American Pale Ale

[Captain 3 Droids]

14 hours ago, Dustin Frothman said:

@Patrick Barnwell

The Captain's advice re adding hops now is a good idea and this will work out just fine.

I noted in an earlier post of yours that you said you were already on firmware P018.

As the "American Pale Ale" is a Dry Hop recipe it should've added 4 days to the brewing program by default. Two for adding the hop pellets and two for the cold crash to settle the pellet debris.

The method of modifying the brewing program or creating a custom program as described by the Captain is only necessary if you wish to dry hop a standard recipe and make changes to the program parameters.

So in your case something has gone wrong.

Before your next brew it would be wise to check the following:

• Check that the most up to date firmware has successfully loaded onto your BeerDroid. You can do this via the app under "My BeerDroid". From here select your BeerDroid's name and check firmware is P018 and a narration below that "Firmware is up to date" is displayed.
• Check the app on your phone is up to date. Do this either via the Apple App Store or Google Play.
• Check that notifications are enabled on your phone for the Brewart app.
• When you commence a brew you have two options to start the program; either via the control panel of the BeerDroid or app on your phone.
• I would suggest starting your next brew from the app as this is the simplest method. There are several ways to do this, but using the American Pale Ale as an example, you would select the Brewprint from your "Shelf" (if it's not here then tap the + sign to add it), then tap on the brew icon and select "Start Brew"
• A standard Brewart Dry Hop program will do all the work for you and you should receive notifications at each stage of the process. You should not have to modify the program in any manner.

In addition to the product manuals there is a fairly comprehensive set of video guides to brewing, bottling, kegging, cleaning and serving with the Brewart system. You can find them here and I'd highly recommend checking them out if you haven't already:

https://brewart.com/101/

Please let us know how you go. 

Cheers.

Thanks Dustin, I wasn’t aware that the dry hop specific recipes used the “dry hop” mode as a default. You learn something every day.

[Patrick Barnwell]

17 hours ago, Dustin Frothman said:

"So in your case something has gone wrong."

Hey Dustin would You consider this as something has gone wrong....    ?

 

[Patrick Barnwell]

I would note , this Brewprint included Pouches of liquid hops not dry hops so maybe this were out of date

[Dustin Frothman]

On 05/10/2021 at 7:17 AM, Patrick Barnwell said:

 

@Captain 3 Droids Your thoughts on this?

[Captain 3 Droids]

13 hours ago, Dustin Frothman said:

@Captain 3 Droids Your thoughts on this?

I’d say that is infected. However smell and taste it. If it’s ok then you may be able to use 9l of it as the infection could be only a surface issue. However I’d be consuming soon after carbonation.

[Patrick Barnwell]

It smelled really bad, that batch went directly to the drain , this time I wasn’t the middle man ….  Seriously I’ve only been brewing a year now but this was a first.

[Captain 3 Droids]

1 hour ago, Patrick Barnwell said:

It smelled really bad, that batch went directly to the drain , this time I wasn’t the middle man ….  Seriously I’ve only been brewing a year now but this was a first.

These things happen, it’s part of the learning curve. The important thing now is to throughly clean and sanitise the Droid. This also means to seperate the tap- clean sanitise, the bung-clean & sanitise, the tap and bung inlets to the Droid-clean & sanitise, removal of the lid rubber-clean & sanitise, the lid and channel for the rubber seal-clean & sanitise.

Have you got any idea as to what May have caused the infection?

Cheers

[Patrick Barnwell]

I am at a loss, it seemed fine when I opened it to put in the liquid hops … as far as sanitizing I’ve got some medical conditions that make me kind of a fanatic about cleaning .. I normally use star San throughout everything and leave it without rinsing ( with my Mr beer fermenter’s) and I’ve never had an issue.. this time was my first try with the Droid so I tried following thier directions using the sanitizer tablet and rinsing with clear water.. only thing I can think of is possibly one of the ingredients in the brewprint may have been out of date if that’s possible… I purchased the unit from a seller on eBay … on the plus side for some reason the viewer light inside the droid is now working…. I’ve got 4 Mr. Beer recipes on the shelf that I’m going to run through before I buy anymore Brew Prints. Need to get those kegged for the holidays using the droid before I venture into the unknown again 😎👍🏻

[Captain 3 Droids]

2 minutes ago, Patrick Barnwell said:

