So glad you put the camera on the therminator gauge, that was crazy fast chilling. I've had to adjust my hop schedule until I got the right addition times, because my wort chiller takes too long. This is the fist time I've actually seen how fast a block chiller really works.
Just a couple tips : - recirculate your hlt to reduce the uneven heating of the water before doing the mash. -put your grains in the mash tun and pump the water in from under the grain. This will reduce the grain ball effect. Then draw from under the bed and pump to the top. -reduce your pump volume when recirculating to prevent compacting the grain bed. Looks like a great system. Like all the shiny stainless. A digital power meter is a nice addition ($15 ebay) Have you calibrated the PID and other thermometers ? I have found them to be off. See your directions on how to do this mine were off by 2-3 degrees. Electric brewing is the way to go, of my 23 yrs homebrewing, the last 8 have been done with electricity. I don't miss the burners. Thanks for the vids, nice job, keep spreading the love of electric brewing. NUbrewer out.
Awesome tips Paul, thanks for sharing! I'm definitely in agreement, electric brewing is awesome. So far, things have gone great and I'm loving it. Thanks again for your tips, I'll be sure to give some of them a try for sure!
Yes. Heat energy doesn't disperse throughout the water instantaneously. It "travels" throughout the system via convection(throughout liquid) and conduction(metal/liquid). Circulation of the water is referred to as forced convection in heat transfer terminology. Convection, when not boiling, is actually pretty slow and leads to measurable temperature gradients. This is one of the reasons that RIMS systems should really be designed to maintain relatively high circulation rates to increase the convective heat transfer rate near the heating element, while minimizing the "boundary layer" thickness, and avoid excessively high temperatures near the heating elements (i.e avoid caramelization and scorching). This is less important when using ultra-low watt density elements like the Blichmann coils, but those don't fit in a RIMS tube very well...
I just started to brew and its nice to watch more pro guys to brew :) I am using same yeast. I was impressed how clean smell that yeast gives. I started to make wines and probably not going back it anymore. Beer has place in my chest, mouth and heart :)
Next brew day can you include your clean up process? One of the reasons, other than cost that I have not moved to this type of setup is that I image the clean up process is a nightmare. If you don't mind, I would love to see the clean up as well.
That is something I have made a note to do a video on! I have never been asked to do a cleanup portion of the video, so I will aim to film a bit of my cleanup and talk about it a little. Thanks for the idea!
Awesome set up Joe. That IPA sounds good and looked pretty clear coming out of that tip into the fermenter. Watched the full video it was good to see a brew video again it's been awhile. Brew on!! Cheers 17!!
Joe, your videos are always, ALWAYS fun to watch, including your mistakes. You have such a positive attitude. Keep on keepin' on, brother! Tip one back for me.
Hey Joe great videos I've been following you since the build of your new system, I'm saving up for one to buy next year. Anyway when you put your other probe into your mashtun you have to remember that there is a factory default on every thermomitor about 1 to 2 % plus or minus on the accuracy of the reading or actual temp even on digital themomitors so if your a 100deg you could be 98deg or 102deg somewhere between there. Thanks for the videos again.
Great first brew mate! As a single vessel BIAB brewer I was really interested to see how a 2 vessel system would work. Thanks for video, I look forward to seeing the next brew day.
Do you think you'll ever miss the ol' cooler mash tun and propane burner? Haha, nice video Joe, always a pleasure to watch. Your videos were the only thing that made me try all grain brewing and I'll never look back now, LOVE IT! Going on my third batch now and it is game changing! Cheers
Awesome, thank you for the kind words Brandon! I think I will miss the old setup for nostalgic reasons, but the efficiency upgrades with the new setup here are pretty hard to not LOVE! LOL Thanks for watching man, Cheers!
you will love the plate chiller it's a huge one too .The temprature differential could be 1 of 2 things. Either it's the accuracy of the PID probe that is off or it is those heavy pots sinking a bit of heat. Try some kind of temporarary insulation on the pots and also try to keep lids on them. Seems a pretty sweet setup.
Thank you very much for your comments, and for the ideas about insulating the kettles. I suppose now that it is electric and not propane, I can do that! Yet another thing I completely didn't think of... Thanks for the ideas!
I have thought also of meaking it possible to us the plate chiller during recirculation if I ovetshoot. I don't have much money to build my new controller att them moment though. Off course it's electric now but potentially you could insulate with fibreglass/alu foil pads designed for cars and close it up with aluminium tape even for a propane setup. I know that thermocouples used in soldering irons can be off by a couple of degrees. In that application it doesnt matter but in brewing the calibartion error could potentially be the difference between a light and a full bodied beer so calibrathing it agains a known good probe is pretty essential. You are doing great joe and I hope the language barrier isnt making my comments to unbarable. (English is my third language so sometimes it can be a bitt rambly).
Oh wow, I had no idea English wasn't your first language! I understand everything you're saying perfectly well. I had another UA-camr comment that my PID may not have been calibrated for the sensors I am using, so I changed a setting in my PID and things seem to be working better. I think I could still insulate the system to keep everything at a more even temperature, just to help even further. Thank you again for your kind words about my videos! And thank you even more for watching! :-)
I noticed your GFCI is within spill range of your brew setup. A good splash could really do you harm as it won't protect you when it hits the supply side.
