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I would have thought an 8 gallon (or 9.5 gallon) kettle might be a bit tricky for full volume BIAB mashing. In my 20 gallon kettle, I'm usually mashing in with 8.5 gallons of water, so the mash volume might be a problem in a smaller kettle. Did you have any trouble with kettle volume?

Bobby, I went with your 5500W stainless TC ripple element connected to my 22 gallon BrewBuilt kettle that I had two 1.5" triclover ports added to. It works beautifully in this configuration! I also purchased an 8 foot cord from you to connect the element to my controller and really like its...

30 gallon might be best if you are mostly doing 15 gallon batches. You could go with a smaller kettle, but that would likely require a sparge step. Doing 5 gallon batches with a 30 gallon kettle and electric water heater element might be difficult (except maybe with the Boil Coil). Here's a...

I have a 20 gallon Concord tri-clad kettle that I've used exclusively for BIAB (over a Blichmann propane burner) for over six years and it has worked quite well for 5 and 10 gallon batches. I've done the occasional 15 gallon batches by incorporating a Concord steamer basket that fits the kettle...

Brian: As usual, this is a wonderfully informative video. It was great to hear your thorough description about how to set it up and your honest overall assessment of this controller. A friend of mine who has been brewing over 30 years is looking to build a small eBIAB system and I recommended...

I just built an EZ-Boil eBIAB panel using the DSPR320 and really love all that can be done with it. The panel controls the heater element as well as two aux circuits. The aux circuits are controlled by 3-way selector switches with positions Auto, Off and On. When switched to On, these Aux...

Actually, it was a bit more expensive to build my own because I ended up using an Opto22 45A SSR. With that much voltage and current, I thought it best to purchase a quality SSR but maybe that's just me!

The lack of an element disconnect switch is precisely the reason I decided to build my own. I almost purchased a BrewCommander because it looks like a very nice controller, but the lack of an element disconnect switch was a deal breaker for me. The price to build my own was roughly the same as...

That is a really nice setup! I was close to getting the BrewCommander given the nice touch screen. I also love how your Blichmann eKettle looks. How hard is it to clean the kettle behind the BoilCoil after your brew days? With my TC setup, I can just remove the element when it's time to scrub...

In my case, i find the basket helps to hold the bag over the mash while I do a "hanging basket sparge." With my new setup, the basket will be quite a bit higher up off the bottom, so I probably could have gotten away with a Boil Coil, but I like the idea of using TC ports, so Brewer's Hardware...

Ah, interesting to know! I didn't realize that could be done. Nevertheless, I like to use a stainless steam basket to hold my bag, esp. for 10+ gallon batches, so that would still be a problem in my setup.

Just out of curiosity, what are you going to do to keep the BIAB bag from touching the BoilCoil? The main reason I went with a ripple element instead of the BoilCoil was the fact that the former can rest pretty low in the kettle, below a steamer tray or steamer basket, maximizing the amount of...

My question for you: what do you want to improve? 72 to 80% seems pretty respectable. I do recirculating BIAB and my efficiencies are in that range (though they occasionally go a bit higher). Maybe you might get better mash control going with a PID controlled electric system, but do you really...

For those SoCal folks near OC, I am giving a shout out to Windsor Homebrew in Costa Mesa. Scott runs a great homebrew shop stocked with really nice grains, hops, supplies and hardware. And I'm very impressed by the pricing and customer service. I used to purchase my supplies online but am...

And best of luck with your basement build. You are living out many of our dreams! I do wish basements were the standard out here in California...

I look forward to it Brian. I always really enjoy your videos!

Brian from Short Circuited Brewers mentioned that he will be doing a review soon on the BrewCommander in his video where he interviewed John Blichmann at the 2019 NHC.

Blichmann Eng. posted a Youtube video showing how to change the orientation of the outlets from the back to the bottom of the unit (which is very cool btw). In that, it doesn't appear to involve any DIN units, but instead, the SSR is directly mounted to the enclosure. They do not use any...

I contacted Blichmann about this and they said that the BrewCommander has a micro-SD card slot that allows for firmware upgrades. So it would seem that user firmware upgrades should be doable if they are willing to provide firmware downloads (or if they sell the SD cards).

Brew Bag from bagbrewer.com. I've been using it for 5 years, over 100 brews (including 15 gallon brews) in my 20g Concord triclad pot. No complaints whatsoever. It's been great, though I am considering moving to a SS mesh basket at some point to increase flow during mashing.