Electric Bottom Draining, 3 keggle, 2 pump, E-HERMS

[jcc4507fly]

Well after a lot of planning and reading on this Forum, I finally got my Eletric EHERMS setup going. I'd like to thank everyone for their input. It's been fun building this up and many bumps along the way, as well as $$$$. However I couldn't be happier than I am with this setup. Shout out to Ebrewsupply.com , They put together my 50amp, 2 element panel and it turned out perfect. Great customer service over there if your looking for a complete panel, or a complete kit to put together yourself. Also the folks at Norcalbrewingsolutions.com , picked up my reverse hinge false bottom & level one stand for my mashtun & a Level 3 filter for my Boil kettle. Great peeps!!

Anyway on to the build....

Prepping to cut the 'tops' out of the kegs.
View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1430801574.904474.jpg
View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1430801647.345296.jpg

Tops cut out of 2, prior to filing down the rough edges.
View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1430801680.980992.jpg

Polishing the kegs, what a b*tch this was, but happy I did it.
View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1430801833.735267.jpg
View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1430802026.697649.jpg

Drilling holes getting ready to weld fittings.
View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1430802100.005054.jpg

Wiring new 240v service. Thanks to my electrician neighbor. Good thing he likes the beer I brew!
View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1430802186.500355.jpg
View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1430802202.135949.jpg

Wort Chiller.
View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1430802279.313321.jpg
View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1430802292.298139.jpg

 

[jcc4507fly]

View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1430802531.797913.jpg
View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1430802499.264831.jpg

Shot from underside of brew table.
View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1430802580.972115.jpg

Hop Spider:
View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1430802625.527512.jpg
View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1430802678.418031.jpg
View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1430802654.732008.jpg

Fitting up the HLT/HERMS Coil (Coil from Stainlessbrewing.com
View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1430802728.310792.jpg
View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1430802795.100544.jpg

 

[jcc4507fly]

The Control Panel:
View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1430802906.868428.jpg

Under carriage hardware
View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1430802951.724588.jpg
View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1430802997.281035.jpg
View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1430803049.069092.jpg

Pump caddy
View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1430803084.940463.jpg

Thermometers from bayou classic.
View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1430803129.799201.jpg
View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1430803166.552133.jpg

First brew:
View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1430803307.142180.jpg
View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1430804000.651117.jpg

Wanted to get a couple brews through it. I have brewed 5 batches within the first month of 'finishing' it. Ironed out a couple of kinks. Last batch was a 6gal batch. Didn't preheat water and start to finish was 5 hours including cleanup. Think next time will easily be 4. Looking forward to drinking some of the beer that's come out of this thing. 1.5-2 weeks I'll tap my first off it.

Now I need to work on getting a storage shed built to make room around the Brewery. Also going to start focusing on the area around it. ie Brewtable, stainless or some sort of metal on the wall. Mount control panel. Maybe a vent hood, it's in the garage, & I live on the Gulf coast, so it's already humid as all hell. Hope to have more pics of the progress soon. Any ideas please pass them along.

 

[BigFloppy]

Nice, very nice!

 

[chewse]

Nicely done! Congrats!

 

[Psylocide]

Wow... those kegs though, nice polish job.

 

[jcc4507fly]

Thank yall!

 

[stevehaun]

Very sexy!

 

[FuzzeWuzze]

Im confused, why all the thermometers when your running a BCS system?

 

[Mismost]

Well, that flung an envy on my a$$!

 

[jcc4507fly]

Im confused, why all the thermometers when your running a BCS system?

I personally like the look. Plus I scored them for cheap.

But I agree once I get a TV monitor to display the BCS it will be a little repetitive, but that won't be for a while. Right now I'm running the BCS on my iPad.

 

[BrockLanders]

Looking good!

 

[jcc4507fly]

Before....

View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1430960961.151842.jpg
View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1430960974.483806.jpg

After.

View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1430961040.110125.jpg
View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1430961049.428082.jpg

Pretty much done with the walls.

View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1430961070.897765.jpg


Now for the stand.

 

[pickles]

Looking good! Did you make the chiller or is it one from Jade?

 

[jcc4507fly]

I made it. After mash/sparge complete I clean out mash tun, put false bottom and filter back in the mash tun. Then I recirculate ice water. It is capable of bringing boiling wort down in the 60's, obviously colder than I need for most ales.

 

[30Bones]

What made you go this route over BobbyM's bottom drain kit?

 

[jcav]

Excellent job! Man those kegs are gorgeous!

John

 

[jcc4507fly]

What made you go this route over BobbyM's bottom drain kit?

I liked the idea of having space for extra wort that could collect upstream of the pump. Little did I know that once the false bottom was in the mash tun I had space for 1 gallon of wort below. I also wanted to keep my option of upgrading to all sanitary in the future.

