Clawhammer V2 BIAB

[burtonboarder230]

In the quest to shorten my brew day and make my life easier in regards to multi tasking with the kid, a new house, and all the joys of being an adult, I decided to dump my 3 tier gravity setup for a eBIAB solution. This brought me to the guys over at Clawhammer Supply. I was skeptical brewing on a 120v 1650w system but for the preorder price, I said f it and pulled the trigger.

- Packaging and Assembly
Every item was packaged in its own box and well protected. No issues or missing parts.

Assembly took a little while but was straight forward. The one piece i had to buy prior to brew day was a female - female hose adapter for the chiller. No biggie, just as a fyi for anyone thinking about this setup.

The one "mod" i did was double wrap the kettle in a insulated material. This seemed to help with heat loss.

- Brew Day

Prior to today's first brew day, did a leak test with water and gave it a good cleaning to ensure any oils etc were gone.

Woke up this morning and threw 8.3 gallons into the kettle and set the controller to 155* and went about my morning. fast forward about an hour and the alarm sounded letting me know it was time to mash in.

Slowly poured my 13 lbs of grain etc and turned the pump on. Temp held +- .2* for the hour. Pulled the basket and as i went to put the metal hooks in to drain, dropped one in the wort :x. No fault of the system, just need to take a second and make sure everything is all set before letting go. Let it drain for 10 minutes and set the controller to 260*.

About an hour later i got the alert that we just passed 200* and the wort was at a gentle boil with the lid slightly on. Over the course of the next 75 minutes heat peaked at 203*. Long term i will probably be adding an additional element to shorten ramp up times as well as hopefully get a little more of a rolling boil out of the system.

Last part was using the counter flow chiller and pump to cool the wort to 70*. Took maybe 10-12 minutes +- as i was not paying attention to time, just to temp.

Estimated OG : 1060
Actual OG : 1.051
Measured Efficiency: 53.8%

- Thoughts, Conclusion, Other Rants

Crush: I had the LHB shop mill my grains and spaced on asking if he would double mill them for me. I have a mill on order, just didn't have it in time for this batch. Going to try using a finer crush and see if Efficiency goes up next batch along with increasing mash temp to 165* prior to pulling the basket.

Overall System: Coming from a propane, gravity fed system. This system is amazing. Almost zero baby sitting. I was able to mow my lawn, get my kid fed, run out for a bit, and just not be stuck in the garage all day babysitting a burner. The pump was a huge bonus compared to my prior setup. I don't think i will ever brew without one again.

Clawhammer Support: After placing my preorder, i reached out via Facebook messenger to see about getting a beersmith profile. Within an hour I was given an email and within a couple hours of emailing their support, I had my beersmith profile. The same level of service came about when i inquired as to the date shipments were going out. These guys have provided an A+ experience and a great product.

Going forward: Any new system is going to have its learning curves which is one reason i enjoy brewing so much. Now that my fermentation process is on point, the game plan is to continue working toward a overall better efficiency as well as streamline my process and setup to make my day even easier.

 

[brew703]

As a fellow BIAB brewer using propane, I've been contemplating moving to electric and have checked out a few systems, including Clawhammer. Their system appears to be very nice. Only drawback for me is the 1650 watt element and 120v. I would want a 5500 watt. I've heard they are coming out with a 240v just not sure when or how much of a price difference it will be.

Anyway, nice writeup.

 

[burtonboarder230]

I've heard the same thing in regards to the 240. If that's the case I would definitely consider upgrading down the road. The single 1650 gets you there but just barely. Shopping around for a 2000w element to install along side this one.

 

[Tarpon87]

Always been impressed with their system, only thing I don't think I like is having to hold the basket up with one hand and installing the hooks with the other, I wish there was a better way, but I don't think its that big of a deal. When the time comes for an indoor electric system, they will be at the top of my list.

 

[Andrew Hodgson]

I wandered over here from this thread:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/forum/threads/clawhammer-supply-biab-review.644250/

I got my v2 last week and ran a water test over the weekend. Everything worked well except one issue, a pinhole in the kettle TC port. Within an hour of reaching out to CH I had a response email and they are already shipping me a new kettle with a return label for the first kettle.

Your comment on insulation seems to be par for the course for the 120v systems. I am going to try a brew this weekend once I have the new kettle and will see if I want to insulate, I imagine I will. I am super excited to run this puppy for a lot of the reasons you mention (being able to walk away from the brew-day if needed for some periods of time, ease of use once setup etc).

Cheers.

