BIAB to Electric Brew

[bondra76]

Hoping you e-brewers can help a rookie out.

I currently have a BIAB All-Grain set up. I’m going to start going down the road of the electric brewery, but like everyone else in this economy I can’t just splurge on a $5K brewery in one paycheck.

Soooo…I want to build an E-Brewery over time. I do want it to be a professional job and to follow The Electric Brewery book for the most part with high quality / new equipment. My current BIAB setup is a 12 gallon aluminum pot with a weldless thermometer on it and your typical turkey fryer propane set-up.

My question is this – I want to start buying a building some components. Every payday I do have a good $100-$200 to spend on the equipment to build this thing overtime. I’d love to piece together parts that I can actually use until the whole thing gets going. So, building out from a BIAB system to a E-Brewery 3-Tier Setup, which pieces would you build first? Should I buy a mash tun first? A HLT? I’ve considered a HLT but I’m not sure how a HLT could improve my existing BIAB process.

My only real restriction is that I’d like to keep my existing kettle and I do want to move from a BIAB to 3-tier setup. I will replace my kettle someday – but it would probably be the LAST thing I buy in this whole process.

Any suggestions or has anyone already done this?

 

[boondocksaint]

I'm interested to see the replies to this. I'm more or less in the same spot. Same BIAB/turkey frier burner. Also building a Kal clone in my garage. I found a couple of Keggles on CL and picked them up for a good price. They were cut but that's about it. I cleaned up the cuts but haven't done anything else with them yet. I bought a control panel kit and started on that first mostly because I knew it would take me the longest.

Good luck with your build!

 

[Thedutchtouch]

I am also in the same boat. I decided to build a keggle for BIAB. I cut the opening very large, removed most of the collar except for the handles, and sanded the rim smooth. I have it set up with a jaybird false bottom, which while redundant during the mash, serves well in the boil kettle to strain out the hops/trub from the wort when draining to the fermenter. When/if I go to a 3 vessel system I can use it as either boil or mash, and build/buy the other.

 

[doug293cz]

EDIT: realized post was off topic, and the question asked should really be its own thread.

Brew on

 

[brum]

A couple things that come to mind would be a March/Chugger pump for recirculating during mashing and moving water around. Then maybe a plate chiller or good counterflow chiller.

I'm kinda in the same boat as you budget wise but I'm going to just do stovetop BIAB's until I can piece together the whole electric setup.

 

[Bill_in_VA]

It depends on what your goals are. If you are wishing to move indoors primarily then putting an element in your BK with a controller would come first and do eBIAB. If you want to increase your mash temp control then RIMS tube, pump and controller. What equipment you already have also comes into play. Are you immersion chilling, CFC or plate? You said you were thinking of going to a 3 vessel 3 tier system. Are you leaning towards RIMS or HERMS?

I'm currently building a system part-by-part too with <$100 a paycheck to put towards it. 2 years in and I'm finally down to the "short strokes".

 

[bondra76]

Thanks guys for your comments.

I think I am going to get a chugger or a chiller at first. I'm doing immersion chilling right now and honestly I hate it. I've moved since I started brewing and my water source now spits out at about 72 degrees. It takes FOREVER to get down to where I need to be. I'm thinking about getting the chugger so I can both recirculate wort while I'm mashing and also to recirculate ice water when I'm chilling.

Honestly I might start a DIY thread or something as I go through all these steps of purchasing and putting together things. I do want a 3 tiered Electric RIMS system.

 

[doug293cz]

To all participants in this thread. I would appreciate your opinions in the poll I started here. The comments in this thread are what got me curious enough to create the poll. In fact, my earlier retracted post in this thread was asking the question in the poll.

Brew on