Awesome and welcome to electric brewing. Now you can get involved in discussion like debating the value of hot side LoDO and PH manipulation. Are you sure its a 550 W and not a 5500W element? 159? wow... it may be a little sweet, but it looks like your found 152 fairly quickly. Like others have mentioned, let everything stabilize and recirc prior to dough in and you'll get higher efficiency, better results and shorter brew sessions. You're going to love how much better your beers will be. When I went from coolers, a turkey fryer and buckets to electric keggles and pumps my consistency went to about 99.9%, efficiency topped 80% and over all beer quality got better too. Congrats!
also the "temp delta" you discuss @ 28:00, may be a subtle difference in probe accuracy between your thermocouple and your regular old thermometers. If you're convinced it's actually thermal loss (I'm not so convinced), you could insulate your tanks with insulation of many different kinds. 2 degrees isn't much, but without a cold wind blowing through your brew corner of the basement, I doubt you're getting much more than 0.25 degrees of thermal loss. Alternatively, you might consider getting into the settings on your PID and make a temporary thermocouple temp sensor correction of +2, so that your digital temp reads the same as the anolog thermometers. YMMV.
Tips that got me beyond efficiency expectations: were using a PH stabilizing buffer addition to the mash. I use "5.2" brand. Also lingering a little while longer before mashout at that magical 168 all sugar disolving temp. It takes a time and flow for the entirety of the grain to get up to temp and be completely washed with 168 degree wort.
Cracking first brew Joe looks a good brew, might try doing a rims brew set up using Hermes at the moment so that should be a fun project. All good fun. Cheers. Jim
That's an awesome system! Congrats!! Now that you have a cool system & already have fermentation temp control, how about ditching the 5.2 stabilizer/buffer & dialing in your water profile to match the style brewed with salt/mineral additions?
I could certainly do that! I have a small RO system here at the house that, if I planned accordingly, could pull plenty of RO and build the water from scratch. I do like the way my beers turn out with the tap water, so maybe just using phosphoric to adjust the PH could be a nifty next step... Thanks for commenting Rob!
With the beveled bottom will the mash tun operate while sitting on top of the boil kettle? You could get rid of the trash can and give you more room to work. The boil kettle would preheat the mash tun as well.
Not really, they're not designed to be stacked. The lid is heavy duty and could probably hold the weight, but the handle would get in the way of it sitting level... I'm guessing the right person could mod it just fine and possibly save some space, for sure!
my favorite line was the one about the autotune lol. great video watched it start to finish. im wondering now could i run a 2 vessel brew day using my digiboil and cooler mash tun with a pump? hm....
I know this is an older video, but do you have an equipment profile for this system? I have the same set up with Spike kettles and am trying to dial it in.
Right! We do carry them at my homebrew shop, same price as everywhere else online. I can also special order several other brands of them, so if you're looking for one, shoot me an email at the shop and I will see what we can do! Cheers!
Hello, i m curious about your efficiency on mash with that system. How much water dis you use on each vessel on mash and the water/grain ratio? Thanks for sharing!
Joe, are you having to re-cal (re auto tune) when connecting the thermal-couple back to the BK? I have completed pretty much the same setup except my mash t/c is connected on the output of the mash, rather than the input at the auto-sparge. I tend to get all sorts of crazy readings when switching back and forth. Thanks, Todd.
Great video! Quick question, did your brewing software tell you how much water to have to start or how did you figure that? Like a few other have stated i think I'm going to try something similar. Already have my Spike kettle (love it) and will just modify my cooler mash tun and control the heat from my burner manually for now. Seems to look like a much more stream line and time efficient process which I'm ALL about!! Thanks again! Cheers!!
question if I could...my RIMS power cable has for 4 male connectors coming out ....shaped like a " U" on top , two parallel blades on the sides , and an "L" shape on bottom ....my dryer outlet however has an "I" on top and two slanted "I" shapes on the sides...I guess the old school way . Did you come across this problem ? Is there an adapter do you know to overcome that issue ? THanks...love this video ...I have watched it a lot ! - Scott
Great video on your first Brew Station ! You can calibrate your sensors on your PID controller. Adjust your (PS b) setting to -2 (negative 2) and your sensor will be calibrated to your thermometers on your Boil and Test Thermometer. Cheers - 17
Interesting... I'm going to tinker with this for sure! I've also had folks recommend moving the sensor to the bottom of the mash tun so it reads the coolest temp, but I was then worried that the top of the grain bed might get too hot... This calibration technique might be just what the doctor ordered!
Lemmingsrun mentioned it and I was wondering too about the missing sparge step in your process. It would seem a third vessel, a purpose built HLT tank would be needed. Will that be in the works for a later update to your electric brewery ? Awesome set up and great brew vid as usual. Cheers !
