New eBIAB Setup

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Fast Sailor

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Nice setup! Hoping to piece together something similar. Can’t beat that Spike kettle! Is that your false bottom down there too?
 
Looking good. The only thing I don't approve of, which you can take with a grain of salt, is the spray for re-circulation. This is strange trend that I don't understand. There is no good reason to spray and aerate the mash for the whole time. It will contribute to malt oxidation (even if your'e skeptical about strict LODO brewing, you can't argue against the difference between gentle return and spraying and intentional aeration).
 
Fast Sailor said:
Yes! Had a fabricator build that while he builds a grain basket.
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Nice! Yea, my shop does SS fab as well and I want to make a some kind of similar false bottom. How does yours handle the boil? Trying to decide how I want to lay out the perforations. Big or small? Don’t want to impede the boil... Interested to see how your grain basket comes out!
 
Zstyle said:
Nice! Yea, my shop does SS fab as well and I want to make a some kind of similar false bottom. How does yours handle the boil? Trying to decide how I want to lay out the perforations. Big or small? Don’t want to impede the boil... Interested to see how your grain basket comes out!
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It handle the boil very well. I perform a couple of boils to test the system but also to help clean out impurities on the false bottom. Here’s a pic of how the boil looked.
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Fast Sailor said:
It handle the boil very well. I perform a couple of boils to test the system but also to help clean out impurities on the false bottom. Here’s a pic of how the boil looked.
Click to expand...

Yea boil looks good! Thanks!
 
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I love the set-up here and the choice of the Spike 20 Gallon with the Brew Commander, Riptide, SS Counterflow and QD's. I am considering an almost identical setup.
One question I have though is your choice to use a grain basket rather than a bag. From what I have heard from @Bobby_M & others, the bags last a long time, are fairly easy to clean and allow you to squeeze them to maximize the wort extraction. Making up for some of the efficiency lost vs a 3 vessel, sparge system.
Is this purely because you didn't want to be lifting the bag of wet grains or hook up a hoist system?

Paul
 
Merkur said:
How do you find the Northern Brewer SS Counterflow chiller? What are your chill times?

Paul
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First, I’m actually using a grain bag now. I realized that I need a bigger bag. Making a es grain basket I just thought it will be good to have and I’m order to “squeeze”wort out of the grains, just need to place a press plate on top of the basket.

Second, I really like the Northern Brewer’s counterflow chiller. As per times can’t tell you but I have enough time to clean the fermenter, rinse it and get everything else ready to transfer to fermenter (while holding a beer)....
 
Bobby_M said:
Looking good. The only thing I don't approve of, which you can take with a grain of salt, is the spray for re-circulation. This is strange trend that I don't understand. There is no good reason to spray and aerate the mash for the whole time. It will contribute to malt oxidation (even if your'e skeptical about strict LODO brewing, you can't argue against the difference between gentle return and spraying and intentional aeration).
Click to expand...
I've always thought the same thing with the spray.
 
Thank You for posting! This is exactly what I'm looking to do once I have 240v line installed. I have a 15 gallon Spike kettle I currently use for BIAB. Tired of brewing on the patio in the winter. I have a lot of questions:
> Can you tell me how you like the Blichmann Brew Commander?
> How do you manage ventilation? I have no desire to add an exhaust fan, but will if necessary Would a Steam Slayer address this?
> Is it necessary to recirculate during the MASH due to using an electric element?
> Is there anything you would do differently if you had to do it over again?
Sorry for all the questions, but yours is the first post I've come across which describes exactly how I want to brew, sans going an all in one unit.
Thanks!
 
Everybody likes the Brewcommander
The Steam Slayer or an exhaust fan, your choice but yes one of them is necessary.
No you do not need to recirculate. You can get in there with a mash paddle and give it a good stir every 15 minutes as an alternative. This is to just redistribute the heat up to the top of the mash where most of the heat loss occurs.
 
Bobby_M said:
Everybody likes the Brewcommander
The Steam Slayer or an exhaust fan, your choice but yes one of them is necessary.
No you do not need to recirculate. You can get in there with a mash paddle and give it a good stir every 15 minutes as an alternative. This is to just redistribute the heat up to the top of the mash where most of the heat loss occurs.
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Bobby - Thanks for the advice!

I have another question, if you don’t mind.

I recently purchased a SS false bottom from Brew Hardware to prevent scorching my grain bag if I need to fire up my propane burner to maintain my mash temp. I figured I’d also use it to keep the grain bag off the element once I convert to electric. I ordered it with the 3” screws and observed it sits at about the 3 gallon mark on my 15 gallon kettle. My grain bills haven’t exceeded 14lbs and typically start with approximately 8.5 gallons of water. Any issues with trying to mash with a reduced volume of water and approximately 3 gallons of free liquid beneath the false bottom? Sorry if this is a stupid question, but this is only my 3rd BIAB-all grain batch. Still learning and trying to avoid making stupid mistakes. Thanks
 
tln58c said:
Thank You for posting! This is exactly what I'm looking to do once I have 240v line installed. I have a 15 gallon Spike kettle I currently use for BIAB. Tired of brewing on the patio in the winter. I have a lot of questions:
> Can you tell me how you like the Blichmann Brew Commander?
> How do you manage ventilation? I have no desire to add an exhaust fan, but will if necessary Would a Steam Slayer address this?
> Is it necessary to recirculate during the MASH due to using an electric element?
> Is there anything you would do differently if you had to do it over again?
Sorry for all the questions, but yours is the first post I've come across which describes exactly how I want to brew, sans going an all in one unit.
Thanks!
Click to expand...

