How To Add A Whirpool Port To Your Kettle

The thought of drilling a hole in your favorite boil kettle can be intimidating to most any homebrewer. Unless of course they have had some previous metal working experience, or they can enlist the help of someone having the skills needed. The more adventurous do-it-yourself types, those who have access to a variable speed drill and the right drill bits, can easily handle the task, along with the help of some PAM cooking spray for lubrication.

Adding A Whirlpool Port To Your Kettle? No Problem

The installation of the whirlpool port shown in this article, including setup and cleanup time, took about two hours. Allow yourself additional time to obtain the items listed below. Having all of the required parts in hand from the start, will allow you to successfully complete the project from beginning to end in just a few easy steps. Everything needed to successfully install the bulkhead fitting and whirlpool port were very easy to find online and they can be delivered to your door in under 5 days.

Whats Needed:
Adjustable wrench and/or channel lock pliers 
Teflon tape
Center punch, or nail to mark the hole center
1/8" pilot hole drill bit
Milwaukee 3/16" to 7/8" Step Drill Bit #4
Stainless Steel Weldless Bulkhead 1/2" NPT
Anvil 1/2" NPT Swivel Dip Tube
Danco #12 Rubber O-Rings



Boiling wort is extremely hot and it has the potential to scald your skin in a matter of seconds. Coming into direct contact with boiling wort is also one of the most common causes of injury when brewing beer, something to keep in mind when working around it.


Pumping boiling wort from the kettle, through a counter-flow chiller and then returning the wort to the kettle, is a very effective way to sanitizing the counter-flow chiller. Returning the hot wort exiting the chiller to the kettle, by using a clamp on the kettle rim to hold the end of a silicone hose in place, is not a safe. Temporary clamps can slip and move, causing a loose hose end to unexpectedly spray hot wort on brewers and equipment.   

The safest way of returning hot wort to the kettle is through a permanently mounted whirlpool port. The use of a weldless whirlpool port ensures a solid physical connection between the kettle and the silicone tubing. Once a solid connection has been made between the two, the risks of hot wort unintentionally splashing outside of the kettle are greatly reduced. 

Weldless Bulkhead Fitting And 90 Degree Swivel Elbow

Every successful project begins with a well thought out plan. Knowing exactly where to locate the whirlpool port before drilling a hole in the kettle is a must. The orientation of the port, its distance from the bottom of the kettle and how far it will extend inside the kettle, are all critical factors to be considered. Once a suitable location for the port has been found, that works with the size and dimension of the parts ordered, you are ready to drill the hole.

Drilled Hole Shown With Metal Shavings And Food Grade Lubricant

Turning the kettle on its side, laying it on a floor or other stable surface, and preventing it from moving as much as possible will make marking and drilling the hole much easier. Using a center punch, or a nail, mark the side of the kettle with a small 'X' to indicate where the center of the hole will be. Next use a hammer and nail to strike a dimple in the side of the kettle at the center of the 'X'. The dimple in the metal will prevent the drill bit from wandering away from the hole center when drilling.

Spraying the hole center with PAM, or another food grade lubricant, will prevent the tip of the drill bit from burning up. Drilling holes in stainless steel requires a combination of steady pressure on the drill, slow bit rotation and plenty of lubrication to keep the tip of the drill bit cool and sharp. Center the tip of the 1/8 inch pilot bit into the dimple then trigger the drill on and off, using a slow drill speed while pressing firmly down on the drill.

Expanding The Pilot Hole Using A High Speed Step Drill Bit

Expanding the pilot hole to the finished hole size is easy when using a high speed step bit. Once again, to prevent the bit from dulling use plenty of lubricant, trigger the drill at a slow rotation speed and apply a firm downward pressure on the drill. Keep in mind that using a step bit with a maximum hole diameter, that matches the diameter of the hole needed for the whirlpool port, eliminates the possibility of making the hole too big. Extra care should be taken, to prevent drilling a hole larger than needed, when using a larger diameter step bit.   

