Advice for Electric Set Up - Repeatability

[triple7scc]

I have been lurking and reading this forum and several other sources for months and am confused what direction I should go.

Please help me figure out direction for my new home brew hobby. I am currently military however I am thinking once I'm finished in the Army of opening a small brewery or brewpub. I am brand new but have watched others do home brew sessions. There are so many choices between 3 vessel, biab, rims, and herms I not sure where I should spend my money. I prefer to buy prebuilt but if I have to I will DIY.

These are my requirements.
- 5 Gallons batches with no motive to move up. (I am looking to get as many brews under my belt in the next few years and don't drink that much or want to giveaway too much)

- Repeatability (I want to create a couple of recipes that I can repeat so repeatability is one of the most important things to me not just good beer)

- Electric (I live in Manitoba where we have had several -40 F days and its going to get colder so its way to cold in my shed for propane. I do have a 30 Amp Dryer outlet to use in the basement.)

- Versitile to brew different types of beer.

- Controlled Fermentation (Fermentation Chamber temperature controlled)

I have looked at the electricbrewery Highgravity electricbiab and Braumeister just not sure which is best for me. I will only have about $3000 for everything including fermentors. Thanks in advance for any help anyone give me.

 

[sennister]

Another place to look is http://www.ebrewsupply.com/

I just ordered the 50A BCS DIY Complete kit.

They have a 30A kit which is a little cheaper.

There are benefits to each.

BIAB is a little cheaper to get started with a $3K budget you might need this route but it depends on what you have already and what you need.

RIMS is nice, it reacts to temp changes quicker than HERMS but since the heat is applied in direct contact to the Wort there is a little more of a chance of scorching. HERMS that isn't an issue but it can react more sluggishly to step mash changes. I am going HERMS personally.

To give you an idea on costs. I am looking at $1300 for the panel. $100 per kettle to electrify. $140 per pump (need 2). Hoses and fittings will run about $300. At this point you still don't have any kettles (didn't say what you have) or fermentation chamber and you are running low on your budget.

Fermentation chamber can be a chest freezer with a STC-1000 controller. That isn't that expensive and there are other options.

 

[triple7scc]

Thanks for the reply.

I currently don't have any equipment so I would be starting from scratch. I have look at ebrewsupply as an option. I originally was looking at getting a basic controller from still dragon DIY or the basic $250-$300 one from highgravity. I was planing on getting that for the boil kettle and getting a 10 gallon rubbermaid cooler mash tun. Since I want repeatability I wasn't sure this kind of set up would cut it.

I looked at the electricbiab and Braumeister which look like I could acheive the repeatability but not sure if a herms would be better.

 

[iijakii]

An electric BK with a PID controller and a cooler mashtun is great. With the cooler mashtun you don't need all of the fancy/expensive HERMS/RIMS setups because they don't lose temperature at all during mash. Heat up your strike water in kettle, recirculate it through the cooler to pre-warm it, then pump it all in and mash in there, close the lid and you're gold. Heat up your sparge water in the BK and pump it over to another pot/cooler then drain/sparge all back into your BK and boil as usual. You could get everything for a thousand. The question you need to decide on is if you want to go simple and practical, or blingy and stainless.

 

[Call_Me_Tex]

After a lot of consideration on my side I'm leaning towards working with the keggles I have a while longer until I save up enough to spend a similar amount on a whole new system.

What I have in mind now is a BK, MLT, and HLT setup from Stout Tanks in 15G size and electric element ports. That will run around $1600 for the HERMS setup I want. This will do 5G batches easily with room to spare for high gravity beers or the occasional 10G batch in preparation for events.

Add to that an EBC III from High Gravity for about $850.

This will leave roughly $550 to handle a pump, temp controller, and used frige for ferm chamber.

I already have a keezer and ferm chamber so the remaining budget for me will cover the GFCI breaker in my garage sub panel and a cheap table to put it all on.

 

[BadNewsBrewery]

This may seem a little off point, but my suggestion would be to skip all of this and start with a 2-3 gallon pot, your stove, and a basic homebrew kit. You say you don't really drink a lot of beer, you don't really want to give a lot of beer away, and you've never brewed before. But you're also talking about spending $3k+ and talking about opening a brew-pub.

If I were to tell you that I'd never given anyone a haircut before, but that I've had my hair cut hundreds of times, and I want to gut my living room and install a high-end expensive barber shop - that might seem strange. Wouldn't sound advice be for me to get a pair of clippers and a stool and give a few haircuts first to see if I'm any good at it, if I actually like it, and to figure out where I want to go from there?

I'm all for jumping into things, but being military myself I know that our kind has a tendancy to want to jump head-first into EVERYTHING, and often we find that the pool isn't quite as deep as we hoped.