Hey Todd! For my system, there is no need for a sparge. The wort continually circulates during the mash, so it is constantly sparging itself during the mash. I then just drain it all off to the boil kettle and bring it up to heat! No need for a third vessel, which saves a lot of money too! :-)
CAN YOU PUT A SPRAY OR SHOWER HEAD ABOVE THE GRAIN BED TO GET A MORE EVEN FLOW? I MAY NOT KNOW WHAT I'M TALKING BUT BUT THAT'S WHAT CAME TO MIND. GREAT VIDEO BROTHER CONGRATS GOD BLESS
Could do that, but the circular motion the autosparge makes should be enough to keep it pretty even. I also rake the grain bed every 15 minutes or so to make sure there is no channel. I will look into possibly putting some sort of sparge head in there if it winds up helping the system perform better! Cheers!
Hey Joe, have you considered underletting rather than filling from the top for the initial dough in? I know its something Harry favors at the idle valley brewery.
I have not, I hadn't actually heard of doing that until starting to read through these comments. Why would someone do that versus just pouring the grains in like I did? Would love to hear if it is a better technique overall, or if it is easier for certain brew setups...
+terpsichoreankid From what I understand is it avoids dough balls/clumping by letting water slowly rise from the bottom and its easier with larger grain bills as you just dump grains in and pump in water from bottom. I've never done it but seen others do it with success on UA-cam.
sooo question if i just bought the spike brewing electric system do you think i can use my home electricity? would it be enough voltage to be able to run the system?
Oh no, I still have the FastFerment conical and am using it regularly! Wound up putting this one in a bucket so it would fit in my fermentation chamber, which is an old dorm fridge and way too small for the FastFerment.
Just a question........don't you have to add water to makeup at different points? Do you just pour the water direct into boil kettle and it heats it and brings back to temp?? Do you think it effects the temperature you are trying to hold? I assume not since you have such a large heating element.
No, with this style brewing, you utilize all your water right at the very beginning. I have no problem heating things up with the 5500w element. It raises approx 12F a minute!
Great stuff Joe! How did you "rustproof" your heating element connection at the boil kettle? You mentioned it being one of the concerns during the build. Or is your solution shown in one of the other videos in the series?
I mention it quickly in a past video, but in a nutshell I actually bought a different heating element that is completely stainless steel. That way I don't have to worry about rusting at all, and don't have to rust-proof the tightening nut at all. Almost double the price for my new element, but it is working beautifully and I can't imagine I will wear it out anytime soon!
Hey joe, maybe I'm missing it but are you using a RIMS tube or double duty the boil kettle As the RIMS vessel as well? If so, that's a great idea and seems to make everything a bit simpler.
Howdy! Yep, it's a two vessel RIMS, so there is no RIMS tube or third vessel for heating. The boil kettle doubles as the hot liquor tank, and the entire volume of water recirculates during the mash, so there is no sparging either! It's incredible how much time it saves me. Cheers!
great set up! maybe one day for me! Do you share your recipes on BeerSmith Cloud? or even just an attached link to a pic of the recipes would be great if your happy to share.
Awesome setup brother. Do you by any chance have a 3-wire diagram that I could use? I've been looking for one, but all I see are 4 wire diagrams. Cheers
Joe, love you channel! I learned quite a bit and would like to model my system off yours. When you use the plate chiller do you recirculate it back into the boil kettle until all the liquid has equalized in temperature or do you go from the plate chiller directly into your fermenter?
I haven't actually, because everyones is going to be a little bit different. It's not cheap, that's for sure, but it is definitely cheaper than a BrewEasy, Ruby Street, Brew Magic, etc.
So you are not using a HERMS coil in the HLT/BK? I was just curious when you started recirculating it looked like you were just just taking the wort out of the mash tun and running it into the water in the HLT/BK. So is the system supposed to be full volume no sparge. Seems like a cool idea for a compact system without the traditional 3rd vessel.
Correct! I'm not using a HERMS coil in this system. With this setup (two vessel RIMS) the boil kettle is also the hot liquor tank. So when I started recirculating the wort, what you were seeing was the wort mixing in with the rest of the hot water to begin the recirculation. And yep, this is a no-sparge system! Nifty, eh? It also saves a lot of money and space not having to have a third vessel with a coil in it. Cheers!
You could certainly do a RIMS with propane, in fact Blichmann has a version that does just this and powers the propane burner via a controller. All depends on how you want to set up your system.
Yep, just a little extra wort impacts your OG fairly significantly. These pots don't boil off as much as my old pot did, so I need to get used to that...
The pump draws wort out of the BK, and pumps it into the MT, so it can't simultaneously draw from the MT at the same time (or create pressure in the MT to push wort out). The system relies on gravity for that, which is better, because it won't suck the grain bed down.
Great video, brotha! One question, I noticed you have your mash tun elevated higher than your boil pot, couldn't you have it at the same level since you are necessarily gravity feeding the system and are using a pump? Looks like a lot of fun, though.
