E-BIAB(ish) Build: Reverse Braumeister - 5 or 10 gal Batches

[renthispace]

I’ve been brewing for a few years now--did a few extract brews before switching to all grain, and bottled a few batches before building my kegerator. I built myself a nice 10 gallon mash tun out of an igloo water cooler with a 44qt stainless steel pot to replace the plastic interior. All my equipment did what it needed to do; it was cheap to purchase, and it all worked well. But as many of you know, propane can be a pain. You have to fill tanks, you have to watch temperatures like a hawk, with the kettle/mash tun/sparge water I was always lifting a pot, etc…

So I set out to create an electric setup with the following goals:
-Easier brew day. I don’t want to have to lift heavy/hot objects anymore.
-Less babysitting. I want to set a temperature and leave it to do its thing.
-Faster brew days. My immersion chiller would sometimes take 45 minutes to get to pitching temperature on a 5 gallon batch.
-5 or 10 gallon batches.
-No plastic/synthetic materials in contact with hot water/wort.

I really liked the Braumeister, but couldn’t stomach the cost. Especially if I was going to do an upgrade, I needed a CFC chiller (and a pump) to make it a full upgrade. Once I priced everything out, the Braumeister was going to be about double the cost of a system that I could build myself—and you are limited to doing the same sized batch. I mostly want to do 5 gallons as I don’t consume a crazy amount of beer, but I want to have the option to do 10 gallon batches for brews that I know will go quickly.

So that’s the basics of what I wanted, but I had a long way to go to figure out exactly what I needed. So with much research I found some helpful links (this started around June of this year):

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f170/yet-another-ebiab-build-282235/
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f170/ready-not-e-biab-here-i-come-312256/
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f170/my-biab-rims-e-brewery-can-341267/
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f170/list-pj-electrical-diagrams-382286/
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/biab-plus-405698/


A few highlights:
-5500w element
-Chugger pump
-Dubadiesel plate chiller (and a fancy hop screen so it doesn’t get clogged)
-40qt pot that acts as my ‘bag’ inside a 62qt pot
-Autosparge to control the depth of mash for 5 or 10 gallon batches (more on this below)
-Auberins 2352 PID
-As much stainless as I could get (really everything but the autosparge)

I’ve cataloged most of the items I have purchased for this brew along with their links to tally the cost and to help others in the future. I knew if I didn’t do it as I went I would have no idea the true cost and when others asked where I got the items I wouldn’t know. Below is the link to that spreadsheet.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0An2LLGwtnLw1dHF5VmJrbDlPa2preXQ1RFRYV3diUHc&usp=sharing


And now to the fun stuff….


The Build:

Here are most of the new items for the build. Main thing missing is the project box and the 40 foot cable of 10/4 to run from my dryer into my garage during brew day.

Cutting out the bottom of the mash tun for the false bottom:

Thank you work for letting me borrow some air tools. Handles cut off to fit inside the 62quart pot, and bottom removed for false bottom.

You may be wondering, what is this autosparge thing all about? Well the concept is that for 5 gallon batches it will retain the recirculating mash in the mash tun at a higher liquid level than the outer kettle. This means there will be a higher water/grain radio where the actual grains are and less ‘wasted’ water doing nothing on the outside of the mash tun. I purchased a 13” false bottom to place in the mash tun once I cut the bottom out, but after testing (and an attempted modification) I realize that the liquid level inside the mash tun will never be higher than the outside pot. The false bottom has way too many holes and the pump is not quick enough to build up any sort of water column. This really is an err-derr moment that cost $80 and a few hours of work. I bought a new 40qt pot and this time I will only drill a few holes in the bottom of the pot so that the outflow is slightly less than the 8gpm that the pump can put out. Yes things would be much easier if I just used a nylon bag, but remember I don’t want anything synthetic coming into contact with my hot wort for prolonged periods of time. Just because you can’t taste anything doesn’t mean there isn’t something leaching into your beer. I really can’t imagine using a plastic cooler to mash in for an hour plus!

But I digress, the autosparge will make much more sense as this build progresses.


I’m using all switchcraft connectors for power. I know a lot of people don’t like how close the terminals are for this much current, but they seem fine to me. This isn’t heavy industrial work and it will all be behind a gfci and breaker so in the rare event something happens there is protection. The housings for the plugs on the wire were a little small for the 10/4 and had to be opened up. They fit the 10/3 wire no problem.

Draw a diagram for how each wire will be in the terminal and cut the wires to length using that diagram. The switchcraft connectors have very little room and require precise wire layout.

At first I pushed and crimped the wires on, but after talking to my father he convinced me I needed to solder the connections. I’m glad I listened to him because when I took them apart quite a few strands did not make it in the connectors. And the ones that did make it in didn’t look like they would have made a good connection. New on left, old on right. Make sure that everything is bent exactly how it needs to be in the connector before soldering. Once soldered, the wires will not move!

One connector done, 3 more to go!

50amp spa panel GFCI wired up. The top part has the switchcraft connector installed.

Control panel layout (I moved the e-stop and alarm positions)

Holes drilled and starting to wire.

Control panel complete (need labels). Wow that was fast!

Inside top view.

Inside bottom view.

Here is my failed attempt to slow down the draining of the mash tun. I used 1-1/4” stainless fender washers which reduced the total area of the false bottom by ¾. The issue though is the area that remains is still MUCH larger than the area of silicone tubing that supplies the wort. This pot will be scrapped and for the new one I will drill holes into the bottom of the pot. I’m thinking about 15 or so 3/16 holes may be correct. I need to do some calculations before I fire up the drill press though.

And this is where I am today. I’ve got one welding spud soldered, a few more to go.

