Stout Kettles powered by BCS Build

[tator2k]

FF wasn't refreshing fast enough for me either.

 

[sandyeggoxj]

Well, my brew day was successful! I just tasted a hydrometer sample and yum. I did screw up a bit and got 84% apparent attenuation with 001 and went from 17.8P to 3.3P yielding around 8.3%ABV. That is no longer an IPA. Whoops. It tastes great.

Things to do for this weekends brew:

1. Tighten up mill gap. I got around 72% efficiency, but I can get quite a bit more out of it without hitting tannin extraction or stuck sparges.
2. Preheat water in the BK so that I can reheat the HLT faster after I dough in.
3. Run som 5-star acid #5 through the HEX when I am done and see how clean it is after 2 batches. I ran 45 minutes with warm PBW last time while I cleaned other things.

For as many variables as I had first batch I am very happy with the result. Now I get to start dialing things in and that should be just as much fun as building!

So far I am loving this setup. What a move forward it is from life in the kitchen and extract. That being said I still brew with buddies that use extract and we have a great time and brew great beer. What an amazing hobby that it can be so diverse. I really love brewing and I tend to be a homebrew and craft beer evangelist.

Next step is ordering my brewhemoth finally and then switching to a glycol system for temp control. That will start on Monday.

 

[globetrekker]

Wow looks great!
I am building a 20 gallon stout tank system as well. What plans are you going off? Even though I work on multi-million dollar jets airliners for a living I don't feel I can design this thing myself. Still in debate whether I will go gas or electric. I live in 220v land so I am not sure if I want to rewire my house so I can run a 3phase brewery. We will see. Anyhow love your work on this.
Cheers
Paul in Sydney

 

[sandyeggoxj]

Hey globe trekker. Sorry I can't help. I'm not really following any particular plan. I just make it up as I go. I did read a ton on this forum and inevitably was influenced by that.

 

[globetrekker]

Wow you must be an electronics engineer on the side to just come up with your own panel. The rest of us need to follow someones schematic so we dont burn something expensive down. Which is why I think I will go the gas route and just stick to manual with a couple of PIDs set up and incremently move up from there. Plus with gas your not restricted by where you plug in as you wont need 3 phase power to brew.

 

[Boar Beer]

globetrekker
FYI electric is cheaper and much easier to work with. I have run both and Love the electric set up.

Wow you must be an electronics engineer on the side to just come up with your own panel. The rest of us need to follow someones schematic so we dont burn something expensive down. Which is why I think I will go the gas route and just stick to manual with a couple of PIDs set up and incremently move up from there. Plus with gas your not restricted by where you plug in as you wont need 3 phase power to brew.

 

[flugelizor]

It's good to hear you were successful.
Do you have a current picture of the system?

 

[SkipR]

SCott-
That is what I ended up doing. Works fine.

I am working more bugs out with my BCS programming right now. Just moving some water around. Currently running the "mash."


I did have another BCS question: how do I associate a different temp probe with a different output? I have a temp probe in my BK but since I only have 2 heating element outputs and 2 pump outputs the BCS is associating the BK temp probe with pump 1. I can't figure out how to change that?

Go to edit process
process set up
page down to Miscellaneous State Properties
go to Alternate PID
you can change temp probe association to output scorce...
Enjoy

 

[sandyeggoxj]

Go to edit process
process set up
page down to Miscellaneous State Properties
go to Alternate PID
you can change temp probe association to output scorce...
Enjoy

Thanks! I am gone for the weekend but when I get back I'll give that a whirl and report back.