I am at a loss, it seemed fine when I opened it to put in the liquid hops … as far as sanitizing I’ve got some medical conditions that make me kind of a fanatic about cleaning .. I normally use star San throughout everything and leave it without rinsing ( with my Mr beer fermenter’s) and I’ve never had an issue.. this time was my first try with the Droid so I tried following thier directions using the sanitizer tablet and rinsing with clear water.. only thing I can think of is possibly one of the ingredients in the brewprint may have been out of date if that’s possible… I purchased the unit from a seller on eBay … on the plus side for some reason the viewer light inside the droid is now working…. I’ve got 4 Mr. Beer recipes on the shelf that I’m going to run through before I buy anymore Brew Prints. Need to get those kegged for the holidays using the droid before I venture into the unknown again 😎👍🏻

Star San is a top product. After cleaning use the Star San and don’t rinse. The tablets are more a cleaning agent. Do you seperate the tap into its two parts?

if you got the Droid second hand on eBay it may well have come with an infection.

[Patrick Barnwell]

The “Tablet” in my kit was all pulverized powder. I have some brewery wash I’ve been using that I’ll stick with in the future.

[Patrick Barnwell]

Gentlemen, just finished my second batch in the Droid an I’m pumped!!! It came out great.. a Mr Beer dad’s favorite cream ale with an added pack of booster and a full 10 liters instead of the 8.5 ..  I kegged 4 liters to force Carb, 4 Liters sucrose for keg conditioning and the balance flip top glass bottles using mr beer carb drops.

just tried a sample of the force carbed after two days and it’s Niceeeee. 
 

now the real Headline of the day I went to clean the droid and I grabbed the two gallon spring water jug that held the water that I used in my first batch… the one with the mold floating on top of the Wort in the droid that I dumped….  The jug had been sitting capped on my counter since I originally used it….  There were black mold spots all over Inside the jug , so it appears that the jug of spring water I bought was bad to start with…. Mystery solved , this was the first time I used that particular water….  I usually use… Don’t  laugh   Dasani bottled water

Edited October 20, 2021 by Patrick Barnwell

[Captain 3 Droids]

11 minutes ago, Patrick Barnwell said:

Gentlemen, just finished my second batch in the Droid an I’m pumped!!! It came out great.. a Mr Beer dad’s favorite cream ale with an added pack of booster and a full 10 liters instead of the 8.5 ..  I kegged 4 liters to force Carb, 4 Liters sucrose for keg conditioning and the balance flip top glass bottles using mr beer carb drops.

just tried a sample of the force carbed after two days and it’s Niceeeee. 
 

now the real Headline of the day I went to clean the droid and I grabbed the two gallon spring water jug that held the water that I used in my first batch… the one with the mold floating on top of the Wort in the droid that I dumped….  The jug had been sitting capped on my counter since I originally used it….  There were black mold spots all over Inside the jug , so it appears that the jug of spring water I bought was bad to start with…. Mystery solved , this was the first time I used that particular water….  I usually use… Don’t  laugh   Dasani bottled water

Pleased your latest brew turned out well, it is satisfying. Warning “dad’s favourite….” could reduce your supplies, I have 2 adult sons who think my homebrew is delicious and free 😂😂

Glad the reason for the infection has been found, besides the water it could be the jug? Clean in hot water and then sanitise.

[Eltham Brauhaus]

8 hours ago, Patrick Barnwell said:

Gentlemen, just finished my second batch in the Droid an I’m pumped!!! It came out great.. a Mr Beer dad’s favorite cream ale with an added pack of booster and a full 10 liters instead of the 8.5 ..  I kegged 4 liters to force Carb, 4 Liters sucrose for keg conditioning and the balance flip top glass bottles using mr beer carb drops.

just tried a sample of the force carbed after two days and it’s Niceeeee. 
 

now the real Headline of the day I went to clean the droid and I grabbed the two gallon spring water jug that held the water that I used in my first batch… the one with the mold floating on top of the Wort in the droid that I dumped….  The jug had been sitting capped on my counter since I originally used it….  There were black mold spots all over Inside the jug , so it appears that the jug of spring water I bought was bad to start with…. Mystery solved , this was the first time I used that particular water….  I usually use… Don’t  laugh   Dasani bottled water

I understand regular tap water quality varies around the world but here in Melbourne Australia the water is pretty good so I use it for my brews. I use two x 5lt commercial plastic containers & I do chill them down to 4 deg C in my garage fridge between brews. I like to think that storing the tap water a 4 deg C for a week or two helps to prevent infection further done the track. I never leave the containers empty or un chilled. I am probably wrong but I've done 25 brews with no infections (knock on wood)😀

[Patrick Barnwell]

