Project "Electric 3v Brew Rig"

Well the time has come after doing 3 Grain Brews and having so much fun doing it, rewarding myself with some genuine "Craft Beer" Im now putting all my componenets together on a rig trolly, and implementing my Electric Brew Pot.

I'v built my whole system on the cheap with bits & pieces iv found, and although its on the cheap iv put a lot of my own Nouse and electical knowledge into the design that it will be 100% Safe and user freindly.

Im not making anything Automated, with the exception of a Stc-1000 on the HLT to maintain temps for strike and Sparge water etc...

The main idea of the rig trolly is to keep everything together, in its right place, Easy to use, not moving or tripping over things and getting flustered that things arent in the right place... but the main idea is to be able to Add water to the top and get chilled wort out the bottom, i still want to manually do the rest.


I will get photos, videos and document all my findings as i work through the setup, Keep in mind I work in a switchboard manufacturing workshop, iv got a full engineering workshop at my hands as well as a full electrical workshop, a team of "A" Grade Electricians to annoy with ideas, commercial grade switch gear at my fingertips, so while its still on the cheap and only practical not fancy, the gear will be rated for safety, and the unit should work well and safely...

Let the fun begin and the brewing system get it on!!!!!

Stay tuned

Can't wait mate.

Got the Build done,

Its hightly modified, iv removed all the contacts and switch gear from the kettle element backing plate that controlled the Auto off and boil dry protection. Iv wired diectly to the Neutral and Active and Earth of the actual element.

The contacts used in the useless kettle control are designed to run for 5 mins max being so light and im guessing anyone who has had one blow on them its not the element but the backing.

Iv done 2 brews on it in one day plus i heated spage water for one brew, boiled some water to clean and sanitise the chiller, boiled clean up water and then again the next day....

its ruthless on the boil we only needed one element to keep a roll, but swapping each element in and out with a slight cross over definatly helped the boil get fierce, but couldnt leave both running as it was too fierce....

going to work on a couple of dimmers to keep both running but back the amps down a little.... will see how that works out... or a timer system to swap between elements every 10 mins with a cross over of 1 min to bring the boil hotter.... we played with this on the brew day and it would work well...

i will post some pics of the day with the pot that is now hevily insulated and definaly worked a treat on brew day... we pushed a lot of proteins out and have no fear of dms.... especially with the cold break on the chiller going from 95-30 in 5 seconds...

By brewery is taking place very well.... cant wait to make more beer

Lookin good mate

Just an update on the brew rig,


She is still powering away we have done 3 Double Brew days on it and a triple brew day and the elements are holding up well.

I also use it to heat my cleaning water up, and all of that kind of thing too so the electric brew pot is running well...


I was able to borrow an Amp Meter from work and It measured 10.2 Amps at 132vac per element so there running at around 2400w each

Iv found that on the boil 1 is a little too light but 2 is too much so what i do is just swap elements about every 10 mins with about 2 mins of both running in between each change that seems to keep the boil rolling harder than just one running but not boiling over everywhere like it does when 2 run for too long...


I will try get some video of the system next brew day to show how it works

cheers

Have you ever thought about using voltage control unit, like an stc 1000 except it regulates voltage? That way you could run both easy without it getting too much.

we were thinking some sort of variable resistor like a light dimmer