I wanted to bump this thread and jump in on it. I’m considering purchasing the 15g deluxe brew boss system with COFI.
Since this has been out for a few years now I wanted to get the feeling from you guys on how you like the system. Is it worth it? Does the system hold up over time? Is there anything that you wish you’d bought from the start, or regret buying?
Anything else to advise either way to recommend or warn against.
You can find the water to grain weight charts here:
http://www.brew-boss.com/category-s/115.htm
If I were looking at getting a COFI, I would probably just buy the 20 gallon one, it will give you more flexibility as far as if you want to expand to 10 gallon batches.
Honestly I had the 15 gallon COFI, sold it and bought a 20 gallon custom kettle from Spike and a custom solid sided basket from Colorado Brew Supply. I recirculate the water with a
SS Mash Re-Circulation Manifold.
The main thing I did not like about the 15 gallon COFI was that it was a little small, so it could fit around the camlock inside the kettle. This meant if I wanted to do any high gravity beers, I was somewhat limited in what I could do. I mean the max grain weight is 24 lbs, not enough for some Barley Wines or Russian Imperial stouts. That said, you could always cut some 2-row from the recipe and add in DME during the boil to hit your numbers.
One other thing I found a little weird about the Brew Boss Pots, are the placement of the temp probe. I asked around to several other people on the forums about Temp Probe placement and they had them at the same height as their electric element. In the pot I had built I did the same, and have had no problems with maintaining an accurate temp during the mash. On the Brew Boss design, since it is higher you run a higher risk of exposing it, and scorching your wort, a mistake I did once with my COFI.
Ultimately I had been brewing for awhile with it and wanted to expand to doing 10 gallon batches and ended up choosing the custom pot and basket route. I don't regret buying the 15 gallon COFI, it is solidly made, I mainly wanted to be able to do 5-10 gallon batches.
As for efficiency I routinely got 70% with the COFI doing no sparge. With the solid sided basket and sparging, I usually get around 78%-80%, I would get somewhere around 65% not sparging with it.
I still use my Brew Boss Controller, it is by far the best controller on the market and I could not say enough good things about it. As long as you have a dedicated tablet to the Controller you are good to go. Apparently their app does not play well with other Apps, so whatever tablet you get, needs to have Brew Boss on it and nothing else. I would recommend buying a cheap $50 Android tablet from Best Buy and using that.
As of yet, I've never had to resort to using a propane burner as a backup.
I hope this helps you out in whatever decision you make.