Debur the inside surface of the hole by running the drill from inside the kettle, lubricating the bit and rotating the bit at a slow speed. Again if using a larger diameter step bit be careful not to press too hard and make the hole any larger than needed. A small, fine, half round stainless steel file can also be used to debur the inside of the hole. Paper towels can then be used to wipe up any lubricant and metal shavings before installing the whirlpool port.

Bulkhead Fitting Installed With Orange Washer And Grooved Nut

The threads of the bulkhead fitting point inside the kettle. The orange silicone washer, with matching grooved nut, hold the fitting in place and seal the hole to eliminate leaks. The orange washer is squeezed, between shoulder of the stainless steel coupling on the outside, the kettle wall, and the grooved nut tightened against it on the inside of the kettle. Care should be taken when tightening the nut. Over tightening the nut will push the soft silicone washer out from underneath the groove in the nut, and cause the bulkhead fitting to leak. 

Coupling Shoulder Tightened Against Outside Kettle Wall

After the mash has finished, and the grain basket has been removed from the kettle, the swivel dip tube is threaded onto the bulkhead fitting inside the kettle. The swivel dip tube is removed during the mash, to provide the space needed between the inside of the kettle and the outside of the perforated grain basket. If the swivel tube is left on the bulkhead fitting the grain basket would not fit inside the kettle.

Clearance Needed Between The Bulkhead Fitting And The Grain Basket

With the grain basket removed from the kettle the swivel dip tube can be threaded onto the bulkhead fitting and the wort brought to a boil. Pumping the boiling kettle wort through the counter-flow chiller and returning the wort to the kettle through the whirlpool port sanitizes the chiller while creating a strong whirlpool in the kettle. Increased hop utilization and greater hop isomerization is achieved when combining the whirlpool effect in the kettle with the use of a hop spider. 

Whirlpooling Hops To Increase Utilization And Isomerization

And there you have it. With a bit of advanced planning, the correct parts and the right tools for the job, you too can successfully install a whirlpool port in any kettle. The benefits of a having a whirlpool port in your kettle are many. Increased safety, improved hop utilization, clearer wort and the ability to do whirlpool hopstands, these are just a few of the benefits. Another benefit worth mentioning is in knowing that you were able to successfully do-it-yourself.  

Add A Whirlpool Port And Brew Better Beer!

ezBIAB Calculator©

Brew In A Bag Brewing   The first time I brewed using my brew in a bag system I wondered how much grain and brewing water would fit inside my kettle without causing it to overflow? Then I wondered how much wort would be left in the kettle after removing the grain bag? Before switching from a traditional three tier system to BIAB these calculations had never been too much of a problem. Having a separate hot liquor tank, mash tun and brew kettle made calculating mash thickness and preboil volumes pretty straightforward.

Soon after I decided to sit down and write a BIAB calculator of my own for a number of reasons. I saw it as a great way to become more familiar with the variables associated with BIAB brewing. I also needed a way to reliably calculate BIAB volumes and gallons, based on the pounds of grain used in my recipes, all at the same time. The very first brewday after using ezBIAB Calculator© I was able to hit all of my BIAB volumes right on target. After calculating how many pounds of grain the recipe would use to reach the gravity I had in mind ezBIAB Calculator© had crunched the numbers for my Hiphopapocalypse IPA® recipe perfectly. 

ezBIAB Calculator©
With BIAB brewing all of the water and grain used in the mash goes into the kettle at the same time. During the mash grain is put inside a fine mesh bag so that sugars can be extracted into the wort without any of the grain getting into the kettle. At the end of the mash the grain and bag are then removed and the wort remaining in the kettle is brought to a boil. The trick in all of this is in not causing the kettle to overflow with too much mash volume during the mash while being able to hit your preboil wort volume after the grain has been removed.