You can never be wrong if it works for you, in my area they have a bad habit of meddling with the water supply so we don’t as a rule drink tap water and as a rule I also keep the bottled water chilled in a spare refrigerator . I just saw the large jug of water at the store and thought hey that would be convenient, and also didn’t bother to chill it before use, lesson learned… stick with what works.. I use Dasani branded bottled water because it tastes the best to me of all that’s available.. just figured if I like the water that would work the best for making the the beer I want 😎👍🏻

[Eltham Brauhaus]

18 hours ago, Patrick Barnwell said:

You can never be wrong if it works for you, in my area they have a bad habit of meddling with the water supply so we don’t as a rule drink tap water and as a rule I also keep the bottled water chilled in a spare refrigerator . I just saw the large jug of water at the store and thought hey that would be convenient, and also didn’t bother to chill it before use, lesson learned… stick with what works.. I use Dasani branded bottled water because it tastes the best to me of all that’s available.. just figured if I like the water that would work the best for making the the beer I want 😎👍🏻

I checked out Disani Water on Wikipedia and I would give it a miss particularly as it is owned by Coca Cola. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dasani

[Captain 3 Droids]

2 minutes ago, Eltham Brewing House said:

I checked out Disani Water on Wikipedia and I would give it a miss particularly as it is owned by Coca Cola. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dasani

After reading the link, agree fully. 

[Patrick Barnwell]

Like I said to start with…You can never be wrong if it works for you

😎👍🏻

[spattah]

I guess im on the 10th day with American pale ale, it's still not completed. 

yesterday it notified me to add hops, which I didn't. but clicked on continue, still brewing, should I be concerned?

[Captain 3 Droids]

2 minutes ago, spattah said:

I guess im on the 10th day with American pale ale, it's still not completed. 

yesterday it notified me to add hops, which I didn't. but clicked on continue, still brewing, should I be concerned?

no, progressing as it should

[spattah]

On 7/2/22 at 9:36 PM, Captain 3 Droids said:

no, progressing as it should

I guess now im confused. Beer Droid is showing this. And app is still on 62 degrees. 
should it cool to 40 degrees before end of ferment stage happened? 

[Captain 3 Droids]

6 hours ago, spattah said:

I guess now im confused. Beer Droid is showing this. And app is still on 62 degrees. 
should it cool to 40 degrees before end of ferment stage happened? 

I note on the Droid screen that only the wifi symbol is showing and that the internet “global” symbol is not there indicating the unit is not connected. This is probably the reason, what’s it doing now?

[spattah]

3 hours ago, Captain 3 Droids said:

I note on the Droid screen that only the wifi symbol is showing and that the internet “global” symbol is not there indicating the unit is not connected. This is probably the reason, what’s it doing now?

It was still that way when I left around noon, in ferment stage 

[Dustin Frothman]

1 hour ago, spattah said:

It was still that way when I left around noon, in ferment stage 

Hi @spattah, as @Captain 3 Droids mentioned, it appears that your BeerDroid does not have Internet access and as such the information you're seeing in the app will not be updated.

You won't be able to rectify this whilst a brew is in progress, so just watch the control panel on the BeerDroid to ascertain which stage the process is at, and then eventually it will tell you when your brew is ready to bottle or keg.

Once your brew is finished and you've cleaned your BeerDroid, take a look at the user manual or Brewart 101 videos for steps on how to rectify this issue. 

If you're still having trouble following all of that then please ask here for help.

Cheers.

Edited February 9, 2022 by Dustin Frothman

[spattah]

1 hour ago, Dustin Frothman said:

Hi @spattah, as @Captain 3 Droids mentioned, it appears that your BeerDroid does not have Internet access and as such the information you're seeing in the app will not be updated.

You won't be able to rectify this whilst a brew is in progress, so just watch the control panel on the BeerDroid to ascertain which stage the process is at, and then eventually it will tell you when your brew is ready to bottle or keg.

Once your brew is finished and you've cleaned your BeerDroid, take a look at the user manual or Brewart 101 videos for steps on how to rectify this issue. 

If you're still having trouble following all of that then please ask here for help.

Cheers.

Ok, well it’s still the same, on 38 degrees, should it be fermenting that cold?

[Captain 3 Droids]

17 minutes ago, spattah said:

Ok, well it’s still the same, on 38 degrees, should it be fermenting that cold?

It’s doing the right thing, 38 = the cold storage mode as you activated the add hops as part of the recipe. It will soon (after 48hrs) go to keg mode at 18C