New Guy Open to Suggestions, Tips or Tricks

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Mach79
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New Guy Open to Suggestions, Tips or Tricks

Post by Mach79 »

Good Morning-

I've been brewing for a number of years on a 3 burner propane system. Recently, I made the decision to switch to electric. We are the in the process of converting a room behind our bar (4-tap setup) into a brewery. Initially, I was interested in a PID setup. After researching the BCS setup, I about to pull the trigger on a 50a 2 Burner BCS Control Panel from Electric Brewing. The panel will have the BCS-482. Although the PID system would be similar to my current propane system with regards to controlling Mash Temps via RIMS tube, I like the expandability of the 482. I also like the challenge of learning a new system.

My first goal is to get set up and running in the next 30 days....just a simple brew day with all the bugs worked out. After a few trouble-free batches, I would like to experiment with the capabilities of the system. My new brew room will have 2 small converted under the counter bar refrigerators for lager fermenting and 2 SSBrewtech Cronical fermenters for ales. My goal is the utilize 2 off the temperature inputs to control the 2 lager coolers.

With all that said, I am looking for anyones "beginners" experiences, any corrections-of-errors they would do differently now, advice on starting out, etc? Basically, I know I will have questions and this seems to be the best source for the BCS.

Thank you for reading this. Please be patient with me as I learn and experiment with this new adventure.
JonW
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Re: New Guy Open to Suggestions, Tips or Tricks

Post by JonW »

You'll already be starting out a leg-up since you're going to get a panel from Electric Brewing. Just make sure your panel is large enough to add some additional relays for the extra items you're going to control. The BCS really shines in doing multi-process control like you described (brew rig, fermenters, kegerators, etc.).

It is sometimes hard to give specific advice since every brew system is different and every brewer likes different processes. But again, that's where the BCS is very flexible in allowing you to not only create your own process flow, but to modify and tweak it over time as you adjust how you run your brew day.

Once you get your BCS, just start doing some basic on/off and temp based control with water and you'll start to see how you can define your processes and states (steps) to how you'll work. At that point, you might have some specific questions about how to implement something and we can help you with that.
Mach79
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Re: New Guy Open to Suggestions, Tips or Tricks

Post by Mach79 »

Thanks JonW for the reply. I appreciate the vote of confidence in receiving the panel from Electric Brewing. It is an investment. I liked their design the best. Still, can't help but "hope" for the best with an investment like this one. Great point about extra room for the relays. I will be reaching out to the Electric Brewing team. I was planning on eventually adding an additional box next to the panel to house added relays & temp sensors, but if they can provide the room in the initial build all the better. I have some experience with SSR's from my old RIMS setup running off a PID controller. I am hoping once I receive the panel from Electric Brewing, it will be very clear from the wiring of the SSR's how to install additional SSR's to the panel for future add-on's.

My long term goal is to have 2 small coolers under BCS control for lagering, 2 chronical fermenters under BCS control for ales, and possibly 1 keezer under BCS control for my taps. Currently, I have a homebuilt glycol setup in a keezer holding 9 conry kegs- 4 on tap with 4+ in backup. I am sure I will be reaching out to this forum as I start to experiment and my vision starts to develop.

Thanks again for the reply
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