120V EBIAB 1500W RIMS with Boil Burner Build

[atmfuge]

I have been brewing for over 2 years. I have a two year old and my wife will be having another baby in the next few weeks. I currently brew all grain with a 10 gallon igloo mash tun. On average my brewdays are about 6 hours at least. My wife and I have been trying to find ways to shorten brew days and I am looking at building an EBIAB setup using a Brewhardware RIMS tube to maintain mash temp and my current propane burner for strike and boil duties. The current plan is to create a 120V controller controlling a 1500W Rims tube. I hope to document the build here in this thread as it progresses but first I have a couple questions.

1) Does anyone use a similar setup? If so how has it been working? What kind of ramp up speeds do you see with a 1500W RIMS setup?

2) Is a chugger or march pump worth buying or would I be fine with a smaller 24v pump that I know some users here use?

3) I am planning on installing a side pickup tube on my kettle from bargain fittings. Will this be enough of a precaution to prevent the bag from being sucked into the pickup and will I need some sort of filter on the pickup to prevent hotbreak and hop particles from clogging the pickup? (I plan to incorporate a whirlpool as well during cooling.

Thanks in advance for any help.

PS. I am limited to 120V power because i am in the Army and move about a bit and cannot guarantee 240V access everywhere (including my current apartment.)

 

[leesmith]

I based my system off this thread:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=341219

I use the same kettle but modified the basket so it would fit with the element because the bag was getting sucked in by my chugger (like it a lot) pump. I whirlpool for IPA's and by keeping the element set at say 180 I can turn the chiller on to drop the wort to 180 and let the controller maintain after that.

Used the Brewers Hardware element housing along with a 1500 watt stainless element.

Brew days are 4-5 hours at least...I've got two kids...4 and 8 years old...prepare what you can a head of time and clean up as you go...but all grain can be time consuming....

 

[RM-MN]

I have been brewing for over 2 years. I have a two year old and my wife will be having another baby in the next few weeks. I currently brew all grain with a 10 gallon igloo mash tun. On average my brewdays are about 6 hours at least. My wife and I have been trying to find ways to shorten brew days and I am looking at building an EBIAB setup using a Brewhardware RIMS tube to maintain mash temp and my current propane burner for strike and boil duties. The current plan is to create a 120V controller controlling a 1500W Rims tube. I hope to document the build here in this thread as it progresses but first I have a couple questions.

1) Does anyone use a similar setup? If so how has it been working? What kind of ramp up speeds do you see with a 1500W RIMS setup?

2) Is a chugger or march pump worth buying or would I be fine with a smaller 24v pump that I know some users here use?

3) I am planning on installing a side pickup tube on my kettle from bargain fittings. Will this be enough of a precaution to prevent the bag from being sucked into the pickup and will I need some sort of filter on the pickup to prevent hotbreak and hop particles from clogging the pickup? (I plan to incorporate a whirlpool as well during cooling.

Thanks in advance for any help.

PS. I am limited to 120V power because i am in the Army and move about a bit and cannot guarantee 240V access everywhere (including my current apartment.)

Are you having trouble with getting conversion? I find that with BIAB and finely milled grain the conversion is over so quickly that I can ignore temperature loss. Try heating your water to strike temp, dropping in the bag, and stirring in the grains. Put a lid on and wait 30 minutes, then pull the bag and use the propane to start heating the wort. While the wort is heating you can let the bag drip or squeeze the rest of the wort out. You can do a sparge step then too, adding that wort to the pot. With grain from the western world, DMS is not much of a problem so you can cut the boil time some too. I've been doing a 30 minute boil with good success. With that, you can probably start chilling the wort about 2 hours from when you started heating the water toward strike temp, reducing your brew day considerably. Besides saving you a lot of time, this system will save you the price of the upgrade that may not improve anything.

 

[1MadScientist]

I suppose you have chillers already, but if time is limited, try no chill. Come back another day too pitch.