For the price of a 3 gallon pot, a carboy, a bucket, and a few odds and ends - you can be brewing 5gal extract batches on your stove. Knock a few out, see if you enjoy the process and the science behind it. See if you find your beer to be tasty. Start to develop and mature your recipes. If you do all that and decide you really want to go whole-hog - you can reuse MOST of the equipment, and you'll have a better idea of what you want. If you decide that brewing isn't for you, or maybe you just want to keep it a small hoby - you're out a fraction of what you would have spent on a larger system.

Just my $0.02 - good luck with whatever you opt to do.

-Kevin

 

[heckels]

this may seem a little off point, but my suggestion would be to skip all of this and start with a 2-3 gallon pot, your stove, and a basic homebrew kit. You say you don't really drink a lot of beer, you don't really want to give a lot of beer away, and you've never brewed before. But you're also talking about spending $3k+ and talking about opening a brew-pub. If i were to tell you that i'd never given anyone a haircut before, but that i've had my hair cut hundreds of times, and i want to gut my living room and install a high-end expensive barber shop - that might seem strange. Wouldn't sound advice be for me to get a pair of clippers and a stool and give a few haircuts first to see if i'm any good at it, if i actually like it, and to figure out where i want to go from there? I'm all for jumping into things, but being military myself i know that our kind has a tendancy to want to jump head-first into everything, and often we find that the pool isn't quite as deep as we hoped. For the price of a 3 gallon pot, a carboy, a bucket, and a few odds and ends - you can be brewing 5gal extract batches on your stove. Knock a few out, see if you enjoy the process and the science behind it. See if you find your beer to be tasty. Start to develop and mature your recipes. If you do all that and decide you really want to go whole-hog - you can reuse most of the equipment, and you'll have a better idea of what you want. If you decide that brewing isn't for you, or maybe you just want to keep it a small hoby - you're out a fraction of what you would have spent on a larger system. Just my $0.02 - good luck with whatever you opt to do. -kevin

+1

 

[LordUlrich]

The reality is that there are a ton of options for a brew system. The reality is most of the answers come down to personal preference. I do suggest brewing a few batches, and try to figure out a process that works for you, and select a system that matches how you brew.

On starting a brewery, this is not something to take lightly. Professional brewing is more about selling beer than making beer. Selling beer is not anywhere as easy as it sounds. Also keep in mind when you are making beer you are not selling beer, while many people have succeeded in opening their own breweries, they have also been making excellent and consistent beer for many years before opening a brewery.

 

[triple7scc]

Thank everyone for the responses I will take the advice to heart. I will start the stove top extract batches as I'm building my electric set up.

 

[augiedoggy]

After a lot of consideration on my side I'm leaning towards working with the keggles I have a while longer until I save up enough to spend a similar amount on a whole new system.

What I have in mind now is a BK, MLT, and HLT setup from Stout Tanks in 15G size and electric element ports. That will run around $1600 for the HERMS setup I want. This will do 5G batches easily with room to spare for high gravity beers or the occasional 10G batch in preparation for events.

Add to that an EBC III from High Gravity for about $850.

This will leave roughly $550 to handle a pump, temp controller, and used frige for ferm chamber.

I already have a keezer and ferm chamber so the remaining budget for me will cover the GFCI breaker in my garage sub panel and a cheap table to put it all on.

I build my 10 gallon batch capable herms setup for well under $1000.... including pumps control panel plate chiller and three paid setup with two elements. And a manual control capable bk pid controller.
I also built a st1000 based temp controller for $30. And a stir plate for my yeast for free and one to mix water in the hot/herms tank for $20. You can find a lot of good ideas on YouTube...
I used a keggle HLT and $40 10 gallon igloo cooler mt from amazon vs paying $150 for someone else to set a $10 false bottom in and $10 stainless ball valve on it...
Bought a new 13 gallon stainless pot for my bk for $74 shipped from eBay.
Also I went with 12v solar FDA food grade pumps at 20-30 a piece (I even bought an extra and still only spent a third of the cost of one march pump.) If they don't work out well I may upgrade but it worth a shot.
You can find practically new freezers and fridges on Craigslist for peanuts thanks to stupid kids who move every few months and the +80% current divorce rate

 

[Call_Me_Tex]

I build my 10 gallon batch capable...p

If you have time to build, it's much more affordable. In my case I barely have enough time for my wife, kid, parents, church, and work. I feel guilty enough taking most of a day to brew and clean up since my daughter is too young to do it with me.

If I'm going to upgrade without it taking years doing it a little at a time, I'm going to have to buy most of my setup turn key.