The Brewtalizer Electric Brewery

It's been 8 months in the making. A lot of dry kegs right now, unfortunately. Our previous propane burner system was unsatisfactory (chronic problems with lighting and maintaining a lit burner, brewing outdoors in Edmonton's winter sucks.)

The rest of the system has not been photographed yet, but here is the idea:
17 gallon aluminum brew kettle, March pump, 10 gallon cooler with copper manifold, 2-tier brew stand. It's inspired by JKarp's system.

We have 7500W of heating power, split between a 4500W and a 3000W element. The elements are controlled by simple switches, rated for 20A and 250v.

We plan to pump from the kettle to the Mash tun, and gravity drain from the tun into the kettle. We will pump to recirculate the mash for Vorlauf.

Here is the control box:

Looking good! Can't wait to see the rest of the system.

Where were you able to get your heating elements...anywhere in Canada or did you order them online?

Thanks!

Heads up, if you have kids or the potential for small ones to get near that tool box you are going to want a lock of some kind on it. Most panels are either locked or screw on cover to keep unwanted hands out.

Otherwise I like the clean spacious look of it compared to my spaghetti wiring job.

Yeah, it won't be near any small children, and certainly not open during operation. I could easily lock the box if necessary. It will also not be plugged in when not in use.

I bought the heating elements at Home Depot in Edmonton.

Where did you get the distribution blocks?

The power distribution blocks are courtesy of AiredAle... I think he may have gotten them on eBay. They are great!

Well, we finally finished the brew system. Did a quick test run to ensure that everything worked as planned and it's good to go.



The cooler is our mashtun (with copper manifold), gravity drained into the brew kettle and recirculated by the March pump for vorlaufing. Brew kettle is a 17 gallon aluminum pot with two immersion water heater elements (4500W & 3000W), each controlled by a switch in the control box. All of this is served by a 40A GFCI circuit.

Next weekend is the real test!!!

Nice, nice, very CB20-esque. I love all the two vessel systems that are popping up. Get your boil-off test number and MLT loss number down and you should be ready to roll.

Thanks! It isn't pretty like some of the systemson HBT but it will work just fine! The MLT and BK are something we've used in a previous system. We don't chill the wort - my buddy uses a corny, I use a HDPE water jug to store the wort.

Also, I used Camlocks (ss) on all of the silicone hose.

This is a really fun system to dial in and brew. Once you know your constants you should be able to hit your numbers every time. That is the reason I switched from fly sparging with 3 vessels to this kind of system, repeatability.

So how long do you find it takes your system to clear when recirculating? Do you have a ball valve on the pump? Input or output?

Mine is an exact clone of JK's CB20 system except I used all SS 10 gal kettles. Recirc is definitely the trickiest part. I recirc to 170 for a "mashout" and have played with several different settings from very slow to very fast. On my latest brew I drained nearly everything from the mash tun, heated to 170 and then pumped back up to the MLT and let it recirc for 30 minutes and it stabilized at 170 in both vessels. With the larger volumes it takes a long time to get to mashout temp. First brew on the system it took me 1 hr. Stirring the mash definitely helps efficiency but you have to be careful about getting too much grist in your BK. My latest trick is to line my MLT with a voile curtain ala BIAB. It helps keep the grist in my MLT and makes clean-up a lot easier.