 

[atmfuge]

Leesmith,

Thanks for the input. I have seen that thread before but forgot about it. PJ's diagrams are the best. I also like that that controller could be easily adjusted to power a 240v system in the future. A set up like that would be great but I brew at least 5 gallon batches because I really enjoy sharing and would would probably end up spending more time brewing if I switched to 2.5 gal batches. It's hard to get 7.5+ gallons to boil with 120v without using two separate circuits.

 

[atmfuge]

RM-MN,
No problems with conversion here. I am pretty happy with my conversion and efficiency on my current set-up. I'm just looking to simplify and save some time by going to one vessel but I also want to be able to maintain steady mash temps as well as recirculate my mash and do a whirlpool. In the interim I have built a kettle insulating box using spray insulation foam that I am going to try some BIAB mashes to see how well I can maintain temps. I will definitely look at a shorter boils when possible, and experiment with some shorter mash times.

 

[atmfuge]

@1madscientist, I read something once about no-chill. I hadn't thought about it too much but if I'm looking to shorten a brew day that might be helpful too. Do you know of any other places or threads that would have more info about it?

 

[atmfuge]

Double post

 

[TexasWine]

I'd recommend going with 2 x 1500 watt elements installed in your kettle. One connected to the PID, which will function like a RIMS tube and will pull double duty and be used in the boil. The other will be manually controlled, plug it in when you need it like during the boil, unplug it when you don't.

This type of setup is very portable and is what I brew on currently. Everything required for brew day fits inside your kettle. You can plug it in to any normal 15 amp household outlet (GFCI protected of course). I think you'd be happy with something like this given how much you move around.

 

[Bailey_Brew]

I based my system off this thread:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=341219

I use the same kettle but modified the basket so it would fit with the element because the bag was getting sucked in by my chugger (like it a lot) pump. I whirlpool for IPA's and by keeping the element set at say 180 I can turn the chiller on to drop the wort to 180 and let the controller maintain after that.
...

Leesmith - can you describe what you did to modify the basket? I think I have the same kettle and am pondering using it for a small batch 110v BIAB. But I haven't thought through how best to use that basket to keep the bag off the element and out of the pump. But ... I don't have access to a metal shop and I never learned how to weld.

Thanks.

 

[leesmith]

Bailey_Brew,

My friend who has a metal shop turned four stainless steel feet with male threads on them which I attached to the bottom of the basket. You could easily use stainless steel bolts as feet and a nut on either side of the metal of the basked to hold them tight in place.

Next I used a grinder with a metal cut off disc and trimmed the top allowing it to sit inside the kettle with the lid on. Then drilled new holes for the handle to go in to.

Ill take a picture of the set up when I get home from work and post it for you.

Although you could easily come up with some sort of screen or false bottom type thing that you remove before the boil. I used a stainless colander upside down in the kettle a couple times before the basket.

And for some reason my efficiency went down when I started using the basket. I think because of the smaller holes in the basket along with the bag restricting the flow more during recirculating.
I've adjusted my grain bills and everything is fine though.

 

[nutty_gnome]

I have been brewing with a the system you are describing for about a year. Its a 10 gallon pot, bobby's hot rod on 120v under a DIY false bottom (pizza screen) a pump and BIAB. I make major temp changes with propane and maintain mash and boil with the heat stick attached to PID controller. Mashing is set and forget for as long as I want. I set my recipe calculations for 72 percent efficiency for brews over 10 pounds of grain. and 75% for less than 10 pounds of grain. It works well.

I typically brew 5.5 gal batches under 1.065 with this system and its about 4.5 hours per brew. I have some pics over in one of Bobby_M's threads. Will edit with that link. - https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showpost.php?p=6503050&postcount=395 - Since those pictures, I've improved the system a bit buy replacing the wood with with a metal cabinet and some refinements to the wort return system as well as a switch to tell the pump to shut off if the wort level at the top of the pot gets too high.

The other benefit to this sort of system is that you also have a large sous vide cooker so your brewing system becomes a useful multitasker. It is also relatively inexpensive.

 

[leesmith]

Atmfuge,

Sorry for they delay in pictures.
As you can see we tapped the legs for the basket so a bolt could go in from the inside.

