CadiBrewer
Well-Known Member
I built a Kal Clone in my garage with a couple of minor changes to replace my old three tier propane rig. I thought I'd start a new thread to document my experience after brewing with it a few times and the minor changes I made from Kal's design.
First off, Kal's site is amazing and has directions in sufficient detail for a novice to safely build a control panel and electric brewery. Many, many kudos and thanks to Kal for his awesome site and his directions. My wife does not thank you.
For the kettles, I went with a set of 20 gallon custom kettles from Spike. There are countless threads talking about the pros and cons of Spike vs. Blichmann, so I won't opine on that. The Spike welded kettles were right for me so I went with them. I had them built to closely match Kal's original design. The only change I would make on the kettles would be to have them fabricated with the handles on the front and back like the Blichmanns. My table is 60" and the handles interfere with one another enough to make my table too small. I solved the problem by installing two extra plywood "coasters" under the middle kettle to elevate it enough to have the handles over the outer two kettles. I have coasters on all three kettles to keep the stainless steel table from becoming a giant heat sink for the kettles. I'd rather have only one coaster and not three on the middle, but an easy fix.
Four brews in and I'm very happy with the Spike kettles. I'll be upgrading my plastic buckets to a new Spike conical when money allows.
For the element enclosures, I went with the hotpod enclosures from Bobby's website. Very happy with those. I wanted to have my elements removable for cleaning of the kettles. I went with the 2" tri-clover version and they work very well.
For the control panel, I built it exactly to Kal's standards with the exception of using the Auber timer. I went with the Auber timer for consistency of look. I'm glad I did because I like the feature of being able to add timer events for every hop addition.
After my third brew, I ordered Auber's new EZ-Boil controller and replaced the 2352 PID for the boil kettle. I brewed with the new controller this morning and I loved it. So much better to be able to have the knob to easily adjust the power output without pushing the up down buttons. The original PID worked great, but I like the EZ-Boil better. I was happy to spend the extra money because I could throw the first PID into my bin of extra parts in case Auber goes out of business or their PID formats change or I need to change out a PID on short notice. I'm fairly frugal, but I have a couple of extra parts to help this last a while.
The other change I made from Kal's design was to go with JaDed Brewing's new Cyclone counterflow chiller. They made me one that is 60" long, so it fits perfectly under my brew stand. It has turned out to be a great product. I am cooling in half the time of my old IC and I can clean out the inside of the counter flow wort piping. It wouldn't be for everyone's installation but it works well for mine.
That's all for now. I will add to the thread as I learn more about my process and make any changes. To this point, though, I'm extremely happy with my new system.
First off, Kal's site is amazing and has directions in sufficient detail for a novice to safely build a control panel and electric brewery. Many, many kudos and thanks to Kal for his awesome site and his directions. My wife does not thank you.
For the kettles, I went with a set of 20 gallon custom kettles from Spike. There are countless threads talking about the pros and cons of Spike vs. Blichmann, so I won't opine on that. The Spike welded kettles were right for me so I went with them. I had them built to closely match Kal's original design. The only change I would make on the kettles would be to have them fabricated with the handles on the front and back like the Blichmanns. My table is 60" and the handles interfere with one another enough to make my table too small. I solved the problem by installing two extra plywood "coasters" under the middle kettle to elevate it enough to have the handles over the outer two kettles. I have coasters on all three kettles to keep the stainless steel table from becoming a giant heat sink for the kettles. I'd rather have only one coaster and not three on the middle, but an easy fix.
Four brews in and I'm very happy with the Spike kettles. I'll be upgrading my plastic buckets to a new Spike conical when money allows.
For the element enclosures, I went with the hotpod enclosures from Bobby's website. Very happy with those. I wanted to have my elements removable for cleaning of the kettles. I went with the 2" tri-clover version and they work very well.
For the control panel, I built it exactly to Kal's standards with the exception of using the Auber timer. I went with the Auber timer for consistency of look. I'm glad I did because I like the feature of being able to add timer events for every hop addition.
After my third brew, I ordered Auber's new EZ-Boil controller and replaced the 2352 PID for the boil kettle. I brewed with the new controller this morning and I loved it. So much better to be able to have the knob to easily adjust the power output without pushing the up down buttons. The original PID worked great, but I like the EZ-Boil better. I was happy to spend the extra money because I could throw the first PID into my bin of extra parts in case Auber goes out of business or their PID formats change or I need to change out a PID on short notice. I'm fairly frugal, but I have a couple of extra parts to help this last a while.
The other change I made from Kal's design was to go with JaDed Brewing's new Cyclone counterflow chiller. They made me one that is 60" long, so it fits perfectly under my brew stand. It has turned out to be a great product. I am cooling in half the time of my old IC and I can clean out the inside of the counter flow wort piping. It wouldn't be for everyone's installation but it works well for mine.
That's all for now. I will add to the thread as I learn more about my process and make any changes. To this point, though, I'm extremely happy with my new system.
