Recirculating eBIAB Build

OK here's the inaugural brew session!

All in all went pretty well. Hit all of my numbers except (strangely) my OG. Working on that in another thread but other than that pretty smooth. The EZBoil is fantastic and I'm certainly a convert to electric. Pretty amazing to be able to do this in the basement with all supplies at hand. 5500 W for 5 gallons really does speed things up vs. my old propane burners!

Overall very happy but a few things I don't love about it.

- The basket. I decided to go with the mesh basket approach vs. bag and false bottom due to others having issues with creating air pockets below the bag when recirc'ing. The basket definitely solves this by providing more filter surface area for the wort to flow through the grain bed and down to the kettle/element but it does limit the volume quite a bit. In my case, the level of the mash inside the basket was higher than the level of the wort below/surrounding it. Maybe next brew I will try out the bag/false bottom approach for myself and see. I think I prefer that route as long as I can get the flow to work out OK.

- The fan does produce some condensation as others have noted. It just collects on the rim of the hood and drips down into a bucket. Not a big deal. I thought of installing a drain hose to collect it but the dripping is fairly minimal so I might just leave it as is.

Still need to build that splash guard for the pump!

I mounted the pump on the same shelf the kettle rests on, just off to one side about 18 inches. As long as the pump inlet is on the bottom, the kettle outlet will be high enough to gravity prime the pump.

If the inlet of the chiller is an inch or two lower than the kettle outlet, once the chiller has been sanitized, gravity will be enough to feed wort to the chiller, no need to pump it through. From the looks of it, your system should work the same way. Nice build!

With the fittings 2" from the bottom of the kettle how deep did you have the basket made? Was 2" recommended by spike or was this your number. I've started conversation with spike just recently on a 20 gal kettle build with a ss mesh basket from arborfab.

2" was recommended by spike. If I had to do it again I might do 1.5". I can give you all the dimensions tomorrow.

Nmnbrewer said:

With the fittings 2" from the bottom of the kettle how deep did you have the basket made? Was 2" recommended by spike or was this your number. I've started conversation with spike just recently on a 20 gal kettle build with a ss mesh basket from arborfab.

Click to expand...

My 15 gallon Spike kettle is:
19.4¨ Height
15.8¨ Diameter

The basket is:
15 3/4" Height (excluding the legs)
2 1/2" legs
18 1/4" Total Height
12 1/4" Diameter

When I actually measured the positions of the TC ports on the kettle and looked at the schematic/quote again I realized that they were measuring from the lip of the stepped bottom. Even then the centres of the TC ports are 2 1/4" not 2".

When I tried it with the basket on my first brew, the bottom rested on the element at the edge of the basket (the element slopes downward a bit so only touched on the edge). It also meant that the basket sits up about 1/8" too high and the lid touches it.

So I would recommend if you're getting a basket and kettle custom made that you make sure you and Spike are on the same page on the measurements. I had the basket ordered before the kettle so wasn't able to confirm the measurements on the kettle beforehand.

I might be a bit pissed that the measurements were off but in any case, I didn't like the basket because I think a lot of the recirculating wort simply passed out the sides and down. Also it limits the mash volume compared to the volume of the kettle. This one was not custom made, so you could get the diameter of the basket closer to the diameter of the kettle to remedy this a bit if needed.

Yesterday I did my first attempt at recirculating with a Wilser bag and a Brewhardware false bottom. This worked better than the basket. It fits better, allows higher max mash volume, easier to manage and gave me a 7% increase in efficiency (65% with the basket, 72% with the bag...very similar grain bill). No problems recirculating at all with a 0.040" mill gap and conditioned grain before milling. I didn't recirc at full blast but probably ~1/3 of the way open on the ball valve which was more than a trickle and gave decent flow. Sticking with this method from now on.

Your panel design looks like a perfect fit for what I want to do. I'm trying to formulate a plan for a single 240v 5500w element, single pump, recirculating biab system. I know you just ran it for the first time a little over a week ago, but is there anything about the panel that didn't perform as you expected?

Sounds like this type of controller would be a good fit for you. I have absolutely no changes I would make (only 2 batches in). Maybe, maybe adding an aux 120 V receptacle (to run the aquarium aeration pump) but that would also require another contactor, button, etc. as well and the enclosure is about as crowded as I would want it already. So really, no changes.

I am fully on the bag/false bottom train now (as long as I continue to have good success recirculating with it). The controller held it at a near-constant 152 F, very occasionally popping up to 153 F shortly after the element fired. So about +/- 1 F control or less. Quite happy with it.

If you do go with this controller design, just note that in the original schematic that I modified from doug, it uses the DSPR110 which has different terminal positions than the DSPR120 that Auber is currently selling. Just have a look at the manual before you wire it. Very easy change.

Curious what, if anything you've changed about this system in the last 2 years. I just ordered almost the same kettle and am putting together a VERY similar system.