Please poke holes in my design for a new EBIAB-basket system

[Jako]

IMHO BIAB sucks. Yea, that'll get an uproar. A separate mash tun equipped with a false bottom and a brew bag, and recirculated will give you the clearest wort into your boil kettle. BTW grain conditioning has marginal effect especially considering the effort and rice hulls should be washed with hot water before use unless you like rice tea in your beer! Besides filtration aids are unnecessary with this setup even with high wheat malt and rolled oats percentages. The brew bag actually makes clean up easier. Study the attached photo for details. Everything shown was about $1900. The system uses SCR voltage regulators which are simpler and more intuitive to use than the more popular PID/SSR's. Notice the only temperature probes are on the brewhardware.com RIMS and not intruding into the kettles. The RIMS is always inline with the pump and the pump runs all brew day except for 75 minutes of the 90 minute boil. A 30 gallon RO water storage barrel (not shown) allows water to be pumped directly into the boil kettle for heating, and the barrel is also a great reservoir for the very slow RO system production rate. The malts are crushed directly into the mash tun avoiding the dust. The Kelco CFC doesn't clog with the copious quantities of hops used in NEIPA's. The mash tun and boil kettle tables tip to minimize the dead space volumes. BTW the RIMS helps heat the strike water, controls the mash tun temperature (of course), brings the wort to >170F while pumping to the boil kettle, and then helps bring the wort to a boil in the boil kettle. Afterwards add a BBQ cover and the cart rolls away setup and ready for the next brew day. This is an accumulation of 10 years of continuous modifications. Love the hobby as much as the beer!

I ran a similar set up to this for a year. wasn't a fan, after all this i realized 2v system was BIAB with more cleaning.

 

[brewman !]

i realized 2v system was BIAB with more cleaning.

Nope.

 

[Jako]

that's how i feel. i wanted to make a system like the brew hog i think the name is but didn't want to buy another pump and still need to clean a mash tun.

 

[brewman !]

that's how i feel. i wanted to make a system like the brew hog i think the name is but didn't want to buy another pump and still need to clean a mash tun.

You mean this system ? Wort Hog 2-Vessel │ 1 Bbl

$3800 for 2 pumps and 2 kettles ? Pretty rich for me, even if they are 55 gallon vessels.

 

[Jako]

I said i wanted to make one not buy it. you like to make everything about money, honestly i could spend the 3800 and it not effect me other then my wife being pissed and rightfully so.

its just a point of reference to convey the idea i had.

 

[brewman !]

you like to make everything about money

It's not about money. These companies don't do a single original thing. DIY brewers (the only kind there were 10 years ago) built systems like that or better in their garages. Now that it has become trendy all these companies have come out of the woodwork copying what the DIYers used to do and not adding a single thing to the build.

That panel design has been around since Brutus 10. It sits on a $150 table. It's 2 brew pots with elements and pumps. And to top it off, they want $3800 for it. At least the Grainfather was a unique combination of purpose made parts.

The equipment part of this hobby has become soulless. Especially the BIAB systems, which are just a pot, element and PID. When was the last time you saw a system that had some feature(s) that were innovative and made you really want it ?

 

[Jako]

It's not about money. These companies don't do a single original thing. DIY brewers (the only kind there were 10 years ago) built systems like that or better in their garages. Now that it has become trendy all these companies have come out of the woodwork copying what the DIYers used to do and not adding a single thing to the build.

That panel design has been around since Brutus 10. It sits on a $150 table. It's 2 brew pots with elements and pumps. And to top it off, they want $3800 for it. At least the Grainfather was a unique combination of purpose made parts.

The equipment part of this hobby has become soulless. Especially the BIAB systems, which are just a pot, element and PID. When was the last time you saw a system that had some feature(s) that were innovative and made you really want it ?

i cant argue that at all. I feel the same way. For me i feel like some of the "cool gear" cost too much or i feel i can make my own version and get the enjoyment out of it.

i like the look of nice things but i have yet to make a beer as good as my old rig did. i need to find a picture so we can all enjoy it.

 

[Jako]

As i brewed i cleaned up everything as i moved along. by the time i was done i had the kettle to clean and i was done

 

[NewJersey]

Sitting inside a boil kettle ? I think it is the best setup because 1) the pump can't create a suction directly on the grain bed and 2) the mash tun partially sits in hot wort/the boil kettle which insulates it from the cold. And it makes use of the boil kettle to heat the mash, which works better than RIMs or HERMs.



I was all excited about the standpipe too when I build Thing1. I still have the fitting installed in the false bottom to use one. But I find I don't need it. I just watch the sight glass to see how much wort is in the boil kettle and adjust the flow accordingly. Mashes in a grain pipe sitting in a boil kettle don't get hydraulic lock and compaction like mashes that the pump draws directly on. At worst the grain bed gets to atmospheric pressure while sitting in a boil kettle, but with a pump, it can be sucked down to negative pressures.

I don't use the stand pipe on Thing1 anymore. Being induction, there is zero chance of scorching the wort and I have no problems with stuck mashes.

Dude, almost NOBODY is scorching wort with eBIAB setups. What's with your hangup about scorching wort?