Stay tuned for updates. I’ve got a cool method to cover the element (very similar to Bobby’s new method) in which I sandwich a welding spud and the top of a stainless steel sugar shaker. Hopefully it will work! I’m also working on an automated RO system and an extended fermenter fridge so I can do 10 gallon batches or actually brew a lager and not tie up my fridge.

 

[rockinmarty]

Subbed !!!

 

[acarr160]

Subbed

 

[renthispace]

Time for an update. Progress has been slow but on going.

Prepping the welding spud for the element. I made three wraps of solder but I should have done more. I had some issues with their not being enough solder the first round. There was a gap and I had to clean, reflux, and feed it more solder.

I'm using a stainless steel kitchen shaker for the element cover. I had to drill the hole off center so that the housing would not be below the bottom of the pot.

Post solder

Element cover screwed on, it still needs to be wired. Wiring it will be tricky since the cover screws on 1.5 rotations. I'm basically going to coil the wire so it will handle the rotations without putting excess strain on the connections.

I silver soldered a nut to the side of the pot to hold my sight glass at the top. An eye bolt screws into the nut (bossed so that it tightens in the horizontal position).

Performing a water test. A few leaks were found on the sight glass (the one connection I didn't re-wrap with teflon tape myself). The element had no water leaks woo!

I installed a magnesium anode to prevent rust, but as you can see it doesn't stop it. Upon reading more into it, hlt's have more of an issue with rusting with water being left in the pot. I had tested my pot overnight for leaks and drained it the following morning. I didn't notice any rust until the next day. I think the issue is that the few water drops remaining around the anode (and the face of the element...where I was trying to prevent rust with the anode) was created because the remaining drops are not connected to the anode. As in, the anode will work when the pot is full of water, but when empty any remaining water drops left on a spot that can rust will rust since the anode is no longer electrolyticly connected. Apparently most people don't have as much issues with rusting in the brew kettle due to the lower Ph. I cleaned the rust off and will wait and see what happens when I brew. I will make sure to dry the water spots off the element/anode as well before storing to hopefully eliminate the potential of rusting.

Thank you work for letting me use the drill press! Without this I don't think I would have been able drill all my holes. Stainless steel is hard! In this picture I'm working on my mash pipe. I used Bernoulli's equation (with the actual measured flow rate of my pump with all my fittings/hoses) to calculate how many holes I needed to drill 20 holes 3/32" should give me what I want. I will find out when I brew...

I still need to add a few holes to the malt pipe to install bolts to hold it off the bottom of my kettle, and get my autosparge arm installed. Getting close, but still a ways away.

 

[tagz]

Subbed. Good luck!

 

[renthispace]

Got the element all wired up the other night.

Silver soldered the ground lug

This turned out to be too much wire. I didn't account for the ground wire taking up space inside the can when I wound the wire (there is about 4' of each color). In the end there is only about 2' of each color within the can (except the ground).

The final product with the connectors pushed into the switchcraft plug (that was a pain).

Just before it was screwed on (I put a reverse torque on the wires before screwing them in so they would relax when tightened).

And complete

 

[Woodbrews]

Forgive me if you've already answered this, but where did your source your controller enclosure, and what size is it? Very cool build, btw.

 

[renthispace]

Sourced from auberins

 

[burkesw]

How's the progress going? Done a test run?

 

[trboyden]

Great hint with the "stainless steel kitchen shaker" on the element wiring housing. I had been looking for something like that for a project that I will soon be doing a write-up for, but couldn't think of a term to search for. I was going to use PVC with a grounding washer, but now I just bought a bunch of the shakers. Thanks!

 

[renthispace]

Did a test brew the other day and had a few issues. Originally I had thought that having a higher mash liquid height in the inner pot (mash pipe) would have an advantage so that I could mash a larger grain bill. I performed a flow rate test with my pump and hose setup to plug into Bernoulli's equation to figure out how many holes I needed in the mash pipe so that the flow exiting would be slightly less than the flow from the pump. I ended up calculating 20 holes of 3/32" diameter (same sized holes as in my false bottom from norcal brewing).

Upon doing leak tests I quickly realized that the mash pipe with its low flow will take long to fill (putting it into a full kettle) or to drain after the mash is done. This is a pretty big negative that I overlooked, but it would take a brew to see how things panned out. The other thing I knew I would need to prevent is the 20 holes from clogging. So I installed a few washers/screws on the false bottom so it wouldn't sit flat on the bottom of the mash pipe and restrict the flow of the 20 holes.

And then came the brew. I thought everything was going well, sans needing to adjust the sparge arm, and realizing that some grains float. As seen in the upper left corner of the picture, you can see my overflow so that if the autosparge arm didn't stop the flow in the event of a stuck sparge that my element wouldn't get exposed and have a dry fire (this could happen in a 5 gal batch). Before I adjusted the sparge arm, quite a lot of these floating grains exited this port and went into the kettle. Strike 1 for the setup.

And then I realized that the sparge was stuck. All 20 holes were clogged. Completely clogged. The autosparge did its job and stopped the level from rising so it took me a while to figure out it was happening. I was able to salvage the brew with my hop screen, pump, and old kettle. I have no idea how the mash temps were but it tasted good going in the fermenter. I loved the speed of the plate chiller!

So in the end, I could try to adjust the false bottom and get this to work, but I don't think there is a greater benefit in the higher mash level vs the 'cost' of a slow fill/drain of the mash pipe with the potential of a stuck sparge. So now I'm finishing up my original mash pipe with the entire bottom cut out for the false bottom. I also should not have to worry about stuck sparges and the potential of my element getting dry fired. Hopefully next brew (in a week or two) will go well.

 

[stever1000]

Slick brew rig! I like the spice shaker addition!