Building recirculating ebiab

Hardware
1

Hi all!

I would like to build a recirculating eBiab system. I live in a small apartment so using multiple huge kettles is a no-go.

So, my build would be one kettle with lauterhexe on the bottom, and heater above it. I would have one, from lauterhexe, leading to the pump, and two inlets, one for recirculation during mash and sparging, and one for whirlpooling after boiling. I would switch between them after mashing.

Few things worry me:

  1. As I understand BrewPi controller still doesn’t support mashing. How hard is it to setup to do that?
  2. I would use a bag for grains, but I believe I should put some kind of protection above heating element, to prevent scorching of the bag and grains?

Is this all realistic and worth extra money and time over my classic BIAB setup?

2
  1. It can control a BIAB process fine. The web interface will just show fridge/beer instead of the right names (mash)
  2. For a single pot biab, I would try to have the element under the filter. See if you can find a false bottom. That will protect the bag from the element and will act as your filter.
3

Hi, I have similar project and I thought using à false bottom. I have many details to go through like heating element power and so on.
I’m on vacation, and I’ll probably resume designing this on september. if you which we can share on this attention this time.

4

I am doing a similar setup. Is it possible to use PWM to control how vigorous the boil is? Currently my boil is fine if I do a 20 litre batch, but if a I a 9 litre batch the boil is too aggressive.

5

Not really yet, there are 2 options:

  • Set the boil element as manual actuator, so it is only on/off.

  • reassign fridge sensor and heater for boiling. Disable integrator by setting Ti to zero. Regulate boil intensity with Kp and setpoint. For example with setpoint 102 and Kp 30, the element will be 60% on (of the sensor temp is 100).

I’m going to work on this when I get back from holiday.