Simple Electric Brewery

I'm moving to all grain soon. I currently brew with propane. I'm perfectly happy with it too. But I also want to move my brewing indoors. So that means I'll probably venture into electric as poisoning myself and my family isn't high up on my to do list.

I'm not interested in the fully automated systems, especially right now. I just want a system that I can set, monitor and maintain my HLT temps and boil temps. I'll be new to AG brewing so I really don't want to go so complex I screw it up. I'm a bit of a computer geek/DIY freak. There isn't many projects I won't tackle around the house.

I really liked Boerderij_Kabouter's rig. Though I'd like to make a simple control panel instead of the tool box https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/simple-brewing-est-2009-build-147021/

Anyone else got some simple electric brewery ideas?

Get a johnson controls digital temp controller for $70, a pump for $100, and you could probably build a rims tube with a 4500w 240v heater element run at 120v for $50 or so bucks. do the 5 or 10 gallon round cooler conversion for about $50 as well. I don't know if thats too much money, but its a really simple design.

Yeah I'm willing to spend the money in the relm of 500 to 800.

But I want it to be KISS - Keep It Simple Stupid.

Well let me clarify...I want to keep it KISS. But I don't want it to look like the a drunken hillbilly (oh wait...I live in West Virginia...nevermind) did it.

Diver165 said:

I'm moving to all grain soon. I currently brew with propane. I'm perfectly happy with it too. But I also want to move my brewing indoors. So that means I'll probably venture into electric as poisoning myself and my family isn't high up on my to do list.

I'm not interested in the fully automated systems, especially right now. I just want a system that I can set, monitor and maintain my HLT temps and boil temps. I'll be new to AG brewing so I really don't want to go so complex I screw it up. I'm a bit of a computer geek/DIY freak. There isn't many projects I won't tackle around the house.

I really liked Boerderij_Kabouter's rig. Though I'd like to make a simple control panel instead of the tool box https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/simple-brewing-est-2009-build-147021/

Anyone else got some simple electric brewery ideas?

Click to expand...

About the brewing indoors, I have not done this myself yet, but when I brew in the garage I produce a lot of steam during the boil. I wonder if it will be really steamy and humid to brew indoors without a fume hood or some other forced ventilation. It looks like Kal has a fan hood above his setup. How do people deal with the steam indoors? Back when I started with extract I did partial boils on the stove and I could use the range hood, but I don't want or can't be in the kitchen with the new brewery.

That's something I'll have to address as well. It sure does make a lot of steam. The location of my planned brew kitchen is unfortunately in the center of the house. It didn't used to be. But post renovation it literally is in the middle of the basement. I'll have to run 20ft of duct work in any direction to make it outside! LOL I'll have to do some duct work and with an exhaust fan but that isn't a big deal.

Brewing indoors does create steam but not nearly as much as brewing outside in winter. I do not have a vent hood (to the outside) just a kitchen fan and that works just fine.

I have brewed with the Simple Brewery in like 6 places now, and it has been fine everywhere.

Diver- If you list the top 10 attributes you want in a system I can help you get closer to your goal.

I brew indoors and bought an inline fan I vent out the window. Less than $100 and no steam to worry about. I brew 10 gallon batches with no problems.

I personally would not try to brew indoors without some type of ventillation. The steam is significant.

Here is Simple doing its thing at my buddies house last weekend. I love this brewery. I can literally brew and hit all my numbers while three-sheets to the wind.

Not sure just how big a batch you are looking for. IMO you only need a good kettle. this is a 15 gallon kettle with two two 3000 wart heating elements, Love controls, ( there are better controls out there) Temperature probe, and the safety float switch. What ever you do get a safety float switch you can cook your elements in seconds.

You can see the controlor and for this insulation i added a 30Amp GFI which is the second box on the wall

For all grain we used two 10 gallon coolers. the cycle was.
1 Heat the mash water
2 mash in
3 heat the sparge water (while mashing in)
4 Transfer the heated sparge water to the 2nd cooler and start sparging
5 run the wart into the brew kettle and start heating as soon as the elements (and float switch) are covered.