I have no problems with flow during recirculating the mash or during sparge. I'm sure the kit Bobby sells would work just as well.

 

[jcc4507fly]

Excellent job! Man those kegs are gorgeous!



John

Thank you!

 

[dmcman73]

Awesome job! I made a fully insulated bottom draining Mash/Tun a while back and I was going to make a bottom draining BK as well but, I usually whirlpool to try and reduce the sediments in the BK before draining so I decided to purchase regular flat bottom kettles. How are you doing this or do you just drain the entire thing into your femrenter? Do you have a false bottom in the BK as well with smaller holes? If so, does it restrict flow as you near the end of draining?

Thanks!

 

[jcc4507fly]

I use a hop spider when making 10 gallon batches. When making 5 gallon batches I use a nylon mesh bag for the hops. I just loop the string of the bag over a clamp that is clipped onto the rim of the BK. I also use a stage 3 filter from Norcalbrewingsolutions.com. I have not had a problem with it restricting flow & it does a nice job filtering any hop pellets that creep through the hop sack. I don't not whirlpool for obvious reasons. I normally runoff about 8 gallons into BK preboil. During an hour boil this yields about 6 gallon to run into fermentor. I chill and am left with clear wort minus the cold break, which settles out during fermentation. I also stopped using a secondary fermentor, unless I plan on dry hopping. Beers are always very clear with no chill haze.

View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1441635461.084933.jpg
View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1441635726.980992.jpg
View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1441635783.571476.jpg
View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1441635815.976036.jpg

 

[jcc4507fly]

Awesome job! I made a fully insulated bottom draining Mash/Tun.

Thanks!

Care to share a pic? I've been wanting to explore insulating my MT. What did you use to insulate? Is it like a jacket that wraps around it that you can remove? Roughly how many degrees do you lose per hour? I remember when using an Igloo cooler for a MT I would only lose about 2* per hour, hoping for similar results. Thanks!

 

[dmcman73]

Care to share a pic? I've been wanting to explore insulating my MT. What did you use to insulate? Is it like a jacket that wraps around it that you can remove? Roughly how many degrees do you lose per hour? I remember when using an Igloo cooler for a MT I would only lose about 2* per hour, hoping for similar results. Thanks!

Here is my build thread: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=528153

 

[dmcman73]

I use a hop spider when making 10 gallon batches. When making 5 gallon batches I use a nylon mesh bag for the hops. I just loop the string of the bag over a clamp that is clipped onto the rim of the BK. I also use a stage 3 filter from Norcalbrewingsolutions.com. I have not had a problem with it restricting flow & it does a nice job filtering any hop pellets that creep through the hop sack. I don't not whirlpool for obvious reasons. I normally runoff about 8 gallons into BK preboil. During an hour boil this yields about 6 gallon to run into fermentor. I chill and am left with clear wort minus the cold break, which settles out during fermentation. I also stopped using a secondary fermentor, unless I plan on dry hopping. Beers are always very clear with no chill haze.

View attachment 301663
View attachment 301664
View attachment 301665
View attachment 301666

Ok, yeah I use a 19" Stainless Hop spider in my BK for my Hops and I also drain my MT into it to filter the wort before going into the kettle. I generally recirculate and whirlpool as I use Whirfloc on some brews to settle out anything in there.

Really nice build!!

 

[jcc4507fly]

Yeah I forgot to mention I also use whirlfloc in every batch.

 

[30Bones]

Interesting, I planned on adding a whirlpool fitting in my bottom drain BK figuring the false bottom would still do a decent job and get away from hop bags. Am I wasting my money here? Should I stil lgo with a false bottom, no whirpool and still use hop bags?

I don't want it to take a hour to drain into my carboy or make it a PITA with my CFC

 

[dmcman73]

Interesting, I planned on adding a whirlpool fitting in my bottom drain BK figuring the false bottom would still do a decent job and get away from hop bags. Am I wasting my money here? Should I stil lgo with a false bottom, no whirpool and still use hop bags?

I don't want it to take a hour to drain into my carboy or make it a PITA with my CFC

No need for a whirlpool on a bottom drain if your using it to funnel sediments in the center, the false bottom will take care of all that. The only use I see a whirlpool in a bottom drain is of you were going to recirculate through a CFC or plate chiller to cool the whole kettle down, otherwise, your wasting your money if it's just for the sediments.

 

[30Bones]

I will be whirlpooling because I have a CFC. Whether I whirlpool to get all the sediment into a "cone" I guess is pointless, but it should make it easier for the pumps to not cavitate in my mind. Maybe I am overthinking it and will just recirculate (not worry about the "whirlpool" action) by simply laying the return hose into the top of the keggle

 

[jcc4507fly]

Are we talking pellets or whole hops here?

 

[30Bones]

Are we talking pellets or whole hops here?

For myself, pellets. Never used whole or leaf, not saying I never will...