3-in-1 "Boil Kettle, Jacketed Chiller, Conical Fermenter" by Brewha

[Jimmy82]

Do you have any problem with suckback when crash cooling something that large? I'd be afraid half the starsan would end up in the fermentor.

I stopped using co2 to prevent the vacuum of cold crashing from sucking starsan back into the conical. I've instead switched to this fitting, attached to the lid, to keep dirt out, but allow air to be pulled in (I only use this while chilling the wort or cold crashing. Once it's at the desired temp, I re-install the blowoff assembly). It's just an oxygenation stone installed inside a triclover fitting.

 

[limulus]

Good information. I'm sure I'll figure out what you are talking about when I use mine for the first time. I do know a little about vacuums and collapsed tanks from the Brewery Immersion Course I took in CO.

What is the smallest volume you guys have brewed with the medium? The info on the site says 6-15g so I assume that is fermented volume and not pre-boil. I have a combination of 6ea 5gal and 4ea 2.5 gal kegs, so I can work out the volume. Adventures in Homebrewing has their brand new 5 gal kegs on sale right now for $75, so I may just buy two more.

BTW, did you guys passivate your systems? I plan to do that but I don't recall seeing anything written in the previous 28 pages. It may be covered in the instructions, but I have just not had time to unpack that stuff.

Jimmy, what kind of guitar is that and do I see a tube amp? That photo is blurred and I may just be imagining the amp.

 

[limulus]

How did you guys handle the power for these? I have a spa panel on my deck that is connected to a 60amp breaker in my basement. We no longer have spa so I want to just run that line to my garage. I think I need a GFCI on the line. What did you guys do?

 

[cuda6pak]

Had an electrician run a 240v to my garage and install the 30amp breaker. I also bought an inline GFCI from Amazon.

 

[limulus]

thanks, which GFCI did you buy?

 

[cuda6pak]

I stopped using co2 to prevent the vacuum of cold crashing from sucking starsan back into the conical. I've instead switched to this fitting, attached to the lid, to keep dirt out, but allow air to be pulled in (I only use this while chilling the wort or cold crashing. Once it's at the desired temp, I re-install the blowoff assembly). It's just an oxygenation stone installed inside a triclover fitting.

I was considering doing the same thing. I think I will just loosely set my threaded triclover piece in place of the blowoff with no gasket while chilling, and then re-install. Did you lose a tank of cO2 due to a small leak?


Had my second brew last Saturday, made a mistake I was sure I wouldn't. Ended up pumping too hard on recirculation and flooded the mash tun, I had checked it the first 20min with no issues, but after messing with the valve a tiny bit I walked away thinking I was ok. Luckily I had the heating element on 20% and caught it very quickly. I think I will need to loosen up my grain mill as I had an extremely slow drain. What is everyone using? I think I will loosen mine up to .045 and see how that does.

I did see 72% mash efficiency despite the problem, but was expecting mid-high 70's.

 

[cuda6pak]

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00OZY2Y4C/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

 

[limulus]

I was considering doing the same thing. I think I will just loosely set my threaded triclover piece in place of the blowoff with no gasket while chilling, and then re-install. Did you lose a tank of cO2 due to a small leak?


Had my second brew last Saturday, made a mistake I was sure I wouldn't. Ended up pumping too hard on recirculation and flooded the mash tun, I had checked it the first 20min with no issues, but after messing with the valve a tiny bit I walked away thinking I was ok. Luckily I had the heating element on 20% and caught it very quickly. I think I will need to loosen up my grain mill as I had an extremely slow drain. What is everyone using? I think I will loosen mine up to .045 and see how that does.

I did see 72% mash efficiency despite the problem, but was expecting mid-high 70's.