KISS it

Boerderij_Kabouter said:

Here is Simple doing its thing at my buddies house last weekend. I love this brewery. I can literally brew and hit all my numbers while three-sheets to the wind.

Click to expand...

Is it my imagination or are you heating up the tool box on the range? It looks like your burners are on. That's kind of tough on the electronics, don't you think?

lol. No, they are off.

That's funny - I thought the same thing, but when you look at the stove switches, they're all off.

Kal

Boar Beer said:

Not sure just how big a batch you are looking for. IMO you only need a good kettle. this is a 15 gallon kettle with two two 3000 wart heating elements, Love controls, ( there are better controls out there) Temperature probe, and the safety float switch. What ever you do get a safety float switch you can cook your elements in seconds.

You can see the controlor and for this insulation i added a 30Amp GFI which is the second box on the wall

For all grain we used two 10 gallon coolers. the cycle was.
1 Heat the mash water
2 mash in
3 heat the sparge water (while mashing in)
4 Transfer the heated sparge water to the 2nd cooler and start sparging
5 run the wart into the brew kettle and start heating as soon as the elements (and float switch) are covered.

KISS it

Click to expand...

how long does this thing take to heat up mash and sparge water? how long to get thing's to a boil? i've looked at this setup and the one from High Gravity Brewing but i always wondered about how long things took.

dave

Im also interested in moving my brewery into the basement so i can brew without having to worry about crappy weather. The only thing i am worried about is wiring it safely. I just had my 200amp panel replaced so i now have the option of running a new 220 line over to the brewing area. I currently have a 5 gallon round cooler with a 220 element running at 110 that i have not completed yet. I just need to ground the element and fire it up basically. I also don't need all the automation. My problem is i don't know how to read the schematics everyone posts. I have no problem building it, just dont get the whole relay, ssr thing i guess. Maybe if i could relate it to putting in the new panel that would help since i did a good bit of work putting that in.

for the 500-800 range, brewmation sells it all packaged together. I am in the same situation and I am debating to build something, or just buy it all put together. For the amount of time and parts I will mess up, I am leaning towards the brewmation kit.

http://www.brewmation.com/Panels.html

davefj40 said:

how long does this thing take to heat up mash and sparge water? how long to get thing's to a boil? i've looked at this setup and the one from High Gravity Brewing but i always wondered about how long things took.

dave

Click to expand...

If you start with warm to hot water you should be able to
1 heat your mash water in 20 min
2 mash in usually takes 1 hour and you can easily heat your spagre water in 20-30 min
3 to boil with a starting temp of say 150 it should take you less than 20 min if you start during the sparge

I used brewmantion for the controlor shown above
In addition i used brewmantion for the 1bb we are now running you can see the build at

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/squam-lakes-brewery-pictures-144764/

can anyone comment of the price difference of building it yourself vs the brewmation? I am thinking is it about 200-300 cheaper yourself. That depends on the tools you have, skills, things you break, etc. I assume doing it yourself you can always add extras, like 120 plugs for pumps, etc.

You will have a hard job getting spec for spec under 50% of brewmation

Brewmation is definitely a fine deal. I would say you are paying a couple hundo for their services, but anyone who has built stuff like this, you know it is a pretty good deal. If they have the features you are looking for, and you like their layout, it seems to be a good deal.

cool, thanks for the advice. I think they do. One question, do you find that you like to heat your BK and the HLT at the same time? Is it worth getting the option to run both at the same time?

No IMO its a waste of money
first you have to size your electrical system for double the load
but more important you will not gain anything
the time spent mashing in is usually 1 hour and you can easily heat your sparge water in that time

we brew 40 gallons 2-3 times per week with just one BK and it works great.

excellent!!! thanks, think I might pull the trigger on the brewmation system. need to slide this one pass the SWMBO.

the 599 or 649 one looks pretty good. I think I could add a 120 to the box. at 5500 pulls around 23 amps, so that should give me 7 amps to drive a pump.