 

[burtonboarder230]

I had an extra PID and tri clamps so for shits i ordered a 2000w element that i am going to install next week to see how things go. ill be using it to ramp up for mash temps as well as get a bit more of a actual boil going. Found that any time i moved the lid or had to add hops, the temp dropped below boiling. I wasn't going to add the additional element but since i have everything minus a 20$ element, i figure why not.

Will post up in a week or so when i get everything installed and get a test brew on the system.

 

[brew703]

I had an extra PID and tri clamps so for poopys i ordered a 2000w element that i am going to install next week to see how things go. ill be using it to ramp up for mash temps as well as get a bit more of a actual boil going. Found that any time i moved the lid or had to add hops, the temp dropped below boiling. I wasn't going to add the additional element but since i have everything minus a 20$ element, i figure why not.

Will post up in a week or so when i get everything installed and get a test brew on the system.

I figured the 1650 watt element really isn't strong enough for 5+ gal batches. Hopefully they come out with a 240v system. I would eventually like to brew inside so going electric is on the horizon.

 

[Andrew Hodgson]

So I have my new kettle and shipped back the one with the leak.

This weekend I will finally get to brew on the Clawhammer on Sunday, I will post how it goes. I am going to start off easy with a recipe I adapted from the Northern Brewer Kama Citra kit, basically just a simple Citra IPA. Might dry hop with a bit of Galaxy for kicks. It will be my first non-extract brew. I am excited.

 

[sonic7173]

So I have my new kettle and shipped back the one with the leak.

This weekend I will finally get to brew on the Clawhammer on Sunday, I will post how it goes. I am going to start off easy with a recipe I adapted from the Northern Brewer Kama Citra kit, basically just a simple Citra IPA. Might dry hop with a bit of Galaxy for kicks. It will be my first non-extract brew. I am excited.

Rockin!!
Good luck, keep the updates coming. I received mine last week and have it all set up. Still need to get some hoses figured out for the chiller and probably a shorter table to work from. I'm still brewing outside while I get the inside area ready to roll so no hurry for me. Anxious to try it but probably won't until the weather starts turning.

 

[burtonboarder230]

So quick update: I got my 2200w element installed over the weekend and did a quick water test last night. Works great and the combination of the two elements gets a really nice boil. Need to build a little manual controller for the 2200w element as i don't need all that power for the entire brew day. Have a NE IPA going into the keg later this week and a Tripel with a larger grain bill that should make for a good time queued up for some weekend in sept.

The temp controller has made my life so much easier!!! Now i just need a brew cart so i dont have to carry anything

Andrew, the best thing i did before i brewed my first batch was double wrap the kettle with the insulated bubble wrap looking stuff. Wasn't the prettiest thing in the world but it was functional!

 

[Andrew Hodgson]

Andrew, the best thing i did before i brewed my first batch was double wrap the kettle with the insulated bubble wrap looking stuff. Wasn't the prettiest thing in the world but it was functional!

I am going ghetto sleeping bag wrap for this weekend but yeah I think I will get some of the proper insulation wrap for the next brew and I want to find some type of ceramic base for the kettle to sit on as well so the stainless table doesn't just suck heat out of it.

 

[Andrew Hodgson]

So I finally got around to using my Clawhammer v2 setup. Man it was a learning experience.

The equipment itself I found very easy to use and pretty self-explanatory. I was biting off a lot with this brew-day (first milling grain myself, first non-extract batch, first time using a plate chiller, assistant fell asleep etc. etc.) but most of the issues I faced were due to my own time management, not the system. And I will say for the logistical things one must take into account for using a plate chiller, as someone who only used ice-bath chilling before I found that having my wort down to pitching temp in about 25 minutes to be awesome and with re-circulation it was a breeze. Once I get a T with a hose connect added to the under-sink cold line it will be even easier (no running the outside hose inside etc.).

The only issue I encountered based on the equipment is all the aforementioned lack of power when heating. I used a sleeping bag to insulate as soon as I realized I would grow old waiting for it to get to boiling, next brew I will be properly insulating it from the jump to cut down on the brew-day time. In the future I will be brewing in the morning. I figure if I mill the grain and setup most of the gear the night before so I can wake up and turn on the element for mashing immediately I could have the whole brewday wrapped up in 4-5 hours.

One of the things I am also learning are all these efficiency calculations but as far as I can tell using Brewer's Friend I got 68% brewhouse efficiency which I know is low but I deem to be acceptable as a first attempt on this equipment.

