Need input on my new electric 1.5 bbl system

I purchased a 55 gallon stainless steel drum last night.

It will be used as a boil kettle in conjunction with my existing single-tier brewstand, which consists of three keggles. One of the three keggles will be used as a HLT, and the other two keggles will be used as MLTs.

My maximum batch capacity will soon be increased from about 12 gallons to about 47 gallons. That's right: one vessel will quadruple my capacity. With a 47 gallon capacity, I would do a double batch in one day, yielding 94 gallons. That's more than 3 barrels. Not bad for a day's worth of work. If I took the shelf out of my fermentation chamber (easily done), I could fit two 55 gallon fermentation vessels. This would provide adequate fermentation space for the aforementioned 94 gallons of beer.

1. What do you think of using two keggle MLTs feeding one 55 gallon BK? Have you heard of this before?

2. From where do you suggest I get the fittings? I plan to use 1" tri-clover fittings.

3. Do you think that two 5500W elements in the BK would be adequate? Would you suggest I use more?

4. I plan to whirlpool with this BK. I will usually be doing very hoppy beers, mostly with pellets, so I need an efficient way of keeping all that out of my fermenters. Do you agree that's what I should do?

Let me know if I need to post any pics. I'm open to any criticism, suggestions, or comments you may have.

not really helpful but what on earth do you need with nearly 100 gallons of beer?

EarthBound said:

If I took the shelf out of my fermentation chamber (easily done), I could fit two 55 gallon fermentation vessels. .

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Sorry I have to ask what is your fermentation chamber that you can fit two 55 gallon drums?

we require pictures of set up and fermentation chamber and fermentation vessels. if that isn't too much trouble.

Unless you have the proper paperwork and are selling this, what in the world do you need that much beer for? I can see doing group brews with it. But for personal consumption, just seems like a waste of time and materials. I'm not usually a naysayer on this forum but I'm just trying to save you a lot of money and your time.

Wow....enough beer for an army. Hope no infected batches!

You will have to look into a good pump. No way a March 809 can whirlpool that much volume.

Would a 5 gallon batch be used as your starter? Would that even be enough?

How are you going to Chill?

would be nice to be able to fill up a bourbon barrel with one batch

I have a similar project in the works, i picked up a 120 gallon stainless water tank and cut it 75/45. So i have given alot of thought about kettle sizing. A good rule of thumb is your BK should be 50% bigger than your batch size if you want 0 boil overs. I know i get boil overs from time to time doing 10 gallon batches in a 15 gal kettle, imagine how much worse it will be at the 1bbl + scale.

As to the Mash tun capacity, each tun would be capable of 37 lbs of grain according to a post by bobbym Here. Therefore the highest gravity you could get would be 1.043 at 75% in a 47 gal batch. And thats stretching it. I would recommend finding another vessel in the 40 gallon range because maxing out two MTs seems like alot of hassle. Not to mention energy inefficient.

Two 5500 watt elements might JUST get 47 gallons boiling. My thoughts on that are 1 element per 15 gallons for reasonable water heating. I assume your going to prepare strike water in your kettle. So i would recommend 3 elements.

I dont want to upgrade my pumps for my system, and i know 1 march wont whirlpool 40+ gallons so i was just gonna put a screen over my kettle outlet like my current system has. It almost acts as a hopback, i get very good aroma this way on flameout additions. Thats all i got for now

Gwitz said:

I have a similar project in the works, i picked up a 120 gallon stainless water tank and cut it 75/45. So i have given alot of thought about kettle sizing. A good rule of thumb is your BK should be 50% bigger than your batch size if you want 0 boil overs. I know i get boil overs from time to time doing 10 gallon batches in a 15 gal kettle, imagine how much worse it will be at the 1bbl + scale.

As to the Mash tun capacity, each tun would be capable of 37 lbs of grain according to a post by bobbym Here. Therefore the highest gravity you could get would be 1.043 at 75% in a 47 gal batch. And thats stretching it. I would recommend finding another vessel in the 40 gallon range because maxing out two MTs seems like alot of hassle. Not to mention energy inefficient.

