Help me figure out my next brew setup

[tjmac5071]

I am hoping to get some advice on my next brew setup. I have a couple of goals that I am hoping to achieve with my next setup:

Full volume mash
Wake up to preheated mash water
11 gallons into the fermenter
No plastic
Minimal DIY

My current setup (major components) 10 gallon igloo beverage cooler, 15 gallon brew kettle, blichman burner, jaded immersion chiller. I have two little kids and more diy and house projects I can finish in this lifetime so while I really enjoy brewing I want to eliminate at many steps as possible to keep everything in my life in some sort of balance.

I was planning to move to brew in a basket, bought a cheap 20 gallon Concord pot but then started eyeing the ss 20 gallon mash tun and thought I'd just buy that, and a heatstick from Bobby and be done with it, but then I couldn't quite figure out what controller to use to heat up that much water considering I probably needed more power than the stc / inkbird can handle. Then I started looking into grainfather, unibrau, Colorado brew system, induction, etc and started to have too much information to make a decision.

This is where I am hoping the forum can help. I want to keep things as simple as possible, I frequently mash in, play with the kids / help my wife feed them / get them ready for the day / etc and drain whenever I get around to it. Sometimes an hour and sometimes we go to soccer or something and it's 3 hours. My point here is I do not want a pump or anything else that needs any level of monitoring.

Who has some advice? Is my original plan of ss mash tun and hot rod the right path? If so what controller do I need? Is an l in one system a better path? I know grainfather is 5 gallon but I am not 100% stuck to 11 gallons if the system is well designed

Thanks in advance for any help on this.

 

[jtratcliff]

why wouldn't an inkbird w/ a heat stick work?

 

[tjmac5071]

I figured I would need a much more power to heat up that much mash water than the inkbird can safely handle

 

[tjmac5071]

Just looked again the inkbird is rated for 1000 watts from what I see. I will definitely need more power than that

 

[DurtyChemist]

If you want brew in a bag simplicity with the ability to wake up to mash temps just buy a grainfather, or similar, setup. Buy once cry once. You have less to assemble on brew day than having a heat stick, temp probe, mash controller, pump etc. and you’ll have everything you want. If these setups existed when I went all grain I’d have strongly considered them over three vessel brewing.

 

[aprichman]

A grainfather isn't going to get you anywhere close to 11 gallons. BIAB with your 20 gallon pot, get a heat stick with this controller:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06WD6X17V/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

Also make sure to get a decent hoist for your bag.

 

[tjmac5071]

Thanks for the link looks like I can run a 1650 watt element from brewhardware off of that. I am leaning towards this approach with the SS infussion 20 gallon as I'm trying to stay all stainless with the new system rather than bag

 

[tjmac5071]

The price of a basket seems like a waste when you consider the whole mash tun with bottom drain is not that much more money

 

[aprichman]

I went the opposite way - I ditched my stainless mash tun for a bag. It's so much easier to clean out and I prefer doing full volume mashes to save time. I only brew 5 gallon batches though so YMMV.

 

[tjmac5071]

I went the opposite way - I ditched my stainless mash tun for a bag. It's so much easier to clean out and I prefer doing full volume mashes to save time. I only brew 5 gallon batches though so YMMV.

I have no doubt it's easy, however I am trying to eliminate plastic wherever I can.

 

[micraftbeer]

I don't do anything 11 gallons. I'm on the lower side where I prefer 2.5 gallon batches. I don't have the patience to stick with a given beer to get through 5 gallons of it before I'm bored of it and want to be onto the next thing. For parties, I'll do a 5 gallon of a proven recipe, but I digress. You weren't asking for opinions on 11 gallon batches...

That being said, I've got/used both the Brewer's Edge Mash & Boil, and the Robobrew. Both of those are 5 gallon size, not 11. But they both have timer delay so you can set them up to come on up to 24 hours in advance and heat your water to strike temperature. They both have electric temperature control, so they're very forgiving to coming & going and multi-tasking and holding temperature. Compared to when I was running 3-vessel propane-burner set-up, the freedom is great. Go inside and organize the kids, or run out and grab lunch, all things you wouldn't do on propane.