Alpha liquefies the simple starch chain called amylose. Liquefication takes place at a 1-4 link. When Alpha liquefies amylose, two chains are formed. The name changes. A non-reducing end chain and a reducing end chain are formed. The reducing end will continue to be liquefied by Alpha because the chain contains 1-4 links in its structure. When Alpha can no longer reduce the chain non-fermentable sugar is left, sweet flavor. Once in a while limit dextrin will form which is not sweet, it is tasteless. Randomly, nature will add a 1-6 link, however, not enough limit dextrin forms from the reducing end to introduce body. Complex starch is responsible for body, amylo-pectin bursts, and the starch bursts at 168F at a slow rate. Boiling the mash will cause amylo-pectin to enter into solution, rapidly. When amylo-pectin forms, enzymes switch gear and enzymatic action slows down. Dextrinization occurs at 149F. The non-reducing end chain is glucose, a simple sugar and Alpha cannot liquefy it. During the maltose rest, which was not employed, Beta will convert glucose into maltose and maltotriose, complex types of sugar. Beta enzyme chops off two glucose molecules off of the chain and maltose is formed. When three glucose molecules are lopped off by Beta maltotriose forms. Due to Beta being much weaker and less prolific than Alpha, the rest period time for Beta is stretched out. During secondary fermentation a type of conversion occurs. Yeast will absorb maltose and expel glucose through the cell wall, which is then fermented. The oxidizer is contained within the molecular structure of the sugar. During aging yeast will convert maltotriose into glucose causing natural carbonation. There is really no need to prime nor artificially carbonate beer when a brewing method is employed which creates the right circumstances. The single method is a testing method used in a malt house and the method limits the user to produce only home made beer which is a far cry from world class styles of beer such as IPA. Art and science are involved in brewing beer. Single method is lacking in both.
Hey Lemmings, you are correct! This system does not require a sparge. The entire water volume is added right at the very start of the brew day, then as mashes, the wort continually recirculates and it essentially sparges itself while it is mashing. Then it's just a quick drain to the boil kettle and then power up the element to the boil.
Hey Shaun, I just replied to Lemmings, and it is in fact a no-sparge system! The entire liquid volume is added at the beginning of the mash, and throughout the duration of the mash the wort recirculates constantly and effectively sparges itself while it is mashing. Then it's off to the boil!
Some other folks have recommended that too. I have also been told there is a way to calibrate the PID and adjust for the temp. variance, so there are lots of possibilities to fine tune it! Thanks for the idea!
At this point, I'm not supporting any of the candidates... This election cycle is going to be a weird one. I'm looking forward to more debates and really looking into candidates closer to voting day!
So glad you put the camera on the therminator gauge, that was crazy fast chilling. I've had to adjust my hop schedule until I got the right addition times, because my wort chiller takes too long. This is the fist time I've actually seen how fast a block chiller really works.
Just a couple tips :
- recirculate your hlt to reduce the uneven heating of the water before doing the mash.
-put your grains in the mash tun and pump the water in from under the grain. This will reduce the grain ball effect. Then draw from under the bed and pump to the top.
-reduce your pump volume when recirculating to prevent compacting the grain bed.
Looks like a great system. Like all the shiny stainless.
A digital power meter is a nice addition ($15 ebay)
Have you calibrated the PID and other thermometers ? I have found them to be off. See your directions on how to do this mine were off by 2-3 degrees.
Electric brewing is the way to go, of my 23 yrs homebrewing, the last 8 have been done with electricity. I don't miss the burners. Thanks for the vids, nice job, keep spreading the love of electric brewing. NUbrewer out.
Awesome tips Paul, thanks for sharing! I'm definitely in agreement, electric brewing is awesome. So far, things have gone great and I'm loving it. Thanks again for your tips, I'll be sure to give some of them a try for sure!
terpsichoreankid z
Can you really have uneven heating of water? In theory it should all rise in temp equally as heat is absorbed by the liquid?! Asking for a friend..
Yes. Heat energy doesn't disperse throughout the water instantaneously. It "travels" throughout the system via convection(throughout liquid) and conduction(metal/liquid). Circulation of the water is referred to as forced convection in heat transfer terminology. Convection, when not boiling, is actually pretty slow and leads to measurable temperature gradients. This is one of the reasons that RIMS systems should really be designed to maintain relatively high circulation rates to increase the convective heat transfer rate near the heating element, while minimizing the "boundary layer" thickness, and avoid excessively high temperatures near the heating elements (i.e avoid caramelization and scorching). This is less important when using ultra-low watt density elements like the Blichmann coils, but those don't fit in a RIMS tube very well...
(-reduce your pump volume when recirculating to prevent compacting the grain bed) What did you mean by this Paul?
I just started to brew and its nice to watch more pro guys to brew :) I am using same yeast. I was impressed how clean smell that yeast gives. I started to make wines and probably not going back it anymore. Beer has place in my chest, mouth and heart :)
That was fun to watch! Congratulations on your first brew with your new equipment. Can't wait to see the final results.
Thank you very much! Me either!!!
Next brew day can you include your clean up process? One of the reasons, other than cost that I have not moved to this type of setup is that I image the clean up process is a nightmare. If you don't mind, I would love to see the clean up as well.
That is something I have made a note to do a video on! I have never been asked to do a cleanup portion of the video, so I will aim to film a bit of my cleanup and talk about it a little. Thanks for the idea!
Awesome set up Joe. That IPA sounds good and looked pretty clear coming out of that tip into the fermenter. Watched the full video it was good to see a brew video again it's been awhile. Brew on!! Cheers 17!!
Thank you very much! Cheers!
Joe, your videos are always, ALWAYS fun to watch, including your mistakes. You have such a positive attitude. Keep on keepin' on, brother! Tip one back for me.
Thank you very much!