My diy brewery that I built a couple of years ago uses a 15gal kettle with a 10gal MT that sits inside very much like the BIAC. I had part of the bottom cut out of the MT and then placed a perforated false bottom in the bottom. I used an electric hoist on the ceiling (same one I will use for the BIAC) to lift the inner MT. That also controlled the drainage when I wanted to sparge. I was frequently getting very slow drainage from it and that was due to my grains clogging the perforated false bottom. My solution was a large grain bag. The wort then flowed through it like a faucet and I never had a slow or stuck runoff again.

BTW, thanks for the GFCI link.

 

[cuda6pak]

Based on a bit of research I'm going to open up my roller mill quite a bit and see how it does next batch.

https://www.brewmagic.com/blog/follow-me-to-higher-efficiencies/

If that ends up giving me issues still I may try the bag. It seems bags allow you to crush very fine with no worry of sticking the sparge. However, it's just one more thing that I'd have to clean and deal with, which is counterintuitive to why I bought the BIAC in the first place.

 

[limulus]

However, it's just one more thing that I'd have to clean and deal with, which is counterintuitive to why I bought the BIAC in the first place.

I agree. Getting all the grain out of the bag is a big PITA!

 

[nackedei]

Based on a bit of research I'm going to open up my roller mill quite a bit and see how it does next batch.

https://www.brewmagic.com/blog/follow-me-to-higher-efficiencies/

If that ends up giving me issues still I may try the bag. It seems bags allow you to crush very fine with no worry of sticking the sparge. However, it's just one more thing that I'd have to clean and deal with, which is counterintuitive to why I bought the BIAC in the first place.

Three times, twice with the 0.038 recommended for my Monster Mill and once at 0.035. Never any problems with a stuck sparge. I recirculate the entire time during the mash, with a ball valve open at maybe 10% at the mash colander. Never any problem with too much being pumped up as is being drained. I did have the valve open maybe 50% and saw this, but there's no need for that much recirculation. With a bit recirculating the entire time, even with a good healthy stir every ten minutes that disturbs the grain bed entirely, I've got very clear wort running by the time I'm ready to "sparge" and vorlauf.

Raise the colander, let it run out. I've tested and done some recirculation then, but haven't seen any difference with regards to clarity. I'll write up a real "impressions" post after another batch or two. Want to know what's my stupidity/problems first, and what might be an issue with the design, before I do so.

 

[Tankleys]

Hello. . I've been filling this thread with great interest and am considering the large BIAC (190l). Does anyone have one here?

If so, I am after the height required in our unit for this version, given the need for a pully system and lifting the mash tun out?

Thanks
Martin

 

[Tankleys]

*following.

 

[limulus]

Hello. . I've been filling this thread with great interest and am considering the large BIAC (190l). Does anyone have one here?

If so, I am after the height required in our unit for this version, given the need for a pully system and lifting the mash tun out?

Thanks
Martin

I have the medium in my garage, but may buy 4 of the large size for a potential project. According to Nathan at Brewha, you need 10ft of ceiling clearance to raise the mash colander.

 

[limulus]

I guess all the starving residential electricians must have died during the recession. Finding someone to install a subpanel and an outlet in my garage has been exasperating. The wire is already there from a spa tub on our deck. It just needs to go through one wall. I am pretty sure I can do it myself but getting more than the equivalent of drive-by assistance at Home Depot is damn near impossible.

 

[cuda6pak]

I had great luck on thumbtack.com finding my electrician.

 

[Fuzzy-felt]

I expect to get my BIAC pretty soon, and I've been thinking a bit about temperature control during fermentation (I might need to heat or cool during the day depending on conditions). Here's what I'm thinking of doing:
- buying one of those mini counter-top fridges (should be able to get one for about £20)
- put in it a container with a certain quantity of water, and in this put a submersible pump and heater
- put holes in the side for flow and return pipework to the fermenter jacket (plus power cables to heater and pump)
- use the dual stage ETC to either cool or heat the constantly circulating water
- chuck in some ice or hot water to speed things up a bit if necessary

I wondered if anyone might have anything to say on whether this seems like a good idea or not please.