Getting the mash volume to fit inside the kettle without it overflowing and hitting your preboil volume at the same time is like trying to juggle while riding on a see saw. You have to balance the amount of grain and water used in the mash, the mash thickness, the amount of water the grain will absorb and the size of the kettle being used. You also have to make allowances for the wort absorbed by hops, wort left behind in the kettle as cold break and the evaporation of water from the wort during the boil. Those calculations along with wort loss to lines, chillers and tubing are critical in determining your preboil wort volume.  

"In a perfect world the brewer's kettle is always large enough to hold all of the water and grain needed for any recipe. Then after the grain has been removed the wort in the kettle is always perfectly equal to the recipe's pre-boil volume. And at the end of the boil there's always enough cooled wort to fill the fermentor right up to the line. Of course once the fermentation has completed there is enough tasty beer to be packaged into kegs, bottles or cans."

In reality in order to reach your pre-boil volume some make up water has to be added to the kettle once the grain bag has been removed. This happens when the kettle is undersized and unable to hold all of the water and grain required for the mash and boil at the same time. Or if a brewer decides to leave room in the kettle and then reach their pre-boil volume by rinsing the grain with additional hot water. Sparging the grain is useful when brewing high gravity beers requiring a larger percentage of grain. It also results in a thicker mash because there is a lower percentage of water in the kettle during the mash.

Calculating Fermentor Volumes

If the goal is to package 5.00 gallons of beer the fermentor will need to be filled with 5.25 gallons of wort, in order to make up for 0.25 gallons of fermentation trub loss. Fermentor trub loss is made up of yeast, proteins and hop debris that eventually settle out into a compact layer at the bottom of the fermentor. It's the kind of stuff you don't want ending up in your finished beer. The amount of fermentor trub loss will vary with the strain and amount of yeast pitched and the percentage of trub initially transferred to the fermentor from the kettle.

Calculating Kettle Volumes

Kettle trub is made up of break material and proteins formed during the boil that under most conditions will remain in the kettle and not be transferred to the fermentor. In order to have 5.25 gallons of wort to fill the fermentor at the end of the boil the post boil wort volume has to be calculated accurately. If the kettle boils off 1.25 gallons of wort per hour, during a one hour boil, and the kettle trub loss is 0.75 gallons then 2.00 gallons of wort is the total kettle loss. NOTE: Hops will also absorb a small amount of wort during the boil depending on the weight of hops added to the kettle.

By adding the 2.00 gallons of kettle wort loss to the 5.25 gallons of wort needed to go into the fermentor we come up with a pre-boil volume of 7.25 gallons. We prove that by subtracting from the 7.25 gallons of wort pre-boil volume 0.75 gallon for kettle trub loss and 1.25 gallons for boil loss leaving 5.25 gallons of wort left for transferring into the fermentor. After fermentation 0.25 gallon of trub will remain in the fermentor leaving 5.00 gallons of clean beer just waiting to be packaged.

Calculating Mash Volumes

To end up with 7.25 gallons of post boil wort in the kettle, after the grain bag has been removed, several other variables also need to be factored in. With BIAB brewing the entire grain bill is mixed together with brewing water inside the same kettle that will also be used as a mash tun. The ratio of brewing water to grain is used to determine the thickness of the mash which is then used to determine the amount of room the mash will take up in the kettle. Its the sum of the mash volume added to the preboil wort volume that determines what size kettle will be needed to keep the wort from overflowing. When using a kettle that's been right sized for the volume and gravity of the beer your brewing the mash will be thinner than that used in a three tier system.

Figuring out the best kettle size for brewing gravity of beer you brew the most often is very important when brewing BIAB. I always recommend using the largest sized kettle that's practical for your your budget and brewing needs. Getting the wort pre-boil volume correct on brewday is a major milestone in the BIAB brewing process. Using a smaller kettle means you'll be sparging the grain in order to make up for the loss in preboil volume. It also means that your mash will be thicker and depending on how much thicker it will produce a less fermentable mash than a thinner mash would. As you progress in your BIAB brewing you may also want to factor in things like wort loss due to shrinkage as the wort cools down in the kettle or losses in hoses and chillers.  

ezBIAB Calculator©

ezRecipe Design is the easy way to awesome beer!