Really cool two vessel setup. Funny stuff glad to see someone with a sense of humor. Cheers
Hey Joe great videos I've been following you since the build of your new system, I'm saving up for one to buy next year. Anyway when you put your other probe into your mashtun you have to remember that there is a factory default on every thermomitor about 1 to 2 % plus or minus on the accuracy of the reading or actual temp even on digital themomitors so if your a 100deg you could be 98deg or 102deg somewhere between there. Thanks for the videos again.
Cheers Joe (17) enjoy the fruits of your labor as SJ would say. Awesome video thank you.
nice to see someone other than myself doing a 2 vessel setup!
Great first brew mate! As a single vessel BIAB brewer I was really interested to see how a 2 vessel system would work. Thanks for video, I look forward to seeing the next brew day.
Thank you! Working on that as we speak! :-)
Do you think you'll ever miss the ol' cooler mash tun and propane burner? Haha, nice video Joe, always a pleasure to watch. Your videos were the only thing that made me try all grain brewing and I'll never look back now, LOVE IT! Going on my third batch now and it is game changing! Cheers
Awesome, thank you for the kind words Brandon! I think I will miss the old setup for nostalgic reasons, but the efficiency upgrades with the new setup here are pretty hard to not LOVE! LOL Thanks for watching man, Cheers!
I really wanted to see the trub cone in your boil kettle from all the whirlpooling! Great video.
LOL! Will have to remember that for a future video!
I a fan of your videos. they all seem to be a fun adventure
Thank you!
Well done Joe!
Thanks Shannon!
you will love the plate chiller it's a huge one too .The temprature differential could be 1 of 2 things. Either it's the accuracy of the PID probe that is off or it is those heavy pots sinking a bit of heat. Try some kind of temporarary insulation on the pots and also try to keep lids on them. Seems a pretty sweet setup.
Thank you very much for your comments, and for the ideas about insulating the kettles. I suppose now that it is electric and not propane, I can do that! Yet another thing I completely didn't think of... Thanks for the ideas!
I have thought also of meaking it possible to us the plate chiller during recirculation if I ovetshoot. I don't have much money to build my new controller att them moment though. Off course it's electric now but potentially you could insulate with fibreglass/alu foil pads designed for cars and close it up with aluminium tape even for a propane setup. I know that thermocouples used in soldering irons can be off by a couple of degrees. In that application it doesnt matter but in brewing the calibartion error could potentially be the difference between a light and a full bodied beer so calibrathing it agains a known good probe is pretty essential. You are doing great joe and I hope the language barrier isnt making my comments to unbarable. (English is my third language so sometimes it can be a bitt rambly).
Oh wow, I had no idea English wasn't your first language! I understand everything you're saying perfectly well. I had another UA-camr comment that my PID may not have been calibrated for the sensors I am using, so I changed a setting in my PID and things seem to be working better. I think I could still insulate the system to keep everything at a more even temperature, just to help even further. Thank you again for your kind words about my videos! And thank you even more for watching! :-)
'Without further adoo' gets me every time haha love it!
Cheers! :-)
Thank you for sharing this video! Motivates me a lot to start my own home brew system!
You are too much fun Brew Master. I love the dogs.
Haha-thanks!
I just place my order with Spike for the same system. I got 15 gal kettles though. Looking forward to using them.
Awesome ! Going to finish watching at home
Cheers!
Great video. Your new setup is awesome!
Thank you!
Great video Joe. I would like to see some of your cleanup at some point in the future. Especially how to clean the chiller.
Thanks Geoff! I will make a note of that. I had never considered doing a cleanup video, but I suppose it is relevant!
I noticed your GFCI is within spill range of your brew setup. A good splash could really do you harm as it won't protect you when it hits the supply side.
Damn, this is so nerdy....... I fkn love it.. haha! awesome stuff. Woho..... Cheeeeers !
LOL Thanks!
awesome video, hope you recorded more brew days on your new system.
Absolutely will! I'm actually working on one right now!
Awesome and welcome to electric brewing. Now you can get involved in discussion like debating the value of hot side LoDO and PH manipulation. Are you sure its a 550 W and not a 5500W element? 159? wow... it may be a little sweet, but it looks like your found 152 fairly quickly. Like others have mentioned, let everything stabilize and recirc prior to dough in and you'll get higher efficiency, better results and shorter brew sessions. You're going to love how much better your beers will be. When I went from coolers, a turkey fryer and buckets to electric keggles and pumps my consistency went to about 99.9%, efficiency topped 80% and over all beer quality got better too. Congrats!
also the "temp delta" you discuss @ 28:00, may be a subtle difference in probe accuracy between your thermocouple and your regular old thermometers. If you're convinced it's actually thermal loss (I'm not so convinced), you could insulate your tanks with insulation of many different kinds. 2 degrees isn't much, but without a cold wind blowing through your brew corner of the basement, I doubt you're getting much more than 0.25 degrees of thermal loss. Alternatively, you might consider getting into the settings on your PID and make a temporary thermocouple temp sensor correction of +2, so that your digital temp reads the same as the anolog thermometers. YMMV.
Thank you! Yeah, I'm digging electric so much as it is, can't wait to get more brews under my belt and get it really dialed in.
