burtonboarder230
Member
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.
- 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.