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Electric Brewery - worth it?

 
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jphussey




Joined: 17 Oct 2012
Posts: 171



PostLink    Posted: Wed Oct 17, 2012 4:03 am    Post subject: Electric Brewery - worth it? Reply with quote


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Hey all,

Been looking at this site for some time and have recently just purchased my first 20g Blichmann kettle, thus have renewed my interest in this site once again.

I'm not sure if I will ultimately go the Electric Brewery route (if I go electric at all, it's going to be your setup Kal...this stuff is amazing!), or if I will come up with some sort of transportable single-tier propane/natural gas fired system. I move every couple years and while ultimately I would like to end up with a nice brew shed out back of my house someday, that 'someday house' is quite a ways away for us right now.

I was hoping some of you electric brewery owners could provide some feedback on ownership of one of these beasts. Did you build it yourself, or buy it pre-made? Would you do it differently? Do you think the investment was worth the money? What did you ultimately end up spending? I know Kal says something like 5-6k but after tools, etc, I can imagine that gets pretty darn close to 8-10k?

Anyways, just looking for some anecdotes on ownership from you guys! I realize asking on this forum that I might get some biased reviews, but hey, this stuff is awesome and you should be proud!

Thanks,
Jason
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kal
Forum Administrator



Joined: 12 Dec 2010
Posts: 11116
Location: Ottawa, Canada

Drinking: Pub Ale, Electric Creamsicle, Mild, Pliny the Younger, Belgian Dark Strong, Weizen, Russian Imperial Stout, Black Butte Porter


PostLink    Posted: Wed Oct 17, 2012 12:52 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Welcome to the forum Jason.

While you wait for people to chime in, you may want to look at these threads as well that cover many of your questions:

http://www.theelectricbrewery.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=25919
http://www.theelectricbrewery.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=25804

Good luck!

Kal

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g8tors




Joined: 05 Oct 2011
Posts: 211



PostLink    Posted: Wed Oct 17, 2012 4:50 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

My experience has been great. I really enjoyed putting together the control panel and the satisfaction of doing it myself and being able to ell everyone that I built that when they are oohing and awing over my system. I had a budget for each month so I sourced everything myself except for the wiring kit which I bought from Spike Innovations. I kept a spreadsheet of all the things I bought and where I bought them and how much I paid. I even kept track of the tools I had to buy. I bought most everything following Kals links. I will see if I can find it for you if you want. I did start getting lazy towards the end about filling in the prices so its not 100%. I love this system and would definitely do it again. I went from a 10g cooler for a mash tun, a 5g cooler for an HLT, and a 9g ss pot for the boil kettle using propane. I love not having to refill my propane tank every brew day. The control you have over mash temps is awesome. And I love not having to lift coolers or pots.

I have had two issues with my system since using it. While recirculating my mash through the HERMS my mash would get stuck. I did buy different pumps then what Kal recommended, I bought Chugger pumps, but I think I have figured it out. I have added rice hulls and started to let the grains soak for a few minutes before turning the pumps on and starting out with a slow flow rate and slowly increasing it. The other issue I had is one of the wires from the temp probe came loose to the PID which resulted in the temperature readout going up and down during a brew session.

Scott
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jphussey




Joined: 17 Oct 2012
Posts: 171



PostLink    Posted: Wed Oct 17, 2012 5:06 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Scott,

Thanks for the feedback. I'm curious what your level of expertise was concerning electrical wiring prior to this? That's really my deficiency. I can do the drilling, etc, but haven't really ever wired anything up. I hear people say it's pretty easy if you have good diagrams (which clearly Kal et. al provide), but am just unsure and not willing to make the investment in the DIY aspect if I won't be able to adequately finish it.

Do you think you would have saved money overall, if you factor in time required and tools purchased, by getting a pre-built control panel?

Thanks,
Jason
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huaco




Joined: 05 Apr 2012
Posts: 1506
Location: Burleson Texas


PostLink    Posted: Wed Oct 17, 2012 6:58 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Jason,
You can do this. Kal's wire diagrams are unlike the technical diagrams you typically find. These are MUCH easier to read and understand. If you can read a road map you can read his diagrams and wire up your panel successfully.
How many of the required tools do you have. How many of the things like Drill press do you have access to? If you have to go buy a drill press and other larger tools, then this could be cost prohibitive. That said, There are ways to do things without having the Big Tools. I built the entire wooden stand with only a pencile, hand drill, speed square, and Hand-held Circular skill saw. (I now have a compound miter saw) You can use the speed square as a straight edge to guide the skill saw. Likewise, you don't HAVE to have a drill press. Does it make it easier? Yes! But all the large holes could be done with just the hole saw and hand-held drill motor. I drilled all 48 mounting holes in my control panel back plate with a hand-held drill motor.
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g8tors




