akthor
Well-Known Member
That is weird I bought the spa panel just to take the breaker out and put it in my house breaker panel. I got it on ebay tho. But you are right in looking around bare breakers cost more which seems to make no sense?
I just found this thread. I am looking at moving from gas to electric and this seems like one of the better ways of doing it rather cheaply.
Are you still happy with your controller box? Anything you would change?
Is the list of equipment you used to build it still accurate?
Very nice system and very informative. I take it you are circulating through the grain bed. Are you just using the hose, or is there some kind of a sparge arm under that lid? Also are you using a false bottom of any kind? How do you keep the bag and weight of the grain off the heating element?
Can I assume the brew bag snaps are what keeps the bag from melting to the element?
Right now it is through the side of the keg. Near the same height as the element.
I wish it was in the kettle outlet, but at the time I was feeling cheap so I took the east way out. If I keep the flow rate high during mash then the probe at the bottom reads the same as a thermometer in the pump outlet and there is no change if I stir everything all up.
Very clean setup. The way I understand it, the only thing separating this from a no-sparge 2-vessel setup is a false bottom and a second vessel, correct?
I started my IT life in control systems when I thought I was going to be a mechanical engineer. I learned that when manually tuning you zero the integral and derivative gains and get your proportional where it needs to be. Most times you can get 95% of the way there without touching the others. Integral came next and I was taught to think of that like adding gas a little at a time while going up a hill if I can't keep my speed up. Derivative was when you anticipated there was going to be a need to add or remove accelerator based on what you've been doing. You can't properly anticipate (derivative) what the system needs unless the other two are at their proper settings. Most control systems I worked with could get +-1% without any derivative depending on the hysteresis impact of/on the system.I spent a bit of time tweaking my PID and ended up with a stable mash (±1F) without having to touch anything.
P=60 | I=1 | D=30
I started my IT life in control systems when I thought I was going to be a mechanical engineer. I learned that when manually tuning you zero the integral and derivative gains and get your proportional where it needs to be. Most times you can get 95% of the way there without touching the others. Integral came next and I was taught to think of that like adding gas a little at a time while going up a hill if I can't keep my speed up. Derivative was when you anticipated there was going to be a need to add or remove accelerator based on what you've been doing. You can't properly anticipate (derivative) what the system needs unless the other two are at their proper settings. Most control systems I worked with could get +-1% without any derivative depending on the hysteresis impact of/on the system.
Nice pictures. This is seriously where I'd like to end up. Super simple controller, single vessel BIAB. Main difference is I want to mainly drop down to doing 2.5gal batches with the occasional 5gal batch thrown in for special occasions/special beers.
-If all you want to do is heat strike water, maintain temperature on the mash, and boil, then a simple bag-and-element rig like mine will work fine.
One of the few things things I don't love in my keggle is the dead-space. It takes 3 gallons to cover the top of the element and flood the dip tube, so that's pretty much the hard minimum on the setup. If I was doing primarily 2.5g batches I would look at a flat bottom pot with a 120v element for sure. You get the flexibility of location, and you can always add an extra hot stick if you need a boost to heat strike, or get to boil.
I'm starting to lean towards getting a 5-6 gallon flat bottom kettle, set it up with a basic 120v element and controller, and mostly do 2.5gal eBIAB batches. If I want to do 5gal batches, I can go back out to my BIAB keggle on propane in the garage (if I don't upgrade to electric on it eventually).
Brewed again this weekend - grapefruit IPA with 13# 2-Row and 0.75# of C20. Had some minor flooding in the bag again, and somewhat poor circulation around the temperature probe. It was nothing that regular stirring couldn't handle, but it was a minor irritation. If the circulation got stopped up around the temperature probe the power would start ramping up but it wouldn't register the temp increase. Ultimately I still held within a degree, just took more attention than I wanted to give it.
I used my new 24" SS Wisk for stirring, it was awesome!
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001VZ8S1Q/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20
If I were you, I would probably look at a heat stick style, like the one BrewHardware sells. you could use it as the only heat source during your small batches, and then you could transfer it into your keggle to maintain temperature during the mash.
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