Two 5500 watt elements might JUST get 47 gallons boiling. My thoughts on that are 1 element per 15 gallons for reasonable water heating. I assume your going to prepare strike water in your kettle. So i would recommend 3 elements.

I dont want to upgrade my pumps for my system, and i know 1 march wont whirlpool 40+ gallons so i was just gonna put a screen over my kettle outlet like my current system has. It almost acts as a hopback, i get very good aroma this way on flameout additions. Thats all i got for now

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Based upon the discussion initiated by your post I had last night with my friends, I decided that it would be impractical to normally do 1.5 bbl batches. Just because it's possible doesn't mean it's practical. I will normally do 1 bbl batches. Here's my response to your recommendations:

1. I agree that 3 elements would provide a 47 gallon boil in a much more reasonable amount of time than 2 elements. However, I would prefer not to install 3 elements. The existing wiring (between the breaker and receptacle) for my brewery is 8 gauge which is adequate for 2 elements in the BK. I believe I would have to up-gauge my wiring to run 3 elements.

2. I agree that two MLTs can seem like a energy inefficient hassle, but I'm more interested in why you think that. I'm willing to suffer through it to significantly increase my batch size without requiring another vessel. I would prefer to just use my existing equipment plus this 55 gallon SS drum. I would prefer not buy another vessel until further capacity increase is required.

3. I believe an adequate whirlpool could be created by using a drill-operated SS paint mixer. What do you think?

Congrats on the sweet scrap yard find. I look forward to watching your build progress.

The two main reasons for why I want to brew so much beer are as follows:

1. I love designing, building, brewing, and drinking. I'm a DIY freak and enjoy designing and building more than I do brewing and drinking. I know I'm crazy.

2. This brew system will be my proof-of-concept system. It's a part of my business plan for my future taproom.

I plan on chilling with my CFC for now

My existing brewstand is capable of direct-fired RIMS and direct-fired HERMS. The control panel wiring for the electric upgrade is complete. This wiring will give me the capability for EHERMS and ERIMS. All I need to do is install heating elements, and the EHERMS will be complete. After I build and install the ERIMS tube, the ERIMS will be complete.

With this new BK. I'd be heating the HLT and BK with electricity and heating the MLTs with fire. I will make sure that I will always be able to use my brewstand in the normal 11-12 gallon fashion.

I've done a few back-to-back batches brew days (Lupulin Luaus, I like to call 'em), yielding a 24 gallon brew day each time. It couldn't have been done without this chamber. I designed this chamber to hold 2X15 gallons in conicals on the bottom shelf and 5x6 gallons in buckets on the top shelf. That's 60 gallons total. That's the way it's going to be for quite awhile until I get this new BK running. I could take out the shelf and fit two 55 gallon fermenters in there. If I had both of them fully-fermenting at the same time, I would prefer to additionally install glycol jackets. That's easy though, so I'm not worried about fermentation. I'm currently more concerned about my mashing system.

Is your control panel on a 50 amp breaker? If not, your gonna need a separate breaker per element anyways. 31 gallons shouldn't be to bad with two elements.

The hassle was with 47 gallons in mind. It would be reasonable to do a 1.050 31 gallon batch with those tuns. That would be the max id attempt to boil in a 55 gallon BK anyways. The only other thing i was thinking was the extra work involved with two tuns vers one. Definitely not a deal breaker though.

Awesome ferm chamber btw.

In the very minute amount of research I've done about electric brewing I did find one seemingly major item about the elements and controller. Brewmation uses far more wattage from their controller for 1-3bbl batches vs the controller from Kal's Electric brewery which seems setup for +/- 10gal.

Again my electrical experience tends to end with a fire extinguisher but it's something I came across that might need to be addressed for bigger batches.

