3-in-1 "Boil Kettle, Jacketed Chiller, Conical Fermenter" by Brewha

[mrsweet2u]

I have a large BIAC. I have a 13 foot ceiling and I use an 1100 pound hoist

Hello. . I've been filling this thread with great interest and am considering the large BIAC (190l). Does anyone have one here?

If so, I am after the height required in our unit for this version, given the need for a pully system and lifting the mash tun out?

Thanks
Martin

 

[jamiller]

Jimmy question for you. Did you need to add a pressure relief valve on the glycol chiller feed to reduce the pressure before going into the jacket or is the pressure low enough from the glycol pump that you didn't need to worry about buckling the jacket wall? I have a 1/3 HP 7 gallon glycol unit that pumps at 250 gal/hr which looks similar to yours maybe a little smaller and I was worried about that. I am pulling the trigger on the medium BIAC next week and wanted to cross this issue off my list. Let me know if you can your response would be appreciated.

Jason

 

[Jimmy82]

Jimmy question for you. Did you need to add a pressure relief valve on the glycol chiller feed to reduce the pressure before going into the jacket or is the pressure low enough from the glycol pump that you didn't need to worry about buckling the jacket wall? I have a 1/3 HP 7 gallon glycol unit that pumps at 250 gal/hr which looks similar to yours maybe a little smaller and I was worried about that. I am pulling the trigger on the medium BIAC next week and wanted to cross this issue off my list. Let me know if you can your response would be appreciated.

Jason

I don't have a PRV installed on mine, but I don't have anything that closes the loop to build up pressure in the jacket. I'm doubtful that the pressure from the glycol chiller would be greater than city water pressures, which are ok to run through the jacket (if not restricted on the out side of the jacket).

 

[jamiller]

Thank you. That makes sense completely. Thanks Jimmy

 

[limulus]

I agree that you don't need the valve on a single system. If you are running multiple fermenters, you would need a pressure reducer and pressure guage along with valves at each fermenter:

 

[jamiller]

You guys rock man. Thanks for the info. I was watching a YouTube video and the dude had a valve but he had two tanks so that makes total sense. I can't wait to join the BIAC family. Pulling the trigger either tomorrow or Monday! Peace.

 

[jamiller]

Just pulled the trigger. I couldn't wait. It's just money. Lol. Maybe the 3 Russian imperials had something to do with it!!!

 

[limulus]

Congratulations. You'll be impressed by the crates these things come in almost as much as the actual product. I guess yours will come with the new digital power box. I'm interested to hear how you like it.

 

[jamiller]

Thanks man. I will take some pics when it arrives. Nathan said end of February so time to sell some of my old gear.

 

[limulus]

I finally got a chance to run the system today. Actually flush and clean. But, it works beautifully. I heated my water up to 110F and then took it up to 125F and finally 150F with PBW. Next, I'm going to clean all the internal parts with Bar Keepers Friend to passivate it. Then, all I'll need to do is remove all the valves and soak them in PBW and Starsan...probably right before I actually brew on it. Has anyone switched over to butterfly valves? I saw some discussion, but was not sure what everyone did. These ball valves are nice, but I think butterfly valves will be simpler...at least on the outlets. I'll stick to ball valves for flow control.

These at Glacier are priced well:
http://www.glaciertanks.com/Products-ButterFly_Valves-2.html

 

[cuda6pak]

I had a slight hop plug on my last brew when transferring. But when I hooked it up to CO2 and put a few psi of pressure on it it came right out. So no need for butterfly valves IMO. Next brew should have a lot more hops in it so we'll see how that one does.

 

[limulus]

For those running a heated glycol or water recirc on their 3-in-1, what temp are you setting your glycol/water bath to? I'm thinking something like 80F but that may be too warm. The way I'm setting up my circulation for warm water will allow the water to drain out of the jacket back into the reservoir once the ETC shuts off the recirc pump. That will prevent 80F water from sitting in the jacket to over warm the beer closest to the jacket.

My original plan was to use my RIMS tube and just recirc w/o a reservoir. But I'm now thinking a reservoir with a heat source would be better. I have a bucket heater that I can use in a cooler with an STC-1000 to maintain the temp. Then use the sump pump from my keg cleaner plugged into the ETC for recirc.

 

[limulus]

I know most are sticking with the ball valves, but one of my main reasons to go with the BIAC was to make everything easy. The multi-piece ball valves are not so easy to clean or get back together. The nice thing about a butterfly valve is it can be cleaned in place or simply removed and soaked without any disassembling and reassembling. I'll still have to keep one ball valve for contolling pump flow unless I can install a speed control and I'm not sure Chuggers like that. I bought these at Glacier.

 

[limulus]

I also wired up a new STC-1000 controller for my heated water bath:

 

[jeffreybandel]

I fired up my medium BIAC last Thursday for the first time. It was my most pleasurable brewing experience. I cannot express how well designed and built it is.

Right now I have 15.5 gallon of Pils fermenting at 48 degrees with the jacket hooked up to city water. I have it in a nice cool place so it rarely cycles on.

