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sillbeer

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I’m in the process of getting a new setup. I currently have a 20 gallon ss pot with 2x 10 gallon rubbermaid coolers. I’m looking to reduce my footprint and go with a single or 2 vessel setup but I haven’t decided yet. I just bought a controller that will handle 1x 240v element and 1x pump along with a temperature probe. I was thinking another 20 gallon pot would be best along with a custom 800 micron basket but I think a two vessel setup would be just as cost effective and might have better results. Right now I’m considering a 20 gallon BK with a basket or 2x 15.5 gallon bottom drain kegs. I’m really on the fence right now and not sure which direction to go. Any thoughts?
 
I’m in the process of getting a new setup. I currently have a 20 gallon ss pot with 2x 10 gallon rubbermaid coolers. I’m looking to reduce my footprint and go with a single or 2 vessel setup but I haven’t decided yet. I just bought a controller that will handle 1x 240v element and 1x pump along with a temperature probe. I was thinking another 20 gallon pot would be best along with a custom 800 micron basket but I think a two vessel setup would be just as cost effective and might have better results. Right now I’m considering a 20 gallon BK with a basket or 2x 15.5 gallon bottom drain kegs. I’m really on the fence right now and not sure which direction to go. Any thoughts?
Well you already have the 20 gallon SS pot... Why not just buy a BIAB bag and try out BIAB before you decide to commit to a screen basket? if you go this route you can either go with a false bottom and keep the element under that or use a rims to recirc and hold mash temps instead... Using the screen basket can work well to keep the element clear and makes a rims impractical and not needed just like using a false bottom for the bag to rest on to keep the element off it.. either way having a second kettle is not really needed... especially since your controller only controls one element.. It would make more sense to just heat some sparge water on your stove in a smaller pot with BIAB...
 
2 pots equals twice the footprint. Only thing I can add different from Augie is that I love my 400 micron basket.
As far as sparging goes, if you wish to go that route, I sparge with cold water when I sparge at all. The only difference I've found is I no longer need to heat separate water....sounds like a plus to me
 
Are you wanting to move away from the coolers, or are you fine using them? You could easily just have the single electric pot and heat up strike water in it, mash in your cooler and then heat strike up and either move it to the other cooler or sparge into the cooler. Whatever. That'd be nice and easy.

Im a big fan of BIAB right now, but you will have temperature loss in a kettle. I wrap mine in blankets and simply don't worry about some temp loss... havent noticed low FG or anything at all. Up to you if that's necessary or not. You could do a Brutus 20 direct-fired RIMS setup if you went with another pot, but having had one myself I think it's a lot of complexity for not much gain. Either go BIAB/Cooler mash route or go full blown 3-vessel HERMS in my opinion. I guess BIAB with RIMS tube is a good option too, but I havent had one so can't comment much on that. There seems to be a lot of issues reciruclating through the baskets/bags though so not sure I'd want to go that route.
 
Thanks for the feedback. I think I'll just keep my current kettle, add the element and go with a false bottom and bag for now.

Couple of reasons I want to get away from the coolers. I really dislike being limited to lower gravity beers when doing 10 gallon batches which is what I mainly do. The other reason is it'll make more room on my shelves in the garage. From what research I've done it seems like BIAB is a pretty simple setup. A few months back I found a shop that makes a false bottom specific to my kettle but I think with a little research I can find a cheaper home made alternative until I decide what I want to do.
 
2 pots equals twice the footprint. Only thing I can add different from Augie is that I love my 400 micron basket.
As far as sparging goes, if you wish to go that route, I sparge with cold water when I sparge at all. The only difference I've found is I no longer need to heat separate water....sounds like a plus to me

What made you go with a 400 micron basket? I have a 400 micron hop basket that I use but for some reason I had it in my head that BIAB baskets were typically 800 micron.
 
You may need to look at things some more. BIAB also limits the max gravity you are able to do without having a huge pot. Typically your efficiency will be a little lower with BIAB the with a traditional 2 or 3 vessel rig.

BIAB does offer the smallest footprint and less equipment. Though the route I am looking into, involves a pump and temperature control. Those two things alone will cost more than the total of my present 5 gallon 3 tier gravity rig. It is 2 ten gallon pots on propane burners and a 10 gallon water cooler mash tun.
 