As stated before, unless you want to do low gravitiy brews all the time, 2 keggle mash tuns won't be sufficient for a 1 bbl batch. I have a 1 bbl system, with (3) 40 gallon vessels. I have about 3 inches of head space in MLT when doing a 1.065ish brew. You're going to have to be creative if you want to make this work without adding another vessel. My thought would be to try this. Use all three keggles to mash in. Go double duty on the BK and use it for the HLT as well. The only problem is, you will need some buckets (which you probably already have) to collect the first runnings in so that you can warm up the sparge water in the BK. Once you add the sparge water to the mash tuns, you can transfer the wort from your buckets to the BK and then pump the sparge runnings strait over to the BK. BTW, if you are going to pump from the MLT you may want to consider using a lauter grant so that your grain doesn't compact and stick your sparge.

As for a screen for the BK, I wish you luck. If you plan to use pellets you will more than likely run into problems with a clogged screen with such a large batch size. I started using whole hops exclusively for this reason and I rarely get a clog anymore. Seems like when I do get a clog here and there it is becasue of break material and not from the hops. I saw a thread the other day where people were making a large basket out of fine SS mesh as an alternative to a hop bag in the boil. Seemed like a really cool idea and might help you out. Do some searches and read up before you build, you'll be glad you did.

I will be operating on a 50 amp GFCI breaker. The control panel is wired in such a way that I can only operate 2 of the 3 elements of the 5500 elements at once. It is a little more complicated to use two MLTs, for sure, but I want to attempt to do what I can with what I got, but I do want to make sure I'm not getting myself into something I'll regret. If it seems doable, I'll have to give it a try. Thanks, Gwitz.

The calculator I used at Green Bay Rackers verified that I can comfortably fit about 70 lbs (this includes specialty grains, which can vary, thereby affecting the OG) into two keggle MLTs to yield no more than about 1.062 OG. That's with 75% brewhouse efficiency, a mash thickness of 1.25 qt/lb, and adding no sugar. I normally get about 80% brewhouse efficiency and will strive to achieve more than that. Therefore, I should be fine with using two keggle MLTs to yield OGs of 1.062 or less, I think. What do you think?

I normally brew beer with less than 1.062 OG. If I do want an OG of more than that, I would just reduce the batch size to the appropriate amount. It'll just make things easier, IMO. However, what you suggested is a very good idea, and I thank you for it, BBL_Brewer!

I would like to flysparge. To do this, I plan is to stagger the mashes. That way I can heat up sparge water, fly sparge, then heat up sparge water and fly sparge again. I know it takes a little longer, but I get better efficiency that way. I won't be doing it this way forever - just until I can justify to myself to buy a second 55 gallon barrel to use as an MLT.

I've heard of using a grant, but I never used one, nor needed to before. I've never got a stuck sparge. However, I'll look into it and consider it because I'll be a dealing with a lot more grain and wouldn't want to do something stupid. Do you use a lauter grant? Could you explain a little more about it?

I'd like to whirlpool, if I can. If I don't whirlpool, than I should be able to use a hopstopper. If I do use a hopstopper, then I need to make one that's larger than the commercial version, right?

I know you got a calculator and all, but 35 lbs of grain at a mash ratio of 1.5 qt/Lb is gonna be wicked tight in a keggle. I'm not saying it won't fit, but comfortably might be a stretch. Since you plan to fly sparge, that will make things easier but you still need enough head space that you can stir it. Unless you're using a RIMS, which I've never used and don't know if stirring is neccessary with that method. Enough said about that, you'll figure out on your first run what your system can handle. If you want to double check your math, Blichmann has a good chart that I found to be pretty darn close. Click on the sizing guide on the following link.

