schwartzr33
Well-Known Member
I hope people find this documentation useful. First, I'd like to thank P-J for his designs, Kal for the vast amount of information, shuckit and DaSwede for their parts list, and jeffmeh for his explanations. This is a 240V/30A system, with a 20 gallon pot. We've done 4 batches on it and learn something new each time. I'll try to touch on things that have gone well and the things that still need work.
We had central air installed this year and I had an extra 240V/30A GFI outlet dropped in the basement for the electrical. While the electrician was there I also had him place a 120/15 GFI on the wall (under the light) and another one up in rafters for the ventilation.
The house is from 1927 and the brew pot is sitting on a concrete block, that I assume is a platform for an ancient washing machine.
The panel is pretty straightforward, Electric Brewing forum fare. With no kids in the house, the only modification I made to P-J's eBIAB drawing was to use a Auberins push button switch, instead of a key switch.
The inside of the pot is a work in progress. Perhaps the fourth time is the charm? On the first run, the bag got sucked into the pickup tube. 2nd try was a large tea ball, which worked well, until it got massively gunked up and stopped flowing. Third try was a stainless cooling rack--it's sharp edges shredded the bag (that was popular with it's creator, SWMBO) Try number four is pictured: pickup tube running through a small stainless strainer. This worked very well on the first attempt and will be repeated this weekend.
The main problem we are still having is temperature stratification. The bag really seems to block the wort circulation. When heating the mash, the temperature races up 6-8 degrees higher than our target, but some heavy stirring and sloshing of the bag brings things back down to where we want it to be. That is with full-throttle recirculation. The RTD is in the welded fitting (thank you Spike Brewing). I've done some more reading and have moved the RTD to the valve, we'll see if that helps to stabilize the temperature readings.
More to follow...
We had central air installed this year and I had an extra 240V/30A GFI outlet dropped in the basement for the electrical. While the electrician was there I also had him place a 120/15 GFI on the wall (under the light) and another one up in rafters for the ventilation.
The house is from 1927 and the brew pot is sitting on a concrete block, that I assume is a platform for an ancient washing machine.
The panel is pretty straightforward, Electric Brewing forum fare. With no kids in the house, the only modification I made to P-J's eBIAB drawing was to use a Auberins push button switch, instead of a key switch.
The inside of the pot is a work in progress. Perhaps the fourth time is the charm? On the first run, the bag got sucked into the pickup tube. 2nd try was a large tea ball, which worked well, until it got massively gunked up and stopped flowing. Third try was a stainless cooling rack--it's sharp edges shredded the bag (that was popular with it's creator, SWMBO) Try number four is pictured: pickup tube running through a small stainless strainer. This worked very well on the first attempt and will be repeated this weekend.
The main problem we are still having is temperature stratification. The bag really seems to block the wort circulation. When heating the mash, the temperature races up 6-8 degrees higher than our target, but some heavy stirring and sloshing of the bag brings things back down to where we want it to be. That is with full-throttle recirculation. The RTD is in the welded fitting (thank you Spike Brewing). I've done some more reading and have moved the RTD to the valve, we'll see if that helps to stabilize the temperature readings.
More to follow...

