geoffey
Well-Known Member
After about 8 months of planning and building I've finally successfully built my own electric brewery in the basement and brewed my first batch! A huge thanks and shout out to everyone on this forum, many of whom have unknowingly provided a lot of help and input, as well as to Kal at theelectricbrewery.com for the inspiration!
Since my build ended up being quite different from how many others have gone about it, let me first start with my criteria:
1. I wanted to move to the basement because our kitchen was proving to be to small for all-grain batch sparging and because I have never desired to brew outdoors or in the garage.
2. The build needed to be fairly compact as I really don't have much space available even in the basement. I decided to go with a three vessel system with pumps because I don't have much ceiling height for a tiered system and because I don't like the idea of vessels higher than I can see into without climbing up on a stool or ladder.
3. I REALLY liked and was inspired by theelectricbrewery.com and decided to base my build on Kal's system. I was hoping to increase my efficiency and get some consistency, BOTH of which were just terrible in my all-grain batches. I liked the idea of a HERMS system because I felt that would really help with my efficiency and consistency issues and because it would help me create much clearer beers.
4. I ALSO knew I couldn't afford to emmulate Kal's build very closely due to budget limitations. I needed to use what I already had and what was available to me. THUS, since I already had 2 15gal stainless steel kettles and 1 10gal cooler MLT it was clear that these needed to be the basis for my build.
5. Coming from the Lighting Controls industry I knew I wanted to use as much equipment from that industry as I could. For one thing I'm extremely comfortable with that equipment, and I can also source a lot of it for little to no cost. Thus I moved forward with a design utilizing relay controls instead of SSR's and a touchscreen control interface instead of the typical control panel I've seen.
6. I saw no need for a system which is portable. I was more interested in building a system in to my house for my own use. If we unexpectedly need to move then the only thing I'll need to leave behind is some 10 guage wiring. Everything else can come with me and be re-installed in a new basement if absolutely neccessary.
So that was how I set about designing my build. To be honest a majority of the cost was in "finishing" my little corner of the basement. I have a very small footprint inside of what is otherwise the laundry room. This worked out really well when it came to ventilation as I was able to tap off of my existing dryer vent and not drill a new big hole in the foundation. The room also got a new floor (epoxy), a new utility sink, and some new drywall and framing. I had the added benefit of my wife being very happy with getting a finished laundry room. I have yet to install a planned false ceiling, but will get to that in the next couple of months.
I was lucky enough to have a co-worker who used to work as an electrician and he offered lots of free wiring work for me and helped me with a lot of the electrical decisions such as how thick the wiring from point A to point B needed to be etc. I had a 50amp outlet installed next to my existing main electrical panelboard (conveniently enough this is in the laundry room), and ran a 6 gauge, 4 conductor "extension cord" above the ceiling and over to my 50amp spa panel. From there I feed into another small panel which has two 30amp breakers for my 5500w elements: one in the HLT and one in the BK. This was to be honest a rather poor design and if I could go back and just forgo the SPA panel in lieu of two 30amp GFCI breakers I would do it in order to keep things more simple.
From the 30amp breakers I go straight into my lighting control cabinet which has up to 8 30amp relays, only four of which I need to use. These relays are made for switching up to 30amps of 277v circuits multiple times a day with lighting loads which carry a huge current inrush. They are warranteed for 5 years and have a 20 year expected lifecycle. I felt comfortable using these instead of SSR's because know they are well made and rarely fail. I can also source them at no cost if I have any unexpected failures.
My main worry about using a relay based system instead of an SSR based system was temperature control. An SSR switches much more quickly and more often than a mechanical relay can, and thus offer more precise control. (it's why they were designed into Kal's system in the first place, and I probably wouldn't personally advise anyone else to go my direction because no one else would save anything in cost or have easy access to these relays).
But so far my system has proven capable of holding temperatures steady very precisely. I've over-shot my temp a couple of times, but I think I've got the system calibrated accurately now. I will say this: my system at this point seems to be fairly slow to adjust/respond when I want it to. For example, Mashout will take probably 15 minutes or so unless I go to manual mode and set it for 90%. But then I need to sit and watch my temps so that I don't overshoot! This may get better over time, but it's the biggest drag for me so far.