http://www.blichmannengineering.com/boilermaker/boilermaker.html



Yeah I use a grant. Basically it's just a bucket (or whatever fancy vessel you want to use) that you gravity drain the mash runnings into. When the grant fills up you pump from the bucket to the BK. This way the pump does not directly influence the flow rate from your MLT. I have my grant hooked up to a liquid level controller. It's basically a relay with 2 probes and a ground. You put one probe near the bottom of the grant and one near the top and the ground wire stay at the bottom in constant contact with the wort. When the liquid reaches the top probe is kicks the pump on and drains the grant. When the liquid drops below the bottom probe is kicks the pump back off. It's nice to have this automated so that you can attend to other things without having to worry about the grant overflowing. You'll need to keep the hose going to your BK above the wort surface with this set up though. If you don't you'll get a back drain siphon from the BK and you'll keep moving wort back and forth for no reason. I want to get a SS low pressure check valve to eliminate this problem but they cost over $100 and I just havn't talked myself into it yet.

As for the hopstopper, I hate to give you advice on screens. I'll leave that to someone that might know more about them. I use a very simple screen myself, but as I said I use whole hops exclusively. Pick a direction and run with it and make adjustments as needed. My first batch clogged right away (used pellets) and I had to siphon 30 gallons from the BK. Keep a racking cane with a SS scrubie pad on the end nearby your first couple runs in case this happens.

The SS drum is scheduled to arrive on Friday. I can't wait. I bought it from bubbasbarrels for $150 after shipping. Is that a good deal? I talked with the seller, and he's a very cool guy. It used to have tea tree oil in it. What would you guys recommend I do to get rid of the odor?

BBL_Brewer said:

I know you got a calculator and all,

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I laughed right there.

but 35 lbs of grain at a mash ratio of 1.5 qt/Lb is gonna be wicked tight in a keggle. I'm not saying it won't fit, but comfortably might be a stretch. Since you plan to fly sparge, that will make things easier but you still need enough head space that you can stir it. Unless you're using a RIMS, which I've never used and don't know if stirring is neccessary with that method. Enough said about that, you'll figure out on your first run what your system can handle. If you want to double check your math, Blichmann has a good chart that I found to be pretty darn close. Click on the sizing guide on the following link.

http://www.blichmannengineering.com/boilermaker/boilermaker.html



Yeah I use a grant. Basically it's just a bucket (or whatever fancy vessel you want to use) that you gravity drain the mash runnings into. When the grant fills up you pump from the bucket to the BK. This way the pump does not directly influence the flow rate from your MLT. I have my grant hooked up to a liquid level controller. It's basically a relay with 2 probes and a ground. You put one probe near the bottom of the grant and one near the top and the ground wire stay at the bottom in constant contact with the wort. When the liquid reaches the top probe is kicks the pump on and drains the grant. When the liquid drops below the bottom probe is kicks the pump back off. It's nice to have this automated so that you can attend to other things without having to worry about the grant overflowing. You'll need to keep the hose going to your BK above the wort surface with this set up though. If you don't you'll get a back drain siphon from the BK and you'll keep moving wort back and forth for no reason. I want to get a SS low pressure check valve to eliminate this problem but they cost over $100 and I just havn't talked myself into it yet.

As for the hopstopper, I hate to give you advice on screens. I'll leave that to someone that might know more about them. I use a very simple screen myself, but as I said I use whole hops exclusively. Pick a direction and run with it and make adjustments as needed. My first batch clogged right away (used pellets) and I had to siphon 30 gallons from the BK. Keep a racking cane with a SS scrubie pad on the end nearby your first couple runs in case this happens.

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I have personally fit 32 lbs at 1.25 qt/lb with plenty of room for stirring the mash. I'm sure 35 lbs won't be much different. I do appreciate your concern, though, because the limiting factor in my system is my MLT capacity, and you've helped to reinforce this. I'm OK with it because my current limiting factor is my BK, but this new BK will fix that. Hey, as long as I'm able to make a lot more beer, I'll be a happy guy. I'm glad to be trying something that I haven't seen anyone do before. Yes, I'm using a RIMS, and I find it necessary to stir at least a couple times after mashing in, just in case there are any dough balls. Mashing will be the only time it gets tight in there, and that's only when I'm shooting for the maximum OG, which I won't do often.