A Little Mashing Theory Goes A Long Way

As a self proclaimed single infusion mash fly sparger brewing on a traditional three tier brewing system, my goal was to always get my mash thickness as close to 1.25 quarts of water per pound of grain. Mash thickness plays a key role in the brewing process when it comes to getting consistent results in your finished beer. With BIAB brewing all of the water volume is mixed with the grain and added to the kettle for mashing at the same time. This creates a much thinner mash than the 1:25 quarts of water per pound of grain used in a traditional mash.

BIAB Conversion And Efficiency

The mash thickness associated with BIAB brewing is much thinner than that used in a three tier system. Due to the higher ratio of water to grain the concentration of converted sugars will be lower, which in turn produces a more fermentable wort. The same higher ratio of water to grain lowers the concentration of enzymes in the wort slowing the breakdown of proteins.

Extended mash times help compensate for the slower conversion rate of a thinner mash and using a mash efficiency of 70% is a good starting point. As with any new brewing system a couple of brewdays are required in order to get your process and efficiencies dialed in more accurately.


Traditional Conversion And Efficiency

The thicker 1.25 quarts of water per pound of grain mash thickness, used in traditional brewing, produces a wort that has a higher concentration of enzymes. The higher concentration of enzymes breakdown proteins more efficiently converting starch into sugars faster. Since the ratio of water to grain is lower the concentration of converted sugars will be higher producing a less fermentable wort and a maltier sweeter beer.


Maximum Kettle Volume: The maximum amount of grain and water that the kettle can safely hold before a spill over is likely to occur. Sometimes referred to as the actual working volume of the kettle. Depending on the size of the kettle this can be many gallons less than the kettle's actual gallon rating. In the example below the 62 quart kettle used in my BIAB RIMS setup has a lip located one inch down from the top of the kettle. The top of the grain basket rests on that lip to keep the basket from touching the heating element located at the bottom of the kettle.

A 15.5 Gallon Kettle Safely Holds Just 13 Gallons

In addition to that there is also a spray nozzle mounted in the kettle lid that sprays temperature controlled wort evenly over the grain bed. Keeping a two inch distance between the tip of the nozzle and the top of the wort  maximizes the spray coverage over the largest area of the grain bed. When setting up my ezBIAB calculations I enter 13 gallons for the maximum kettle volume instead of the 15.5 gallon kettle size.


Packaged Beer Volume: This is the total volume of beer that you planned to package into cans, bottles or kegs. When your beer comes out of the fermentor for packaging a layer of yeast, or fermentation trub, will be left behind in the fermentor.

Plan Ahead And Have Enough Fermented Beer To Package

If a fermentor was initially filled with 5 gallons of beer at the end of fermentation a little bit of beer may be lost during fermentation through the airlock or blow off tube too. To allow for beer lost during fermentation, and ensure you end up with enough beer to fulfill you packaging needs, enter the volume of beer expected to be lost during fermentation.


Kettle Trub Loss: This value has more importance for brewers who believe that only wort should ever go into their fermentors. If that is the case then a certain amount of wort and kettle trub will always be left behind in the kettle after filling the fermentor. In my kettle that can amount to as much as three quarts for some recipes that include plenty of hop additions.

Kettle Trub Loss Will Vary With Kettle Size And Brewing Process

For some brewers transferring the kettle trub along with the wort into the fermentor isn't a big deal. I can't imagine kettle trub being magically transformed into drinkable beer during fermentation, and that's where fermentor trub loss will come into play. If you plan to add all of the kettle trub into your fermentor then enter zero as the kettle trub loss, but be sure to include that amount and more in your fermentor trub loss calculation.

