eBIAB Setup

[OneMorePint]

Hey Guys, I am making the jump from a 10g propane burner and gatorade mash tun to a 20g electric biab.

I've been trying to understand how the mash works in a single vessel, would I be running the pump and element at the same time constantly during the mash and have the probe on a "T" output of the kettle? Previously using the gatorade mash tun i'd only lose about 1.5 degrees over an hour...Would a constant recirculation keep things pretty even temp wise? Thanks for any input.

 

[Wagon_6]

You have a lot of options but yes, what I do is run a pump and recirculate through the mash (bag or basket) and the element heats accordingly. You can put the temp probe in the kettle, output of the kettle, or after the pump.

With a 20 gallon setup you may have enough heat and mash volume that the temp will not drop much, saw this in another thread. My point is some do not recirculate constantly.

Did you batch sparge on the 10 gallon system? What’s your plan for powering the 20 gallon system?

 

[BeardedBrews]

Hey Guys, I am making the jump from a 10g propane burner and gatorade mash tun to a 20g electric biab.

I've been trying to understand how the mash works in a single vessel, would I be running the pump and element at the same time constantly during the mash and have the probe on a "T" output of the kettle? Previously using the gatorade mash tun i'd only lose about 1.5 degrees over an hour...Would a constant recirculation keep things pretty even temp wise? Thanks for any input.

Short answer, yep.

The element will work best if you keep the bag or basket a little away so there is some free liquid to heat.

The probe can either be mounted in the tee as you describe, or directly in the kettle. Direct kettle mount is my preference, but many prefer the tee.

Your kettle will loose heat faster than a cooler, but an element strong enough to boil will only need 1-3% power to hold a constant temp. Keeping the lid on with the kettle mostly full will loose heat more slowly.

Also of note your efficiency will probably be different and you will almost certainly have more trub than you are accustomed to. Otherwise electric BIAB is a joy to use and produces tasty beer.

 

[brewman !]

you will almost certainly have more trub than you are accustomed to.

Because of a less vigorous boil ?

 

[BeardedBrews]

Because of a less vigorous boil ?

It's hard to get the grain bag or basket out without disturbing the grain bed. The result is more of that dust will shake out.

It would certainly be possible to fight some of that by lifting very gently and slowly, not squeezing or pressing, and then adding a long whirl pool after the boil. That is also boring and a lot of work... I just adjust my volume and ignore the trub. The beer clears up fine.