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West Virginia $5000 a good deal for this RIMS system?

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Breedlove

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Been working on a price for this guys 1/2 bbl system. He just came back with a price for $5000. He said he has $7500 into it and 8 months labor. Comes with everything, the RIMS system, Fermenator system, 2-tap Kegerator, Co2 tanks, controllers, plate chillers, hopback and all accessories. Looking to the next level past a burner, pot and glass carboy.

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Firstly, something is only worth what someone will pay for it. Here is what I will tell you, I could build it cheaper. WAY CHEAPER.

It looks like this guy is charging you full retail on each individual component as well as full retail per hour for his labor. You are receiving no deal on this setup in any regard. I do not mean to offend but you did ask for an opinion.
 
firstly, something is only worth what someone will pay for it. Here is what i will tell you, i could build it cheaper. Way cheaper.

It looks like this guy is charging you full retail on each individual component as well as full retail per hour for his labor. You are receiving no deal on this setup in any regard. I do not mean to offend but you did ask for an opinion.

+1
 
Firstly, something is only worth what someone will pay for it. Here is what I will tell you, I could build it cheaper. WAY CHEAPER.

It looks like this guy is charging you full retail on each individual component as well as full retail per hour for his labor. You are receiving no deal on this setup in any regard. I do not mean to offend but you did ask for an opinion.

Pretty much spot on.
 
As a guy who isn't the most handy - I don't think it's an unfair price. Obviously, beauty is in the eye of the beholder...
 
It is nice and shiny. If you have the $5K to spend on it then I say go for it. With all the other stuff it might be a good price.

But here is the most important question..."Where are the cup holders for my beer"?
 
If you want to buy something i'd say the price isn't really that out of line (obviously expect to pay more than you could do this yourself).

However, I see a few questionable designs, notably the pump orientations and the power strip power distribution.

It's also ugly. How many different vendor's parts are in there?

If you're going to do it, i'd insist on trying it first.
 
From the pictures it is likely he might be into the system $7,500, and $5,000 is probably fair if you planned to use all of the components.

A "good deal" is going to depend on what you want, and what you are upgrading from. If you were to plan out your dream system, and it looked very much like this, then I'd say it's a great deal. If the idea of designing your own system and finding/assembling the parts intimidates you, then that would make this a good deal too.

If there are things that you'd change, or want to upgrade later, then the deal gets worse. Especially if you're going to want to make a significant change (like going all electric or HERMS).

[Opinion Time]
That Stout boil kettle on a Blichmann burner is a thing of beauty!

The fact that the rest of the hot-side system is piecemeal is a big turn-off to me. For my $5,000 I'd want matching kettles and actual PID control at each heat source (gas valves or electric). How is he adjusting the burners?

Plumbing is a bit odd, but I'm sure he had reasoning for all of it. I think it looks inefficient, and the bottom pump mounts don't match "best practices"

The conical is pretty, but for me I'd rather spend that money on a fermentation fridge and just stick with carboys.

The kegerator is nice, but it can be built from a used fridge and parts pretty easily.
 
That is a lot (incl that industrial-sized CO2 tank!) to end up with 2 kegs / 2 taps!


What about a shiny AIO unit (like a Grainfather) if we're talking big money + don't want to build?
 
Be patient and wait two months and offer $4000.00 or $3500.00. He will still have it because the resale of used brewing equipment is not good. I just sold a system that was all SS. single tier and was only able to get less than half of my investment back and had little interest in it. It seems that most people are going with the new hybrid biab systems. Ex. Grainfather, Boss, Breweasy, etc.
 
I just built an entire BCS brew system for about 1k, hell no would I drop that kind of money on that. Especially for some copout johnson controller rims.
 
Is there even anything in that large "controller" box? Or is that just a place to velcro the Johnson + a power strip?

that appears to be the "control panel" for this awesome thing. I mean its fine, I built a herms system for 50$ but I didn't call it a kal clone either.
 
