty reasonable for only the fluid near the element to actually boil. The heat isn't coming from the bottom, after all, it all comes from the element, and the element is a few inches from the RTD probe.

So, I have my boil "cruise control" on the touchscreen model set to run at 100% power until it hits 207F, at which point it switches to 55% power. I usually see the temperature hover around 209F.

I also boil off 1.33 gal per hour, which is PLENTY, so I don't want to turn up boil power any higher.

As far as I can tell, I am still making beer.

I do have a persistent chill haze issue though, and they say a poor hot break can contribute to that. But I am more worried about scorching or further increasing boil-off than chill haze.

 

[milo_leon]

Let me know what you find - I think there should be some type of gasket/o ring on both ends to prevent water from leaking on either end.

so i checked the sight glass and the black o-ring is on the bottom. the top cap that screws off has its own silicone o-ring.

 

[prosperbrews]

Update: so i now have flow evenly to the top and bottom of the basket. However my plumbing setup is sensitive in the sense that if I try to open both valves at 100%, the pump will stop pumping. If I keep both valves at 50%, I get decent flow from both but going much farther than 50% on either valve causes the pump to stop moving liquid. Is this behavior normal? I guess it kind of makes sense since I am taking a 1/2 input line and splitting to to two 1/2 inch outputs.



Curious if any of the experts here could help me troubleshoot my pump configuration. I split the pump flow to the top and bottom of the basket but for some reason when I open both valves at the same time, the pump stays on but just stops pumping water. I’ve tried different levels of opening and closing the valves and nothing works. Right now I can only get the pump to move water to either valve but only when one or the other is open. Anyone notice any glaring issues with my plumbing ?

 

[milo_leon]

I guess it kind of makes sense since I am taking a 1/2 input line and splitting to to two 1/2 inch outputs.

I think if you reduce the outflow to less than 1/2" for both pump, that will help because you create enough backpressure for the pump. That's probably why you can do 50% on the pump but not 100%

 

[milo_leon]

quick question about general mash process

1) I used a digital thermometer with a probe to measure the heat at the top of the mash and notice a difference between the bottom probe and my thermometer, range was around 6-10 degrees (settled in around 7 degrees offset ~45m into the 90m mash). I adjusted the offset temp so the heat of the water coming in from the top would be the mash temp I wanted. Pump was about 40-50% as it was a thick mash and had to go slow.

I wanted to see if this was the correct process or did I heat up the bottom of the mash too strongly with the wide temp range?

2) how long do you leave the basket to drip after the mash? I tend to pull the basket out right away, set kettle to boil and let basket drip for the 25-30m it takes to reach a boil. right before boil, i add .5 gal of water to help rinse out then i press down on the grainbed with a lid to get any leftover water then move basket aside.

 

[prosperbrews]

I think if you reduce the outflow to less than 1/2" for both pump, that will help because you create enough backpressure for the pump. That's probably why you can do 50% on the pump but not 100%

I think another issue is that I’m using high flow camlock fittings, so the pump can’t run with both valves wide open. Still interested in any other qualified opinions on this one.

 

[prosperbrews]

quick question about general mash process

1) I used a digital thermometer with a probe to measure the heat at the top of the mash and notice a difference between the bottom probe and my thermometer, range was around 6-10 degrees (settled in around 7 degrees offset ~45m into the 90m mash). I adjusted the offset temp so the heat of the water coming in from the top would be the mash temp I wanted. Pump was about 40-50% as it was a thick mash and had to go slow.

I wanted to see if this was the correct process or did I heat up the bottom of the mash too strongly with the wide temp range?

I think that’s a fine process. One of the reasons I set mine up to recirculate above and below the basket was to alleviate this problem

The other theory with recirculating below that basket is that It should reduce the chance of scorching the element

 

[jabba11]

I think that’s a fine process. One of the reasons I set mine up to recirculate above and below the basket was to alleviate this problem

The other theory with recirculating below that basket is that It should reduce the chance of scorching the element

I'm not a fluid dynamics expert or anything. heres my guesses. Because your pump is below the kettle the fluid is probably got some pressure build up pretty hard on the inlet side not sure of that would be a problem or not. Is that a riptide pump or a march nano brewery pump or something? That's a pretty strong pump maybe too strong for the diameter here or something but there is a guy on here using a pump that large on here with success. If moving the valves to 50% doesn't fix it Id move the pump around shorten the hoses etc. Truthfully I don't know if any of these thigns will help or not. I'm using the stock pump with a simple T out of the kettle to the whirlpool and the manifold with a valve on each but I almost always run both open 100% BUT mine doesn't pump nearly as hard as this pump would. Youre gonna lose a degree or two ususally in the hoses and hardware etc. I'm lucky in that I think my temp probe actually read a few degrees under already so my temps on and in the grain bed have been pretty spot on. I run a traditional sparge while the basket is hangin although I do it with my sparge arm running wide open. then like you I let it hang until just before it reaches a boil.