Here are some pics. More to come and I'd he happy to entertain questions or see comments.
Since my build ended up being quite different from how many others have gone about it, let me first start with my criteria:
1. I wanted to move to the basement because our kitchen was proving to be to small for all-grain batch sparging and because I have never desired to brew outdoors or in the garage.
2. The build needed to be fairly compact as I really don't have much space available even in the basement. I decided to go with a three vessel system with pumps because I don't have much ceiling height for a tiered system and because I don't like the idea of vessels higher than I can see into without climbing up on a stool or ladder.
3. I REALLY liked and was inspired by theelectricbrewery.com and decided to base my build on Kal's system. I was hoping to increase my efficiency and get some consistency, BOTH of which were just terrible in my all-grain batches. I liked the idea of a HERMS system because I felt that would really help with my efficiency and consistency issues and because it would help me create much clearer beers.
4. I ALSO knew I couldn't afford to emmulate Kal's build very closely due to budget limitations. I needed to use what I already had and what was available to me. THUS, since I already had 2 15gal stainless steel kettles and 1 10gal cooler MLT it was clear that these needed to be the basis for my build.
5. Coming from the Lighting Controls industry I knew I wanted to use as much equipment from that industry as I could. For one thing I'm extremely comfortable with that equipment, and I can also source a lot of it for little to no cost. Thus I moved forward with a design utilizing relay controls instead of SSR's and a touchscreen control interface instead of the typical control panel I've seen.
6. I saw no need for a system which is portable. I was more interested in building a system in to my house for my own use. If we unexpectedly need to move then the only thing I'll need to leave behind is some 10 guage wiring. Everything else can come with me and be re-installed in a new basement if absolutely neccessary.
So that was how I set about designing my build. To be honest a majority of the cost was in "finishing" my little corner of the basement. I have a very small footprint inside of what is otherwise the laundry room. This worked out really well when it came to ventilation as I was able to tap off of my existing dryer vent and not drill a new big hole in the foundation. The room also got a new floor (epoxy), a new utility sink, and some new drywall and framing. I had the added benefit of my wife being very happy with getting a finished laundry room. I have yet to install a planned false ceiling, but will get to that in the next couple of months.
I was lucky enough to have a co-worker who used to work as an electrician and he offered lots of free wiring work for me and helped me with a lot of the electrical decisions such as how thick the wiring from point A to point B needed to be etc. I had a 50amp outlet installed next to my existing main electrical panelboard (conveniently enough this is in the laundry room), and ran a 6 gauge, 4 conductor "extension cord" above the ceiling and over to my 50amp spa panel. From there I feed into another small panel which has two 30amp breakers for my 5500w elements: one in the HLT and one in the BK. This was to be honest a rather poor design and if I could go back and just forgo the SPA panel in lieu of two 30amp GFCI breakers I would do it in order to keep things more simple.
From the 30amp breakers I go straight into my lighting control cabinet which has up to 8 30amp relays, only four of which I need to use. These relays are made for switching up to 30amps of 277v circuits multiple times a day with lighting loads which carry a huge current inrush. They are warranteed for 5 years and have a 20 year expected lifecycle. I felt comfortable using these instead of SSR's because know they are well made and rarely fail. I can also source them at no cost if I have any unexpected failures.
My main worry about using a relay based system instead of an SSR based system was temperature control. An SSR switches much more quickly and more often than a mechanical relay can, and thus offer more precise control. (it's why they were designed into Kal's system in the first place, and I probably wouldn't personally advise anyone else to go my direction because no one else would save anything in cost or have easy access to these relays).
But so far my system has proven capable of holding temperatures steady very precisely. I've over-shot my temp a couple of times, but I think I've got the system calibrated accurately now. I will say this: my system at this point seems to be fairly slow to adjust/respond when I want it to. For example, Mashout will take probably 15 minutes or so unless I go to manual mode and set it for 90%. But then I need to sit and watch my temps so that I don't overshoot! This may get better over time, but it's the biggest drag for me so far.
Here are some pics. More to come and I'd he happy to entertain questions or see comments.