Regards,
Mark.

 

[limulus]

Would you include some sort of external controller such as an SCT-1000? It seems to me that the heater would be fighting the fridge all time and eventually burn out the fridge unless you used an external controller. I think you could possibly insert the temp probe into your water and then your fridge would plug into the cold side of the STC1000 and the immersible heater would plug into the hot side. I know they make the STC1000 in your voltage and not just the 110v we use in N America. For only £20 it may be worth a try. I would be careful about drilling holes in the side. Some of them have coils. Generally, if you don't know where the cooling coils are located, drilling through the door is the best option.

 

[Fuzzy-felt]

Would you include some sort of external controller such as an SCT-1000? It seems to me that the heater would be fighting the fridge all time and eventually burn out the fridge unless you used an external controller. I think you could possibly insert the temp probe into your water and then your fridge would plug into the cold side of the STC1000 and the immersible heater would plug into the hot side. I know they make the STC1000 in your voltage and not just the 110v we use in N America. For only £20 it may be worth a try. I would be careful about drilling holes in the side. Some of them have coils. Generally, if you don't know where the cooling coils are located, drilling through the door is the best option.

I would be using a 240v Ranco dual stage controller (I got this from Nathan as an extra) taking the temperature from the fermentor which will either power the fridge to cool the water down, or power the heater within the fridge. It will be a similar concept to sticking your fermentor in a fridge that has a heater in it for heating or cooling (it would need a very large fridge to fit this fermentor in). I'm sure there will be ups and downs in the temperature whilst it finds an equilibrium (which I expect to be able to take account of after a bit of experimentation in the ETC settings), but I don't envisage much fighting between heating and cooling. They certainly won't be on at the same time. I'm not quite sure about how much water to put in the reservoir, though. There are quite a few variables to take account of, so a bit of trial and error is going to come into it I suspect.
I take your point about being careful with drilling holes. The door would almost certainly be a safe bet, but that would be too awkward. I'll probably get a mini Huskey beer fridge and ask the manufacturer where it's possible to drill through.

 

[limulus]

I completely forgot about the Ranco! I also got the dual Ranco from Nathan to control my cooling and heating. In any event, I hope you are successful.

 

[mrsweet2u]

I have a large BIAC. I have a 13 foot ceiling and I use an 1100 pound hoist

Hello. . I've been filling this thread with great interest and am considering the large BIAC (190l). Does anyone have one here?

If so, I am after the height required in our unit for this version, given the need for a pully system and lifting the mash tun out?

Thanks
Martin

 

[jamiller]

Jimmy question for you. Did you need to add a pressure relief valve on the glycol chiller feed to reduce the pressure before going into the jacket or is the pressure low enough from the glycol pump that you didn't need to worry about buckling the jacket wall? I have a 1/3 HP 7 gallon glycol unit that pumps at 250 gal/hr which looks similar to yours maybe a little smaller and I was worried about that. I am pulling the trigger on the medium BIAC next week and wanted to cross this issue off my list. Let me know if you can your response would be appreciated.

Jason

 

[Jimmy82]

Jimmy question for you. Did you need to add a pressure relief valve on the glycol chiller feed to reduce the pressure before going into the jacket or is the pressure low enough from the glycol pump that you didn't need to worry about buckling the jacket wall? I have a 1/3 HP 7 gallon glycol unit that pumps at 250 gal/hr which looks similar to yours maybe a little smaller and I was worried about that. I am pulling the trigger on the medium BIAC next week and wanted to cross this issue off my list. Let me know if you can your response would be appreciated.

Jason

I don't have a PRV installed on mine, but I don't have anything that closes the loop to build up pressure in the jacket. I'm doubtful that the pressure from the glycol chiller would be greater than city water pressures, which are ok to run through the jacket (if not restricted on the out side of the jacket).