If you choose to keep the kettle trub out of your fermentor then add that amount of wort lost to your kettle trub loss calculation. Eliminating kettle trub from going into your fermentor will then allow you to enter a smaller amount of trub loss in the fermentor trub loss calculation. As an example the post boil volume will need to be larger to compensate for the wort and trub left behind in the kettle.


Weight of Grains: This is the total amount grain used in the recipe, here you simply enter the weight of the grains in pounds. The grain weight is used in calculations that determine the grist to water ratio when they are mixed together in the mash tun, also referred to as the thickness of the mash, or the mash thickness. When grain is mixed with water a percentage of that water will be absorbed by the grain, the amount of water absorbed by the grain is referred to as grain absorption.

Weight Of Grains Used In A Recipe

An acceptable method of calculating the percentage of recipe water lost to grain absorption can be expressed simply as the weight of grain times 0.125 equals water lost in gallons. There are some variables outside of this formula that can change the actual amount of water loss although not by much. Squeezing the grains, and the method of squeezing the grains, will extract more wort from the grain and lower the amount of water needed to compensate for the amount of water absorbed by the grain.


Weight of Hops: The total weight of hops used in the recipe, here you simply enter the weight of the hops in ounces. The hop weight, is used in calculations that estimate the amount of water needed, to compensate for wort that will be absorbed by the hops as they sit in the kettle. There are other variables that affect the amount of water lost to hop absorption too. The amount of hops used in the recipe and the type of hops whether flower, whole leaf or pellet will all influence the actual amount of extra water that will be needed.

Weight Of Hops Used In A Recipe

An acceptable method of calculating the percentage of recipe water lost to hop absorption can be expressed simply as the weight of hops times .0.0365 equals water lost in gallons. Here again variables in how the brewer chooses to remove the hops from their wort will affect the amount of water absorption. If hops are added directly to the kettle they eventually end up settling on the bottom of the kettle as trub. If hops are bagged before they're added to the kettle some brewers may opt to squeeze the hops and collect the extra wort in the kettle.


Fermentor Trub Loss: At the end of a successful fermentation yeast cells having run out of maltose to eat, eventually fall out of suspension and settle on the bottom of the fermentation vessel. This layer of debris is referred to as fermentor trub and its made up mostly of heavy fats, proteins and inactive yeast.

Trub Loss Produced During Fermentation

As an example, on bottling day you have 0.5 gallon of trub at the bottom of your fermentor and you want to package 5 gallons of beer. Enter 0.5 as the fermentor trub loss, to compensate for the 0.5 gallon of volume the trub will take up. You would then need to transfer 5.5 gallons of wort from the kettle to the fermentor to have enough fermented beer needed to package 5 gallons.


Length Of Boil: This is the length of time the wort will be boiled, here you simply enter the length of the wort boil in minutes. The length of the wort boil will vary between recipes, as a way to adjust bittering, or the isomerization of alpha acids of hop additions. The boil also creates the maillard reaction in the wort that darkens and adds flavors of toast and caramel that couldn't be added in any other way. Brewers may also vary the intensity of the boil, how vigorous the boil is, by controlling the amount of heat applied to the kettle.

The boil also halts enzyme activity in the wort to prevent any further conversion of dextrin into fermentable sugars. The heat and turbulence of the boil sanitizes the wort and promotes the formation of hot break which is made up of proteins and tannins, the foam and brown scum that collects on top of the wort. Many brewers add a fining agent to the boiling wort to help the break material coagulate and fall to the bottom of the kettle, or use whirl pooling as a way to clear their wort of  break material.

Evaporation Rate Of Wort During The Boil Depends On Several Things

Boil Off Rate: This is the volume of the wort that will be lost to evaporation as the wort is boiled. Simply enter the estimated amount of wort boiled off in gallons per hour. The wort volume in the kettle will be reduced at a rate depending on the shape and size of the kettle, the length of the boil and how vigorous the boil is. Referred to as the boil off rate this value may take you a few batches, in order to get the closest average boil off rate for your brewing system.

