My electric brewery build

[nigel_c]

About 6 months or so ago I decided it was time to finally build the brewery I wanted. After lots of research and googling I came up with a design based on www.theelectricbrewery.com
I changed it to do what I wanted.


I finally got it fired up and running over the weekend.
I went with 2 kegs as the mash & boiler and a 15 or so liter pot as the HLT. I went with a plate chiller as the heat exchanger and 2 chugger pumps to move everything around.

I went for 2 Sestos PID's to monitor the boiler and HLT and a REX for the mash.
I picked up some pt100 sensors with 1/2" npt connectors.

The wires on these were pretty flimsy so I reinforced them and wrapped in spiral wrap before expandable braid to finish them off.
They connect tothe PID's with xlr connectors.


I did the main power cables and cables to boiler & HLT with the same finish.

I got the box for the mains controller from www.meteorelectrical.com  400x400x200 and drilled holes with step drill and drimell .
All switches and LED's came from aliexpress.

Few coats of primer and satin spray and time to fit all the parts and get wiring.



The wiring was something I had to spend a lot of time researching but the electric brewery website is a great source of info.
I went with 2 circuits in the box. The first controls the HLT PID, mash PID , timer & 2 pumps while the second power supple controlls the boiler alone. These will run off 2 different circuits at home. I live in a pretty new apartment so Im not that worried about slightly overloading the boiler circuit with the 3.5kw element. I've been using it for the last few years. 

The majority of the stainless came from www.totalstainless.ie/
Quick disconnects from aliexpress.

The kettle has a 3.5kW element and the HLT was 2.5.

I did my first brew on Saturday gone and it turned into one of the most uneventful brew days ever.
It quite happily held the mash with around 0.2+/- and with a 60 min mash and 15 mash outwith 90 min boil i hit over 90% efficiency.
I'm really happy with how it turned out and cant wait to do some serious brewing on it.


I have links for the majority of the parts if anyone wants them.

[Frequent Sequence]

noice

[molc]

Oh so very very shiny. Pretty painless build in the end as well from what I've seen. Well wear!

[DEMPSEY]

Nice piece of kit there Nigel. And it only cost €100

[Leann ull]

Lovely job, God bless this ship and all who drink from her.

[fobster]

Some setup there! What are the read-outs on the display such as 200/250 for the mash?

[nigel_c]

That's 20.0 and 25.0
That's just sitting ambient temp. The mash does not control anything it's just a monitoring point.
It reads from the mash return at the top and follows any changes made to the HLT PID and can ramp at around 1c a min.

[bigvalen]

I've let buying my new brewery slide, and after yesterday, I'm all energised, and want to go do it.

It seems you didn't go for a full-on PID controller ? What's the benefits of the electric brewery controller, vs. something like the BCS-460 ?

And yes, please feel free to share a supplier list

[bigvalen]

Oh..the Electric Brewery folks don't have an inlet hose on the boil kettle...they just 'put the hose over the top'. Did you do that too ? Seems like a good way to get extra oxygen into the wort...

[molc]

Boiling removes all oxygen though. I put a whirlpool arm in my kettle but I still drape over the top when soaring so I can see the flow rate easily.