 

[jamiller]

Thank you. That makes sense completely. Thanks Jimmy

 

[limulus]

I agree that you don't need the valve on a single system. If you are running multiple fermenters, you would need a pressure reducer and pressure guage along with valves at each fermenter:

 

[jamiller]

You guys rock man. Thanks for the info. I was watching a YouTube video and the dude had a valve but he had two tanks so that makes total sense. I can't wait to join the BIAC family. Pulling the trigger either tomorrow or Monday! Peace.

 

[jamiller]

Just pulled the trigger. I couldn't wait. It's just money. Lol. Maybe the 3 Russian imperials had something to do with it!!!

 

[limulus]

Congratulations. You'll be impressed by the crates these things come in almost as much as the actual product. I guess yours will come with the new digital power box. I'm interested to hear how you like it.

 

[jamiller]

Thanks man. I will take some pics when it arrives. Nathan said end of February so time to sell some of my old gear.

 

[limulus]

I finally got a chance to run the system today. Actually flush and clean. But, it works beautifully. I heated my water up to 110F and then took it up to 125F and finally 150F with PBW. Next, I'm going to clean all the internal parts with Bar Keepers Friend to passivate it. Then, all I'll need to do is remove all the valves and soak them in PBW and Starsan...probably right before I actually brew on it. Has anyone switched over to butterfly valves? I saw some discussion, but was not sure what everyone did. These ball valves are nice, but I think butterfly valves will be simpler...at least on the outlets. I'll stick to ball valves for flow control.

These at Glacier are priced well:
http://www.glaciertanks.com/Products-ButterFly_Valves-2.html

 

[cuda6pak]

I had a slight hop plug on my last brew when transferring. But when I hooked it up to CO2 and put a few psi of pressure on it it came right out. So no need for butterfly valves IMO. Next brew should have a lot more hops in it so we'll see how that one does.

 

[limulus]

For those running a heated glycol or water recirc on their 3-in-1, what temp are you setting your glycol/water bath to? I'm thinking something like 80F but that may be too warm. The way I'm setting up my circulation for warm water will allow the water to drain out of the jacket back into the reservoir once the ETC shuts off the recirc pump. That will prevent 80F water from sitting in the jacket to over warm the beer closest to the jacket.

My original plan was to use my RIMS tube and just recirc w/o a reservoir. But I'm now thinking a reservoir with a heat source would be better. I have a bucket heater that I can use in a cooler with an STC-1000 to maintain the temp. Then use the sump pump from my keg cleaner plugged into the ETC for recirc.

 

[limulus]

I know most are sticking with the ball valves, but one of my main reasons to go with the BIAC was to make everything easy. The multi-piece ball valves are not so easy to clean or get back together. The nice thing about a butterfly valve is it can be cleaned in place or simply removed and soaked without any disassembling and reassembling. I'll still have to keep one ball valve for contolling pump flow unless I can install a speed control and I'm not sure Chuggers like that. I bought these at Glacier.

 

[limulus]

I also wired up a new STC-1000 controller for my heated water bath:

 

[jeffreybandel]

I fired up my medium BIAC last Thursday for the first time. It was my most pleasurable brewing experience. I cannot express how well designed and built it is.

Right now I have 15.5 gallon of Pils fermenting at 48 degrees with the jacket hooked up to city water. I have it in a nice cool place so it rarely cycles on.

I don't need heat right now but I'm wondering if anyone is using the heating element during fermentation? I have mine set up at 5% at 42 degrees.

 

[Jimmy82]

I know most are sticking with the ball valves, but one of my main reasons to go with the BIAC was to make everything easy. The multi-piece ball valves are not so easy to clean or get back together. The nice thing about a butterfly valve is it can be cleaned in place or simply removed and soaked without any disassembling and reassembling. I'll still have to keep one ball valve for contolling pump flow unless I can install a speed control and I'm not sure Chuggers like that. I bought these at Glacier.