Tips that got me beyond efficiency expectations: were using a PH stabilizing buffer addition to the mash. I use "5.2" brand. Also lingering a little while longer before mashout at that magical 168 all sugar disolving temp. It takes a time and flow for the entirety of the grain to get up to temp and be completely washed with 168 degree wort.
Very cool! Will have to remember this one for the next brew day!
Cracking first brew Joe looks a good brew, might try doing a rims brew set up using Hermes at the moment so that should be a fun project. All good fun. Cheers. Jim
Awesome! Thank you for watching and commenting Jim! Cheers!
That's an awesome system! Congrats!! Now that you have a cool system & already have fermentation temp control, how about ditching the 5.2 stabilizer/buffer & dialing in your water profile to match the style brewed with salt/mineral additions?
I could certainly do that! I have a small RO system here at the house that, if I planned accordingly, could pull plenty of RO and build the water from scratch. I do like the way my beers turn out with the tap water, so maybe just using phosphoric to adjust the PH could be a nifty next step... Thanks for commenting Rob!
With the beveled bottom will the mash tun operate while sitting on top of the boil kettle? You could get rid of the trash can and give you more room to work. The boil kettle would preheat the mash tun as well.
Not really, they're not designed to be stacked. The lid is heavy duty and could probably hold the weight, but the handle would get in the way of it sitting level... I'm guessing the right person could mod it just fine and possibly save some space, for sure!
my favorite line was the one about the autotune lol. great video watched it start to finish. im wondering now could i run a 2 vessel brew day using my digiboil and cooler mash tun with a pump? hm....
I know this is an older video, but do you have an equipment profile for this system? I have the same set up with Spike kettles and am trying to dial it in.
Can you do a video of your fermenting chamber and the equipment you use? Thanks
god DAMN that wort chiller is incredible! may need to look into getting myself one..
Right! We do carry them at my homebrew shop, same price as everywhere else online. I can also special order several other brands of them, so if you're looking for one, shoot me an email at the shop and I will see what we can do! Cheers!
Great Video! Super jealous of the setup!
Great vid. Can't wait to see how the evil Amarillo IPA turns out.
Thank you! I'm excited to see how it turns out too! Smelled awesome when I kegged it... now just waiting for carbonation...
Hello, i m curious about your efficiency on mash with that system. How much water dis you use on each vessel on mash and the water/grain ratio? Thanks for sharing!
What do you use for your brewing calculations on your 2 vessel system? do you use any specific software or do you do your own?
Great video Joe!! Thank you. 17 to you!
Thanks Brain! 17!
Joe, are you having to re-cal (re auto tune) when connecting the thermal-couple back to the BK? I have completed pretty much the same setup except my mash t/c is connected on the output of the mash, rather than the input at the auto-sparge. I tend to get all sorts of crazy readings when switching back and forth. Thanks, Todd.
Great video. Fantastic system. Thanks for sharing. Cheers.
Thank you!
Great video! Quick question, did your brewing software tell you how much water to have to start or how did you figure that? Like a few other have stated i think I'm going to try something similar. Already have my Spike kettle (love it) and will just modify my cooler mash tun and control the heat from my burner manually for now. Seems to look like a much more stream line and time efficient process which I'm ALL about!! Thanks again! Cheers!!
Water temperature coming from water tap is where it stop dropping 👍
question if I could...my RIMS power cable has for 4 male connectors coming out ....shaped like a " U" on top , two parallel blades on the sides , and an "L" shape on bottom ....my dryer outlet however has an "I" on top and two slanted "I" shapes on the sides...I guess the old school way . Did you come across this problem ? Is there an adapter do you know to overcome that issue ? THanks...love this video ...I have watched it a lot ! - Scott
Amazing as usual, makes me want to go electric.
Thanks Roberto!
Noticed your engineering ring. Fellow engineer!
Great video on your first Brew Station ! You can calibrate your sensors on your PID controller. Adjust your (PS b) setting to -2 (negative 2) and your sensor will be calibrated to your thermometers on your Boil and Test Thermometer. Cheers - 17
Interesting... I'm going to tinker with this for sure! I've also had folks recommend moving the sensor to the bottom of the mash tun so it reads the coolest temp, but I was then worried that the top of the grain bed might get too hot... This calibration technique might be just what the doctor ordered!
Just messed with them, and they're spot on now. Thank you! I shall be giving you a shout out in my next video!
Lemmingsrun mentioned it and I was wondering too about the missing sparge step in your process. It would seem a third vessel, a purpose built HLT tank would be needed. Will that be in the works for a later update to your electric brewery ? Awesome set up and great brew vid as usual. Cheers !
Hey Todd! For my system, there is no need for a sparge. The wort continually circulates during the mash, so it is constantly sparging itself during the mash. I then just drain it all off to the boil kettle and bring it up to heat! No need for a third vessel, which saves a lot of money too! :-)
It's not autotume like "oh it's not doing that" Hahaha, that made me laugh.
:-D
hilarious!
