Brew Sculptures SABCO Brew-Magic Vs. MoreBeer.com

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

shayn80

Member
Joined
Feb 6, 2010
Messages
22
Reaction score
0
Location
San Jose
Does anyone out there have a brew sculpture and if so did you DIY? If you didn't what do you think of the SABCO Brew-Magic and the MoreBeer.com BrewSculptures because I know Sam Calagione of Dogfish Head Ales uses a Brew-Magic pilot setup and BJ's in San Jose CA uses a MoreBeer-esk Brew Sculpture. Its a ton of money and I'm commiting a lot of time and energry here to make consistantly good brews as I get better equipment and space, and I'd like to hear what others think. Thank you for your time Friends and fellow Brewers!:mug:
 
My $0.02 are DIY. I had a 2 tier DIY that wasn't the easiest thing to use but I made good beer. I decided I wanted something a little nicer and I ended up purchasing one of the rigs you mentioned above and while it is a nice setup I now wish I would've been patient and built the perfect system for my situation. Do you prefer the HERMS or RIMS setup? Single level, 2-tier, or 3-tier? If you acquire 2 or 3 kegs (I don't want to get torched by people so I'll say acquire the kegs legally) you can build a RIMS or HERMS system pretty affordably. The Brutus plans are amazing and some of the Brutus builds that people have done here are truly beautiful rigs; however, you can always move towards the perfect brew rig for yourself and just start with the essentials. Maybe the Brutus design isn't best for your situation, maybe the height of the kettles on the BrewMagic are a little too high to simply lift grain into or peek into during the mash, etc. A large brew kettle and a mashtun and possibly a HLT or a cooler to store hot water in for the batch or fly sparge can get you going and you work out the design as you go. Maybe you want to look at some of the design where people are using steam generators like Yuri Rage's system. One, two, or no pumps might be necessary depending on how you want to move the liquid around If you don't want to build either a RIMS or HERMS system I know that SABCO is now selling a stand alone RIMS system that you simply add to your kettles but with help from people on this forum you could build your own for a lot cheaper. Another consideration is size of the kettles. Do you want to make 19 or 38 Litres? If you opt for the 38 Litres do you make beers in excess of 16 Plato or 1.064 OG. If so then think about the size of the mash-tun as that will become a possible limitation.

That's a lot for $0.02 huh? I guess what I'm trying to say is that I had about $600 tied up in my first brew rig and I spent a lot more than that on my 2nd purchased rig and my beers are no better. More consistent for certain, a little less hands on and attention during the brew day for sure but I'm missing that satisfaction of having built my 2nd system.

Poke around and ask questions because there are a lot of people on this forum that built there own rig and have systems as nice and more often nicer than those offered by SABCO and MoreBeer. Nothing against either manufacturer but neither will likely be the perfect setup for you; the perfect setup will be something that you design and have reviewed and criticized by others.

BrewOn
 
I DIY'ed a Brutus 20, using Blichman kettles, TriClamps, all electric with WIRELESS BCS 460 control for a tad over $3k. It is in my Sig...

P1030726.JPG

BCSshot3.bmp


Depends, you want to spend 6 weeks building your own, or pay double and wait 6-8 weeks?

DIY is a lot of fun and you can create ANYTHING!
 
Well to answer the question, of types of brew I plan on doing are: Wheat Ales belgan and German styles and Dopplebachs. I want to brew pilot batches between 10 and 15 gallon and I do want a HERMS or RIMS system and pump driven wort chiller direct to conical fermenter, and I plan to force-carbonate in keg. I've never been one to weld, but I love chemisty and cooking and Brewing is giving me a chance to make my dreams come true so now its down to a pilot brew system that has consistant results. I'm kinda getting the push that a DIY is the best way to go but as I said I'm no welder so do people contract for that?
 
Well to answer the question, of types of brew I plan on doing are: Wheat Ales belgan and German styles and Dopplebachs. I want to brew pilot batches between 10 and 15 gallon and I do want a HERMS or RIMS system and pump driven wort chiller direct to conical fermenter, and I plan to force-carbonate in keg. I've never been one to weld, but I love chemisty and cooking and Brewing is giving me a chance to make my dreams come true so now its down to a pilot brew system that has consistant results. I'm kinda getting the push that a DIY is the best way to go but as I said I'm no welder so do people contract for that?

Why weld? I built my whole rig in my dining room :D
 
I had a DIY Brutus. It was a great rig, and I brewed many barrels of great beer through it. THe temp controls were cool but I never used them, I preferred being at the helm the whole time.

complete_004.jpg


Now I have Morebeer 2050 and couldn't be happier. I opted out of hte automated controls this time and kept it all manual. 20 gallons in the same time it takes to brew 10 is nice too.

rig_011.JPG
 
What electric heater are you using and may I ask what RIMS/HERMS your using because that DIY is pretty amazing.

I am using CAMCO water heater elements. 9000W in the kettle, 9000W in a double barrel RIMS heater too.

Kettle:
BK_Inside_Finished.JPG


RIMS:
P1030801.JPG


Twin LG 3-MD-HC pumps

The entire build thread is in my sig. I have almost ALL of the photos on the first page of that thread.
 
Very well said runhard. The link posted by wild west was a thread I put up and really it come down to what you want in a system and also for me cost of shipping

Pol that is a awesome setup but I actually have to be home to build one too. Weekend times are a premium when traveling for a job and I want to spend them brewing.
 
Back
Top