Acknowledgements:
HomeBrewTalk: Thank you to the admins, mods, and everyone who contributes. I learn new things all the time from this site. Some of them even have to do with brewing!
Electric Brewing Supply: Thank you for your participation in the giveaways and excellent service. If anyone is thinking about an electric controller, Ryan and EBS are an excellent choice. I can tell you from personal experience that Ryan’s customer service is very good. He even answers emails on Sunday afternoon / evening while the Super Bowl is playing.
AJ deLange (and everyone else involved in this): Thank you for the Brewing Water Chemistry Primer.
wilserbrewer: Excellent bag and ratcheting pulley system for BIAB. His system is so much easier than holding the bag or using a stainless steel pasta strainer to drain.
fuzzywuzzy: Thank you for the BrewPi thread. This project was fun to do, works great, and gave some small physical proof to my wife that my Arduino/RaspberryPi fascination does have application beyond piles of little electronic parts!
Anthony_Lopez: Thank you for the stir plate thread.
Mellow52: Thank you for the wiring diagram in Anthony’s thread.
J_Hanna: Thank you for the Low bucks DIY multiple probe digital thermometer thread.
gr8shandini: Thanks for the PM at the end of the 2014 giveaway. I was in school and busy, so I might have missed the end of the contest without your heads up. If you are ever in Ohio, look me up - I owe you a few beers.
History:
My beer obsession started in the spring of 2008. My wife was going to buy me a Mr. Beer kit for my birthday. After some research, I bought a proper starter kit instead, along with a cheap stainless pot for an existing turkey fryer. I soon bought a larger, aluminum pot for the fryer and started doing some small BIAB batches on the stove.
The beers I made were drinkable, but they were nothing special. There was a homogeneous flavor profile to everything I brewed. If you had two different beers side by side, you could tell the difference and identify the styles, but flavor profiles were all very flat. In 2010, we moved. The beers got a little better but not anywhere near where I wanted. After reading through AJ’s ‘Brewing Water Chemistry Primer’ that Yooper posted here in HBT, I have come to the conclusion that a muted or flabby flavor profile caused by less than ideal water and high mash pH was the most likely source of this problem. No way to know for sure without going back, getting some of that water and buying a pH meter, but it makes sense with the information available in the primer thread and what I tasted.
In the fall of 2012 I started school, and the combination of school, work, and kids meant brewing became a luxury. The HomeBrewTalk 2014 Big Giveaway began the process of getting me brewing again. When I won the 30A BCS Control Panel from Electric Brewing Supply in the HomeBrewTalk 2014 Big Giveaway, I started working on a new system to brew indoors. In November of 2014, I finally realized that the kal clone herms system I wanted was just out of reach right now. I went through my existing equipment and finished the keggle I started in 2012. The BCS panel and keggle, along with a simple wood stand, a new stir plate, a crating solution for my 650+ beer bottles, some reworked electrical wiring, and a cleaned up corner of the basement gave me a working system. A grand slam kit from wilserbrewer and a 35' counter flow chiller finished the ensemble.
Today, I get to brew on an Electric BIAB system and use a BrewPi Fermentation Controller. I have been utilizing the "A Brewing Water Chemistry Primer" thread here on HBT for my water. Now that the first three beers on the new system are complete, I can say that the combination of a good water base, precise mash control from the BCS panel, and accurate fermentation control from the BrewPi has improved my beers quite a bit. I just acquired the equipment for oxygenating the wort, so that is the next step.
The Results:
Here are a few pictures of the system and my first three finished beers with this new system:
The Keggle and Pump Setup (I originally planned for a three vessel system. That did not work out - yet - but I am in the process of building a small, portable sous-vide controller that will allow me to simultaneously heat water in the HLT on the left. For the moment, the HLT is working on a regular basis as a sous-vide cooker.):
The BCS Control Panel and Computer:
Overview:
The first test boil:
The 35' counter flow chiller:
My house amber, a variation on KingBrianI's Caramel Amber Ale:
NO problem with head on this one!:
Cream of Three Crops:
Cream of Three Crops with apricot:
A big thank you to Ryan at Electric Brewing Supply, HomeBrewTalk, and everyone who participates in the forums.