One pain point was the handle for the grain basket came loose and almost destroyed my entire brew day and covered me in hot wort. Luckily I was able to semi-gently set the basket back in, re-attach one side of the handle and pull it out paying more attention to the fact that the handle can come off. Live and learn and not in the ER, thankfully.

1.040 IPA in the can.

 

[jaymosbeershack]

I use a Grainfather and had the power issue as well with only 1600 watts. I added a 1650 watt hot rod from brewing hardware and now get a raging boil with the internal element at 30%power. Its a but pricey at $140, but well worth it for me. Shaved about 45 minutes off my brew day just from ramp up times

 

[Dhm8484]

I too am saving up for the clawhammer system, big thing for me is moving indoors and the east of temp control

 

[Andrew Hodgson]

I too am saving up for the clawhammer system, big thing for me is moving indoors and the east of temp control

After my first brew with the system I'd say like most reviewers considering insulation of the kettle will go miles for temp control/speed of heating. For me it worked great, got to brew inside in a small kitchen only outside necessity was dragging in the garden hose for the plate chiller. I am going to have a plumber T the under-sink cold water line so in winter I can be toasty and sudsy with no issues.

I will be using the setup again for a kettle sour so I will get to see how the insulation works as I will be souring for a few days then boiling so I will get to test the insulation on a cold start to mash temp on mash day and from cold start to boil temp on boil day. We will see how much heating time has been cut out with a bit of insulation. I did just bite the bullet and get the insulation kit from Clawhammer instead of dinking around with other insulation material online.

 

[Dhm8484]

Cool let us know how it goes and works

 

[Andrew Hodgson]

The insulation really helped.

During the time I was heating the water for mashing from about 80F to 154F I was able to get 2 degrees per minute which allowed me to be up to mash temp in a little over a half an hour. I will test it again in a few days once I take the soured wort and heat it from around 80-85F to boiling. Still will take up to about an hour to get the boil going but if it takes 30 minutes to get to mash during a normal brew with mash and boil in the same day that should only take another 30 minutes to get from mash temp to boil so I will take that.

 

[Mazz]

Always been impressed with their system, only thing I don't think I like is having to hold the basket up with one hand and installing the hooks with the other, I wish there was a better way, but I don't think its that big of a deal. When the time comes for an indoor electric system, they will be at the top of my list.

There is a place called Arbor Fab that makes mesh baskets for cheap. You can order one with the foot height and it comes with two clips with a stainless brace that slides through the hook to hold the basket up. See thumbnail.

 

[enormous13]

There is a place called Arbor Fab that makes mesh baskets for cheap. You can order one with the foot height and it comes with two clips with a stainless brace that slides through the hook to hold the basket up. See thumbnail.

I wouldn't say they're cheap, for a basket you're looking at $150+ (plus shipping). With that brace, you're still holding the basket up with one hand and placing the brace with the other. Most folks find the individual hooks easier to manage. Utah Biodiesel used to make a basket with built-in, fold out hooks. When you raise the basket high enough to a certain point, the hooks would fall outwards onto the lid of your kettle, thus holding up the basket. It was a novel concept, but like I said, they said they won't offer that option anymore since it was too labor intensive for them to customize. You can find it on this page (https://www.utahbiodieselsupply.com/customwork.php), and just ctrl+f the term "swinging side hooks". There's some interesting stuff they can do with these baskets.

 

[Andrew Hodgson]

Last night I did my second run with this system. Again worked pretty well but I still had to insulate with both insulation and a sleeping bag, heating to a boil stalled out around 170F and I had to sleeping bag it to get it to jump-start again. 5 gallons of sour into the fermenter.

 

[Dhm8484]

Hmm that's odd how long did you try to heat before you realized it stalled

 

[Andrew Hodgson]

Hmm that's odd how long did you try to heat before you realized it stalled

Probably about 20 minutes. I had the setting on 100% power and noticed it stalling then threw on the sleeping bag and switched to temp mode and set it to 205 and it started heating up again pretty fast. Next brew I will have to keep an eye on it and see if it is possible due to the 100% power mode acting funky or something. More testing needed.

 

[Dhm8484]

Okay yea let us know when you brewing again

 

[Andrew Hodgson]

Okay yea let us know when you brewing again

Sure I will report back. Take it with a grain of salt as this brew-day was more "loose" than usual for me. Friends came over, I was slamming beers throughout etc. etc. But I will be testing the 100% power output mode next time to see if the stall was related to insulation or the boxes mode or both.