CAN YOU PUT A SPRAY OR SHOWER HEAD ABOVE THE GRAIN BED TO GET A MORE EVEN FLOW? I MAY NOT KNOW WHAT I'M TALKING BUT BUT THAT'S WHAT CAME TO MIND. GREAT VIDEO BROTHER CONGRATS GOD BLESS
Could do that, but the circular motion the autosparge makes should be enough to keep it pretty even. I also rake the grain bed every 15 minutes or so to make sure there is no channel. I will look into possibly putting some sort of sparge head in there if it winds up helping the system perform better! Cheers!
just my 2 cents love the channel GOD BLESS
Hey, you bet! I love hearing different ideas and seeing what I can learn from them! Cheers contreeman!!!
Hey Joe, have you considered underletting rather than filling from the top for the initial dough in? I know its something Harry favors at the idle valley brewery.
I have not, I hadn't actually heard of doing that until starting to read through these comments. Why would someone do that versus just pouring the grains in like I did? Would love to hear if it is a better technique overall, or if it is easier for certain brew setups...
+terpsichoreankid From what I understand is it avoids dough balls/clumping by letting water slowly rise from the bottom and its easier with larger grain bills as you just dump grains in and pump in water from bottom. I've never done it but seen others do it with success on UA-cam.
Interesting... I will have to give it a try in a future video! Never heard of that process before today!
sooo question if i just bought the spike brewing electric system do you think i can use my home electricity? would it be enough voltage to be able to run the system?
that's a nice setup Joe. Now send me some of your homebrew 📫
Haha! Thanks!
I’m trying make this same set up. What is the name the fitting to hook up my temperature probes into my 1/2 tee, thanks Cheers👍👍🍻
Noticed you used a bucket to ferment your beer. Didn't you have a Fast Ferment conical or did send it back.
Oh no, I still have the FastFerment conical and am using it regularly! Wound up putting this one in a bucket so it would fit in my fermentation chamber, which is an old dorm fridge and way too small for the FastFerment.
Just a question........don't you have to add water to makeup at different points? Do you just pour the water direct into boil kettle and it heats it and brings back to temp?? Do you think it effects the temperature you are trying to hold? I assume not since you have such a large heating element.
No, with this style brewing, you utilize all your water right at the very beginning. I have no problem heating things up with the 5500w element. It raises approx 12F a minute!
Does the autosparge connect to spikes npt ports? Is that half or full thread?
Great stuff Joe! How did you "rustproof" your heating element connection at the boil kettle? You mentioned it being one of the concerns during the build. Or is your solution shown in one of the other videos in the series?
I mention it quickly in a past video, but in a nutshell I actually bought a different heating element that is completely stainless steel. That way I don't have to worry about rusting at all, and don't have to rust-proof the tightening nut at all. Almost double the price for my new element, but it is working beautifully and I can't imagine I will wear it out anytime soon!
Hey joe, maybe I'm missing it but are you using a RIMS tube or double duty the boil kettle As the RIMS vessel as well? If so, that's a great idea and seems to make everything a bit simpler.
Howdy! Yep, it's a two vessel RIMS, so there is no RIMS tube or third vessel for heating. The boil kettle doubles as the hot liquor tank, and the entire volume of water recirculates during the mash, so there is no sparging either! It's incredible how much time it saves me. Cheers!
great set up! maybe one day for me!
Do you share your recipes on BeerSmith Cloud? or even just an attached link to a pic of the recipes would be great if your happy to share.
how much extra water. I was over 1 gal with 75% eff. and it dropped around .006
Awesome setup brother. Do you by any chance have a 3-wire diagram that I could use? I've been looking for one, but all I see are 4 wire diagrams. Cheers
I don't unfortunately... My friend Erik took care of all that for me!
That Therminator chilling rate is ridiculous! What was your ground water temp.?
This chill rate is awesome!. But before I run out to buy a plate chiller, what WAS your ground water temp?
What efficiency do you get on that system?
I would like to know what this set-up costs. I'm looking hard at the Breweasy!
Joe, love you channel! I learned quite a bit and would like to model my system off yours. When you use the plate chiller do you recirculate it back into the boil kettle until all the liquid has equalized in temperature or do you go from the plate chiller directly into your fermenter?
He recirculated it into the BK then aerated it into his fermenter I believe
You should try a kettle spider next time with 9 x 15 hop bag.
Will have to consider that!
I'm not sure if you mentioned it already, but approximately how much does a system like this cost?
I haven't actually, because everyones is going to be a little bit different. It's not cheap, that's for sure, but it is definitely cheaper than a BrewEasy, Ruby Street, Brew Magic, etc.
Curious why you still use 5.2 stabilizer when most of what I've read has said it's useless at best.
do you see a heavy spike in the electric bill?
Are the hops pellets or whole leaf?
Why not build a little closer to the floor to avoid clearance issues?
So you are not using a HERMS coil in the HLT/BK? I was just curious when you started recirculating it looked like you were just just taking the wort out of the mash tun and running it into the water in the HLT/BK. So is the system supposed to be full volume no sparge. Seems like a cool idea for a compact system without the traditional 3rd vessel.
That's what I'm trying to figure out. Might configure my system to something like this and see how it goes
Correct! I'm not using a HERMS coil in this system. With this setup (two vessel RIMS) the boil kettle is also the hot liquor tank. So when I started recirculating the wort, what you were seeing was the wort mixing in with the rest of the hot water to begin the recirculation. And yep, this is a no-sparge system! Nifty, eh? It also saves a lot of money and space not having to have a third vessel with a coil in it. Cheers!
terpsichoreankid I’ll be positing a video soon of my brew system inspired by this one!
