Wow, do I love electric!

[Cromwell]

I finally got the electric system together enough to brew a batch. I don't have much of a control panel - just a PID, an SSR, and a temp sensor with power in and out. And I don't have the HERMS setup yet. Just an electric HLT, an igloo MT, and an electric BK.

But boy oh boy, this was WAY better than trying to do this on the old BBQ burner!

I did a cereal mash with 2 lbs of rice on the stove, and it took way longer than I thought, but the HLT just kept the water at exactly the right temp for whenever I was ready. Nice. And gravity-fed fly sparging is actually easier than batch sparging.

So even though this was a loooong brew day (because of the aforementioned cereal mash and the 90 minute boil and a ton of cleaning), it came out really good.

So, thanks to HBT, Kal, P-J and everyone else who's helped me get here.

 

[ChuckO]

Take your time designing a complete system. It's much better to do lots of research and planning before jumping in. I did a pencil sketch of my design and then did a simple schematic of the wiring first. Then I imagined each step in the process and how I would use the equipment in my design. Went through lots of pencils and paper before I put the first hole in a kettle.

 

[jsguitar]

Gonrats and welcome to electric brewing! It's the best thing I've done for my process so far. Still tweaking lots of things though and probably will be for a while.

 

[Cromwell]

Yep, it's a process. For me this is a hobby, and hobbies are evolving and on-going. That's one of the things I like about brewing beer - you can do it with almost no knowledge, but you can almost continually learn more and get better. So I don't have the ultimate electric system yet, but going electric was a huge jump for my process.