Cool grant design. I wish to emulate it. How do you prime your pump when doing this? Do you have any pics of this grant setup? I'm totally interested in this now.

I agree about the racking cane - it's always good to have backup equipment in case **** happens. I have redundant equipment laying around for that exact reason. Once in awhile, I'll have someone call me up asking if they can run over to pick up something because they screwed something up.

EarthBound said:

I purchased a 55 gallon stainless steel drum last night.

It will be used as a boil kettle in conjunction with my existing single-tier brewstand, which consists of three keggles. One of the three keggles will be used as a HLT, and the other two keggles will be used as MLTs.

My maximum batch capacity will soon be increased from about 12 gallons to about 47 gallons. That's right: one vessel will quadruple my capacity. With a 47 gallon capacity, I would do a double batch in one day, yielding 94 gallons. That's more than 3 barrels. Not bad for a day's worth of work. If I took the shelf out of my fermentation chamber (easily done), I could fit two 55 gallon fermentation vessels. This would provide adequate fermentation space for the aforementioned 94 gallons of beer.

1. What do you think of using two keggle MLTs feeding one 55 gallon BK? Have you heard of this before?

2. From where do you suggest I get the fittings? I plan to use 1" tri-clover fittings.

3. Do you think that two 5500W elements in the BK would be adequate? Would you suggest I use more?

4. I plan to whirlpool with this BK. I will usually be doing very hoppy beers, mostly with pellets, so I need an efficient way of keeping all that out of my fermenters. Do you agree that's what I should do?

Let me know if I need to post any pics. I'm open to any criticism, suggestions, or comments you may have.

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From my experience here is what i have found

on my system boiling a finished batch of 42 gal is about the max that can be done and that's only possible with ferm-a-cap also plan on leaving 2 to 3 gal of wert behind in the hops

1) you will need about the same size mash tun as your kettle I find that 170 lbs is about the max in a 55 gal drum so you would need ~ 3 or 4 keggle mash tun's to match. plus using two mash tun's is a pain to do with my 210 gal kettle I use 2 55 gal drums as a mash tun and its twice as hard as one big one.

3) It requires at least 2 5.5 kW elements to boil off ~8% I use 3 6 kW and turn two down to 70% on time for 5 gal per hrs

4) mine is set up to whirlpool and that's all, I just stop collecting wert when it gets funky looking. on my ales i just wait a day or two and dump off the bottom, with lagers I chill down to 35F and dump the junk from the fermenter before I pitch my yeast

here is my system if your interested Burrning Barn Brewing
Dave Star

Here are some pics for you. I also included a shot of the box the controller came in that has the part number. As for priming the pump, gravity takes care of that.

davidstar58 said:

From my experience here is what i have found

on my system boiling a finished batch of 42 gal is about the max that can be done and that's only possible with ferm-a-cap also plan on leaving 2 to 3 gal of wert behind in the hops

1) you will need about the same size mash tun as your kettle I find that 170 lbs is about the max in a 55 gal drum so you would need ~ 3 or 4 keggle mash tun's to match. plus using two mash tun's is a pain to do with my 210 gal kettle I use 2 55 gal drums as a mash tun and its twice as hard as one big one.

3) It requires at least 2 5.5 kW elements to boil off ~8% I use 3 6 kW and turn two down to 70% on time for 5 gal per hrs

4) mine is set up to whirlpool and that's all, I just stop collecting wert when it gets funky looking. on my ales i just wait a day or two and dump off the bottom, with lagers I chill down to 35F and dump the junk from the fermenter before I pitch my yeast

here is my system if your interested Burrning Barn Brewing
Dave Star

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Thanks for the feedback. Even more thanks for posting the link to your brewery website. You have an awesome setup. Do you plan on going pro? That drum heater seems like the perfect way to heat a mash tun. Your PWM control is very cool. Would you mind explaining that setup? Do you PWM two of the elements? I ask because I see two SSRs connected to it.