High Gravity eBIAB Brewroom Build

The Fall season is rapidly approaching here in the northeast and the daily outside air temperature continues to drop lower every night. It comes as no surprise that homebrewers around here are already planning their first brewday of the season and they know they will be brewing soon.

This is going to be another great year for homebrewing and home brewers thanks to the dedication of folks like those at HomeBrewTalk. They are the world’s largest website dedicated to providing the homebrew community with a wide range of homebrewing information along with the latest trends, facts, recipes and other important news. They have recently launched a new front page section to their HomeBrewTalk website. There you will find daily updates that provide a fresh perspective on all areas of homebrewing.

Be sure to read my latest article Indoor Brewing - Clearing The Air featured on the front section of the HomeBrewTalk website, be sure to check it out.

High Gravity eBIAB Brewroom Build

Almost a year ago I started researching all the electric brewing system options that were available at the time and a few that were soon to be released. The Braumeister Electric All-Grain Brewing System looked like a quality product but there were a few things that I didn't like right off the bat. A 20 liter unit cost two thousand dollars, a bit too pricy for my budget, and the unit while very compact was imported and probably would cost a lot of money and downtime to have repaired. The unit's proprietary digital temperature readout was in centigrade only and the controller required a European 220 volt connector, I would have to hire an electrician to make the necessary changes to adapt to the North American 220 volt line I already had run.

My hopes faded for buying the new Blichmann electric K-RIMS brewing system too, it was really nice but again a little to expensive for my budget. There were also several rounds of delays as the availability dates for the electric K-RIMS system kept getting pushed out, although it may be available now it's been over a month since I checked. Finally I decided on the High Gravity BIAB Electric Brewing System from High Gravity Homebrewing And Winemaking in Tulsa, OK. I liked the price of this unit because it didn't wipe out my entire budget, I'd still have enough money left over to pay for the remaining items the brew room would need.

The entire system shipped in a single Bayou Classic box and was delivered about two weeks after I ordered it. It's a very compact one kettle brewing system that came with a Chugger pump, the High Gravity custom built EBC-SV digital temperature controller and a stainless steel probe. Some assembly was required like screwing the heating element into the pre-drilled hole in the kettle, assembling the quick connects and stainless steel couplings and reorienting the stainless steel pump head to a vertical position.

High Gravity 62 Quart BIAB Electric Brewing System

I bought the 62 quart version that uses a 220 volt 30 amp GFIC line to power a single 4500 watt ultra low watt density stainless steel heating element. The only upgraded option was substituting the half inch reinforced PVC with high temperature silicon tubing for a few extra dollars. Other than that everything needed to get the system up an running was included in the base price. Referring to the directions that came with the unit I screwed the fittings together and placed the kettle, pump and controller in a configuration that worked best and then cut the tubing to length as needed to connect them together. It's a good idea to fill the kettle half way with water and let it sit overnight to check for leaks when connecting the heating element. Use Teflon tape on all of the connections making sure to tighten them enough and then run a test batch of water through the pump and kettle to check every connection for leaks before brewday.

Movable Ventilation Hood And Grain Hoist

It wasn't too long after the electric BIAB system arrived that I started reading on home brewing forums like HomeBrewTalk and the BeerBorg just how awkward and challenging it was to lift the hot wort soaked grain bag out of the kettle to drain after the mash. The twenty pounds of dry grain in a recipe translated to sixty pounds when wet, which is way too much for a person to handle unassisted. An indoor brew room also requires enough ventilation to remove about two gallons of boil vapors on a typical brewday to prevent the growth of mold and mildew. The best placement for the ventilation hood to remove the vapors, and an overhead pulley to help lift and hold the wet grain bag, is directly over the kettle. Clearly something had to give so I used an articulating, swivel and tilt TV wall mount to hang the ventilation hood and a flexible exhaust duct to connect the air discharge to the wall vent.

