My new budget Grainfather-esque setup

[takai]

Been piecing stuff together for a little while now to go recirculation on my BIAB setup. Things accelerated a little bit last week when i was able to pick up some of those cheap 56L pots at a good price. Ultimately ill probably discard that pot for a nicer MegaPot or similar from the US when i head over in November. But until then this will get me going for now.

Ill be making two of these at the same time as a mate is after one as well.

Take one 56L pot:

With a 19L BigW pot for comparison:

19L pot will become the basis for the malt pipe.

With two 4500W Camco elements:

Planning on doing a two point recirculation. Just waiting for the last few bits to arrive for that.

 

[slcmorro]

How do you control temp for mashing mate? Keen to see how you go when it's all planned out.

 

[Cervantes]

Could you tell us where you got the pots?

 

[nosco]

Im thinking along those lines too takai. Im a while off yet but ill be keen to see how you set up the malt pipe. Im also thinking of doing a cheap herms.

 

[takai]

How do you control temp for mashing mate? Keen to see how you go when it's all planned out.

Will be controlled with a PID and RTD same as my current BIAB urn. Building a new control unit for it as well, just making it a bit neater than the last one.

Could you tell us where you got the pots?

Pots were from a seller in Brunswick, although i may have one for sale soon. Since posting that my mate saw the pic and almost had a heart attack on the size and is having cold feet :S

 

[Mr B]

Just reassure your mate than all too soon it will be too small..........

 

[takai]

Just reassure your mate than all too soon it will be too small..........

Ill let him deal with the WAF... I'm not going there. Very glad that my wife is very understanding and i have lots of bigger items that take up more $$$ and space to worry about

 

[MastersBrewery]

Take one 56L pot:


With two 4500W Camco elements:

9000W in a 56L pot is ridiculous over kill mate! half that would be over kill, 2400w will easily bring a single batch (23-30L) to the boil, 3600w will do it right smart and you'll need to back off for boil. 9000W is good for 1BBL (120L)

ED: I'm unsure of your knowledge regarding power, but you need to be aware each of those elements draws 23 amps, a standard out let in Australia is rated to 10 amps, trade use 15amps for some tools but not regularly found in a house. The 46 amps you want to pull would require a dedicated circuit/s and would cost more than the some total of your build to date. If the circuits are already available go for it!

 

[takai]

9000W in a 56L pot is ridiculous over kill mate! half that would be over kill, 2400w will easily bring a single batch (23-30L) to the boil, 3600w will do it right smart and you'll need to back off for boil. 9000W is good for 1BBL (120L)

Ah i meant one for each pot not two per pot.... i see the confusion though.

Planning on using the 4500w dialled back to 2400w for domestic usage with an SSV-R. Should yield even lower watt density over the element, and makes for very cheap element replacements.

 

[MastersBrewery]

cool cool, wanna taste your beer before ya get killed playin with high powered wires is all

 

[Fylp]

I have the same 56l pot with a keg king 2200 element. Gets the boil up ok but could do with a bit more. I'm thinking about replacing my bag with a modified 38l pot. You think 19l will do for malt pipe?

 

[MastersBrewery]

I have the same 56l pot with a keg king 2200 element. Gets the boil up ok but could do with a bit more. I'm thinking about replacing my bag with a modified 38l pot. You think 19l will do for malt pipe?

There are calculators on site for working out Malt Pipe size (it's a lil late a few to many brews later to go searching but pm me and I can sort you out) my brauclone uses a 32L MP and best fluidisation levels are around the 8kg of grain. I have done 10+kg but the mash is decidedly thicker and efficiency plummets. 38L would give you some big singles. 19L will just do a standard single I have a spare Big W pot if you want to try it out.

MB

 

[nosco]

I think its in the 2nd post on this thread

 

[Cervantes]

I think its in the 2nd post on this thread

You will have to change the malt to liquor ratio to suit a full volume mash to make the calculator work.

Not sure what that ratio would be though.

 

[takai]

Im planning on effectively a 38L malt pipe, two 19L pots welded together at this stage, although given the price of some cheap 36L pots on eBay i could be persuaded to go off the shelf.

 

[takai]

Scratch that, making one setup now. My mate, ever the master tactician, 'freaked out' over the size and so convinced his wife to let him get a GF for better WAF.

 

[nosco]

Im planning on effectively a 38L malt pipe, two 19L pots welded together.

Thats a good idea. I just meed someone to weld it for me.

 

[micbrew]

I found it was easier to buy a stainless steel ( chinese pot ) for about $120 ... 32 litres from memory had some feet welded to pot to keep off the element

I will follow this build to see how you go .... best of luck

 

[GalBrew]

Isn't the Grainfather itself a budget setup?

 

[takai]

Isn't the Grainfather itself a budget setup?

Not as budget as it could be. When a mate was blathering on about how expensive brewing is i mudmapped a full recirculation unit for under $100.
Two plastic buckets, some stainless bolts, eBay hardware, kettle element an a LBP.

 

[welly2]

Isn't the Grainfather itself a budget setup?

If you call $1100 budget, sure. I suspect many people wouldn't, though.

 

[GalBrew]

If you call $1100 budget, sure. I suspect many people wouldn't, though.

I could have bought at least 3 GFs for the cost of building my original 3v HERMS system. So yeah, it's quite cheap for what you get.

 

[takai]

Which would make about 10-12 of this setup, or 30-40 of the tightarse bucket setup.

Brewing is as expensive as you want to make it.

 

[Fylp]

My 56l pot was about $60 or so and the 38l is only about $55 delivered- both stainless. My recirculated biab set up was about $160-all stainless. The only reason I'd go to the malt pipe from a bag is for sparging. I've been playing around with pulling 2 20l cubes out of my 56l biab (she's called biaby). To fit it all in I go hard on capacity of malt and water, then dunk sparge the bag for the extra 6 litres needed for top up. If I could pull up the malt pipe and sparge straight in like the GF does it would be easier.

 

[takai]

Which pump are you using Fylp, and how are you doing your recirculation?

 

[Fylp]

I use a black good grade magnetic drive off eBay. It puts out 8l per min. I use 13mm silicone hose and 1/2" stainless fittings off the pump and for major bends. It comes out a bit of copper pipe hammered shut with holes drilled so it sprays out evenly into the grain.

 

[Eagleburger]

cost me less that $200 for 82L + 38L + 2 of 3000 watt elements. Had pump laying round. good set for 2x20L kegs.

 

[rude]

Thats pretty impresive Eagleburger any pics
What is youre initial pre-boil volume
Is it pid controlled
Also did you just run one cct for elements 25amp C/B

 

[takai]

Aye, more pics required, always more pics required.

 

[Mardoo]

Which would make about 10-12 of this setup, or 30-40 of the tightarse bucket setup.

Brewing is as expensive as you want to make it.

Has anyone built a plastic bucket single vessel? Bucket of 2 Deaths?