 

[prosperbrews]

I'm not a fluid dynamics expert or anything. heres my guesses. Because your pump is below the kettle the fluid is probably got some pressure build up pretty hard on the inlet side not sure of that would be a problem or not. Is that a riptide pump or a march nano brewery pump or something? That's a pretty strong pump maybe too strong for the diameter here or something but there is a guy on here using a pump that large on here with success. If moving the valves to 50% doesn't fix it Id move the pump around shorten the hoses etc. Truthfully I don't know if any of these thigns will help or not. I'm using the stock pump with a simple T out of the kettle to the whirlpool and the manifold with a valve on each but I almost always run both open 100% BUT mine doesn't pump nearly as hard as this pump would. Youre gonna lose a degree or two ususally in the hoses and hardware etc. I'm lucky in that I think my temp probe actually read a few degrees under already so my temps on and in the grain bed have been pretty spot on. I run a traditional sparge while the basket is hangin although I do it with my sparge arm running wide open. then like you I let it hang until just before it reaches a boil.

Thanks for the feedback! Im actually using a chugger mini max - it essentially has the exact same output as the standard chugger, its just fan cooled and quieter (50$ premium). I've done quite a bit of research and here is what I've come up with. Centrifugal pumps need to match pressure on the input and output side of the pump or you end up with a low head situation in the event that output pressure is < input pressure, which is what I think I'm experiencing. Because I am splitting the flow, and also using high flow camlock fittings, the outlet pressure is essentially half of what it is on the inlet side.

The solution as you eluded too is to keep the valves at 50%, this resolves the issue and allows both to flow without the pump shutting down. The alternative is to switch to the regular flow cams or use the tri clamp fittings that came with the system to make the connections. It would all be one in the same, restrict at the fittings or restrict at the valves. One additional thing I could also do is to increase the line size on the input to a full one inch valve and lines which should also allow me to open the output valves all the way.

 

[Velinos]

I ordered the SS Brewtech mash re-circulation manifold that several people are using in this thread. I noticed that the hose barb on the manifold is 3/8" whereas everything else is 1/2". Dumb question, but how do I connect two hose barbs with different sizes? Do I just use a hose clamp to secure the 1/2" ID hose onto the barb or do I get 3/8" ID hose and stretch it over the 1/2" barb?

 

[BudgetBrewer]

I didnt feel like getting 3/8" silicone tubing. I had some of the cheap, clear thin wall 3/8" tubing laying around. I put that on the barb, cut it off flush to the end of the barb, then put my 1/2" silicone tubing over that, with a hose clamp.

 

[jabba11]

"I put that on the barb, cut it off flush to the end of the barb, then put my 1/2" silicone tubing over that, with a hose clamp."

This is exactly what I did

 

[30Bones]

Anyone ever suddenly come into MASSIVE temp offsets in their system? Had this for a couple years now I am guessing and had a temp offset when I calibrated it of roughly 6 degrees off. Brewed last week and noticed my chill temp was abnormally high for our cold Iowa ground water. Reading 78 degrees and by them time I read it on my carboy thermo-tape and a thermopen and it was sub 50!!! I was fighting low gravity as well during this session that in hindsight were more signs things were off.

So I am pretty sure I will dump that batch. Did the autotune Saturday set at 150 degrees. Ran through AT rater quick, recirculating the water the entire time and it was holding 150 well according to the PID. Thermopen was 37 degrees lower!!! I changed the offset to -37 and ran AT again and 150 on the PID was within a couple tenths on the thermopen.

Something just seems messed up....why and how that could happen?? Anyone have any insight here?

 

[BudgetBrewer]

Im assuming the use of a PID controller of some type with a PT100 type sensor?
Run the system and wiggle the temp probe wire, see if you can make it change temps. Ive had that happen. Faulty solder connection was the fault.

 

[30Bones]

Im assuming the use of a PID controller of some type with a PT100 type sensor?
Run the system and wiggle the temp probe wire, see if you can make it change temps. Ive had that happen. Faulty solder connection was the fault.

This is a CO Brewing Systems thread right? Aren't they all PID aside from the newer units that are touch screen?

Faulty solder connection at the control panel I assume? That would be odd since it has not bee moved or unhooked since it's been mounted on the wall I will look a bit deeper and see if that may have anything to do with this.

Thanks

 

[BudgetBrewer]

Yea, im familiar with the system, don't own one. I just know a bad connection can alter the reading on a PID. Hope you find the fault!

 

[pmax]

Greetings from Australia and great thread. I’m putting together a system like the nano 20g from scratch and have a few questions.
1) deciding on the TC ferrule position (height) for the element - what’s the gap between the bottom of the kettle and underside of element, and gap between top of element and underside of mesh basket? Trying to minimize dead space but don’t want to tighten the space up too much to cause any issues.
2) is anyone using or does anyone foresee any problems using the mesh basket as large hop spider? I make a few hopped meads so the mesh basket would otherwise be sitting idle for these brews and the size of basket should allow for maximal hop utilisation.

Kind regards, Paul.

 

[Tricerahops220]

Where did you get the TC adapters for the Brew bucket tops?

 

[gromitdj]

Where did you get the TC adapters for the Brew bucket tops?