Grain Basket Attached To Overhead Pulley

Up until now I've seen and read a lot of different ways home brewers have come up with for lifting these hot, wet, heavy grain bags and to me mostly all of them are scarey. I've watched videos of folks hanging their grain bags to drain into their kettles from kitchen cabinet doors, two by fours held in both hands as they struggled to keep a tight grip and ladders rigged with rope and pulleys. To me the scariest method of all was lifting a basket full of wet grains by hand and then trying to tip the basket on an angle so it would sit on the top rim of the kettle without falling into the hot wort and making a splash. Clearly having a fixed pulley directly over the center of the kettle was the best way to go. A rope threaded through the pulley overhead, with a latched hook for the basket handle on one end, could then be used to safely lift the heavy grains out of the wort and the other end of the rope tied off to a wall cleat to hold the basket of grains up until they drained.

Adjustable Hood Mount Grain Hoist And Wall Vent

Obviously the exhaust hood had to be mounted so that it could be moved out of the way in order to drop the grain hoist down and use it to lift the wet grains. After a little research for an affordable swivel mount I found one that met all the requirements for my installation, an articulated swivel and tilt TV wall mount capable of supporting up to sixty pounds was just what I needed. After a quick look in a couple of local big box appliance stores I was able to buy one and use it to mount the exhaust hood to the wall exactly how I had envisioned it. Since every good design begins with a scale drawing as the parts for the brew room were delivered I started taking measurements of the components and writing them down in a notebook. Once all the component dimensions were recorded on a rough sketch I created a detailed scale drawing showing plan, elevation and end views of the brewing area, table, kettle, basket, hoist and ventilation hood. The time that went into planning everything on paper this way before actually doing the installation was well worth the effort and actually saved time in the long run.

Planning On Paper First Saves Time

Once everything started to look good on paper I was ready to take out the electric drill, bits, saw and start the installation. I used a three speed exhaust hood with a fan rated at 780 cfm that was capable of changing all the air in the brewroom once every eight minutes. For maximum performance the manufacturer recommended hanging the hood centered over the kettle with the bottom of the hood between 30 and 48 inches above the top of the kettle. The bottom of my exhaust hood ended up being closer to 30 inches from the top of the kettle, the smaller distance from the kettle will make exhausting the heat and boil vapors outside easier to do. There is also a formula for calculating the cfm size of the exhaust fan based on the number of watts the heating element is rated at. Where a 4500 watt heating element divided by 17.6 equals a 255 cfm fan size. But again the distance from the exhaust hood to the kettle and the location of the hood, whether it's wall mounted or free standing, will all weigh into the final calculations.

Chugger Pump With Stainless Steel Head

The Chugger pump isn't self priming so the orientation of the pump head had to be changed to point the inlet down below the table top. You do this by removing the four screws that hold the stainless steel pump head onto the magnetic drive that is in turn mounted to the motor. Remove the four screws and turn the pump head a quarter turn until the inlet is pointing down, then securely tighten the four screws again. Doing this will allow liquid to drain from the kettle filling up the tubing leading to the pump inlet so the pump doesn't become air bound. It's a good idea to put a quarter inch silicone trivet or potholder underneath the kettle to prevent heat from kettle bottom from dissipating into the table top. A small piece of similar material bolted between the pump base and table will prevent noise transfer during operation although these pumps are very quite when the run.

Get To Know Your Water

Now that all of the brewing hardware is in place it's time to start thinking about using the new BIAB brewing process. I've been a single infusion mash fly sparger ever since first moving to all grain brewing, now I'll have to adapt to the changes involved with brewing on an automated system. The Electric Brewery Controller - Single Vessel (EBC-SV) will take the work out of maintaining temperatures and in time with a little practice will be ideal for doing stepped mash recipes opening the door to a whole new world of brewing possibilities. The BIAB brewing process itself requires almost all of the brewing water to be added at the start of the mash, which makes for a pretty thin mash thickness. The thinner mash thickness during the mash, makes maintaining the correct pH range of the brewing water at the start, even more important. After all the prospect of brewing with the BIAB method instead of infusion mashing was what led me to research brewing water properties in the first place.