I'm glad to know you successfully brew 42 gallons with fermcap because it's something I want to try. Using two MLTs does complicate my technique, for sure. However, doing back-to-back batches with my current system takes longer and yields less than my new proposed system. My only intention is to increase my capacity by adding only one vessel.

Whirlpooling should be sufficient for my setup, as well. Even if I get some hops in the fermenter, it's no big deal because I plan to normally use conicals, so I can dump any hops that collect at the bottom.

BBL_Brewer said:

Here are some pics for you. I also included a shot of the box the controller came in that has the part number. As for priming the pump, gravity takes care of that.

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Thank you for posting those pics and for including the details of the controller. I will definitely build this, as well... pretty soon actually!

The only input I have is that I know for a fact that one 5500w element WILL bring 40 to 45 gallons of liquid to a boil, though it takes about 45 minutes to an hour, and the boil will not be the most vigorous. Also a straight 5500w element will boil harder than an 'S' shaped one.

EarthBound said:

Thank you for posting those pics and for including the details of the controller. I will definitely build this, as well... pretty soon actually!

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No problem man. I suppose I ought to mention though that you need an 8 point octagonal socket to go along with the controller (you couldn't see it in the pics). Figured you might want to order that at the same time.

BBL_Brewer said:

No problem man. I suppose I ought to mention though that you need an 8 point octagonal socket to go along with the controller (you couldn't see it in the pics). Figured you might want to order that at the same time.

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Hopefully I find a good quality LLC at my local electronic parts store. Otherwise, I'll probably end up buying something cheap (Chinese) on eBay. I'm looking forward to yet another little project build!

I received my drum over the weekend.



It's perfectly clean on the inside, but smells strongly like tea tree oil. What do you suggest I use to completely rid the smell? Oxiclean? Whatever I decide to use, I can't wait to start workin on this thing!

However, I need to get my 15g plastic conical operational before I do anything with this drum... using buckets is absurd! Unfortunately, that means it'll be at least a few weeks before I even bother to cut the top off. Once the conical is operational, I will get this BK done lickity split.

Don't use bleach on SS, could pit it. If it is an oil, maybe a perfurm free soap, followed with a pbw soak?

I have cleaned 10 of them and I found that the best bet is to use acetone to clean it out first about 1/2 gal and splash it around then dump and fill with a 2% solution of caustic at about 160 F and keep hot over night then dump and rinse.
Then cut open with an angle grinder.
Put on a respirator and take a rag soaked in acetone and wipe out the inside turn rag often to expose a clean part of rag .
Repeat the caustic cleaning and rinse .
It will still smell but it is ok to brew with
Dave

Just FYI for anyone subscribed, it's gonna be at least a few months before I gain any headway on this project. I'll be too busy with brewin, considering I have 400 lbs of 2-row! Mwahaha!

I don't wanna sound rude but I don't agree with the comment above "one 5500w element WILL bring 40 to 45 gallons of liquid to a boil, though it takes about 45 minutes to an hour". It takes me 40 minutes to get 12 gals of water up to strike temp .. and I live at high altitude. I don't see how you could get 40 gallons boiling in 40 mins with one 5500w element. When I was trolling the forums before building my RIMs most people recommended 2 elements going above 15 gallons. Time is money ..

This is a cool project... subscribed!

Here's another example of a grant with automated pump.
http://www.wortomatic.com/articles/The-Liquid-Level-Doctor

I think I solved my MLT problem. I didn't want to add another vessel, but if it's cheap, I'll do it.

If I used a 55 gallon plastic drum for a MLT and insulated it, it would hold mash temperatures pretty. To maintain mashing temperature, I could pump the mash through the HERMS coil in my brewstand's HLT. I could use the other two vessels on my brewstand for heating strike/sparge water. What do you think?

I'd go with a 55 gallon Rubbermaid can over a barrel. The profile will be easier to fit a false bottom, and the lid and handles will also be beneficial.