I likely won't be brewing until early October as I just put two beers out in two weeks but I will report back. Really have no complaints about the system other than heating time. I don't think I would be able to run power for a heat stick from another outlet to use two elements but with my kitchen setup I could possibly have the kettle on my crap electric burner and have the element and stove going to heat for boil temps, maybe that would improve times without burning the wort. We shall see.

 

[Dhm8484]

Yea that would be something to try, I'd that kettle a triclad bottom or bot?

 

[Andrew Hodgson]

Yea that would be something to try, I'd that kettle a triclad bottom or bot?

Good question, it isn't listed on their site which makes me assume it is not.

 

[Dhm8484]

True I got my kettle from Amazon, company named Coldbreak Brewing its 10 gallons, triclad was only 89 bucks, and its heavy on the bottom and thick so you would def. Tell if it was

 

[squirrelcop]

I’m thinking about jumping on this system to make my brew days much more simplistic. The majority of “complaints” only seem to revolve around the heating element being small and taking awhile to get to temp.... does anybody see any issues with supplementing with a induction cooktop or a propane burner to speed up the process? Anybody think either of these options would cause any damage to the kettle or it’s attachments ?

 

[burtonboarder230]

Quick update as i was finally able to brew with my new mill and the 2200w element.

Loving this setup more and more with every brew. Picked up the Cereal Killer mill and set it to credit card width. Pre boil gravity was spot on. Forgot to update boil off to account for additional element so at flame out i was short 1/2 gallon with slightly higher OG.

Given the low gravity i got with the first brew and almost spot on with this one, im going to cross my fingers that the grain milling was the issue.

Squirrelcop, you should be fine. The only thing i would be concerned with is if you wrap the kettle with insulation and then run it on a propane burner. If you have the breaker capacity, adding the additional element has eliminated all concern i had with my setup. I run the 2200w element in the beginning to bring my strike water up to temp and then shut it off and let the 1650w with controller manage temps through mash. Once its time to boil i dial back the 1650 and turn the 2200w back on. This produces a nice rolling boil without having to worry about boil over. Last piece is adding a small PID with SSR to manage power going to the 2200w so i dont have to keep going back and forth to plug it in.

 

[burtonboarder230]

Last night I did my second run with this system. Again worked pretty well but I still had to insulate with both insulation and a sleeping bag, heating to a boil stalled out around 170F and I had to sleeping bag it to get it to jump-start again. 5 gallons of sour into the fermenter.

Andrew, i had the same issue with my controller. I spoke with them a couple weeks ago and they mentioned having the same issue and to get around it do the following - Before switching to manual mode-- set the set value to 212 then switch to manual mode.

 

[Andrew Hodgson]

Andrew, i had the same issue with my controller. I spoke with them a couple weeks ago and they mentioned having the same issue and to get around it do the following - Before switching to manual mode-- set the set value to 212 then switch to manual mode.

That is good to know, and also makes me think that maybe this quirk was what was leading to my slow temperature ramping. Next time I will make sure I am at 212 in temp mode before switching to manual. I am trying to think if it is shown on their controller in the videos as being 212 always before they switch it.

 

[amrmedic]

I got this system when they had it on Kickstarter. I also went from a three tier gravity/pump set up to this one as I am now living in an apartment. This is an amazing set up. Takes up very little space and is also great for doing smaller batches. Emmet and the guys at CH are awesome. I had an issue with my kettle and they swapped out really fast. This is by far the best deal out there for a complete eBIAB system. Also, if you want to try your hand at distilling (of course only to make ethanol fuel) they sell stills that will work with the heating element and controller. My first batch went fine and I did not have much of an issue heating up the water/boiling but that is probably due to the fact I make 2 1/2 gallon batches. It is a lot of work for 1 man to drink 5 gallons of beer.

 

[Andrew Hodgson]

I had another brewday with the Clawhammer yesterday. I have a couple observations:

The 170F stall I ran into when ramping to a boil did not happen thanks to @burtonboarder230 letting me know the trick. Set your controller to 212 and then flip to manual mode and adjust the power to 100%.

I found out my local municipality uses uv and liquid chlorine so I am adding a pre-boil step to boil it off, which I was dreading with this weak heating system but it worked out fine. It took awhile with insulation and a sleeping bag around the kettle to hit boil from about 104F.

I will say though that from the mash temperature of 150F to hit 205F was about 75 minutes, which I can live with due to the current restraints in my brewing environment. The brewday is long but I can get plenty of things done in between while waiting for the wort to heat up.