SSbrewtech sells them: Bulkhead | Compression Fitting 1.5” TC & Hose Barb | 1/2" to 1.5" TC

 

[Horseflesh]

I think my basket is rusting at the welds down by the mesh.

Everything else in my system looks good, but I just brewed a beer with pink foam on top so I took a close look... It sure looks like rust.

 

[jabba11]

mehh maybe.. Looks more like staining to me though. even if it were rust I don't thin kit would cause the pink color you are describing. I mean my kettle has a brown "tarnish" to it as well especially after brewing a dark beer especially low in the kettle nearer the element.

 

[Horseflesh]

CBS said to clean with BKF and if I wanted to fully repassivate, to do a citric acid soak. I have a big bag of citric acid for some other craft stuff so I will do that too.

I anticipated the BKF advice and did that right after I posted the pics. It helped a lot and the next batch of beer went fine.

Still not sure if this was rust or some other staining, but seeing pink foam was pretty weird!

 

[jabba11]

just another brew day!

 

[Horseflesh]

After my staining or rust incident, I decided to repassivate my gear. CBS suggested citric acid but didn't actually recommend a procedure. There's another thread here where someone linked a cool NASA report on passivating with citric acid, and I followed the directions as show on the slide below: 4% solution by weight, 140F, 120 minutes.

To make 4% citric acid solution, use 151 g/gallon or 5.32 oz/gal. With my tap water this had a pH of 1.92.

This was the cheapest food-grade citric acid I could find on Amazon... $24 for 10 lbs. (I use it for some other things, too.)

I neutralized the acid with baking soda before dumping it. (go slow!) I doubt this is actually necessary if you dilute it a lot on its way down the drain.

 

[CodeSection]

just another brew day!

Nice conical there!

 

[prosperbrews]

I am 2 brews in with my CBS system (with mods). So far so good!

 

[jabba11]

Nice conical there!

This is only the second batch in my Spike. I have an SS BME Chronical as well. The spike is an upgrade in everyway with ONE exception. The lid gasket is a nightmare to get to stay in place. Its a bad design as there's no real "groove" that locks it in place like the SS does. I had to take the lid off the other day because it was leaking. Doing that with the coil installed and an active ferment going on is something I don't wanna do again. I will now have to pressure test the thing every time as I don't trust it or until I find a way to get to stay in place while flipping it and putting the band on. I DO like being able to take the lid off to clean it but if this continues to be an issue I wouldn't recommend it over a SS Unitank even though you pretty much have to CIP it.

 

[jabba11]

I am 2 brews in with my CBS system (with mods). So far so good!

everything working better with the smaller hoses etc in place?

 

[CodeSection]

This is only the second batch in my Spike. I have an SS BME Chronical as well. The spike is an upgrade in everyway with ONE exception. The lid gasket is a nightmare to get to stay in place. Its a bad design as there's no real "groove" that locks it in place like the SS does. I had to take the lid off the other day because it was leaking. Doing that with the coil installed and an active ferment going on is something I don't wanna do again. I will now have to pressure test the thing every time as I don't trust it or until I find a way to get to stay in place while flipping it and putting the band on. I DO like being able to take the lid off to clean it but if this continues to be an issue I wouldn't recommend it over a SS Unitank even though you pretty much have to CIP it.

I have yet to use my CF10. Hopefully, I will be using it the first time next weekend or the following weekend.

I read and watched reviews on YouTube that said and showed the same thing that you described. I thought they had corrected it by creating seal hold sections by slightly pinching the lid sides in various places.

I'm not sure why this design is such a problem as the swimming pool industry uses a similar seal design for their DE filters.

Do you have any tips you could give either on the seal or anything else associated with the CF10?

 

[jabba11]

I have yet to use my CF10. Hopefully, I will be using it the first time next weekend or the following weekend.

I read and watched reviews on YouTube that said and showed the same thing that you described. I thought they had corrected it by creating seal hold sections by slightly pinching the lid sides in various places.

I'm not sure why this design is such a problem as the swimming pool industry uses a similar seal design for their DE filters.

Do you have any tips you could give either on the seal or anything else associated with the CF10?

Not really, Ive only used it twice like I said. Be careful pulling it around its pretty unstable on 3 legs but if you be careful its not a real issue

 

[jahlinux]

Just had my element plug fail. Not sure what would have caused this. Anyone have any ideas?

 

[prosperbrews]

This is only the second batch in my Spike. I have an SS BME Chronical as well. The spike is an upgrade in everyway with ONE exception. The lid gasket is a nightmare to get to stay in place. Its a bad design as there's no real "groove" that locks it in place like the SS does. I had to take the lid off the other day because it was leaking. Doing that with the coil installed and an active ferment going on is something I don't wanna do again. I will now have to pressure test the thing every time as I don't trust it or until I find a way to get to stay in place while flipping it and putting the band on. I DO like being able to take the lid off to clean it but if this continues to be an issue I wouldn't recommend it over a SS Unitank even though you pretty much have to CIP it.

My personal opinion is that the ss unitank is quite a bit better product than Spikes. 2 cents