Dual induction Brutus 20

At long last, my brew room is complete! I have a 7'x12' room in the basement now insulated, plumbed, and wired for brewing. There's an all-in-one ss sink & counter at one end, salvaged from a 60s kitchen. The other end is the 4-tap Keezer. The brew table is on the long wall in between. The SS counter was donated by a friend. I just had to build legs for it (the sink too). There's a SS 36" stove hood over the table that vents out of a small, louvered vent window.

I was so glad to get everything buttoned up over the holiday vacation. Got the rig built. The pic is of a cross circulation running warm pbw through everything. Then got ready to brew...AND I BROKE MY GRAIN MILL!!!! So I haven't brewed in the new room yet. Tonight I plan a nice simple smash brew to try it all out.

The BK is on left on an Avantco 3500W. The MLT is on the right on an Avantco 1800W, that has been modified to use an external temp probe, so that the onboard temp controls work very precisely. I haven't decided if I'll mod the 3500 yet. We'll see how it goes. In the middle is my dual 12V pump box. I have posts here on the pump box and the induction mod. Tubing is 3/8" thick walled silicone connected to 1/2" PEX nipples. It fits so snug I don't need any tube clamps, even under max pump pressure. It works out great.

Basic brewing process is...

1. Fill MLT with strike water and BK with sparge water.
2. Heat strike water in MLT
3. Go crush grain while strike water heats up
4. Dough in using paint strainer bag in MLT, stir, set pump to recirculate
5. Set BK to heat sparge water, recirculate
6. Once sparge water is at temp (shooting for ~20 min), set pumps to cross recirculate very slowly for 30-45 minutes. Let the SG normalize and grain bed settle and filter the fines.
7. Move all wort to BK and boil.

Wish me luck and thanks to all the good folks at HBT for all the great input over the years!

looks good. Might I recommend Reflectix wrap. has made a world of difference on my induction setup.

Looks good! I've been eyeballing those Avantco cooktops. What size kettles / batches are you doing?

These are $12 16-quart Walmart pots (the valves are more expensive). I do 3 gallon batches. It's tight. Boil 3.7 gallons or so. Going to get some 18 quarts soon I think. I have 5 gallons but it's just too big when you're making in 2 gallons of water.

I really don't need the reflectix with the lower volumes I'm doing. I could see it being issue with 5+ gallons

Nice job Weezy! Good luck on the maiden voyage!

John

Weezy said:

These are $12 16-quart Walmart pots (the valves are more expensive). I do 3 gallon batches. It's tight. Boil 3.7 gallons or so. Going to get some 18 quarts soon I think. I have 5 gallons but it's just too big when you're making in 2 gallons of water.

I really don't need the reflection with the lower volumes I'm doing. I could see it being issue with 5+ gallons

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I boil 5.18 gallons with reflection and yield about 3.5-4 gallons. And that is only on an 1800 watt burner. So you definitely could do full 5 gallon with the 3500 and reflectix

wilserbrewer said:

Looks good! I've been eyeballing those Avantco cooktops. What size kettles / batches are you doing?

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There are threads on the burners. Personally I love induction. Actually started doing small test batches but my BIAB bag isn't the greatest.

I use mega pots 10 gallon. Although spike brewing makes induction kettles now so I would go with them over mega pots.

I love induction too. Nothing to clean up! All the grain comes out with the bag and recirculate PBW then water.

Here's a gif of the brewery!

Nice! I was wondering if those $12 pots were induction compatible! Great solution for a small batch setup.

Brew day went fine. I spent some time playing with the wattage settings on the 3500 to see what I needed. 1500w was enough to hold a gentle boil. 2000W was best for 60 minute boil off rate. At 3000w, my 3.7 gallons went from 170 to boiling in about 5 minutes. I usually use that time to wash the MLT and deal with the grain bag.

Can you tell us more about how you modified the induction unit to respond to a temp probe?

pricelessbrewing said:

Nice! I was wondering if those $12 pots were induction compatible! Great solution for a small batch setup.

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Yeah they work very well. Here's a great tip too. Buy these SS stovetop burner covers from Walmart too. The larger one is the perfect size for a false bottom!
https://www.walmart.com/ip/Mainstays-Stainless-Steel-Burner-Cover-4pk/19857911
Just drill some holes in it. I'll get a picture posted.

Tight enough fit for biab bag support

McKnuckle said:

Can you tell us more about how you modified the induction unit to respond to a temp probe?

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See my signature.
Although, I upgraded to the through wall thermowells from Williams brewing. They hold the wire nice and are water proof

Weezy said:

The MLT is on the right on an Avantco 1800W, that has been modified to use an external temp probe, so that the onboard temp controls work very precisely.

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McKnuckle said:

Can you tell us more about how you modified the induction unit to respond to a temp probe?

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Hi,

I would like to know as well, how did you modify the temp probe ?

- Jason

Thanks in advance!

bisforbrew said:

Hi,

I would like to know as well, how did you modify the temp probe ?

- Jason

Thanks in advance!

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See my signature >>>>>>

This is what my system looks like with the Adcraft induction hotplates using a BCS-460 to control them.

^^^^^. I wanted to chime in that AF1Homebrew and I had a chat in another thread and in PMs. Those Adcrafts are the real deal!! Their manual models are true manual control. You can leave then set on and automate then with external temp controllers. They're more expensive then the AVANTCO but being able to run them off PID or even cheap temp controllers is huge! I wish I would have known that a year ago. I'd have bought two of those.

Weezy said:

^^^^^. I wanted to chime in that AF1Homebrew and I had a chat in another thread and in PMs. Those Adcrafts are the real deal!! Their manual models are true manual control. You can leave then set on and automate then with external temp controllers. They're more expensive then the AVANTCO but being able to run them off PID or even cheap temp controllers is huge! I wish I would have known that a year ago. I'd have bought two of those.

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Glad I found this thread. I have a 240v 20 amp outlet available to use for induction but I wanted to possibly recirculate my mash. I figured with the Avantco I would need to measure the temp and find a low power setting that can maintain the temp to a certain extent. Are there control panels that would be compatible with a 240V 20 amp circuit? I'm very much a novice in anything electrical, so just trying to gather what I would need and the cost. I'm in for the "cheap" option as well.

Thanks!

I don't know of anything to control anything that wattage. I expect you'll have to build something with a PID, SSR. I'd suggest posting a new thread in the electrical forum and you'll get clear guidance from some of the guys there.

Craftbeerpi 2.2 has instructions on how to use a raspberrypi to control an induction burner for mashing (pid) and boil (power).

Weezy said:

These are $12 16-quart Walmart pots (the valves are more expensive). I do 3 gallon batches. It's tight. Boil 3.7 gallons or so. Going to get some 18 quarts soon I think. I have 5 gallons but it's just too big when you're making in 2 gallons of water.

I really don't need the reflectix with the lower volumes I'm doing. I could see it being issue with 5+ gallons

Click to expand...

Why do you call it a Brutus 20 if you are doing sub 5 gallon batches ? It should be called a Brutus 3.