Burglar's big electric brew in a bag build (bbebiabb)

burglar · 03-20-2011, 11:15 PM

First, thank you Kal and ScubaSteve. Huge inspirations, and we would not have tackled this without either of your amazing documentation.

Concept stolen from here.
Electric stolen from here.

We're extract brewers with about two years under our belts, and have been having so much darn fun that we're going all electric, indoor, BIAB all grain. This project is going to be done in three phases:

Phase 1: E-kettle. The biggest part, where we build possibly the most overdone extract brewing kettle system of all time.

Phase 2: BIAB capability upgrade. Where we attempt our first all-grain batch of homebrew.

Phase 3: Full system. We're going to add a pump, and a fancy pants HERMS / Sparge on demand setup I'm still figuring out...

burglar · 03-20-2011, 11:29 PM

Pot:

After closely following ScubaSteve's system, and talking to our amazing LHBS about our plan, we decided that a 15 gallon keggle setup might not be big enough. We brew big, so they recommended stepping to 20 gallons.

The Bayou Classic 80qt pot has a diameter of 18.75" - and the 102qt pot has an 18.25" diameter. So, we went with the 102qt, as we had a better shot of getting a 5 gallon batch in there if desired and still making minimum depth required for the element.

So we got the Bayou Classic 1102 stainless pot w/ steamer basket. Holy crap, this thing is huge. Yee haw, let's drill holes in it!

And add a nice Bobby M sightglass too for good measure (pun intended.)

Squiggly element is out of stock everywhere, so we went with the Camco 02933 Lime Life LWD element, installed exactly as Kal has listed on his site:

burglar · 03-20-2011, 11:50 PM

Panel:

In progress...

I'm mostly following Kal with a few tweaks as to what we have available. My buddy picked up a project box at a lab liquidation that was full with a PLC and a bunch of other stuff he gave me for free, as long as I give him beer. It's a hair smaller than Kal's, but I can't argue with the price. Switches weren't much more. My layout for Phase 1:

Switches in:

And as it sits now:

Much more to do, I'll update this post as we progress on it.

burglar · 03-20-2011, 11:56 PM

Brew area:

We have very little space, hence the BIAB setup. There initially was some closet maid in there, which held stuff we never accessed, so we ripped that out, spackled and painted, put down some vinyl tile, a probably inadequate stove hood, and a nice $25 stand.

220V 30A GFCI Spa panel:

wyzazz · 03-21-2011, 01:43 PM

Looking good so far!

**Boar Beer** · 03-21-2011, 03:10 PM

Are you going to have a float switch to cut the power if you are low on water. It will save you from replacing the element when you forget to shut it off.

burglar · 03-22-2011, 11:39 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Boar Beer

Are you going to have a float switch to cut the power if you are low on water. It will save you from replacing the element when you forget to shut it off.

Not until we burn the first one out.

According to the packaging, the element can survive a dry fire. Not sure for how long though.

**Boar Beer** · 03-22-2011, 12:44 PM

good luck

burglar · 04-28-2011, 04:36 PM

lots of stuff with no wires attached...

burglar · 04-28-2011, 04:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Boar Beer

good luck

I feel I should address this better -

Since ScubaSteve's design has only one pot, the fluid level should never be lower than the element. Another reason why it's so slick.

The element will not be turned on until the pot is full and I'm ready to heat to strike. The wort doesn't get drained until after chilling. If we manage to leave the element on accidentally, we'll never make it down to pitching temp, and we'll figure it out pretty quick.

I guess we could run into trouble if we bump out heads and boil for too long, but the element should be fully submerged down to ~3.5 gallons, so it'd have to be a pretty severe bump.