My New High Gravity BIAB System w/PICS

[Chant124]

I just received my new High Gravity BIAB electric system. Works great!!

Observations
1. Take apart EVERY connection regardless if its pre-assembled and re-seal it with Teflon.
2. Run a test with water only with heat to ensure everything is sealed.
3. VERY quiet operation in fact it almost feels like I am cheating when using
4. Pick location for a pulley for grain basket
5. Elevate the pot at least 4 inches. It makes using a plate chiller very efficient with no pump needed.
6. Very easy to clean as I ran it at 140 for its first cleaning for an hour while recirculating.
7. Heating element is a pain in the ass to get sealed...Sometimes water leaks through the threads so Teflon the hell out of it and it will be fine.
8. Shipping is VERY fast and the overall quality is great
9. Not sure on efficiency yet however, I will brew a big Belgian using a recipe I have and double crush and add 2lbs additional base malt and see what happens.

 

[UofMontanaAlum]

Very nice!

I purchased their 3 vessel EBC III system and the only thing I disliked we're the plastic disconnects. Because I run 2 pumps I ended up buying more plastic disconnects to get the system up and running and after a few brews I swapped them all out for stainless cam locks. They get plugged up with grain husks easy, sticky wort gets in the release button and sticks and they just don't snap together very easy. I still don't understand why High Gravity insists on using them. Cam locks are cheaper and much easier to use.

 

[kzimmer0817]

Looks great. I feel sort of stupid. You started a thread a few days prior to this one in which you mentioned this system and asked if anyone had had any experience with it. I posted back with a few threads in which folks had discussed it.

Somehow it didn't register with me that you had already ordered it and were waiting for it. Anyway, I hope you were able to find some useful information in those threads.

Keep us posted with updates on a few of your brews.

Some of the questions that have come up have been:

1. to recirculate or not to recirculate; that is the question. Some have said that, with proper insulation, you only drop a couple of degrees F during a 60 minute mash. If it drops too much, you can turn up the heat, stir like crazy until the temp is again reached.

2. to use the basket or not to use the basket; another question. Without having a basket, I can see how it would be quite useful in handling the bag. Apparently, the basket impedes the circulation of wort when using the pump.

3. what bag material will you be using? Please post your observations if you change bag material. The "big guys" in BIAB have advocated for a very fine-meshed Swiss voile. Others have opted for the larger-meshed paint strainer bags. IIRC, the bag that comes with the High Gravity system is the latter.

Some folks have been able to recirculate perfectly fine throughout the mash using the kettle, basket, and Swiss voile bag. Some have had trouble with the bag not allowing fast enough flow thru so that the pump catches air and cavitates. Apparently, this does not occur when the voile bag is used without the basket.

A solution that was offered was to place a ball valve at the outlet of the pump, close it down so that the recirculation was slow. If you restrict flow of the pump, it is important to restrict the output from and not the input to the pump.

Instead of a valve after the pump, the High Gravity system relies upon the resistance provided by the sprayer to keep cavitation from occurring. But . . . the HG system, as mentioned above, does not use the fine voile bags.

I said all of that to say this: if you have the inclination, I think it would be quite helpful to know - should you have opportunity to use the fine-meshed swiss voile bags - if you experience any problems with recirculating during the mash.

I, for one, look forward to reading more of your experience with using this system. Please continue to post.

Keith

 

[Siberian]

Well, I don't have this particular system but I think I can answer some of your questions based on my similar one and it's evolution from no-recirculation, no basket, to with a recirculating system with a basket and spray arm.

1. Having tried the stir like mad method, I feel like it's far easier to manage using a continuously running pump recirculating my wort during the entire mash. I do I'm sure lose a bit more heat then I would if it was still, but it keeps the heat loss more even in my mind and makes it so that my wort is constantly flowing through the grain. Plus since I never have to open the lid I'm likely losing less heat then the 'stir like mad' period would introduce. So energy usage wise I think I'm coming out ahead.

2. Basket is a must to me, it's just so much easier to manage than a bag alone, the only thing I'd consider in it's place is those people who have large 300 micron stainless steel baskets built and skip the bag entirely. Before my basket I had problems with large grain bills being difficult to remove from the kettle without spilling since the bag I had made for my pot wanted to bulge wider then the pot as it was pulled out, basket keeps it in a nice round shape at all times and makes it way easier to work with.

3. Mine is a very fine meshed bag, finer than the paint strainer bags (I've used those in the past).

Now, onto the questions of pumps and not fast enough flow.

I've had problems with flow rate both with and without the basket. With just the bag in the kettle I've actually had it form almost a vacuum under the grain bed, draw every bit of fine material down and stretch the bag tightly out to the sides of the kettle, was a huge pain and that batch drained reeaaaaly slow as a result. I've seen similar issues with the basket where all the wort is in the basket and very little left in the kettle.

I did originally then try regulating it with the kettle ball valve before the pump and that worked but wasn't super useful, it caught air some air and just seemed to be working really hard.

In my last batch I built a spray arm for my kettle (see attached images) and added a new valve after the pump. Mine is different then the sprayer they are using, but overall it worked great! I had no problems with all the water being stuck in the grain bag, no difficulty draining the liquid out of the grain bag at the end of brewing and actually as a result had a nice jump in efficiency. Batches prior to this one I could count on about 65% or so efficiency.

This batch after running the numbers I ended up with 76%(!), I hit my OG target, I just have about 3/4 a gallon extra wort in the end (oops!).

Overall the whole process was much smoother for me this way as well. Temperature didn't seem to jump nearly as much as it did when I was just putting a hose back up through the lid and dumping the wort back into one spot in the grain bed.

So, overall I'd say my system works similar to what High Gravity's BIAB is, except I'm using an induction plate for heat rather than elements. But I'd recommend a recirculating BIAB with a basket/spray bar/fine mesh bag as a solid option. I have my temperature probe rigged in line just after the kettle's ball valve, so I'm constantly measuring the temperature of what I'm recirculating and gauging if I need to heat the mash more based on the temperature of the currently flowing wort rather than a single point in the grain bed.