It's about time Naked Cat Electric

[Inkleg]

Went and poured a Pliny.

As most of you know (for some time now) I've been working on an electric build. You read, gather information and think this is easy I can do this. Well yes and no. You can do it, but you will scratch your head from time to time and when your on a roll, life will send you on a side track from time to time. The #1 thing that I can say that will help you the most if you decide to do this is PLAN. Plan your style of brewing, plan the lay out of you system, plan it for the lay out of your house. This will help you the most along the way.

I knew that I wanted to stay doing BIAB (for now), with a 16 gallon pot. I knew that I wanted to go 220 with a single element. And being a mechanic, I knew I wanted to tinker with a lot of this myself. I'll post a list of venders that I used at the end.

Started with a pot and a punch.

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Then a box, a lot of parts and an idea.

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I laid out how I was going to put my controls in the box. I then handed it to my chicken friend and gave him carte blanch with it. I had no idea and did not see it till he was finished.
MY GOD, words cannot describe what he turned it into. That is a mirror image of our cat Bela on the box. My many thanks Graham, open tap at the house for you at any time.
This picture is not the true color.

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[Inkleg]

Next came wiring. This is a wealth of electric brewing information and this is an even wealthier list of electrical diagrams. One of our very own Borg members russki has a thread of his electric build.

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After much sweating and double checking, it's alive. I can switch the alarm between temperature or time.

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I have it on a self contained cart. I have a cross bar pipe coming from a tee on the back of the pipe that holds up the box (you can see the pipe and the shadow of the cross pipe in the picture). My goal is to be able to suspend my BIAB bag above the pot while it drains (one of those plan it through things). I have the pump mounted, but not hooked up yet. Don't know if I'll recirculate during the mash, but would like to whirlpool while chilling. All in all, it has been a fun build. I have boiled alot of water playing with it. Last Thursday, my first brew day with it, man it was nice just to set my mash in temperature and just walk away. I crushed grains, got hops out of the freezer, every now and then I'd look at the reading. When it read 162*, I double checked with my Thermapen, dropped in my bag, stirred in my grains and checked again, right at 156*, set the alarm and waited. The other weird thing was how quite it is compared to gas.

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At the end of the mash, I just switch the PID to manual and set it to 100%, when it gets to a boil I drop the percentage down to maintain a good boil. Ended up at 52% in manual mode for that day.

[Inkleg]

This is a list of places I ordered parts for my build. Had nothing but great service from each of them.

The Electric Brewery, a wealth of information and links for parts. A real impressive set up too.

Auberins, ordered PIDs, switches, lights, and other things for the box build. Had a slight problem with a RTD probe wire. Sent an email with a picture, two days later I had the replacement part with a return postage paid envelope to send the old one back. That's good service.

BrewHardwear Bobby M is a vender on HBT, he has some great videos on how not to destroy your pots while poking/drilling holes in them.
Quality parts and good pricing.

E Brew Supply I see the site has been updated since I ordered from them. Great, now I'm going to look and find something else I need. Got my hard wiring supplies through them.

That's all I can think of off the top of my head. I'll keep this updated as needed.

Oh, got my Bayou Classic 16 gallon pot at Best Buy for 160$.

[Beer-lord]

Don't show me any more. This is awesome for you. I'm so glad I and mean you, will be drinking beers made with this.
With out a doubt, I could not do this but now that you did, whenever you make it further down the deep south, bring your tools and get to work at my house.

[BlackDuck]

Awesome...and thanks for those two links. They will make for some great reading. I want to build a RIMS system sometime and I think those links will prove to be invaluable. And I'm with Paul...I can't wait to hear about the first pour from this system.

[wollffy]

Awesome!

[russki]

Sweet! Once you go electric you won't ever go back to gas! Very nice built - how's the heatsink handling the heat from the SSR? Love the control panel graphics.

One thing I started doing lately with my brews is not heating the water to strike temperature. I set the PID to my desired mash temp, and mash in at that temp and start recirculating right away - otherwise my system tends to overshoot a bit while the mash temps stabilize.

After a few brews you'll get a feel for your system, and will be able to fine tune your process. Happy brewing!

[Inkleg]

Thanks Andre. It was nice not to fiddle with a flame and the heat sink is doing a great job removing heat.

You're using a basket in yours, right? I just have the bag and no way to keep it off the element for now. So I'm just doing traditional BIAB with no recirculation for now, but that may change.
It might be nice to try a false bottom, recirculate and try some step mashes.

[Kealia]

Dude, that is Sofa King cool!

Party at Jeff's (in the Spring)!

[gwcr]

That is just all kinds of awesome!! Would love to go electric at some point. Well done!!

[Brewbirds]

Color me jealous. I'm going to go change my avatar now.

[Inkleg]

Playing with the Mac, learning to load, edit and post photos, so thought I'd update this.
So far the build has worked flawlessly, any hiccup has been on my end. Hooked the hoses to the pump up backwards yesterday took a minute of head scratching to figure out. I use the pump to whirlpool while chilling. Cuts chilling time way down.
Added the cross bar and small ratchet pulley to lift and hang the bag with, man is that nice. This picture is Bela's IPA from yesterday. Killian shows up on cue once the mash is over, knowing he's going to get some grains.

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[Beer-lord]

I love the cross bar idea. What size pipe is that? And, it's hard to see but is it connected to the table or does it have it's own feet?
Galvanized pipe is cheap and I think this is something I can do in the future too. Sweet!

[Inkleg]

Thanks for the questions Paul, give me more practice with photos with the Mac.

It's 1/2 inch galvanized pipe that I painted. It's mounted to the cart with flanges and 90* fittings.

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It's secured higher up with an eye bolt on one side. I used a u-bolt on the other side to tightly secure the electric box.

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All the pipe attachments are 90* or tees except for one union fitting so you can finish building it. I had to do this so I could take it apart to move inside. Haven't had a chance to paint it yet.

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[Inkleg]

Then I have this small locking pulley that I hang from another u-bolt that I have loose on the cross bar. Tied a bowline in the end and just run a choker at the top of the BIAB bag.

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