Cedar Rapids Brewing Society

bf514921 wrote:I have seen that ebrewsupply has a brew in a bag controller that looks pretty good, you could also use it to control a 2 or three vessel if you are willing to switch cables during brew day

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Yup, that one made it to my spreadsheet also. Comes in a kit or fully assembled.

Friend of mine bought the kit, he is still working on assembly

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Anyone want to assemble mine? HAHA

I actually used my homemade recirculating eBIAB on my last two brews... It's pretty ghetto but it mashes and boils. About two more weeks until the first is ready to drink but green and flat the stout wasn't bad...
You gotta admit, that is about as ghetto as it gets, but it all works extremely well. Yes there is a Spa Panel GFCI in there.. I made that and the control box so I can take it out in the garage in the summer if the humidity and heat becomes a problem inside. The control box uses a reused MyPin TA4 PID which doesn't have a manual mode so I added (because it was cheaper for me) a series "SSVR" (phase control dimmer) with it's own heatsink. I blow a boxer fan through the box and the whole thing is pretty happy. The recirc pump is a "12V Solar Food grade" from China. The "sparge ring" is PEX with holes drilled into it and a valve (on the output of the pump) to regulate flow. The input is indeed on a valve but it's run only fully open as you can see in the last picture. The jet burner is only being used as a stand. It took me six months to gather most of this stuff.. most is Amazon/China and e-bay/China, but I say "cut the middle man out!" The temp probe is a pt100 RTD and I did calibrate the PID at boil and it is one of the most accurate thermometers that way in the house...

Bag? Wilsenbrewer.. good Black Friday deal so I bit on the whole kit with the ratcheting tie-down pulley too. Seems fine for the purpose.

I cut 3/16" LDPE tubing to put on the hole in the top of the keg as a gasket so that bag won't snag, that it probably the most brilliant idea I had in 2015. Use kitchen shears and it works fine.

But it's not rocket science and.. well.. life is so much easier. It's not really faster.. maybe 25 minutes.. but I'm inside and it cleans up faster.

Fred

How are you heating the keggle?

The keggle is heated with a 4500W ULWD (marked as such anyway) element I bought from Home Depot as a close out for $12 (when they were changing brands of elements). I had a little food grade paint left from a project years ago, so I painted the base of the element with that stuff and have no issues with rust. Alternatively you can buy a stainless or a brass based element. I would recommend it for the small incremental cost difference (about $40).

There is a Pt100 RTD with a 1/2 NPT thread (same as your normal kettle thermometers) perpendicular to the element at about the same level. I calibrated that with boil at my altitude 919 ft or so (Google Earth) and that's 210.5F almost exactly.. so the offset was set there. From Mash temp to boil it is within 1F of the best thermometer I own...

That closes the loop on the PID.

If you look that the picture of the hot break you will see the outline of the element in that picture. I selected that picture because I thought it looked cool...

If you need more details, I will work on getting them together. I've been asked to put something together for the setup both on Home Brew Network on Facebook and on Home Brew Talk. I need to stay late one night and whip off a Word Doc and a Visio Schematic, but it's really quite simple...

Do you have a false bottom or is the bag in contact with the element? Didn't know if the bag would melt?

Stupid question: How do you keep from melting your bag?

Sorry, can't resist!

I keep my bag away from anything over 100F!

Medicated Gold Bond Powder.

Okay.. it's not stainless and it's not aluminum.. spare me the food grade comments.. whatever this marvel of engineering is coated with seems to be neutral to wort as much as it is pizza. $1 ... Dollar Tree... the wire? Surplus Teflon wire .. silver plated copper internally.. I use it to pull out the ghetto false bottom when I pull the bag.
Having said that, I think as long as there is water in there.. the bag wouldn't melt anyway but this is cheap insurance...

Fred

Does that pan sit on top of the element, that is, is that pan touching the element?

Yes, sir.. the current carrying part of the element is actually inside of the element for safety so it's okay to do this.. I believe that is even the case on the all stainless elements.. this one is the actually superior "black" element.. I forget the name of the material.

Even the hop "torpedo" touches.. no problems there either.

Fred

UndeadFred wrote: this one is the actually superior "black" element.. I forget the name of the material.
Fred

Incoloy