1BBL Brutus 10 Electric Brewery Build

[Lonnie Mac]

Personally, I can't wait to see this thing my friend! Glad you are building it for yourself...

 

[willynilly]

Okay, okay... I lied, it came out to $17.46 MORE than the 10 gallon BrewMagic.

But, it is shinier, 3-4x the volume and fully E-brew friendly! You are looking at about $5 in electric per 1BBL session start to finish.

30 gallons of strike water 60F to 165 in 44 minutes... that aint too shabby.

It will also feature a CLT, cold liquor tank.

 

[Kauai_Kahuna]

Desperate for pictures, PLEASE!
Sounds like a jaw dropping rig, please keep us up to date.

 

[willynilly]

Desperate for pictures, PLEASE!
Sounds like a jaw dropping rig, please keep us up to date.

I will post photos when I have something to post. I just reconciled the massive parts list (down to the screws for the SSRs) last night. This is a build of great proportions, it is going to take me months to complete if I dont want to burn out on it.

It will be unique, I call it my "Synergy Series" of breweries

 

[willynilly]

What size tubing/hose will you be using with those pumps? In a quick search I found one with 1/2" MNPT outlet. Is 1/2" enough flow?

I actually changed this, this week. All plumbing will be full 3/4" tubing and connectors. I dont want to choke those sweet pumps. The pumps are rated at 1050 GPH with the 1/2" outlet, but I want to lessen my inlet and outlet restrictions as much as I can, within reason.

It will no longer be a HERMS, it will be a 11000W RIMS, with on demand sparge water heating capability. The HLT, will be a CLT... I wont waste energy keeping a huge tank of water hot. I also will not lose a drop of that sweet wort that would get trapped in that plumbing. The OP is updated... this is a design in progress. My last system did not sell at our neighborhood garage sale, maybe this one will



I calculate that it would take me 6-7 weeks to build this thing, so I am going to double that and call it 12-14 weeks. For now.

 

[willynilly]

Delete.....

 

[willynilly]

Performing OD sparge water heating tests today...

 

[willynilly]

Two tests down...

I have run (2) 5 gallon batches, and although the RIMS outlet temp. oscillates 10F during the process (per the temp display) the 5 gallons from each batch are within .3F using a digital, calibrated thermometer.

I am going to do a few more batches of sparge water and play with the PID tuning, but thus far the smaller, 9000W RIMS is giving me .6gal/min at 165F from a cold tank. Oscillations aside, what matters is the batch temp. and that is dead on.

 

[willynilly]

Been manually tuning the BCS PID today... time consuming, but I have nothing but time.

The data log is nice, because I can set parameters, go do something, come back and see what it has done the past 60 minues or so.

So far, so good... the RIMS settings are tweaked to hold +-.25F on the MLT output and -.5 +3F on the RIMS outlet temp.

The tricky part is that the heating element is still hot after the power is removed, so it is still heating the RIMS tube even when the signal is gone.

When I started, the RIMS outlet overshoot was 10F!

 

[eccsynd]

Great job on the PID tuning. Can you post your PID coefficients? I'm sure that other BCS users with similar setups would find them beneficial as a starting point for their own systems.

 

[willynilly]

Great job on the PID tuning. Can you post your PID coefficients? I'm sure that other BCS users with similar setups would find them beneficial as a starting point for their own systems.

P=10000
I=30
D=5000

PID Sample time is .1 sec
PID Differential temp. is 0F

This is giving me 2-5F overshoots at the RIMS outlet, mainly because when you stop firing a 4500W element, you have residual heat coming from that element. Basically I have a really fast acting process and one which still produces heat after it is stopped... so I am surprised I have gotten it nailed down this well.

However, using data log I can watch the overshoots over time and the MLT temp. over time and the MLT temp. is steady +/-.25F. Data logging ROCKS!!

Now, this testing has led me to another design for my new RIMS heaters.

(2) HWD 5500W elements for HOT WATER HEATING
(1) LWD 4500W element run on 120VAC for RIMS heating (read less residual!!)

With less residual from a low wattage ULWD element during simple RIMS operation I can get the tolerances even tighter.

When heating sparge water or strike it will utilize the (2) HWD 5500W elements

Yes, a triple element RIMS baby.

Optimized for both RIMS operation and water heating.

 

[redbenn]

I am thinking about a similar setup.
Subscribed.

 

[Brewmoor]

Post 'em pictures with a materials list would be cool.
I have 4 SS 55 drums in storage, a possible group build.

Carl I just got my drums in the mail the other day 4 of them. I ordered the fittings, Panel Thermometers, and rtd's today.


I am going to be building a similar setup. 6 5500w elements in 2 drums. I am not putting them on a stand. My buddy is helping me on this one. He is building small stands with wheels for each drum, so they can be moved around individually. Plus I want to be able to stand on the floor when I brew, not a ladder.

There will be a fairly big stand to go in front of the barrels. This will house my control panel, electrical, and pumps. Then half of it will be a nice butcher block wood top work surface. This build is going to go fast. It is fully funded and needs to be done in 1 1/2 months.

 

[BrewBeemer]

I'll be watching your progress you lucky dog, it looks like you already have it well planned out. I'm jealous I don't have the space for such a large project not alone can afford the material build cost. The wifey would shoot me dead dead in a heartbeat adding more "future needed brewing items" LOL! At 4-500 pounds a barrel make damn sure you have rather large high quality casters on your barrel frames.
Wow, 16,500 watts per drum now that's some amperage needing a 80 amp breaker feeding each drum not counting pumps and controller. Tap off your neighbors main then your good to go.

 

[Boar Beer]

We run a double Peristaltic pump at about 15 gpm with ½ silicon tubing for our 1bb system.
Sparging is a walk in the park
Sanitation is a piece of cake. You just take all your tubing and sanitize in your preferred way and visually inspect it. You can pull and push your hot wart, around without any worry. We even use it to aerate the Conicals (3) 48 gallon Blichmanns

Sounds like a great build and I look forward to seeing some phots.

 

[astewart]

Has there been any more progress on this build? I'm at the information gathering stage of an AG build (10gal) so I am very interested in any/ all system details you are willing to share.

 

[mspeicher]

Gave the buyers the boot... for a myriad of reasons.

This will be built and funded by me, for me... for the fun of building. I will sell it later probably.

As the buyers who got the boot (for a myriad of reasons), How did the system turn out Rob?

 

[Chosenwon]

Pics?

 

[ftlstrings]

meow?

 

[jdjtexas]

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