Advice on moving to electric

[Jtvann]

hey all. I’m going to be moving to a new house soon that has a sweet basement setup that i could turn into a permanent brew station. Brewing in the basement though be my open garage has carbon monoxide concerns. I’m not opposed to going electric, and am really excited to see the new Ss Brewtech offerings.

I wanted to come here first and explain my current setup, and how I brew, and see how much overlap there will be, without having to buy redundant pieces.

I use a 3 vessel system with a herms coil inside my HLT. I fly sparge. I heat strike water in the HLT and transfer to a Ss infusion mash tun. I heat sparge water in the HLT above sparse temps to do a mash out step. I then sparge once temps are back down to 170. I collect runnings into brew kettle while fly sparging. I only have 1 propane burner, so only ever use one heat source at a time. I then lift the full brew kettle to the burner and proceed with my boil.

I know I’ll need a controller. I don’t see why I would need any more than their base version that has one element. I should be able to plug and unplug depending on whether the HLT or the brew kettle. This is an assumption. Let me know if I’m wrong here. I saw that their base controller is set up for more brew in a bag type. Is there a reason that what I said above is wrong?

I should be able to keep my same infusion mash tun. I’m assuming I’ll need a new brew kettle and new HLT.

How will I be able to use both a herms coil and the heating coil? Seems like that’s a lot of coil inside the pot without room for each other.

What else am I not considering?

 

[Blazinlow86]

if your handy in a diy way you can reuse all your equipment more or less. just buy 2 elements and install them in your current setup with a simple diy panel. not sure a single element would work like your burner as the element is part of the kettle so you cant just move it. plus you may regret having to add it later at more cost/rebuying etc. having a element and a herms coil is pretty standard setup but you need enough room under your herms coil for the element so consider that. do you have a 240v outlet close by? indoor electric is AWESOME and probably the main reason along with kegging ive kept brewing regularly however it is gonna cost you some or alot of money depending on your setup. buy the proper stuff from the beginning. cheers

 

[tjmac5071]

I moved to electric this spring, 20g spike kettle, basket from Utah bio diesel, 5500w ripple element a controller from eBay, gfci in line from North shore safety. Couldn't be happier with the move. It has taken me some time to dial in but my brew day is so simple now. I have 2 little kids so time savings was the motivation for my move. I brew outdoors primarily but will move inside this winter. I would highly recommend full volume electric biabasket. I had my kettle designed with a port up top for recirculating with a pump but didn't want to mess with a pump if possible and it seems with a stir every 15-20 min with a manual 1 gallon drain and dump over the grains I can get away with no pump. You may select something different but at least consider biabasket

 

[Jtvann]

Is it possible to install a heating element inside a Ss Infusion Mash tun?

With the spacing of the false bottom being so close to the bottom drain, it seems like the element would have to be above it ... thus actually inside the grain bed. Wouldn’t this lead to bad scorching?

 

[cegan09]

Is it possible to install a heating element inside a Ss Infusion Mash tun?

With the spacing of the false bottom being so close to the bottom drain, it seems like the element would have to be above it ... thus actually inside the grain bed. Wouldn’t this lead to bad scorching?

With a traditional 3 vessel system you do not need an element in the mash tun. Heat the HLT with an element like you would do with a propane setup and run the mash like you usually would. If you want to move to a single vessel setup for BIAB style then you may just have to find a different false bottom. I'd find a different one anyway for BIAB as you aren't using it for filtering, and you want it more wide open for the boil stage. A lot of people use stainless cooking wire racks on standoffs.



yes you can use a barebones controller and swap plugs so it is controlling either the HLT or boil. Just be careful to not screw up which is plugged in and dry fire one. You'll destroy an element that way.

 

[Jtvann]

The more I look into adapting my equipment to make it work, the more to just want to sell it off part by part and buy a complete brew boss deluxe 15g system.

I’ve read a lot about the system and can’t find anything glaringly negative. Most everything is a year or plus older now though. What’s the current feeling in that system?

 

[jlinz]

Sell it all, and buy a Grainfather, haha.

 

[kyt]

Is it possible to install a heating element inside a Ss Infusion Mash tun?

With the spacing of the false bottom being so close to the bottom drain, it seems like the element would have to be above it ... thus actually inside the grain bed. Wouldn’t this lead to bad scorching?

The Infussion mash tun is not designed to have an element. For what that thing costs, do you really want to drill a big hole in the thick insulated wall?
Plus, putting an element inside the mash bed is not a good idea. They're designed to heat liquid, not sticky solids.
Ss does make a warming pad that goes around the cone, if you need help maintaining mash temps, but it should not be used for heating strike water or step mashing, etc.
This tun is basically just a tall stainless clad Igloo cooler, with a bottom drain.

Grounded Brewing Technologies has a mash tun in the works, that is similar-ish to the Infussion mash tun. Go check out their Instagram.

 

[Blazinlow86]

Although I use a 3 vessel set-up and love it if you're only planning on doing smaller batch sizes I would consider ebiab or a all in one like the grain father . It's alot less equipment to buy and clean. Cheers

 

[augiedoggy]

The Infussion mash tun is not designed to have an element. For what that thing costs, do you really want to drill a big hole in the thick insulated wall?
Plus, putting an element inside the mash bed is not a good idea. They're designed to heat liquid, not sticky solids.
Ss does make a warming pad that goes around the cone, if you need help maintaining mash temps, but it should not be used for heating strike water or step mashing, etc.
This tun is basically just a tall stainless clad Igloo cooler, with a bottom drain.

Grounded Brewing Technologies has a mash tun in the works, that is similar-ish to the Infussion mash tun. Go check out their Instagram.

Theres a few out there... The SS insulated tun is very similiar to a popular german outfit that makes them and chapman also has one. They are a good alternative to a herms or rims system if someone wants everything to be stainless. But they dont quit work as well as a plastic cooler since stainless does not insulate as well.
They would work fine with 3 vessel system though but its sounds like the op wants a complete out of the box system for which he has many options.

 

[augiedoggy]

The more I look into adapting my equipment to make it work, the more to just want to sell it off part by part and buy a complete brew boss deluxe 15g system.

I’ve read a lot about the system and can’t find anything glaringly negative. Most everything is a year or plus older now though. What’s the current feeling in that system?

When a new system comes out it seems its all the rage and then people tend to move on to praising the next great thing as one vendor improves on another design or pricepoint... Best thing to do is find an older thread on it and post there so the owners will see it and chime in.
Right now LODO is the "thing". It requires many home brewers to buy new equipment and eliminate things such as copper from their chillers and some systems cant be modified well for the process of eliminating and minimizing the oxygen exposure from the wort prior to adding the yeast... Its a benefit for those selling said equipment to stay up on the latest trends