iphonedylan
Member
- Joined
- Oct 12, 2012
- Messages
- 14
- Reaction score
- 1
Brewers,
I need some assistance on a big decision. I've been mostly dormant the forums and only lurking since my "first brew night" in 2012. Needless to say, the first one turned out less than great trying a full 5 gallon extract boil on builder grade electric range. Never again.
A quick update: I'm finishing up my last deployment and moving to all grain this fall. I brewed ~10 extract kits this past fall in between deployments 3 and 4, and I have to say that they all turned out awesome. I've been on nice outdoor burner ever since brew number 2 and it's been working great. I built out a pretty nice 3 tap keezer that I don't have pics of at the moment, so still kegging. I'm wanting to go straight to 10 gallon all grain brews and I've been intrigued by www.TheElectricBrewery.com.
I'm separating from the military in 10 months and my wife and I recently had to buy a new home. I was disappointed that we weren't able to find a new place with natural gas like the old one, that was until I found Kal's site. I've been given the "unofficial O.K." to use our 3rd bedroom/bathroom as my "man room to do with what I wish." The room is small, next to the garage in a 3 bed/3.5 bath 3 story townhouse (to give a visual). There is room along the back wall for something similar to Kal's first electric brewery - sink, 5-6' brew table with 3 x 20 gallon kettles. On the other side of one corner wall is the sink in the bathroom, perfect for piggybacking a SS wash sink off of.
My big debate right now is a more "traditional HERMS system" like Kal's, OR, ordering a Brewha BIAC all-in-one conical. It has been recently discussed on the forum here. That thread starts as a discussion about the 3-in-1 kettle/conical fermenter, but a couple have ordered the Brew-In-A-Conical (BIAC) variety, including Jimmy82 who references it later in the thread.
A few points:
Price - the BIAC is expensive at ~$3700 shipped to the door but an Electric Brewery clone, for which I would definitely order Kal's panel kit, is well North of $5k, probably closer to $6k. I figure for < $4500, I could have a wicked BIAC set up including sink, work table, complete room, etc, and obviously the perks of a conical.
"Stuck with 10 gallons every 2 weeks" - I don't see this as an issue. Realistically, I can't forecast brewing every weekend when I'm home full time. Even if I wanted to go back to back or 2 weekends in a row, I'd merely have to forecast that ahead of time and go straight to fermenting into the carboys I already own after the boil, so 20 gallons in the same weekend is possible in a pinch (that'd be a hell of a pinch).
The pro's of the BIAC - I'm sure as anyone still reading will/does realize, there are virtually no con's to the BIAC as far as 10 gallons of all grain brewed electrically; it only has "pro's" in my opinion.
I'd really like all and any input from you more experienced brewers. The thought of building out something similar to Kal's electric brewery and "making it my own" is exciting and the BIAC is very tempting as a more "fiscally responsible" and probably better brewing set-up.
Help me!
from Afghanistan. Back in the States next month!
I need some assistance on a big decision. I've been mostly dormant the forums and only lurking since my "first brew night" in 2012. Needless to say, the first one turned out less than great trying a full 5 gallon extract boil on builder grade electric range. Never again.
A quick update: I'm finishing up my last deployment and moving to all grain this fall. I brewed ~10 extract kits this past fall in between deployments 3 and 4, and I have to say that they all turned out awesome. I've been on nice outdoor burner ever since brew number 2 and it's been working great. I built out a pretty nice 3 tap keezer that I don't have pics of at the moment, so still kegging. I'm wanting to go straight to 10 gallon all grain brews and I've been intrigued by www.TheElectricBrewery.com.
I'm separating from the military in 10 months and my wife and I recently had to buy a new home. I was disappointed that we weren't able to find a new place with natural gas like the old one, that was until I found Kal's site. I've been given the "unofficial O.K." to use our 3rd bedroom/bathroom as my "man room to do with what I wish." The room is small, next to the garage in a 3 bed/3.5 bath 3 story townhouse (to give a visual). There is room along the back wall for something similar to Kal's first electric brewery - sink, 5-6' brew table with 3 x 20 gallon kettles. On the other side of one corner wall is the sink in the bathroom, perfect for piggybacking a SS wash sink off of.
My big debate right now is a more "traditional HERMS system" like Kal's, OR, ordering a Brewha BIAC all-in-one conical. It has been recently discussed on the forum here. That thread starts as a discussion about the 3-in-1 kettle/conical fermenter, but a couple have ordered the Brew-In-A-Conical (BIAC) variety, including Jimmy82 who references it later in the thread.
A few points:
Price - the BIAC is expensive at ~$3700 shipped to the door but an Electric Brewery clone, for which I would definitely order Kal's panel kit, is well North of $5k, probably closer to $6k. I figure for < $4500, I could have a wicked BIAC set up including sink, work table, complete room, etc, and obviously the perks of a conical.
"Stuck with 10 gallons every 2 weeks" - I don't see this as an issue. Realistically, I can't forecast brewing every weekend when I'm home full time. Even if I wanted to go back to back or 2 weekends in a row, I'd merely have to forecast that ahead of time and go straight to fermenting into the carboys I already own after the boil, so 20 gallons in the same weekend is possible in a pinch (that'd be a hell of a pinch).
The pro's of the BIAC - I'm sure as anyone still reading will/does realize, there are virtually no con's to the BIAC as far as 10 gallons of all grain brewed electrically; it only has "pro's" in my opinion.
I'd really like all and any input from you more experienced brewers. The thought of building out something similar to Kal's electric brewery and "making it my own" is exciting and the BIAC is very tempting as a more "fiscally responsible" and probably better brewing set-up.
Help me!
from Afghanistan. Back in the States next month!