Blichmann makes the BrewEasy system which I've also used. This system works sweet, and they have higher volume set-ups that will probably get you to the 11 gallon size. The controller isn't quite as easy as the M&B or Robobrew, but you can program in a profile and leave it to run. With that volume you'll be looking at 240V set-up, which may constrain you on where you can brew or what kind of electrical install you need to get it going.

I've got links to my reviews of these systems if you're interested.

 

[tjmac5071]

I think I have settled on getting:

1 - 20g spike kettle with tc
2 - 5500w brewhardware ripple element with tc
3 - custom basket (400 micron)
4 - temp controller from eBay https://m.ebay.com/itm/GC-M8-2

The plan for the spike kettle is to also get a work/sparge port added in the event of decide I need or want a pump later on.

Guessing the whole thing will be around $800 and $1,000 which seems pretty reasonable to me. Thoughts from those who have gone electric / brew in a basket?

 

[Griffin495]

I've got links to my reviews of these systems if you're interested.

Can you post those links to your reviews, please?

 

[micraftbeer]

Your link didn't work for the controller, so I couldn't see what that actually was. Brew-Boss controller is super slick, and you can buy it separate. I don't know how it compares price-wise to the controller you found on eBay. http://www.brew-boss.com/Brew-Boss-240-Volt-Electric-Brewery-Controller-for-p/bb240-diy-v2.0.htm


I don't know where you were getting your basket from, but the ability to lift and let your basket drain into the kettle and pour sparge water through it is a great feature of some of the engineered systems. Stout kettles has some nice looking systems that are designed for eBIAB and come with kettle + basket (https://conical-fermenter.com/BK18TW-TI-EL1-BIB-104-18-gal-Brew-In-Bag-Kettle.html), but I've never used them.

 

[micraftbeer]

Here's the links to my detailed reviews. Two of them were done as stand-alone, the others were done together, but due to length of the story, it was split into a Part 1 and Part 2.

Link to Robobrew review: http://www.homebrewfinds.com/2017/10/hands-on-review-robobrew-all-grain-brewing-system.html

Link to Mash & Boil review: http://www.homebrewfinds.com/2017/09/hands-on-review-brewers-edge-mash-boil-electric-brewery.html

Link to reviews on Brew-Boss, Blichmann BrewEasy, Unibrau Mini, Braumeister, and Grainfather Part1: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/single-vessel-brewing-systems-overview-review-pt1.html

Link to Part2 of those reviews: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/single-vessel-brewing-systems-pt2-reviews.html

 

[tjmac5071]

looks like the listing expired, here is the current link for the 120v version - 220v is only $25 more
https://www.ebay.com/itm/120v-Elect...981170?hash=item441437dbb2:g:-B8AAOSwmgJY2DLv

The stout kettle is currently a strong contender - it is already built exactly to my specs and simplifies things a bit. I lose 2 gallons doing that, but I am not sure I will miss that, I brew 11 gallon batches but usually 1.055 or under.

My estimated costs are:
Kettle w/ TC $320
Basket $330
Controller $200
TC 5500w $75
Misc. $50
TOTAL: $975

 

[micraftbeer]

That controller looks pretty good. Price is phenomenal compared to others out on the market.

 

[aprichman]

It looks like that's not a PID controller though - not sure it's going to work well for maintaining mash temperatures.

 

[aprichman]

Wow those SS baskets are extremely expensive. I considered going that route but 5 gallon batches are easy enough for me to handle with a basic pulley system.

I'm also not sold on recirculating the mash to begin with - full volume mashes seem to get about the same efficiency whether you recirculate or just give it a stir half way through. This is also not a practice that would take place in most production breweries. I work as a food scientist and there are several other factors that jump out at me with recirculating the mash - mainly the heavy usage of a centrifugal pump having a negative impact on the enzymes and highly variable temperature differences throughout the vessel based on probe placement.