jd-santaclarita
Active Member
Hi All,
I was hoping to get some opinions and thoughts around building an electric brewery to help steer me in a direction. Heres some quick background for context:
I've been brewing off and on for the better part of 10 years. Lately I have been on a giant OFF cycle as we moved a year ago and my brewery was dismantled, half parted out because of space contraints and working like crazy left no time to even think about it. I feel like I lost all the brewing knowledge I built up over time...getting back into it and getting a feel for whats going on is challenging. I used to brew 12g batches on a single tier system with keggle HLT, 60qt cooler cube MLT and 20g pool filter ss boil kettle. I since downsized my kegerator and fermentation cooler as well, so I dont plan to do more than 10g batches any longer. Maybe even stick to 6 gal batches as I dont consume it fast enough.
My true goal is to make brew day WAY easier and less "focused attention" needed to make it more feasible for me to be able to brew as life is very busy at the moment. Also I can get funding approval way easier if I can get the system to have a smaller footprint, less clunky and look a lot nicer (wife factor). Something about my keggle/cooler/big bk/mass sprawl of hoses/rusty propane stuff makes my brew area look ghetto
I am really debating whether to go for a 1 or 2 vessel system. I like the simplicity of the 1 BIAB vessel system, but not sure if I will regret that going from a 3 vessel system. I was thinking about doing a 2 vessel system possibly where i can use my cooler for electric mlt with recirc combined with an electric boil kettle. I know this could be a great debate, but im not trying to start that...just wondering if its worth the added complexity of the 2nd vessel in your experiences.
I'm thinking about going with a 62q or 82q bayou ss kettle/steamer combo if i go the single vessel biab route.
The other big consideration I have is some kind of easy way to build the controller. I'm not aware of any reasonably priced pre-made ones and even the kits seem very expensive. I'm not a guru in this area, but i can follow instructions if i can find a simpler version of a controller that would work for a 1-2 vessel system. The electricbrewery one people reference looks awesome..but its too pricey and overly complicated for my needs I believe. I have 240v in my garage and plan to have an electrician put in a spa panel with gfi.
Anyway, sorry for the rambling post...I'm really just a little confused on where to go as there are infinite options and I feel a little too out of touch to make a blind decision at this point. Any thoughts, recommendations and thoughts on what you would do in my situation would be really helpful. Thanks everyone.
-JD
I was hoping to get some opinions and thoughts around building an electric brewery to help steer me in a direction. Heres some quick background for context:
I've been brewing off and on for the better part of 10 years. Lately I have been on a giant OFF cycle as we moved a year ago and my brewery was dismantled, half parted out because of space contraints and working like crazy left no time to even think about it. I feel like I lost all the brewing knowledge I built up over time...getting back into it and getting a feel for whats going on is challenging. I used to brew 12g batches on a single tier system with keggle HLT, 60qt cooler cube MLT and 20g pool filter ss boil kettle. I since downsized my kegerator and fermentation cooler as well, so I dont plan to do more than 10g batches any longer. Maybe even stick to 6 gal batches as I dont consume it fast enough.
My true goal is to make brew day WAY easier and less "focused attention" needed to make it more feasible for me to be able to brew as life is very busy at the moment. Also I can get funding approval way easier if I can get the system to have a smaller footprint, less clunky and look a lot nicer (wife factor). Something about my keggle/cooler/big bk/mass sprawl of hoses/rusty propane stuff makes my brew area look ghetto
I am really debating whether to go for a 1 or 2 vessel system. I like the simplicity of the 1 BIAB vessel system, but not sure if I will regret that going from a 3 vessel system. I was thinking about doing a 2 vessel system possibly where i can use my cooler for electric mlt with recirc combined with an electric boil kettle. I know this could be a great debate, but im not trying to start that...just wondering if its worth the added complexity of the 2nd vessel in your experiences.
I'm thinking about going with a 62q or 82q bayou ss kettle/steamer combo if i go the single vessel biab route.
The other big consideration I have is some kind of easy way to build the controller. I'm not aware of any reasonably priced pre-made ones and even the kits seem very expensive. I'm not a guru in this area, but i can follow instructions if i can find a simpler version of a controller that would work for a 1-2 vessel system. The electricbrewery one people reference looks awesome..but its too pricey and overly complicated for my needs I believe. I have 240v in my garage and plan to have an electrician put in a spa panel with gfi.
Anyway, sorry for the rambling post...I'm really just a little confused on where to go as there are infinite options and I feel a little too out of touch to make a blind decision at this point. Any thoughts, recommendations and thoughts on what you would do in my situation would be really helpful. Thanks everyone.
-JD