I don't need heat right now but I'm wondering if anyone is using the heating element during fermentation? I have mine set up at 5% at 42 degrees.

 

[Jimmy82]

I know most are sticking with the ball valves, but one of my main reasons to go with the BIAC was to make everything easy. The multi-piece ball valves are not so easy to clean or get back together. The nice thing about a butterfly valve is it can be cleaned in place or simply removed and soaked without any disassembling and reassembling. I'll still have to keep one ball valve for contolling pump flow unless I can install a speed control and I'm not sure Chuggers like that. I bought these at Glacier.

I also made the switch to butterfly valves and don't regret it one bit. The ball valves are nice for the jacket in port and the colander in (for flow control), but they don't need to be sanitary, so disassembling them isn't critical.

 

[Totrout]

I thought that I would post my experience with the Brewha BIAC. It arrived in Early January. Assembly was straight forward. As mentioned above, brewing with it has saved time and headaches. Step mashes are easy. Cleanup is simple. I am still working on repeatability of recipes/efficiencies but the beersmith data on the brewha website has been very helpful. I am using tap water for chilling at this time but hope to develop a closed system in the future and although Alberta groundwater is plenty cold I would be more comfortable with a closed system in case of a leak.
Nathan has been excellent to deal with and has responded promptly to emails and calls. I have no hesitation recommending purchasing equipment from him.

 

[jamiller]

So received my medium biac fired it up on Saturday. We will see. Definitely a learning curve. I got a stuck sparge and my auber temp controller doesn't seem calibrated accurately. I even repositioned the probe with more silicone transfer paste. Nathan said to adjust the calibration. Which I did. I just hope my mash wasn't too off. It is an awesome piece of equipment. I guess time will tell.

 

[Cmason]

I have been following this discussion since December, and after lots of looking have decided on a Medium BIAC. I am still working out the fermentation temp control. Will the reef chiller support cold crashing, or do I have to plan for a small glycol unit?
For those with a glycol unit, are you chilling a water resivor or running direct to the jacket?
I saw one comment on using the element to provide heat at 1% power setting, any updated feed back on how that is going?
Any one using a BrewPi or similar programable unit to control the fermentation temp profile?
I will be brewing in Williamsburg VA in the garage, so I will be dealing with temp fluctuations through the seasons and probably during the day in the summer.

I hope to order the BIAC by the end of May.

Thanks for everyone's time in responding.

 

[limulus]

That is a question for cuda6pak regarding the aquarium chiller. For heating, I was originally going to use my RIMS tube and the little stand I built for it. But, I decided that was probably going to result in air pockets getting into the RIMS tube and ultimately a burned out element. So, I decided to use a cooler, a bucket heater like this http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000BDB4UG/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20 a temp controller, a sump pump and a garden hose that screws right on to the outlet of my sump pump. The other end of the hose is cut off and a sanitary fitting with a hose barb is inserted and clamped onto the end of the hose. I like to use white potable hose for RVs available at RV stores and WalMart in the automotive/RV section. The nice thing about the sump pump is it is from my diy keg cleaner. So as Alton Brown likes to say, it is not a uni-tasker. There are several examples of that right here on HBT. Don't use the cooling valve assembly that comes with the BIAC for heating.

The temp controller will keep the water in the cooler at a specified temp by activating the bucket heater. The ETC that came with the BIAC (Ranco in my case) will monitor the temp in the 3-in-1. That will turn on the sump pump in the cooler when the temp in the 3-in-1 falls. The water inside the 3-in-1 jacket will just drain right back into the cooler when the ETC shuts off the pump. The RIMS tube method was definitely more compact, but I just don't think it would work w/o using a reservoir.

For cooling, I will be using a 1/3 HP glycol unit with a 2gal reservoir. But, I have not used that yet.

QUOTE=Cmason;6732545]I have been following this discussion since December, and after lots of looking have decided on a Medium BIAC. I am still working out the fermentation temp control. Will the reef chiller support cold crashing, or do I have to plan for a small glycol unit?
For those with a glycol unit, are you chilling a water resivor or running direct to the jacket?
I saw one comment on using the element to provide heat at 1% power setting, any updated feed back on how that is going?
Any one using a BrewPi or similar programable unit to control the fermentation temp profile?
I will be brewing in Williamsburg VA in the garage, so I will be dealing with temp fluctuations through the seasons and probably during the day in the summer.

I hope to order the BIAC by the end of May.

Thanks for everyone's time in responding.[/QUOTE]

 

[limulus]

Like most of you, I bought this for the compact footprint, the easy cleaning, the jacketed fermenter and the fact that it is electric. I also bought it because I was tired of building everything myself which always required an extra part that I had to order or something as simple as a new drill bit to go through stainless. This thing is plug-n-play, but Nathan also designed it in such a way that you can add things. So, as I already posted, I added butterfly valves and I now have a sparge arm from Glacier. It doesn't need this, but I liked the fact that I could add it.