 

[BarryBrews]

that's how i feel. i wanted to make a system like the brew hog i think the name is but didn't want to buy another pump and still need to clean a mash tun.

If you connect a wort pump to a RIMS tube, like I showed above, and use this setup in every phase of the brew day you will have complete control of your wort production. There is no vessel flow balancing needed, temperature control is easy and your mash will be crystal clear after 60 minutes of continuous recirculation. And all with 1 pump! As for the function and clean up of a mash tun, use a false bottom and a brew bag and never worry about a stuck mash and also enjoy the easy cleanup afforded by the brew bag.

How the RIMS-Pump System works...duh?
1. Pumps water into boil kettle (BK) (from a RO water barrel), then recirculates and assists the BK bringing the water to strike temperature.
2. Pumps strike water via underletting the grist in the mash tun. I don't stir my grist. Joy killer?
3. Recirculates and temperature controls the wort during mashing. Lots of mashing profiles are possible with the BK adding an infusion step or the RIMS temperature stepping the mash.
4. Heats and pumps finished wort at "mash out" temperature to the BK.
5. Assists heating the BK wort to the boiling point. Using the RIMS-Pump System really speeds along the brew day.
6. Incorporating a Counter Flow Chiller into the RIMS-Pump System path (RIMS left turned off, of course) allows the wort to be cooled in the BK, which means all the trub, and hot and cold break are left in the BK and not transferred to the fermenter.

I realize a lot of you all use propane. The RIMS tube I use (brewhardware.com) uses a 120 volt 1650 watt element which can easily be incorporated into a propane system especially if you already use a pump. It might even be a gateway to an all electric system some day?

The attached picture shows my process during the post boil chilling phase. The mash tun, false bottom and brew bag are already cleaned at this point. Note the RO water barrel, the tipped mash tun table, the cart wheels, the simple silicone-barb connections and my "door hood" with fan hanging on hooks in the top of the door frame. All the equipment stores away very nicely.

 

[BarryBrews]

You all may have noticed the fact that I'm 2 vessel with RIMS tube bullish! It's versatile and simple to operate. And easily produces clear wort at every turn.

 

[Jako]

If you connect a wort pump to a RIMS tube, like I showed above, and use this setup in every phase of the brew day you will have complete control of your wort production. There is no vessel flow balancing needed, temperature control is easy and your mash will be crystal clear after 60 minutes of continuous recirculation. And all with 1 pump! As for the function and clean up of a mash tun, use a false bottom and a brew bag and never worry about a stuck mash and also enjoy the easy cleanup afforded by the brew bag.

How the RIMS-Pump System works...duh?
1. Pumps water into boil kettle (BK) (from a RO water barrel), then recirculates and assists the BK bringing the water to strike temperature.
2. Pumps strike water via underletting the grist in the mash tun. I don't stir my grist. Joy killer?
3. Recirculates and temperature controls the wort during mashing. Lots of mashing profiles are possible with the BK adding an infusion step or the RIMS temperature stepping the mash.
4. Heats and pumps finished wort at "mash out" temperature to the BK.
5. Assists heating the BK wort to the boiling point. Using the RIMS-Pump System really speeds along the brew day.
6. Incorporating a Counter Flow Chiller into the RIMS-Pump System path (RIMS left turned off, of course) allows the wort to be cooled in the BK, which means all the trub, and hot and cold break are left in the BK and not transferred to the fermenter.

I realize a lot of you all use propane. The RIMS tube I use (brewhardware.com) uses a 120 volt 1650 watt element which can easily be incorporated into a propane system especially if you already use a pump. It might even be a gateway to an all electric system some day?

The attached picture shows my process during the post boil chilling phase. The mash tun, false bottom and brew bag are already cleaned at this point. Note the RO water barrel, the tipped mash tun table, the cart wheels, the simple silicone-barb connections and my "door hood" with fan hanging on hooks in the top of the door frame. All the equipment stores away very nicely.

View attachment 718556

This is my exact build more or less at this moment. My rims heating element hated me and scorched all my wort.

 

[BarryBrews]

This is my exact build more or less at this moment. My rims heating element hated me and scorched all my wort.

I went electric about 3 years and 28 batches ago and have never had a scorching problem. With a RIMS the heating element must be turned off a minute or so before stopping the pump?

 

[Jako]

I went electric about 3 years and 28 batches ago and have never had a scorching problem. With a RIMS the heating element must be turned off a minute or so before stopping the pump?

I never timed it but I would let the pump run while I made sure boil kettle was ready for transfer.

 

[Bobby_M]

I love the idea of what you are saying but not sure how to effectively do a whirlpool and spray the top of the bed at the same time. Would a whirlpool be more important than to recirculation for the sytem? Should I install a 3 way valve on the pump outlet side so I can whirlpool and recirculate at the same time or rould it work well enough if the intake side were pulling from the whirlpool tube aimed at 45 degrees?

Love the idea but how do you do it in your system?

I definitely wouldn't describe the recirculation as "spraying" but this is how I do it:

 

[Jako]

I definitely wouldn't describe the recirculation as "spraying" but this is how I do it:

Dude I spent hours looking at parts last night to figure out a design like this