Joined: 05 Oct 2011
Posts: 211



PostLink    Posted: Wed Oct 17, 2012 9:47 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Jason,

As far as wiring experience goes, I had done a little bit of soldering and some light fixture wiring and that's about it. The first time I saw Kal's site I remember thinking this was really cool but quickly dismissed it because I thought it was too involved for me. But about three or four months later I came back and started reading and the more I read the more I thought I could do it (or at least wanted to try). I do think I saved some money by buying all the parts myself. One thing you want to make sure you do is to group all your parts by supplier and try to order all the parts from one supplier at a time to save on shipping. This was very important to me since I was breaking all my purchases up to fit into a monthly budget. For the control panel I spent $1242.10 on parts and $111.24 on tools. I was purchasing these parts last year. As far as time goes I spent a lot of hours putting the parts list on my Excel spreadsheet and finding the parts online and pricing everything and then coming up with a game plan of what I would buy each month. Definitely quicker and easier to by the Kit from Spike Innovations. I didn't have the budget to do it that way nor the patience to wait until I had the money saved up.

Read through the directions 2 or 3 times and it will start to come together for you and you will become more confident you can do it. There are also a lot of great people on this forum in addition to Kal that have helped me along the way with questions so you will always have help.

Scott
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rvklein




Joined: 17 Jan 2011
Posts: 20



PostLink    Posted: Wed Nov 07, 2012 7:20 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Love, Love, Love my brewery. Raining outside? Snow? no problem!
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jphussey




Joined: 17 Oct 2012
Posts: 171



PostLink    Posted: Wed Nov 07, 2012 9:25 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Thanks - I've decided I am going to go for it. I had already purchased a 20 gallon Blichmann and my main hesitation with going with this system was that, being in the military, I move every 2-3 years. I kinda thought this would preclude me from using this system, but after seeing that Kal had his in the garage during his transition, it got me thinking that I could definitely do this with some sort of SS rolling work table as my platform and just ensuring that each place I go I have access to a dryer outlet (probably gonna need a big time extension cord!).

I've got my spreadsheet built with all required parts and will begin accumulating these over the next year or so.
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huaco




Joined: 05 Apr 2012
Posts: 1506
Location: Burleson Texas


PostLink    Posted: Wed Nov 07, 2012 9:29 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Check into RV stores. They have HUGE selections of extension cords. Heavy gauge.
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woodenboatguy




Joined: 19 Sep 2012
Posts: 96
Location: Mississauga, ON


PostLink    Posted: Thu Nov 08, 2012 3:07 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

jphussey wrote:
Scott,

Thanks for the feedback. I'm curious what your level of expertise was concerning electrical wiring prior to this? That's really my deficiency. I can do the drilling, etc, but haven't really ever wired anything up. I hear people say it's pretty easy if you have good diagrams (which clearly Kal et. al provide), but am just unsure and not willing to make the investment in the DIY aspect if I won't be able to adequately finish it.

Do you think you would have saved money overall, if you factor in time required and tools purchased, by getting a pre-built control panel?

Thanks,
Jason


Welcome!

I am about where you are in terms of setting up my home brewery - slightly ahead I guess as I've ordered the DIY control panel kit from Kal and Mike.

Let me draw an analogy around the wiring challenge. My father was a real fan of the old Heathkit home electronics kits you could buy back in the 60's and 70's (they're long gone now but you can read up on them on the net). They were everything from "hi-fi" stereos to colour TV's to shortwave radios. He built them all.

Difficult? No. And, they were all far more sophisticated than what you need to worry about doing up Kal's design. He's made it that easy, and, importantly, the hardest part - the design and layout - has been solved for you. Step by step, just as my father built them all with nothing more than his soldering iron and some tweezers (well, probably a little more but I don't remember much else), Kal's design guide tells you everything.

Have confidence in the experience of others who have gone ahead and had great success that you (and I) will too. Having been on this forum a few months now I've noticed the greatest complaint isn't the "doing". It seems to be the rare instance when someone gets a marginal component from the original parts manufacturer. Even Kal or Spike Innovations can't take accountability for the 1 in a thousand that might come out of some manufacturing line off spec. Shocked

And all you need to worry about there is plucking out the wayward part and replacing it (handy to know you can do that too for the day when something might quit).

You also mentioned portability. I think this might also be the answer for you. I've been collecting together the keggles, the pumps, etc I will need. The whole thing is in a couple of semi-organized piles in the basement. The first thing that struck me about your question was - hey this might be just what you are looking for, depending on how you mount a few things. For example: I've seen one or two examples where folks used flat panel TV mounting hardware for the control panel - pretty easy to take down and cart away in that case (such a cool idea too...). Everything else unplugs (or uncouples when it's the wet stuff) and you have my semi-organized piles you can put in the moving van.

Best of luck and again, welcome! Mug

Regards,
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