Cody
HomeBrewTalk: Thank you to the admins, mods, and everyone who contributes. I learn new things all the time from this site. Some of them even have to do with brewing!
Electric Brewing Supply: Thank you for your participation in the giveaways and excellent service. If anyone is thinking about an electric controller, Ryan and EBS are an excellent choice. I can tell you from personal experience that Ryan’s customer service is very good. He even answers emails on Sunday afternoon / evening while the Super Bowl is playing.
AJ deLange (and everyone else involved in this): Thank you for the Brewing Water Chemistry Primer.
wilserbrewer: Excellent bag and ratcheting pulley system for BIAB. His system is so much easier than holding the bag or using a stainless steel pasta strainer to drain.
fuzzywuzzy: Thank you for the BrewPi thread. This project was fun to do, works great, and gave some small physical proof to my wife that my Arduino/RaspberryPi fascination does have application beyond piles of little electronic parts!
Anthony_Lopez: Thank you for the stir plate thread.
Mellow52: Thank you for the wiring diagram in Anthony’s thread.
J_Hanna: Thank you for the Low bucks DIY multiple probe digital thermometer thread.
gr8shandini: Thanks for the PM at the end of the 2014 giveaway. I was in school and busy, so I might have missed the end of the contest without your heads up. If you are ever in Ohio, look me up - I owe you a few beers.
History:
My beer obsession started in the spring of 2008. My wife was going to buy me a Mr. Beer kit for my birthday. After some research, I bought a proper starter kit instead, along with a cheap stainless pot for an existing turkey fryer. I soon bought a larger, aluminum pot for the fryer and started doing some small BIAB batches on the stove.
The beers I made were drinkable, but they were nothing special. There was a homogeneous flavor profile to everything I brewed. If you had two different beers side by side, you could tell the difference and identify the styles, but flavor profiles were all very flat. In 2010, we moved. The beers got a little better but not anywhere near where I wanted. After reading through AJ’s ‘Brewing Water Chemistry Primer’ that Yooper posted here in HBT, I have come to the conclusion that a muted or flabby flavor profile caused by less than ideal water and high mash pH was the most likely source of this problem. No way to know for sure without going back, getting some of that water and buying a pH meter, but it makes sense with the information available in the primer thread and what I tasted.
In the fall of 2012 I started school, and the combination of school, work, and kids meant brewing became a luxury. The HomeBrewTalk 2014 Big Giveaway began the process of getting me brewing again. When I won the 30A BCS Control Panel from Electric Brewing Supply in the HomeBrewTalk 2014 Big Giveaway, I started working on a new system to brew indoors. In November of 2014, I finally realized that the kal clone herms system I wanted was just out of reach right now. I went through my existing equipment and finished the keggle I started in 2012. The BCS panel and keggle, along with a simple wood stand, a new stir plate, a crating solution for my 650+ beer bottles, some reworked electrical wiring, and a cleaned up corner of the basement gave me a working system. A grand slam kit from wilserbrewer and a 35' counter flow chiller finished the ensemble.
Today, I get to brew on an Electric BIAB system and use a BrewPi Fermentation Controller. I have been utilizing the "A Brewing Water Chemistry Primer" thread here on HBT for my water. Now that the first three beers on the new system are complete, I can say that the combination of a good water base, precise mash control from the BCS panel, and accurate fermentation control from the BrewPi has improved my beers quite a bit. I just acquired the equipment for oxygenating the wort, so that is the next step.
The Results:
Here are a few pictures of the system and my first three finished beers with this new system:
The Keggle and Pump Setup (I originally planned for a three vessel system. That did not work out - yet - but I am in the process of building a small, portable sous-vide controller that will allow me to simultaneously heat water in the HLT on the left. For the moment, the HLT is working on a regular basis as a sous-vide cooker.):
The BCS Control Panel and Computer:
Overview:
The first test boil:
The 35' counter flow chiller:
My house amber, a variation on KingBrianI's Caramel Amber Ale:
NO problem with head on this one!:
Cream of Three Crops:
Cream of Three Crops with apricot:
A big thank you to Ryan at Electric Brewing Supply, HomeBrewTalk, and everyone who participates in the forums.
Cody