#1 Ok I really like the BrewCommander I believe to be excellent for BIAB setups... Don’t think you’ll be disappointed.
#2 I manage ventilation by opening a window!!! Lol I have high ceilings in my garage, so really opening a window for a couple of minutes seems to solve the problem!!! But I’ve been looking into installing an exhaust fan once I finish covering the walls, probably shiplap.
#3 No is not necessary. That said I have the Riptide pump so when I circulate I have the valve barely opened so i get a gentle return on top of the grains. I haven’t had a problem making great beer so Mission Accomplished!
#4 When I sent the design of the kettle to Spike Brewing I placed my temperature port just to high. I wished I would of placed it as low in the kettle as possible.
Hope this helps!!!!
 
brewn4fun said:
what's the smallist batch size you can do with your set up
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I've done 6 gallon batches. I'm thinking about going to 7 gallons as the smallest batch, I believe that having the extra water improves my mash efficiency. With this said, made some good 6 gallon batches of beer but the ABV was lower than expected.
 
Fast Sailor said:
I've done 6 gallon batches. I'm thinking about going to 7 gallons as the smallest batch, I believe that having the extra water improves my mash efficiency. With this said, made some good 6 gallon batches of beer but the ABV was lower than expected.
Click to expand...
Increasing batch size in a BIAB system will actually lower lauter efficiency (and also mash efficiency), unless total boil off is increased proportionately to the increase in batch size. For example: 12 lb grain bill, 6 gal-post boil, 0.1 gal/lb grain absorption, and 1 gal boil off has a lauter efficiency of 78.7%. If we go to 14 lb grain bill, 7 gal-post boil, and the rest the same, the lauter efficiency is 78.3%. Not a big deal, and certainly not detectable in a homebrew situation, but efficiency does not go up.

Situation is more complicated in a traditional MLT that has some undrainable volume.

If you keep your kettle losses constant, then increasing batch size will have a positive effect on your brewhouse efficiency [since (Y - X) / Y increases if Y increases and X remains constant.]

Brew on :mug:
 
doug293cz said:
Increasing batch size in a BIAB system will actually lower lauter efficiency (and also mash efficiency), unless total boil off is increased proportionately to the increase in batch size. For example: 12 lb grain bill, 6 gal-post boil, 0.1 gal/lb grain absorption, and 1 gal boil off has a lauter efficiency of 78.7%. If we go to 14 lb grain bill, 7 gal-post boil, and the rest the same, the lauter efficiency is 78.3%. Not a big deal, and certainly not detectable in a homebrew situation, but efficiency does not go up.

Situation is more complicated in a traditional MLT that has some undrainable volume.

If you keep your kettle losses constant, then increasing batch size will have a positive effect on your brewhouse efficiency [since (Y - X) / Y increases if Y increases and X remains constant.]

Brew on :mug:
Click to expand...
Thank you for the information, my situation relates more with the space in the kettle due to the height of the false bottom.

Cheers
 
Fast Sailor said:
#1 Ok I really like the BrewCommander I believe to be excellent for BIAB setups... Don’t think you’ll be disappointed.
#2 I manage ventilation by opening a window!!! Lol I have high ceilings in my garage, so really opening a window for a couple of minutes seems to solve the problem!!! But I’ve been looking into installing an exhaust fan once I finish covering the walls, probably shiplap.
#3 No is not necessary. That said I have the Riptide pump so when I circulate I have the valve barely opened so i get a gentle return on top of the grains. I haven’t had a problem making great beer so Mission Accomplished!
#4 When I sent the design of the kettle to Spike Brewing I placed my temperature port just to high. I wished I would of placed it as low in the kettle as possible.
Hope this helps!!!!
Click to expand...

At what level would you have placed the thermometer? Same as the ball valve? Also, I thought I read you want to place the thermometer probe as close to the element as possible. Not sure if that’s true or not, but I imagine if you’re recirculating, the temperature should remain constant throughout the mash. Does that make sense?
 
tln58c said:
At what level would you have placed the thermometer? Same as the ball valve? Also, I thought I read you want to place the thermometer probe as close to the element as possible. Not sure if that’s true or not, but I imagine if you’re recirculating, the temperature should remain constant throughout the mash. Does that make sense?
Click to expand...
You want the temp probe near the element to prevent the wort from overheating, and possibly scorching, due to delay in response for a probe a long way away from the hottest point.

Brew on :mug:
 
Fast Sailor said:
Finally finished my eBIAB setup! 20 gallon Spike Brewing kettle, Blichmann’s Brew Commander 240v, Blichmann RipTide pump,
Northern Brewer SS counterflow chiller, Clawhammer’s BIAB spray valve kit, 5500w element/ 3 way valves & camlock connections from Brewhardware.com

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Fast Sailor:
Where did you purchase your kettle stand? Do you recall the dimensions? I've been looking for something like that, but haven't been able to locate the short tables.
Thanks!
 
wps-hbt2

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