SoCal-Doug
Well-Known Member
After many years of brewing on different systems, I took the leap of faith and built up an electric rig. Yesterday was the inaugural brew day. Started with an old favorite simple wheat beer. At the end of the day, I reviewed my numbers and results in beersmith and was very pleased. I of course do have a list of lessons learned which I'll share...
* Beer in the garage fridge disappears fast when 3 guys are brewing together.
* A 2 pole 30A breaker that trips at 24 amps is annoying, but is very easily replaced (I learned this during wet tests and tuning).
* Lifting 5 gallon jugs of RO water with a bad shoulder, sucks ass.
* 85% efficiency is no problem to achieve.
* Orville Redenbacher really does make the best popcorn.
* I'm going to need more kegs soon.
* Hours of reading, taking notes, comparing opinions and options, and diving into the numbers, is golden.
* Moving fermenters with a bad shoulder sucks. Those things are getting some wheels.
* Plan things to do during brewing (mow the lawn, wash the dog, take a nap, etc). Staring at the control panel gets really boring.
* When people say to set a BK alarm for about 200F and reduce to 80%, they mean it. I was seconds away from an ugly boil over due to not paying attention.
* Go see a doctor about that shoulder
One thing I'll need to look into is my main power contactor. Twice when I powered up, it was buzzing. Turning in off, then on again made it stop. possibly a loose wire or a cheap offshore contactor. Should be easy to figure out. Any other thoughts on this?
All in all a great day. Everything worked as expected. I see many more brews on the horizon for the new rig. We discussed doing split and multiple batches (a couple brewing friends have kegs and carboys but no rig), as well as BBQ'ing, snacks and having everyone bring some different brews for tasting.
* Beer in the garage fridge disappears fast when 3 guys are brewing together.
* A 2 pole 30A breaker that trips at 24 amps is annoying, but is very easily replaced (I learned this during wet tests and tuning).
* Lifting 5 gallon jugs of RO water with a bad shoulder, sucks ass.
* 85% efficiency is no problem to achieve.
* Orville Redenbacher really does make the best popcorn.
* I'm going to need more kegs soon.
* Hours of reading, taking notes, comparing opinions and options, and diving into the numbers, is golden.
* Moving fermenters with a bad shoulder sucks. Those things are getting some wheels.
* Plan things to do during brewing (mow the lawn, wash the dog, take a nap, etc). Staring at the control panel gets really boring.
* When people say to set a BK alarm for about 200F and reduce to 80%, they mean it. I was seconds away from an ugly boil over due to not paying attention.
* Go see a doctor about that shoulder
One thing I'll need to look into is my main power contactor. Twice when I powered up, it was buzzing. Turning in off, then on again made it stop. possibly a loose wire or a cheap offshore contactor. Should be easy to figure out. Any other thoughts on this?
All in all a great day. Everything worked as expected. I see many more brews on the horizon for the new rig. We discussed doing split and multiple batches (a couple brewing friends have kegs and carboys but no rig), as well as BBQ'ing, snacks and having everyone bring some different brews for tasting.