I cant remember if anyone has suggested this already, but you could do what alot of breweries do and use whatever your fermenting in to hold ur hot liquor for the sparge. That may end up being my plan for a couple plastic drums i got.

klyph said:

I'd go with a 55 gallon Rubbermaid can over a barrel. The profile will be easier to fit a false bottom, and the lid and handles will also be beneficial.

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I agree. You're talkin about a brute can, right?

sub

Needed 7 lbs of hops to accompany that 400 lbs of 2-row (actually, its 300 lbs now)...



Update on this project: I decided to not use two keggles as MLTs. I had not realized that I could use a brute can (cheap!) instead. I was thinking that I had to use another SS drum, and that didn't seem worth the trouble. My new 1.5 bbl system proposal includes using the brewstand as a HLT, brute can as MLT, and SS drum as BK. Sound good? I still plan to use my brewstand for 12 gallon batches as per usual.

Sounds like you got a plan. Now you just need to throw some rhizomes in the ground and start freezing yeast. You'll only have to go the LHBS once a year to stock up on grain and misc supplies when the fall sale is on.

BBL_Brewer said:

Sounds like you got a plan. Now you just need to throw some rhizomes in the ground and start freezing yeast. You'll only have to go the LHBS once a year to stock up on grain and misc supplies when the fall sale is on.

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Ha! It's funny you said that because I just got the approval last week from my HOA to have this in my front yard:





I have a corner lot and, therefore, a huge front yard. I got the design from Boerderij_Kabouter's trellis design thread. Man... how cool will it be when it's fully grown-in and providing shade to a little picnic area where I can go and drink my hoppy beers.

I plan on building it with smaller diameter (15') than what is illustrated in the sketch above (19'). The only problem I can foresee with the smaller diameter is where different hops will be growing next to each other, so I'm thinking I would have to somehow divide them, both above and below the ground. I plan on building it over the winter, and I already have all the poles I need - metal fence rails.

Let me know whatcha think...

...

Oh yeah, and since you brought up freezing yeast, and I brought up my emulation of Boerderij_Kabouter's design, I might as well mention another emulation I have of another design of his: a yeast ranch. The yeast ranch I plan to build is very similar to the second design he posted, not the first one. It'll be nice to have a little workstation dedicated to yeast - my bestest friends in the whole world.

Thank you, Boerderij_Kabouter.

jusware said:

I don't wanna sound rude but I don't agree with the comment above "one 5500w element WILL bring 40 to 45 gallons of liquid to a boil, though it takes about 45 minutes to an hour". It takes me 40 minutes to get 12 gals of water up to strike temp .. and I live at high altitude. I don't see how you could get 40 gallons boiling in 40 mins with one 5500w element. When I was trolling the forums before building my RIMs most people recommended 2 elements going above 15 gallons. Time is money ..

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He's abslutely right. Its going to take ALOT longer than 45 minutes to get 45gals of wort up to a boil, if you can even get it there at all. I would highly recommend at least 2 5500watt elements.

hatfieldenator said:

He's abslutely right. Its going to take ALOT longer than 45 minutes to get 45gals of wort up to a boil, if you can even get it there at all. I would highly recommend at least 2 5500watt elements.

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I concur and will use two 5.5 kW elements in the BK and one 5.5 kW element in the HLT. One of the two BK elements will be controlled via PID - same with the HLT element. The wiring for all that is done, and it was a helluvalotta work. All that remains is to install the elements and wire up the second BK element, which will be simply on/off only. Not much work is remaining; however, I decided that I need to blow through all that grain before I finish the electric upgrade.

I'm glad I decided to wait on installing the elements on brewstand. I was going to install a 5.5 kW element in the brewstand BK, but then my foresight kicked in. Instead, I'm going to install two 5.5 kW elements in the SS drum BK and no elements in the brewstand BK.

It'll be nice to refine my recipes through small batches on the brewstand, then scale it up to 1.5 bbl.