 

[jamiller]

I have been using the heating element at 5% as Nathan suggested at it is holdin my temp at 1 degree differential. It makes for an easy situation too. Glycol chiller to keep cold and element to warm. Just awesome and so easy. I also bought two butterfly's for the cold side. One thing I have had a problem is a bit of a stuck valve right at the beginning of mashing not allowing the chugged pump to fill up and run. I have had to take a fiberglass rod and slide down the side to unclog the valve and then the pump fires recirculates and within 30 seconds the wart is clear. Any suggestions to keep from clogging? Even on my second batch I opened my mill to .043 just to test and it still clogged and I got **** efficiency. Thoughts?

 

[cuda6pak]

On my third batch I had a bit of a clogged pump at the beginning of recirculation but it cleared itself up, have not had to manually unclog it myself.

I also opened up my mill gap from .030 to .038 to 0.50 on subsequent brews in an effort to increase mash efficiency by increasing recirculation but have been stuck at roughly 65% on all the batches. Still trying to work this out, it is obviously not a system issue as everyone else seems to hit 75-85% with ease. FWIW I also brew with RO water built up via Bru'n Water per style and add my salts accordingly as well as check my mash pH. The only thing I have noticed is that the Beersmith BIAC mash profile does not account for BIAB type grain absorption so I was always ending up with an extra gallon after my mash. Although, I'm not expecting this to change my mash efficiency at all. For my brew this Sunday I will be mashing for 90 min vs 60 min and see if there is any difference. Otherwise, I am at a loss on what my problem is.

 

[cuda6pak]

As far as my aquarium chiller set up, it has worked great. Although, the real test will be when the garage is 85* vs 50* right now. It takes quite a bit of time to chill the wort from 90 down to 65 also in closed loop (a few hours). If I had to do it again I would go with the TK-1000 vs the 500. I do love that it is full temp control all in one, heating and cooling. One thing someone mentioned previously is that the TK lineup will only adjust down to 41*, however, in the settings you can offset a differential temp and bring it down even lower. So, cold crashing has worked pretty well. It's not nearly as powerful as a glycol unit, but it does the job very well.

 

[jamiller]

Cudapak. I will try opening mill a little and see if that helps. I haven't had good efficency yet either. I have only brewed 2 batches so far but barely hit 70. I would get 85 with my Home Depot cooler so I am thinking it is a grain/ water volume issue. I have to dial in my boil of rates. How much volume do you think is considered dead space from the trub dump and cone? 1 gallon?

 

[JB_Brewing2]

Great thread!

A medium BIAC is set to ship today or tomorrow to me and I'm really looking forward to brewing with it.

I've seen a couple comments about clogs and changing mill gaps which leads me to ask if those using the BIAC are conditioning their grain?

 

[limulus]

My previous diy system pictured below was similar in function and efficiency (65-75%). However, if I raised the mash tun to drain and then did a simple sparge, I got >80%. Most of the time, I just calculated my grain bill based on 65-70% and got great results and it only cost a little more. But with something like the medium or large BIAC the grain bill costs go up. I kept one of my 10-gal Coleman upright beverage coolers (square version of an Igloo or Home Depot cooler) and it makes a great HLT while still having a small footprint. I bought a sparge arm from Glacier Tanks and will probably give sparging a try...unless someone else comes up with a way to get efficiency up a bit. I'd be happy with 75%. FWIW, I have seen similar discussions on the threads about the Braumeister and I think the Blichmann. One thing that worked for me in the old system was using a large grain bag. I found that I NEVER got a stuck sparge once I used a grain bag. I left it open and clipped it to the top of the inner MT so I could still stir. The problem with that is it is just another thing to clean and it is not easy to get all the grain out of that bag. I wonder if a fine stainless steel screen placed over the bottom of the mash colander would keep grain from plugging the holes.

This photo shows my electric winch raising the MT allowing it to slowly drain. I also stirred it about every 20min. I'll be using the winch from now on to raise my mash colander in the medium BIAC.

 

[cuda6pak]

Cudapak. I will try opening mill a little and see if that helps. I haven't had good efficency yet either. I have only brewed 2 batches so far but barely hit 70. I would get 85 with my Home Depot cooler so I am thinking it is a grain/ water volume issue. I have to dial in my boil of rates. How much volume do you think is considered dead space from the trub dump and cone? 1 gallon?

On the last batch I opened it up to 0.050 and had great recirculation flow during the mash, but still ended up at 65%. I, too, will be completely fine with a repeatable 75%.

The next batch I am planning on a 75-90min mash followed by a 10 min mashout to 168. I'll see if that helps out. I will also take a few samples with my refractometer throughout to see how it is going.

The bottling/fermentation loss is 0.48gal accourding to the BIAC beersmith equipment profile.

 

[cuda6pak]

limulus - are you planning to sparge on top of an already fully recirculated mash? Or mash without recirculation?

 

[limulus]

Recirculate and sparge is what I've done with my old system. The recirculation kept the temperature in the grain bed more uniform. But if I can dial this in w/o sparging, I will. If I can get 70-75% I'll be happy.

limulus - are you planning to sparge on top of an already fully recirculated mash? Or mash without recirculation?