Simple Brutus 20 Electric Build

Hey All,

I have recently taken up brewing with the intention of brewing AG. However, due to many other projects around the house, by brew rig has taken a back seat and I have been doing extract batches while slowly planning and picking up items for my rig.

I have decided to build a rig version of JKarp's countertop brutus for doing 5 gal AG batches. I am not a welder and have no desire to pick up more tools, but I am in the construction industry and am building my rig out of Corian solid surface material. I will be using cooler MLT that will gravity feed into a 10 gal, 5500w BK, which in turn will be recirculated via pump back into the MLT.


Take a look and let me know what you think. Suggestions are very welcome!
Cheers

One thing I might suggest is lowering the cart/stand height if that's possible. I'm 6'4 and 5' is pretty high I feel, but that's a preference thing. Also, you can do it one tier since you're using a pump. That would solve any height issues.

It looks like your control panel has two PIDs. Are you planning to direct heat your mash?

He would have to change his tubes if he wanted to go single tier.

You really don't need valves on both ends of the pump to CFC line. I'd also rethink that low 24" height. Might lead to a lot of bending over. A step stool for reaching the MLT does the trick.

He would need two pumps for a single either jkarp system. This is what I'm in the process of putting together myself. The jkarp system uses a constant recirculation of the mash with the full water volume.

I chose the 24" approx cart height so I would be able to gravity drain my kettle into my carboy after chilling. I will only need a stool once in my brew day to mash in my grains.

I am keeping the two tier as jKarp's system utilizes a constant recirc using the BK. I would need two pumps to do this with a single tier. However, I may move to a single tier in the future.

The 2nd PID is not going in for sure, but if it does, it just be for temp monitoring at this point. Eventually I may move to a single tier with RIMS tube, but I am undecided at this point.

I know I don't need valves on both ends of the chiller. The bottom one is just there for illustrative purposes

I prefer putting the MLT low and the BK high. This allows you to set a level in the BK that the water cannot drop below using a side port acting as a drain from BK to MLT when recirculating. This means you can never run an element dry (did it once before altering my rig). As well, you can then have a lower overall height and still drain into fermenters from the BK.

I would also look at installing a bottom drain on both vessels. In the MLT this will allow the elimination of deadloss and therefore a greater efficiency. In both vessels this will allow for much easier cleaning of the vessels. In my setup, I simply hook up a tube which drains into a bucket to the bottom drain and rinse the inside, hit it with a green scruby, and re-rinse. It takes about 3 minutes per vessel and is outstanding. I am very grateful for the bottom drains in my Brutus 20ish.

Last, look into malt conditioning. This will allow you greater efficiency, and in my experience, greater predictability. I regularly achieve 82-85% efficiency and the last few batches have hit my pre-boil and OG numbers exactly. Highly encouraged.

You can see these things in the rig in my signature. Go to post 2.

Joshua

Edit: In addition to making it nearly impossible to burn out an element, having a rig configured with the BK side drain allows the rig to be stable enough to be left alone. Once the mash is going, I will often leave it semi-unattended, and am very comfortable with that.

Gotcha, for some reason I was thinking this was a herms, guess I transposed the CFC into the BK for some reason (it's finals week, things don't make sense any more).

As far as the height go with what works for you. I was just suggesting it to make sure you'd considered everything.

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