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[Bailey_Brew]

Leesmith - Thank you for the pictures. I was wondering how you adapted the handle. The picture makes that very clear. Nice, professional-looking job!

 

[leesmith]

Bailey_brew,

No problem...didn't mean to take so long.
You could easily do this with basic tools.

Stainless bolts, nuts and washers for feet, a Dremel or grinder to trim the top lower and then a drill to make a new hole for the handle. Also some sand paper or a file to take the sharp edges off the cuts you make.

 

[craigmw]

My typical 5.5 gallon (into fermentor) brew day:

30 minutes to set up.

30 minutes to strike temp (double crush grains while getting to strike temp) using propane fired Blichmann burner.

Stir in grains (10 min) and mash for 60 minutes with recirculation.

Pull bag and remove to "ZapPap" made of two Homer buckets while bringing mash to a boil, 15-20 minutes.

Boil 60 minutes while adding "squeezings" from the ZapPap.

Chill to 65-75 (depending on ground water temp), 15 minutes using Duda Diesel plate chiller.

Put fermentor into chest freezer and bring down to pitching temp (pitch next day, usually, especially for lagers).

Clean up (30 min).

So 4-5 hours, depending on how many interruptions. It's a pretty time efficient brew day overall, and I usually hit about 75-80% brew house efficiency. I could make it go faster with shorter mash and boil times, but these are fairly unattended operations where I can other things done. I'm not in a huge rush. 10 gallon batches add another 30 minutes to the brew day (because I need to set up a ladder and pulley rig to drain the bag and chill and fill 2 fermentors instead of just one).

 

[stever1000]

I'd recommend going with 2 x 1500 watt elements installed in your kettle. One connected to the PID, which will function like a RIMS tube and will pull double duty and be used in the boil. The other will be manually controlled, plug it in when you need it like during the boil, unplug it when you don't.

This type of setup is very portable and is what I brew on currently. Everything required for brew day fits inside your kettle. You can plug it in to any normal 15 amp household outlet (GFCI protected of course). I think you'd be happy with something like this given how much you move around.

I would love to see some pictures and more information on your setup! Sounds like what I would need

 

[atmfuge]

I'd recommend going with 2 x 1500 watt elements installed in your kettle. One connected to the PID, which will function like a RIMS tube and will pull double duty and be used in the boil. The other will be manually controlled, plug it in when you need it like during the boil, unplug it when you don't.

This type of setup is very portable and is what I brew on currently. Everything required for brew day fits inside your kettle. You can plug it in to any normal 15 amp household outlet (GFCI protected of course). I think you'd be happy with something like this given how much you move around.

I would also be interested in hearing more about your system, this could be great. My only question is whether 2x 2000w elements would be enough to boil a 10gal batch?

 

[TexasWine]

I would also be interested in hearing more about your system, this could be great. My only question is whether 2x 2000w elements would be enough to boil a 10gal batch?

You can find pics in the thread linked below.

I'm sure 2x2000 would boil 10 gallons. Folks do it all the time with 1 x 4500. But I went with 1500 watt because you need a 20 amp circuit for 2000 watts. Keeping it at 1500 watts means I can use it anywhere there are two 15 amp outlets.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=525769

 

[OldDirty]

I would also be interested in hearing more about your system, this could be great. My only question is whether 2x 2000w elements would be enough to boil a 10gal batch?

I use 2, 2000w elements connected to a PID for my keggle. I get a full vigorous boil with 12g of wort.

Just a word of caution, buy quality SSR's for your setup. The cheap Chinese made SSR's will fail in an open state and cause your elements to burn out prematurely.

 

[atmfuge]

All,

Thanks for the input, I did my first full 100% BIAB brew last weekend, and loved the ease of using BIAB over my old 3 vessel system. I have also decided that I will eventually convert over to a 240V electrical system once I have a guaranteed 240V supply to work with. For now I have used the calculator in this thread... https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=451886 to create an insulation wrap out of reflectix and a Therm-a-rest sleeping pad. I am getting great mash temp stability and it's not too cumbersome to use until I can invest in the setup I really want. Eventually, I'll post a thread on how I built the insulation wrap.