Could this rims system work with a propane burner and no temp controller?
You could certainly do a RIMS with propane, in fact Blichmann has a version that does just this and powers the propane burner via a controller. All depends on how you want to set up your system.
are you still brewing and what happen to the video I love them
Is that a 240v setup or a 120v?
hey joe i was wondering if you have a link to an ESB all grain recipe that you like?
I don't really have a link to one, but I will look through my files and see if I have one from one of my past brew days!
did you dry hop?
the reason for your final gravity being off could be your boil off rate. your boil looked a little bit low. higher boil off Rate = higher sugar
Yep, just a little extra wort impacts your OG fairly significantly. These pots don't boil off as much as my old pot did, so I need to get used to that...
Very cool.
Thank you!
Why do you need to lift the mash tun if you are using a pump anyway?
The pump draws wort out of the BK, and pumps it into the MT, so it can't simultaneously draw from the MT at the same time (or create pressure in the MT to push wort out). The system relies on gravity for that, which is better, because it won't suck the grain bed down.
Which PID did you end up using???
The one from Auber Instruments!
Great video, brotha! One question, I noticed you have your mash tun elevated higher than your boil pot, couldn't you have it at the same level since you are necessarily gravity feeding the system and are using a pump? Looks like a lot of fun, though.
The mash is gravity fed to the hot liqueur/boil kettle. The pump is to feed from hot liqueur kettle into the mash tun
+drykill8 ah, ok. That makes sense. I guess he would have to have a second pump to set them at the same level.
What drykill8 said! :-)
what material is the hose?
Silicone hose
Alpha liquefies the simple starch chain called amylose. Liquefication takes place at a 1-4 link. When Alpha liquefies amylose, two chains are formed. The name changes. A non-reducing end chain and a reducing end chain are formed. The reducing end will continue to be liquefied by Alpha because the chain contains 1-4 links in its structure. When Alpha can no longer reduce the chain non-fermentable sugar is left, sweet flavor. Once in a while limit dextrin will form which is not sweet, it is tasteless. Randomly, nature will add a 1-6 link, however, not enough limit dextrin forms from the reducing end to introduce body. Complex starch is responsible for body, amylo-pectin bursts, and the starch bursts at 168F at a slow rate. Boiling the mash will cause amylo-pectin to enter into solution, rapidly. When amylo-pectin forms, enzymes switch gear and enzymatic action slows down. Dextrinization occurs at 149F.
The non-reducing end chain is glucose, a simple sugar and Alpha cannot liquefy it. During the maltose rest, which was not employed, Beta will convert glucose into maltose and maltotriose, complex types of sugar. Beta enzyme chops off two glucose molecules off of the chain and maltose is formed. When three glucose molecules are lopped off by Beta maltotriose forms. Due to Beta being much weaker and less prolific than Alpha, the rest period time for Beta is stretched out.
During secondary fermentation a type of conversion occurs. Yeast will absorb maltose and expel glucose through the cell wall, which is then fermented. The oxidizer is contained within the molecular structure of the sugar. During aging yeast will convert maltotriose into glucose causing natural carbonation. There is really no need to prime nor artificially carbonate beer when a brewing method is employed which creates the right circumstances. The single method is a testing method used in a malt house and the method limits the user to produce only home made beer which is a far cry from world class styles of beer such as IPA. Art and science are involved in brewing beer. Single method is lacking in both.
you doing a pre mash vorlauf???
That is what I did, to get it cleared up before going into the HLT/boil kettle. It's not necessary though as I have found from other brew days.
Thanks!
No sparge?
Was wondering that too.
+Shaun Gerrard That's where your 5 points are hiding
+Shaun Gerrard I am wondering this, too. why wasn't there a sparge?
Hey Lemmings, you are correct! This system does not require a sparge. The entire water volume is added right at the very start of the brew day, then as mashes, the wort continually recirculates and it essentially sparges itself while it is mashing. Then it's just a quick drain to the boil kettle and then power up the element to the boil.
Hey Shaun, I just replied to Lemmings, and it is in fact a no-sparge system! The entire liquid volume is added at the beginning of the mash, and throughout the duration of the mash the wort recirculates constantly and effectively sparges itself while it is mashing. Then it's off to the boil!
need a jacket for it.
If you put your temp probe on the output of your mash tun it will be better
Some other folks have recommended that too. I have also been told there is a way to calibrate the PID and adjust for the temp. variance, so there are lots of possibilities to fine tune it! Thanks for the idea!
are you sue that's an IPA, i saw some dark grains in the dough in.
Positive.
that should go you do not want galvanized flakes in your beer
The liquid never enters the galvanized container--its a stand for the mash tun.
lol buy yourself a better mash paddle
are you voting republican, cause you've got a Trump hairstyle here... ;-)
Oh dear...
terpsichoreankid you're not Shrillary are you??
At this point, I'm not supporting any of the candidates... This election cycle is going to be a weird one. I'm looking forward to more debates and really looking into candidates closer to voting day!