I also made the switch to butterfly valves and don't regret it one bit. The ball valves are nice for the jacket in port and the colander in (for flow control), but they don't need to be sanitary, so disassembling them isn't critical.

 

[Totrout]

I thought that I would post my experience with the Brewha BIAC. It arrived in Early January. Assembly was straight forward. As mentioned above, brewing with it has saved time and headaches. Step mashes are easy. Cleanup is simple. I am still working on repeatability of recipes/efficiencies but the beersmith data on the brewha website has been very helpful. I am using tap water for chilling at this time but hope to develop a closed system in the future and although Alberta groundwater is plenty cold I would be more comfortable with a closed system in case of a leak.
Nathan has been excellent to deal with and has responded promptly to emails and calls. I have no hesitation recommending purchasing equipment from him.

 

[jamiller]

So received my medium biac fired it up on Saturday. We will see. Definitely a learning curve. I got a stuck sparge and my auber temp controller doesn't seem calibrated accurately. I even repositioned the probe with more silicone transfer paste. Nathan said to adjust the calibration. Which I did. I just hope my mash wasn't too off. It is an awesome piece of equipment. I guess time will tell.

 

[Cmason]

I have been following this discussion since December, and after lots of looking have decided on a Medium BIAC. I am still working out the fermentation temp control. Will the reef chiller support cold crashing, or do I have to plan for a small glycol unit?
For those with a glycol unit, are you chilling a water resivor or running direct to the jacket?
I saw one comment on using the element to provide heat at 1% power setting, any updated feed back on how that is going?
Any one using a BrewPi or similar programable unit to control the fermentation temp profile?
I will be brewing in Williamsburg VA in the garage, so I will be dealing with temp fluctuations through the seasons and probably during the day in the summer.

I hope to order the BIAC by the end of May.

Thanks for everyone's time in responding.

 

[limulus]

That is a question for cuda6pak regarding the aquarium chiller. For heating, I was originally going to use my RIMS tube and the little stand I built for it. But, I decided that was probably going to result in air pockets getting into the RIMS tube and ultimately a burned out element. So, I decided to use a cooler, a bucket heater like this http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000BDB4UG/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20 a temp controller, a sump pump and a garden hose that screws right on to the outlet of my sump pump. The other end of the hose is cut off and a sanitary fitting with a hose barb is inserted and clamped onto the end of the hose. I like to use white potable hose for RVs available at RV stores and WalMart in the automotive/RV section. The nice thing about the sump pump is it is from my diy keg cleaner. So as Alton Brown likes to say, it is not a uni-tasker. There are several examples of that right here on HBT. Don't use the cooling valve assembly that comes with the BIAC for heating.

The temp controller will keep the water in the cooler at a specified temp by activating the bucket heater. The ETC that came with the BIAC (Ranco in my case) will monitor the temp in the 3-in-1. That will turn on the sump pump in the cooler when the temp in the 3-in-1 falls. The water inside the 3-in-1 jacket will just drain right back into the cooler when the ETC shuts off the pump. The RIMS tube method was definitely more compact, but I just don't think it would work w/o using a reservoir.

For cooling, I will be using a 1/3 HP glycol unit with a 2gal reservoir. But, I have not used that yet.

QUOTE=Cmason;6732545]I have been following this discussion since December, and after lots of looking have decided on a Medium BIAC. I am still working out the fermentation temp control. Will the reef chiller support cold crashing, or do I have to plan for a small glycol unit?
For those with a glycol unit, are you chilling a water resivor or running direct to the jacket?
I saw one comment on using the element to provide heat at 1% power setting, any updated feed back on how that is going?
Any one using a BrewPi or similar programable unit to control the fermentation temp profile?
I will be brewing in Williamsburg VA in the garage, so I will be dealing with temp fluctuations through the seasons and probably during the day in the summer.

I hope to order the BIAC by the end of May.

Thanks for everyone's time in responding.[/QUOTE]