Indoor Electric Brew In A Bag Brewroom

A few months from now I will be installing a 220 volt recirculating infusion mash system (RIMS) in my new brewroom, I've already said goodbye to my old natural gas powered system. My previous brewroom was awesome I brewed over 100 batches in there, it was located indoors in a well ventilated basement and was powered by two natural gas burners. For me at the time this was a really beautiful setup, after some initial trial and error in the layout, it became a very efficient brewroom that was a lot of fun to use. The brewroom was big, it included enough space for a yeast lab, storage area, beer conditioning and an awesome brewing setup. I brewed on that all grain setup for three years and produced some of the greatest tasting beers ever. I looked forward to my time brewing there and inviting fellow brewers over to share recipes, beers, new ideas and to lend a hand from time to time. 

High Gravity Electric Brew In A Bag

Being only months away from moving into the new place I decided that building my next brewroom around an electric brewing system would be the best way go. I'll admit at first I had no idea exactly what the pros and cons of using electric were versus gas powered brewing systems. I soon found myself doing a ton of research to learn everything I could about the electric option and it's benefits over gas. Understanding the power line size was pretty straightforward, there's a lot of useful information on the manufacturer websites to help with that and other concepts. 

A dedicated 220 volt 30 amp GFIC is used to power a 4 wire 30 amp receptacle located near the brewing area and as with any indoor brewroom setup adequate ventilation is an absolute necessity. With electric brewing though we only need to exhaust boil vapors and brewing aromas to maintain a safe and comfortable working environment. Unlike gas powered systems electric brewing systems don't consume oxygen and they don't produce poisonous carbon monoxide so there's no need to worry about exhausting poisonous fumes too. There are other things to consider when comparing electric verses gas like the lower installation cost of a 30 amp 220 volt electric line compared to installing a gas line to power the brewing system.

Indoor brewrooms powered by gas burners have to be well ventilated to quickly remove poisonous combustion gases and replace them with fresh makeup air. As the volume of air required to maintain a safe and healthy brewroom environment gets higher the more cubic feet per minute (CFM) of fresh air the exhaust system will need to remove and replace. In my gas powered brewroom I used two 7,000 btu gas burners to heat the mash and boil the wort for a combined rating of 14,000 btus. 

Using the same cfm calculations published by John Blichmann in BYO Magazine for their November 2012 issue the 14,000 btus created by the gas burners divided by 30 require approximately 450 cubic feet per minute of make up air to change the air in the brew room. The electric powered brewroom will measure approximately 20 feet by 20 feet by 10 feet high and hold nearly 4,000 cubic feet of space. When 4,000 cubic feet is multiplied by the 8 air changes per hour it comes out to 32,000, then further dividing 32,000 by 60 produced the 533 CFM needed to change the brewroom air about 8 times every hour.

Room Dimension	Change Room Air
Length   Feet	Every  Minutes
Width   Feet	Size   Cubic Ft.
Height   Feet

As far as heating efficiency goes a gas burner loses about 50% of it's BTU rating because the heat produced by the flame rapidly radiates outward and away from the wort in the brew kettle. Electric powered kettles are 100% efficient because the heating elements are in contact with the wort at all times. Due to these major differences in heating efficiencies an electric heating element rated at 5,000 watts is capable of heating wort at the same rate as an 18,000 BTU gas burner. The standard calculation used to convert watts to BTUs per hour is to take the wattage of an electric heating element and times it by 3.412, the answer represents the number of BTUs. (Example: A 220 volt 5,000 watt heating element times 3.412 converts to 18,766 btus per hour.)