Tell me about Electric!

I would not use that 30 amp 220v double pole switch, if that ever shorts out it can kill you, that's what the contact relay is for, its a magnetic coil that 115 turns on with a switch that joins 2 points that's 240v and your right on the switches
 
you will need a good ssr relay and a heat sink on that, trust me this is the standard way all brewers are doing it, you switch the common wire just like house wiring use contact relays and all switches are powered by 115v and the common wire so no chance of electrocution
 
so this is the guts without the wires, the breaker on the right turns on the box then a switch turns on that white center relay and that lets the ssr send power to the element, the pid sends a signal to the ssr when to open and close the points but the relay is for safety and trust me I've used it, instead of turning off the whole box you can just cut the power to the element



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I understand what the contact relay does and cutting power to the heating element without turning the main power off is definitely necessary. If it's an issue of possible shorting/electrocution, doesn't the GFCI protect against that? If it's really better to have the contactor, I can manage that.
I have good heat sinks for the SSR and the SSVR. Both are needed in line because I'm using one element for mash temp control (PID/SSR on/off with pot/SSVR at full power) and also for boil (PID set at 212+ with pot/SSVR attenuated to achieve proper boil energy after boil starts).
 
the gfci is only a water splash breaker nothing more, yes sorry to say but you will need the contact relay, I can write a schematic up if you need but I just had a death in the family, I may be in and out
 
Sorry to hear of your loss...Don't worry about the schemo...I can get the info. Contactor wiring is pretty straightforward. I could run temporarily without a separate cut to the element, resetting PID or turning down potentiometer as needed, I suppose, until I can get one. If the manual switch is such a death trap, why do they even exist?
 
old pre-1970 technology, new and safer standards have been written to code today to both prevent lightning shorts as well as accidental deaths from faulty switches
 
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By "full volume sparge" I mean the same thing. It seems, technically, that we're lautering during the entire mash if we're recurculating and if we're starting with the full volume of liquor flowing through the mash, I think of it as a sparge as well. If you're recirc'ing with one pump and 2 vessels, how are you getting the liquor/wort from each to the other during recirc...or do you have a mash tun that will hold the full liquor volume plus the grist?

15 gallon BK, and 10 gallon cooler mash tun.

I can do a 10 gallon batch, but I am pushing the vessel limits, the way I have it set up I can recirc one of the kettles or both of the kettles just by turning valves on and off so it gives me options.
 
Only way I can envision recirculating through both at the same time is to open both is mixing at the pump inlet and splitting the out put evenly to both. Looks like that's what you're doing in the pic you posted. Both kettle outlets open to the pump and each kettle inlet open part way. You'd have to really be careful of a stuck sparge as that would allow more water to flow from the BK and pile up in the mash tun. Wouldn't happen too fast, I suppose, but eventually the imbalanced inflow to the pump, flowing evenly to each vessel would cause the mash tun to overflow. Do you have to watch it like a hawk?
If you're recirculating like that for the whole mash, It should eventually convert and rinse sugars. My concern with full volume in any system would be with enzyme concentration. You've got enzyme spread out and diluted and half your wort at any given time not in contact with the starches. What sort of mash times and efficiency do you get with that process. I'd definitely try it for some beers.
 
At first I did but now I have my valves marked going into each Kettle and I'm able to open the valves to those marks and it holds pretty steady I've never had a stuck sparge with this setup.

My Mash schedule runs 2 hours and 8 minutes total

Dough in at 131
Ramp to 144
Hold 144 for 20 minutes
Ramp to 148
Hold 148 for 20 minutes
Ramp to 153
Hold 153 for 20 minutes
Ramp to 163
Hold 163 for 30 minutes
Ramp to 172
Hold for 10 minutes
Flame out.

All the ramp times are based on 1.8° to 2° per minute.

I have not experienced any issues with this match schedule I'm not getting any chill Haze I'm getting 100% conversion and I'm running approximately 85 to 87% Brewhouse efficiency.

All of my numbers are consistent every time I brew / my recipe my numbers are hitting exactly every time doing the same thing I am able to go out start the mash and walk away from it for 2 hours with the valve set and I've never had an overflow or stuck sparge.
 
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Also with this type of setup I can simply raise the temperature in the boil kettle shut the return valve off to the boil Kettle and do infusion step mash and just recirculate the mash tun if I want so it gives me options on how I brew if I don't want to recirculate the whole time I can do the infusion step Mash.
 
One other thing when I dough in I give it a gentle stir trying not to cavitate it as you know imma low oxygen Brewer and I purge my kettles the night before with nitrogen so I have a nitrogen blanket keeping the oxygen out I also stir the mash on the first rest at 144 and then after that it's just recirculation no more stirring
 
I do all my transfers closed so no oxygen gets to it once it's in my fermenter I don't use an airlock anymore I use a tube that leads to a keg it goes in the liquid side and comes out the gas side and then into a bottle this allows me to purge Mike eggs with natural CO2 from the fermentation process
 

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Approximately 4 to 8 points above terminal gravity I transfer into that keg so that it can spund or naturally carbonate it self and finish fermenting and then I can serve right from that keg or I can pressure transfer to a serving keg if I feel like it. And this is what I come up with.
 

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I use that mash schedule on every beer I make whether it's a lager and Ale and IPA anything it works just fine.

Sorry for ranting I didn't mean to take over your post.
 
Sorry for ranting I didn't mean to take over your post.
Quite alright...it's good info given that you're using a fairly similar set up. Biggest difference is that I'll have the option of doing a HERMS recirc to control mash thickness. Based on your numbers, it may not lend any advantage.
 
I'm in the process of setting up a less hillbilly brewhouse using a couple of nice 15-gallon pots that have been welded for tri-clamp as well as bristling with weldless fittings. My goal is to use the HLT (with nice stainless HERMS coil) as a boil kettle as well, transferring from one to the other via one pump with a 2-way ball valve. I'll be transferring sparge water to an unused brew pot and gravity sparging or pumping for sparge and using a lauter grant. Either way it'll be better than the unwieldy way I've been doing things up to now. And I'll have mash capacity for a double batch so I won't have to double up the brew day to get 10-gallons
In the process of building out, I decided to utilize the tri-clamp fitting on the MLT/BK as originally used, with a 5500w heating element. That's where the fun starts. I've been working backward and building out a relatively simple control box so that I can use to set temp in the HLT for recirc/mashing and also regulate the boil once I get the wort sparged and collected. I've had to rethink the whole thing step by step as I realized that to do C, I really had to do B and to do that, A was pretty much a necessity, etc...all the way back to the breaker box (30 amp 240v GFCI breakers are NOT cheap, it turns out). I think I finally stopped spending money, though I'm pretty sure there's at least one more electronic component that I do need.
All that to say this: Who's running electric and how simple or elaborate is your system/controller? I could use some input and inspiration before I start finally putting things together.
Hillbilly brewed beer kicks ass!!
 
Crunk.... awesome explanation! Do you add rice hulls to your mash grain bill? Rice hulls (I learned that on this forum and no stuck sparges since, by adding a half a pound to the 5 gallon brew), don’t add any flavor or sugars, rather they simply ‘thin’ the mash. Not suggesting you change your approach, but a good fallback for future knowledge.
 
Crunk.... awesome explanation! Do you add rice hulls to your mash grain bill? Rice hulls (I learned that on this forum and no stuck sparges since, by adding a half a pound to the 5 gallon brew), don’t add any flavor or sugars, rather they simply ‘thin’ the mash. Not suggesting you change your approach, but a good fallback for future knowledge.

I have not yet used rice hulls, so far I have had no issues.
 

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