Be patient and wait two months and offer $4000.00 or $3500.00. He will still have it because the resale of used brewing equipment is not good. I just sold a system that was all SS. single tier and was only able to get less than half of my investment back and had little interest in it. It seems that most people are going with the new hybrid biab systems. Ex. Grainfather, Boss, Breweasy, etc.

I agree with this. Heck, I sold my three vessel system for half of what I had into it, bought a BIAB system from CO Brewing, and still had money left over.

My advice to OP? Dont overpay. I wouldnt offer more than $3500 on it. I sat on my system for about a month trying to sell it, and I got what I was expecting out of it. I started it high though, just in case someone would offer me full value on it.
 
I just built an entire BCS brew system for about 1k, hell no would I drop that kind of money on that. Especially for some copout johnson controller rims.

1k bucks, that is more my price range you mind post a pic of your brew house? :off:
 
Like most hobbies you never recoup your costs let alone get paid for your time. I had about 2K in materials and countless hours ( I had 24 hrs in keggle polishing alone ) in my Brutus 10 clone. When I sold it all I could get was $800 for it and that took forever to find a buyer.

So its only worth $5000 if someone wants it.
 
I really appreciate all the input gang, just a fantastic response. It was his first offer, not mine and I am very green when it comes to this stuff. It's not that I don't have the aptitude to build out my own system, which I would love to do, it's my time.

I'm a self-employed cat, working 6 x 12 hrs days at times with only Sunday off. However, I do have cash for things I enjoy. Started brewing about 3 years ago and I really dig it, but I "may" only get to brew 2-3 times a month. So I need something ready to rock, call over my buds to the garage and get going.

After reading some of the comments, maybe I should go with a more straight forward electric system to ease on my time crunch. Lastly, I never really thought out the odd plumbing construction, limited controllers after researching other systems. It is a bit of a frankenstein's monster

You guys saved me some cash & I thank you.

OFF TOPIC - what electric systems would you suggest under $3500 - $4000?
 
Just watched the video on the Colorado brewing systems, what a thing of beauty and only $4600. Plus - my garage already has 220! :)
 
Personally, I really like my electric HERMS system. You can buy the control panel from Electric Brewery http://www.theelectricbrewery.com/control-panel and I think Spike Brewing could custom weld the entire 3 vessel system for you. You would just need to assemble it and make a few hoses which would you buy the equipment from brewhardware.com. You probably would come in around $6000 or so.

Chris
 
If you were set on 3-vessel, EBS is selling a full kit, but you wouldn't get the cold-side equipment:

http://www.ebrewsupply.com/ruby-street-fusion-15-brewing-system-electric/

BrewBoss makes a nice compact budget eBIAB setup:
http://www.brew-boss.com/Deluxe-20-Gallon-COFI-Brew-Boss-System-p/bb240120-dlx20-cofi.htm

I think you might like the ease of operation in the eBIAB arena, I know I do.


With Inkbird making their cheap controllers, building your own kegerator and fermentation chamber is pretty easy.
 
Just gonna throw it out there that getting that 100# CO2 tank filled will be a pain in the ass...even if you only have to do it every couple years ;p Moving tanks that size is not fun
 
Agree that it looks like a hodgepodge of equipment that was build/bought over time and if you had $5K in cash you could put together a better system than that.

To those that complain about getting ~50% of what they bought it for - that's the case for most equipment in most hobbies. Especially as you scale up into equipment sized that limits your audience. Factor in that we see a lot of people that post they don't want to part out and you're limiting yourself to finding that one person that wants to jump from one system to another in its entirety and drop several thousand dollars. You want the most money you can get for it? Part it out. You want an easy, all-in-one, sale? Get ready to bend over.
 
Personally, I really like my electric HERMS system. You can buy the control panel from Electric Brewery http://www.theelectricbrewery.com/control-panel and I think Spike Brewing could custom weld the entire 3 vessel system for you. You would just need to assemble it and make a few hoses which would you buy the equipment from brewhardware.com. You probably would come in around $6000 or so.

Chris

About $4500 with everything minus the electrician ;)
 
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