High Gravity BIAB Electric Brewing System

[ScrewyBrewer]

Something I just noticed, haven't done any research so it might not matter, but it make sense in my mind.

With the pot sitting on the metal table, it's going to act as a heat sink and draw heat from the pot. With you recirculating it might not matter with your system as you will be adding heat back to the mash anyway.
I have a piece of rigid foam insulation under mine. Home Depot has 2x2 squares already cut, wood would work also. I've seen where others put a cork pad under theirs, but I spill stuff and the insulation cleans right up.

Thanks for pointing this out, I agree 100 percent. I went to a Target store nearby and bought four 6 x 6 x 3/8 inch thick silicone trivets to put between the kettle bottom and the stainless steel table top. As with everything home brewing related the devil is in the details and putting an insulator under the kettle to prevent heat transfer to the table may not have been obvious when initially planning the eBIAB layout.

[ScrewyBrewer]

I wasn't able to find the time to brew this weekend but next weekend should be a different story. Between finishing up a brewing water article I'd been asked to write for Philly Beer Scene magazine and baby sitting the grand kids I just couldn't find the time needed to brew on the new system. The build is finally complete now after ordering a few disconnects and some stainless steel washing machine hoses I was able to get all the connections made to the counter flow wort chiller, kettle and pump.

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I used silicone tubing and quick disconnect fittings to make up connections that can easily be changed to route the wort directly from the kettle to the chiller by gravity feed or from the kettle to the pump to the chiller. Using the kettle to pump to chiller option in the future will let me be able to add a whirlpool to the kettle.

A final wet test with 13 gallons of water in the kettle didn't show any signs of leaking at the connections and everything seems to be ready to go. I also calibrated the kettle by adding a gallon of water to it at a time and writing down the water level measurements from the bottom of the kettle. I plan to brew a ten gallon batch using 22 pounds of grain for the first brew, using the grain hoist to raise and hold the basket as I pour sparge water over the grains to hit my preboil volume. So this week looks like I'll have plenty of time to think over my new brewing process steps and maybe make a couple of 2 liter yeast starters to have ready for next weekend.

[D_Rabbit]

Where is the LIKE button?

[Beer-lord]

Can't wait to hear how the first batch goes down. Not sure if you'll have time for pictures but if possible, I'd love to see some of the brew in process.

[RickS]

Very Cool!

[Inkleg]

Fantastic, can't wait to hear about your first brew day.

[braukasper]

Same here!! Let me know how you like your controller Vince. I am considering get one of High Gravity's instead of building one.

thanks
BobH

[ScrewyBrewer]

Same here!! Let me know how you like your controller Vince. I am considering get one of High Gravity's instead of building one.

thanks
BobH

Will do Bob, so far the only thing I don't like about it is the $700. price tag (grin), but I do love the fact that it worked great right out of the box. So far I've run a wet test only this Saturday will be a real world test brewing a batch of beer. I'm completely sold on electric brewing now, I've even added a potable induction cook top to my brew room for heating 1 to 4 gallon batches of water!

[ScrewyBrewer]

Well it's on! I stopped by The Brewers Apprentice this morning and picked up my milled grains went home and mixed up 15 gallons of brewing water and in a few minutes will be rinsing sugars from the grain bag. So far the day's gone off without a hitch the exhaust fan is keeping up with the mash aromas, it took about a half hour to get 11 gallons of water up to 160F and after a little stirring the mash settled in at 150F. I've been mashing at 155F for 75 minutes and now it's onto the sparge. Man I love brewing.

[Beer-lord]

What's not to like? The greatest hobby of them all with all the benefits.

[Inkleg]

Good to see you back in the saddle Vince, you've been gone too long.

[ScrewyBrewer]

All in all I found brewing on the new system very rewarding yesterday, from having a good crush on the grains in the morning to cleaning up the brew room at the end of the day. The only time I got a little anxious was after the mash was done and I had to call Dave Knott, he's the owner of High Gravity out in Tulsa, to figure out why the electric element wasn't heating up for the boil. There's an 'undocumented feature' where the temperature probe has to remain connected to the sparge head even during the boil when it's otherwise not really needed. Dave's a great guy and after a quick introduction he explained how the temperature probe connection works to tell the controller to turn on the element since it's reading room temperature, with the probe disconnected the controller gets confused and doesn't energize the heating element.

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The grain hoist worked perfectly too I was able with the help of a small ladder to attach the hook to the basket handle and lift the grains out of the wort high enough for them to drain into the kettle. I had three gallons of sparge water heating up on an induction cook top and poured that water through the grains to rinse out any remaining sugars and hit my preboil volume. For now I used a small tubing cutter to mark my mash paddle in one gallon increments and use it as a dip stick to read the wort volume, it's kind of low tech but it really does work well enough for me. I also found out that my trusty old 10 gallon kettle is just the right size to fit the grain basket inside it without it hitting the bottom of the kettle. I used a pot lid to press down hard on the grain bag and was able to squeeze out about a half gallon of wort to add to the boil kettle.

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The grains I used were just single crushed, so not knowing exactly what to expect as far as efficiency goes with the new system, I lowered the efficiency rate in qBrew down to 70% and the recipe calculated out to OG=1.053, IBU=29, SRM=12, FG=1.013, ABV= 5.1%. After a 75 minute boil my dipstick showed I'd reached my post boil volume of 10.5 gallons so I sanitized the wort chiller and fermentors, hooked up the the hoses and began cooling the wort down to pitching temperature. Both five gallon fermentors are resting comfortably inside my fermentation chamber at 65F with signs of some yeast activity early this morning. So many questions were answered yesterday about the new eBIAB process, using the grain hoist, the exhaust fan, counter-flow chiller and a host of other little details that I'm already planning to brew up a nice Stout to have in my pipeline for the colder months coming up. I'd like to thank everyone whose offered me their seasoned advice for brewing with BIAB, it's not often that someone gets to pick and choose from so many brewer's ideas and experiences.

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[Inkleg]

And he's back folks......BIGGER......BADDER.......AND BREWER!!!!!! Can't wait to hear how the Stout brew day goes.

You were an inspiration to me during my early brew days and helped me more than you know. I don't think any of us forget the help that was there when we needed it and I hope that I was able to give a little back to you and any brewer out there.

[Beer-lord]

Thanks for the pics and update. Must be a huge joy to work with such a nice system.
Pretty cool that you could reach the owner of the company on a Saturday, especially with all the college football games on.

So, are you going to change your crush? I've really found that stirring the mash every fifteen minutes really helps but I'm not sure you can do that with your system. I have Beersmith set to 72% and I almost over go over and get closer to 78% and I don't double crush.

[ScrewyBrewer]

Thanks for the pics and update. Must be a huge joy to work with such a nice system.
Pretty cool that you could reach the owner of the company on a Saturday, especially with all the college football games on.

So, are you going to change your crush? I've really found that stirring the mash every fifteen minutes really helps but I'm not sure you can do that with your system. I have Beersmith set to 72% and I almost over go over and get closer to 78% and I don't double crush.

I'm having my grains crushed for me at The Brewers Apprentice and until I get my own barley crusher changing the crush won't be an option. I was able to stop the pump, lift the lid and give the mash a stir but next time I'll do it more than just once. Thanks for the idea it makes sense that stirring the mash more would improve efficiency. I really did enjoy myself brewing yesterday and I feel like I learned a lot too. It hasn't really sunk in yet but in about a month I'll actually have some home brew to drink again!