Electric System for under $1000 possible?

[lucasrj]

Hi folks. I want to start planning on upgrading my stove top brewing setup, and get a 5 or 10 gallon electric system built/bought. I am not able to brew with propane where I live.

So I've been brewing all grain for about a year, and brewing all-together for 3 years. I'm having issues with mash temps, and boiling water... wort. Long story short, I need a better system.

What I am looking for are some suggestions on complete kits. I don't know where to start looking. My budget is ballpark $1000 to $2000 for everything (mash/kettle/hot liquor tank/etc).

Thanks for looking!

 

[augiedoggy]

I don't know about with a kit but its certainly possible if you build your own , my 10gallon brew system cost under a grand with three pid temp controllers /timer and 3 elements including the rims tube and that's with three 12v pumps and stainless valves/camlocks sight glasses and silicone hoses . And also a stainless hop spyder.

 

[Foosier]

If you are looking to go electric on a budget, high gravity brewing has an electric BIAB set up which is under a grand all in. It is only a single pot though since it is BIAB though. There are a number of positive reviews of the system on this site. If you are not dead set on a 3 vessel system, this might be what you are looking for.

 

[SpikeBrewing]

We can help design and build what ever system you have in mind. We recommend the HERMS 'Kal' Electric Brewery setup. We can get you pretty much everything you need minus the controllers.

 

[Rivenin]

If you're going to DIY your controller, you'll save a ton of cash. Prebuilt ones cost a good bit of money.
but if you get either the concord ebay pots, or spike pots, a pump or two, a pid, ssr, switches and stuff, you'll be under a grand for sure.

 

[insocova]

I'm somewhere over $1,000 but less than $2,000 I think. Total price of the control panel was about $500. PIDS came from auber.com, relays, switches, breakers from ebrewsupply.com, outlets from amazon.com. Herms coil came from stainlessbrewing.com.

 

[jasonsbeer]

With all the extreme overkill projects around here, I can see why you think you must spend a fortune.

If you DIY the whole thing, you are probably only a few hundred. Get yourself an electrical box on e-bay or local surplus store. Get a couple PIDs. Auber is good, but you can get cheaper MyPin PIDs on e-bay. Order your SSR's with standard heat sinks from China on the slow boat. Use a pulse width modulator in place of a PID for your boil kettle. Use cheap xeon or led indicator lights. Use cheap toggle switches instead of lighted indicators, etc. Buy what you can from the local big-box hardware store. Use standard outlets instead of locking plugs and such, that alone will save you a lot. Mouser.com is a good place for odds 'n' ends.

Can be done way under a grand. Just need to look for cheaper, alternative parts or what you can do without.

A pump will be the most expensive individual part. I only have one and do fine.

 

[lucasrj]

Yeah, I'm thinking to go this route. I'll take my time, do the research.. and go electric BIAB method (homemade).

Any suggestions for where to start my research? A compilation of FAQ's or How-To's or other resources?

Thanks!

 

[Zepth]

I'm about to finish my "panel" and brew pot project for around $300. Will be using the kettle as a liquor tank to heat strike water which will go into existing cooler tun. From there a good solid lifting on my part will gravity transfer to the sole heating vessel again. From that point another hoist to working surface height and starting up the kettle. Nothing fancy at all, but lots of room to upgrade later. Space being somewhat of a premium around here I don't foresee a HLT or RIMS or HERMS ever.

My goal was to increase batch size to 10g and reduce time simultaneously. Taking 1 hour to get from mashout to boil for a 5g batch split across 2 pots was just not working for me anymore. Running calculators tell me this should reduce that to about 20 minutes AND a batch size increase. Win. Now to pose the question: What exactly is your goal?

 

[Rockn_M]

Yeah, I'm thinking to go this route. I'll take my time, do the research.. and go electric BIAB method (homemade).

Any suggestions for where to start my research? A compilation of FAQ's or How-To's or other resources?

Thanks!

I started with theelectricbrewery.com. Kal has put together extensive step by step instructions on how to build his control panel along with how to setup the 3 tanks, brew stand and more. Once you get a feel for what he is doing you can start figure out what exactly want. I pretty much copied his design for the control box and spent less than $800 by sourcing from amazon.com, ebay, etc.

Good Luck!

 

[augiedoggy]

With all the extreme overkill projects around here, I can see why you think you must spend a fortune.

If you DIY the whole thing, you are probably only a few hundred. Get yourself an electrical box on e-bay or local surplus store. Get a couple PIDs. Auber is good, but you can get cheaper MyPin PIDs on e-bay. Order your SSR's with standard heat sinks from China on the slow boat. Use a pulse width modulator in place of a PID for your boil kettle. Use cheap xeon or led indicator lights. Use cheap toggle switches instead of lighted indicators, etc. Buy what you can from the local big-box hardware store. Use standard outlets instead of locking plugs and such, that alone will save you a lot. Mouser.com is a good place for odds 'n' ends.

Can be done way under a grand. Just need to look for cheaper, alternative parts or what you can do without.

A pump will be the most expensive individual part. I only have one and do fine.

This is what I did... mouser connectors for the elements and all... I also used a $30 home depot enclosure. My pumps were less than $25 a piece... I have two of the tan ones and one topsflo style all 12v and all handle boiling temps and are food grade.

 

[Gunfighter04]

Since I already had a propane burner, I was able do split going electric into two phases. (Ha Ha) I bought the panel, Most of the internal components, but 1 Pid, one element, etc. I was electric on the HLT, propane on the boil, I've since purchased the components for electric for the boil just have to add them to the system. I was in for about $400 for the first phase, and probably about $200 for the second.

 

[lucasrj]

Hey, you guys are extremely awesome. Thanks for all your input, this is great feedback. I've decided, for the sake of simplicity and frugality I am going to build an electronic BIAB system. I am going to research everything that was discussed here, and use that as my foundation. Thanks for everyone's input!

 

[Zepth]

Hey, you guys are extremely awesome. Thanks for all your input, this is great feedback. I've decided, for the sake of simplicity and frugality I am going to build an electronic BIAB system. I am going to research everything that was discussed here, and use that as my foundation. Thanks for everyone's input!

There was just an article posted on the front page about that. Kinda makes me wish I had of seen it before ordering all the parts for my setup. Oh well, don't like in the past I guess.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/recirculating-electric-biab-setup.html

 

[brian4508]

Subscribed

 

[KartRacer54]

Subscribed!

 

[augiedoggy]

Mine cost me under $300 to build but I bought most of my stuff direct china through ebay or amazon instead of going through auber which saved me a couple hundred bucks in stocking and support markups. the downside is it could take up to 3 weeks to get everything ..

 

[Hello]

My panel, pre assembled with two 5500 watt elements for my kettles was about $1100. If I went DIY I could save some more for sure, but I felt I didn't have the skill. Brumatic has good prices and worked well with me. I'll need another kettle and pump but the biggest expense for me outside of that is getting my electrical outlet installed. I think you can do electric for under $2000 depending upon how handy you are.

 

[augiedoggy]

my first electric build was just under $600, which included the panel, cooler, keggle ,13g stainless pot, 2 12v pumps, spa panel and 100' of 10/3 wire to wire up my 240v line to a spare bedroom where I brew... I did not pay for the keg I converted to a keggle though...
I would say that by the time you stop adding and upgrading many would be somewhere between $1000-1,500 for a well rounded system with conveniences like all stainless, camlock fittings and a good chiller.