Ruby Street Fusion Electric system feedback

[pretzelb]

I was surprised to find an electric system that was fully assembled but I can't seem to find any posts or videos on the system. Has anyone has experience with this system?

http://www.ebrewsupply.com/alpha-ruby-street-fusion-15-brewing-system-electric.html

 

[Frostman]

I’ve owned this system for nearly 2 years. My project took much longer than I thought it would with additional refinements and additions. I’ve done 10 batches with it the past 10 months. I love it! The digital control takes getting used to, but once you get it dialed in, you’ll be on the road to consistency.

The owner’s manual could be a little more detailed, but eventually you will get it figured out by paying close attention to your grain bill temperature and spot on strike water setting above it.

I installed it myself in my basement. I ran 100 amps into my 105 sq.ft. Brew Cave so I could have both heating elements and pumps running simulaneously. I added a ventillation system to deal with the heat and humidity.

The HERMS coil has proven to really help dial in the mash temperature. I finally figured out that the coil needs to be completely submerged for optimum temperature control. I heat the strike water in the HLT. I’ve found that 8 or 9 F above mash temp works well for my 5 gallon batches. As I use the HLT for my sparge water,I first treat the entire cold 15 gallons to sparge with pH 5.2 - 5.4. Once I dial the pH in, I reserve a couple of gallons of cold water to later use to drop the HLT temp down from strike to mash temperature. I then heat the HLT to strike temperature and transfer my measured strike volume to the mash tun, mash in, then cool the HLT down to mash temp + 2 or 3 degrees F. Recirculating the wort through the HERMS coil with the wort pump lets you dial in and hold your mash temp. You can adjust by 1 degree increments putting the kettle lids on to raise and taking them off to lower.

Once your mash is complete you can mash out by raising the HLT temp till your mash temp hits your desired 168 - 170 mash out temp.

As you sparge and collect your preboil volume you can start heating the boil kettle as soon as the element is covered. You’ll be close to boiling when your sparge is complete.

I’m still using the plate chiller that comes with the system. I recirculate the boil through the plate chiller via the wort pump for the last 30 minutes to sanitize it.

Once the boil is over I turn on the cold water to the plate chiller and can pitch my yeast within 12 - 15 minutes. I recirculate during the chill using the wort pump to further speed things along and stir with a sanitized mash paddle or spoon to even the temperature throughout.

Having probe value temperatures on all 3 kettles is nice. The thermometer on the mash tun ought to have been positioned lower for use in smaller (5 gallon) batches.

The HERMS coil, pumps, dead spaces and hose volumes gradually revealed themselves and I’m now using a 8.5 gallon preboil volume to fill a 6 gallon primary and end up with a full 5 gallon keg.

The hop basket is very useful, though I think boosting the hop additions a bit is advised to get the same effect as a free hop addition.

I always transfer to a secondary as most of the trub ends up in the primary.

Cleaning with 150 F+ digital temperature control PBW solution in the HLT is nice. I place an extremely fine mesh SS strainer under the HLT return hose into the HLT and filter out bits of hops and grains and stuff till it runs clear. Closing and opening the valves on the discharge side of the pump sends bursts of fluid through the plate chiller that eventually knock everything loose. I’ve had no infection problems whatsoever thus far.

I carefully measured and marked the sight glasses on the HLT and Boil kettle. Of course the magic marker work off after a couple of batches. I then used a lable maker to precisely locate the level on the sight glass housing. Don’t be alarmed that the spacing is not uniform. There’s lots of stuff inside the kettle that causes this.

I live at 8000 feet and relentless wind made brewing with propane in an uninsulated garage less than desireable 12 months a year. I am very happy with this system. It’s pricey, but oh so nice to brew with. I’m always looking forward to brewing the next batch!

Cheers!

 

[jcav]

I know this is an old thread but I thought I would update in case anyone else is interested. I went to "Big Storm Brewery" in Pasco County Florida awhile back. They have an great large brewery on display and I saw they had a "Ruby Street" system set up as a pilot brewery to do test batches, so it must be a good reliable system.

John

 

[Frostman]

One final thought.... I should have bought the 20 gallon system. That way I’d be able to do a double batch and fill two kegs instead of 1. The 8.5 preboil volume for the single doesn’t leave enough room, but, I bought a set of 3 gallon kegs so I can play with secondary additions while maximizing the output of my brew days.

Frostman

 

[augiedoggy]

One final thought.... I should have bought the 20 gallon system. That way I’d be able to do a double batch and fill two kegs instead of 1. The 8.5 preboil volume for the single doesn’t leave enough room, but, I bought a set of 3 gallon kegs so I can play with secondary additions while maximizing the output of my brew days.

Frostman

Do you mean to say you cant brew a full 10 gallons with these 15 gallon electric kettles? If so im very confused by this statement as this is just a KAL clone of sorts and many do 10 gallon brews with the same system. even the product description says its for 10 gallon brew sessions.
I brew 11 gallon brews mainly with my 3 vessel electric system where the process is the same and use the very same 15 gallon kettle as my boil kettle? I average 91% efficiency this way with 1 gallon boiloff in an hour using 65% duty cycle. The only functional difference really is I use a rims. You can adjust your boiloff rate very easily with electric as well.

 

[Frostman]

I didn’t mean to say you can’t brew 10 gallons with this 15 gallon system. My desired goal, in the end, would be to fill 2 five gallon Cornies completely full. One can certainly fill 2 five gallon fermenters with the 15 gallon system with no trouble at all.

I use 6 gallon fermenters. With this system the trub ends up in the ferementer. Combined with the dead spaces, hose volume, plate chiller volume, HERMS volume, and avoiding racking yeast into the fermenter, etc., it seems as though I can’t achieve that volume without courting boilovers. I live in a high desert with minimal relative humidity where water boils at 197F and have been led to believe that longer boils are necessary to achieve the same utilization as those of you that brew at 300 ft.

 

[augiedoggy]

That is incorrect.. stronger boils can actually have a detrimental effect. I usually brew 10.50-11.50 gallon brews which my brewing friend and 8 split up into 2 5 gallon cornies.. the difference is we use a 12.5 or 14 gallon conical for fermentation but that's unrelated to this really.