400 micron is what came with my system from Colorado Brewing. I went from a single tier 3 vessel system to this and haven't looked back since. Works great
 
These are good pumps if your on a budget but I do recommend using a bazooka tube or braided line as a filter connected to the dip tube UNDER the false bottom....
http://www.ebay.com/itm/25176871088...49&var=550695663763&ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT

I have been using these for almost 3 years and they have been very reliable for me.. I also do 10/11 gallon brews with them. the 24v is a bit straonger however there is a 3.5a 12v version that pumps over 5 gallons per minute for $40 as well based on this same pump design.
 
You may need to look at things some more. BIAB also limits the max gravity you are able to do without having a huge pot. Typically your efficiency will be a little lower with BIAB the with a traditional 2 or 3 vessel rig.

Ah come on now. I thought we'd already covered this. :)

BIAB efficiency is the same or better as any other method of all grain brewing. Many folks, including myself, average 80-85% brew house efficiency.

Max gravity isn't an issue. I've done a 6 gallon batch of barley wine at 1.100+ in a 10 gallon kettle. Just plan to sparge a little bit.
 
Ah come on now. I thought we'd already covered this. :)

BIAB efficiency is the same or better as any other method of all grain brewing. Many folks, including myself, average 80-85% brew house efficiency.

Max gravity isn't an issue. I've done a 6 gallon batch of barley wine at 1.100+ in a 10 gallon kettle. Just plan to sparge a little bit.

I agree on the efficiency. I saw immediate increases in my most recent biab trials.

I would say that max gravity might be an issue since the OP wanted to stick with 10g batches. It all depends on how big you consider big. If you wanted to do a 10g barley wine in a 20g kettle I think you'd need to plan ahead and also make sure you had a good pulley system at the ready. In another post we discussed briefly some trade offs with a SS basket and just a bag. Big beers are affected by the choice in that a bag allows you to fit more grain but a basket might work better if you want to re-circulate during the mash.

If you have BeerSmith try the profiles for the BrewBoss. This might give you a feel for how much grain will fit in a 20g system with a SS basket. You can also check some of the long BB threads for feedback on what works.

I think it would be possible to do a big 10g batch in a 20g kettle if you were OK with some of the steps and equipment you might need.
 
These are good pumps if your on a budget but I do recommend using a bazooka tube or braided line as a filter connected to the dip tube UNDER the false bottom....
http://www.ebay.com/itm/25176871088...49&var=550695663763&ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT

I have been using these for almost 3 years and they have been very reliable for me.. I also do 10/11 gallon brews with them. the 24v is a bit straonger however there is a 3.5a 12v version that pumps over 5 gallons per minute for $40 as well based on this same pump design.

I currently have a chugger pump that I've only used with my plate chiller. I've never seen one like you linked. Would that be used for the recirculating mash? Is it very loud? Do you have it wired to a switch and what do you power it with?
 
I agree on the efficiency. I saw immediate increases in my most recent biab trials.

I would say that max gravity might be an issue since the OP wanted to stick with 10g batches. It all depends on how big you consider big. If you wanted to do a 10g barley wine in a 20g kettle I think you'd need to plan ahead and also make sure you had a good pulley system at the ready. In another post we discussed briefly some trade offs with a SS basket and just a bag. Big beers are affected by the choice in that a bag allows you to fit more grain but a basket might work better if you want to re-circulate during the mash.

If you have BeerSmith try the profiles for the BrewBoss. This might give you a feel for how much grain will fit in a 20g system with a SS basket. You can also check some of the long BB threads for feedback on what works.

I think it would be possible to do a big 10g batch in a 20g kettle if you were OK with some of the steps and equipment you might need.

Thanks for the reply. I do have beer smith but I usually rely on my neighbor to get everything together. He has everything setup on his beer smith profile. I ordered a custom brew bag just a couple days ago. I'll play around with it for awhile and see what happens. A pulley setup is definitely on my short list of things to pickup.
 
I currently have a chugger pump that I've only used with my plate chiller. I've never seen one like you linked. Would that be used for the recirculating mash? Is it very loud? Do you have it wired to a switch and what do you power it with?

It is not loud,,, the 24v version pumps up to 3.2 gallons per minute and they are food grade and good for temps up to boiling. Mine pumps 1.8 gpm when pulling through the grainbed for an 11 gallon brew, through the rims tube up to through the sparge arm. about 40" above.

you can control them with a ball valve or a pwm speed controller which is what I use. they require a DC power suplly which is easy to find I recommend a 1 amp or larger power supply (easy to find on amazon or ebay). many people it seems take shortcuts with incorrectly sized power supplys and complain of problems and failures as a result.
 

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