Pictures of first brew day with eBIAB

Electric panel heating the 58F water up to strike temp


Strike water heating up in the kettle


Homemade yeast slant is propagated up to a yeast starter.


2000 ml yeast starter


In about 20minutes water has reached the correct temperature


Malt crushed up


Mashing in


Removing the grain


I needed 8.7 gallons pre-boil, dang close


Obligatory homebrew while making homebrew. For a year old hoppy wheat it held up nice


Almost to a boil


Measured out the first hop addition. 1oz of Cascade and 1oz of Centennial hops added with 15 minutes left in the boil


While waiting for the boil I package up the spent grain for re-use


First hop addition going in


Measured out second addtion, 1 oz of Cascade and 1 oz of Citra at 5 minutes left in the boil


Measured out the final hop addition, 2 oz of Citra at flameout


Chilling the wort


Was aiming for 1.050


Aerating the wort


Pitching yeast


Mass amount of trub from 6oz of hops


I save all the extra wort that is left over and pressure can to use later in yeast starters


Finishing up

Looks great -- way to go! What kind of hop screen are you using in your kettle? I am nearing the end of an eBIAB build and I was planning to gravity feed a CFC but I was concerned it may clog without the pull of a pump. Clearly that is not a problem for you. Thank you!

I use the blichmann hopblocker. Has always worked very well for me

8 hours later I have a nice full krausen. In a couple more days I will chill it down and then dry hop with 1 oz of whole citra hops

just curious, what do you do with the spent grain? interested as to why you are packaging it

I save it and give it to a lady who makes dog treats with it

Nice eBIAB setup. What is your brew house efficiency for eBIAB? Did it change much compared to traditional AG sparge process?

BigFloyd said:

Thanks for the report and pics.

What bag is that you are using that has handles for hoisting? I rather like that.

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I got mine from http://www.bagbrewer.com/ and have really enjoyed it. It is very strong and cleans easily.

jCOSbrew said:

Nice eBIAB setup. What is your brew house efficiency for eBIAB? Did it change much compared to traditional AG sparge process?

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While this was my first eBIAB I got 72% brew house efficiency. I was averaging around 75% before with a traditional sparge and separate vessels. The very slight decrease is an easy price for me to pay with the ease of brewday and clean up. I shaved over an hour off my day with how fast this heats up and comes to a boil.

AlphaWolf-Brewery said:

While this was my first eBIAB I got 72% brew house efficiency. I was averaging around 75% before with a traditional sparge and separate vessels. The very slight decrease is an easy price for me to pay with the ease of brewday and clean up. I shaved over an hour off my day with how fast this heats up and comes to a boil.

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Thats what I was going to ask about, the time savings. I am thinking I am going to go with a eBIAB build soon for the time saving and ease of everything. What element are you using? Are you glad you made the switch? What were you using for your 3 vessel setup?

Thanks
Jake

Hey Jake,

I am very happy I made the switch. The ease of the brew day really lets me focus on producing the best possible beer without worrying about my system. I set the mash temp and then an alarm sounds when it is time to add the grain. No over shooting temps, no adding boiling water, just correct temps. Then when it is time to boil it takes no time at all. I never have to worry about running out of propane and can brew inside without CO dangers. I have a 5500 watt ULWD element installed. To be honest I actually enjoyed building the control panel and learned a lot along the way.

AlphaWolf-Brewery said:

Hey Jake,

I am very happy I made the switch. The ease of the brew day really lets me focus on producing the best possible beer without worrying about my system. I set the mash temp and then an alarm sounds when it is time to add the grain. No over shooting temps, no adding boiling water, just correct temps. Then when it is time to boil it takes no time at all. I never have to worry about running out of propane and can brew inside without CO dangers. I have a 5500 watt ULWD element installed. To be honest I actually enjoyed building the control panel and learned a lot along the way.

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Thanks for the link to the bag. I'll be ordering one of those.

I'm in the process of building my "simple" panel right now (about 85-90% completed). Be aware going into this that it is quite a bit of wiring. Get ready to invest some time, especially if you solder every connector as I have (and recommend).

One of the handiest gizmos you can have doing a project like this is one of these - http://www.amazon.com/SE-MZ101B-Helping-Hands-Magnifying/dp/B000RB38X8/ref=pd_sim_sbs_misc_2 to hold what you are soldering. I simply dip the wire end in flux, crimp a connector on, clip it in the helping hands, heat it well and do a quick touch of solder. I do not like having wires pull out of crimp connectors. Soldering also lessens the chance of resistance at the connection.

I am constantly thankful to P-J for his schematics. I would not have tackled this without his help.

If you have a proper crimp you shouldn't need solder. Crimped is the standard in far more demanding applications such as airplane wiring.

I dont feel it is necessary to solder all the connections, it certainly wont hurt anything but I think it is overkill. Also while pictures make it look like a lot of wiring I didnt feel it was bad at all. Everything was very straight forward, to be shy about starting a project like this.

orangehero said:

If you have a proper crimp you shouldn't need solder. Crimped is the standard in far more demanding applications such as airplane wiring.

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+1 a properly crimped joint should withstand plenty of abuse. Good crimpers have thick jaws and long handles so you can exert plenty of force. I use these ones from Channelock.

AlphaWolf-Brewery said:

While this was my first eBIAB I got 72% brew house efficiency. I was averaging around 75% before with a traditional sparge and separate vessels. The very slight decrease is an easy price for me to pay with the ease of brewday and clean up. I shaved over an hour off my day with how fast this heats up and comes to a boil.

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Nice, another eBIAB convert.
I also appreciate the the minimal cost, equipment, and time to produce good AG beer with BIAB.

Also appreciate the consistency, if I want the next brew to be slightly drier I can mash 2 degrees lower without a problem. Before I could try that but would fluctuate much more than this system does.

Are you maintaining temp in any way or are you just letting the mash sit?

I leave the PID on at the mash temp I want and give it a stir every so often. I also draw off a few quarts and pour back in on top of the mash.

AlphaWolf-Brewery said:

Hey Jake,

I am very happy I made the switch. The ease of the brew day really lets me focus on producing the best possible beer without worrying about my system. I set the mash temp and then an alarm sounds when it is time to add the grain. No over shooting temps, no adding boiling water, just correct temps. Then when it is time to boil it takes no time at all. I never have to worry about running out of propane and can brew inside without CO dangers. I have a 5500 watt ULWD element installed. To be honest I actually enjoyed building the control panel and learned a lot along the way.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the response. I was 80% sure I wanted to go this direction and I think you made it 98%. Thanks again

Glad it helped, the only thing I still think would help would be a pump for recirculation. I added a plug and switch for it in the control panel just need to get the funds to purchase one.

Added a recirculation pump to the system. Took a little bit of work finding the correct flow rate of the pump but overall it worked well. The pump also sucked more junk through the hop blocker than gravity did but I'm sure I can find a solution. Hit all the numbers good. 5 gallons of brett trois ipa

6 batches in on this system and still enjoying it. The only problem I ever encounter is getting the correct recirculation rate so the pump doesnt pull more liquid from under the bag faster than it can drain through. Still trying to find a solution, maybe a more course bag?

AlphaWolf-Brewery said:

6 batches in on this system and still enjoying it. The only problem I ever encounter is getting the correct recirculation rate so the pump doesnt pull more liquid from under the bag faster than it can drain through. Still trying to find a solution, maybe a more course bag?

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Why not put a valve on the outlet side if the pump to throttle it down to desired flow?

uberg33k said:

Why not put a valve on the outlet side if the pump to throttle it down to desired flow?

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I have was just hoping I could run it more open