The only other thing about this system (and other eBIAB's I think) I had seen mentioned before but hasn't really annoyed me until now is the re-circulation port being in the lid instead of high on the kettle. I had a couple instances of spillage (sprayage) when removing the lid etc. Sure it was my fault but sometimes a bit of wort spray seem unavoidable. I have towels I can live with it.

The only other thing of note for this brewday was that I clogged up the hop spider which I found to be pretty strange. I have brewed an IPA on this system and the water flowed through the hop spider without an issue. For this beer I used half a oz at 60 minutes and a full oz at FO and when I lifted the lid after adding the flameout and letting it steep I noticed the hop spider was filled almost to the top, about an inch or two above the wort level in the kettle. I dealt with it and I don't think much hop material got into the kettle but it was a bit weird to see the spider fill up with a negligible amount of pellet hops in there. I did add coriander into the spider as well, maybe that was the issue.

I still think this system is good for the price, I have not had anything fail or any issues with the system itself, I have not had issues with the plate chiller which if you look around here there are plenty of horror stories, so so far so good with that.

All in all I started my brewday at 11A and the entire kitchen was spotless with 6 gallons in a bucket by 9. People with kids and responsibilities and whatnot probably find that to be a super long brewday but I did other things, cleaned all my gear really well. And this beer is going to be super tasty. Cheers.

 

[Savagejair]

Going to chime in -late. I also had the stall in manual mode I walked away alot. That said. I return to see no activity. So I would switch it back and all was a go. Back to heating. I live in so cal. Winters are say 70 now , no big loss. I try this next brew day . All in all this system is easy. Easy to use. Easy to learn on if your new. Easy to grow on. I see tweaks if you like to tinker. As well as places to improve. I am a busy guy looking for all the time I can get. So setting an alarm confident I won’t overshoot, chilling is what it is with a smaller plate chiller. I live in California so I might have to buy a bigger plate chiller or get creative with my trusty copper wort chiller. Nah too much time. System has been fun is easy to brew on. I recommend it every time I get a chance. [emoji482]

 

[Savagejair]

Going to chime in -late. I also had the stall in manual mode I walked away alot. That said. I return to see no activity. So I would switch it back and all was a go. Back to heating. I live in so cal. Winters are say 70 now , no big loss. I try this next brew day . All in all this system is easy. Easy to use. Easy to learn on if your new. Easy to grow on. I see tweaks if you like to tinker. As well as places to improve. I am a busy guy looking for all the time I can get. So setting an alarm confident I won’t overshoot, chilling is what it is with a smaller plate chiller. I live in California so I might have to buy a bigger plate chiller or get creative with my trusty copper wort chiller. Nah too much time. System has been fun is easy to brew on. I recommend it every time I get a chance. [emoji482]

Brew pic

 

[NewJersey]

i REALLY like all these eBIAB complete systems and have been shopping for awhile now. The more i read about peoples experience with 120v the more i make up my mind to go 240v. Like many here I'm very keen to cut down on time for the brewday AND simplify. I think clawhammer and Unibrau should sell the 120v kits with another tc already welded on and make another element and controller an option. The semi automation is reduced having to plug and unplug another element.

 

[Andrew Hodgson]

Yeah really the 240v is the way to go if you can. I am limited so I just suck it up and roll with the punches. I could probably run a cord into another room and go through some hassle to run another element for boiling but like you said is it really automated if I have to run around all over? I still haven't tried putting the pot on my stovetop and cranking er up for "two element" heating for a bit of a boost. Maybe I'll give that a spin Sunday on my next brewday.

 

[BSheridan]

I've been eyeballing this system and have watched pretty much all of their youtube videos. Pretty sure they are coming out with a 240v system, couldn't tell you when. I'm not ready to invest this much money into a system yet but I will keep my eye on threads like this for useful reviews and real world experiences with it

 

[Andrew Hodgson]

I've been eyeballing this system and have watched pretty much all of their youtube videos. Pretty sure they are coming out with a 240v system, couldn't tell you when. I'm not ready to invest this much money into a system yet but I will keep my eye on threads like this for useful reviews and real world experiences with it

Yes I think in their latest videos they are using the 240v system, you can tell by the controller which is different than the v2 120v.

 

[Vestal81]

Yes I think in their latest videos they are using the 240v system, you can tell by the controller which is different than the v2 120v.

There 240v system is out. I bought it with no regret. It's a great rig. I think if I was to buy again I would buy there kettle and build the controller