e-Brewery Control Panel Project/Conversion from Propane to Electric

[augiedoggy]

The system I've been piecing together is keggles for the HLT and BK, with an igloo cooler for the mash tun (these I already have, converting them to electric soon). Given the limitation of my "brew house" (some plywood on a sink with a shelf above it, and full breaker box) I only have one 240 line available from my dryer connection. Since I'll only be able to power one element at a time, this seemed the best way to go.

I can strike in at the proper temp, rely on the cooler alone for single step mashes, and use the herms setup only when I need to step the mash temp or mash longer than the hour or so I could maintain temp in the cooler without assistance.

A rims setup would keep me from heating sparge water, since I'd need an element in the mash tun and hlt running together. Skipping the herms loop and trying to have an almost-all gravity based transfer system means dumping boiling water to the tun, or decocting, both of which bring ladders and boiling liquids into the same sentence. Do able at a significant risk, but really just means I can't step mash easily.

a dryer plug is 240v and 30a and exactly what I use to power my whole brewery... You will have to buy or build a gfci breaker box anyway if you plan on doing things safely so adding two plugs wont be hard. You can even power the rims off of a separate 120v plug with the pid you were suggesting wiring up for the pump. You actually has it better than me because I brew in a spare bedroom with no water.

a few years ago I used an orange igloo cooler mash tun, keggle and a cheap 13g bk with a cheap $75 rims setup consisting of 1"stainless pipe fittings and an 18" long stainless cartridge heater... my very first budget rims was even cheaper being made of soldered 3/4" copper and a small 800w cartridge heater I bought new for $9 on ebay... It maintained temps fine but couldnt step mash effectively at all.. BTW a rims element does not go into the MT so im not sure if that was just a mistype on your part of what.

If your looking for cost effective ways to go electric check out my build thread below in my sig. I was REALLY on a budget when I biult the control panel for my brewery for under $300 and my whole brewery is still under $1500 minus my fermenter setup so...

 

[RelicScoth]

Yeah pretty sure your clear flow meter just became a "must have". I'll have to revisit the rims vs herms debate. I planned on scaling to 5 gallon all grain batches using induction, but got a great deal on the keggles and mash tun. That scaled me out of induction but allows 10 gallon full boils., so I have "room for growth".