[philm63]

I want to build an electric brewery in my basement. Why is it that a 3-vessel electric brewing system from one manufacturer costs so much more than a similar system from another manufacturer? I'm just starting my search and have been narrowing my choices down, and have come to two manufacturers that offer systems that interest me. The Electric Brewery, and High Gravity. I'm sure these aren't the only guys in town, but for the sake of this thread let's look at these two. Feel free to chime in with alternates, though.

Granted I've only looked at the control panels as of this writing - I've "glanced" at the other components, but it seems the control panel is the most expensive part here - TEB sells a 50A panel for around $2700 while HG has one for right around $1000, also a 50A unit. These are assembled panels. I want to do RIMS and step mash with 3 vessels so 50A seems to be the requirement. The TEB panel looks to have a lot more in terms of bells and whistles, but is all of that really needed, and is it really $1700 worth of added capability? Would the HG (Wort Hog EBC-350) controller allow me to accomplish the same thing for less than half the cost?

Sure, the TEB panel certainly looks like a high-end unit while the other one, well, it looks fine but how it looks says nothing about performance and capability. I suppose I'm still struggling with the difference in cost. I'm probably not seeing everything that it can do vs. the Wort Hog unit so I really don't have the full picture, so if anyone here can help me over that hump, I'd sure appreciate it.

I've got a decent budget to do this basement build, but I want to be sure my brew-bucks are going to the right place, and if the panel is going to eat up the lion's share, I want to be sure I'm looking at the best one for my needs.

[Gary Glass]

I've got a 2-vessel Wort Hog from High Gravity that I use for making 10 gallon batches.  I regularly do step mashes with it--just did a 3-step mash yesterday.  I'm quite pleased with it and certainly don't regret not spending more.

[Kevin]

I bought the High Gravity 3-vessel system with the EBC 330 panel. I couldn't be happier with it.

https://www.highgravitybrew.com/store/pc/Brewing-System-Electric-Wort-Hog-5-10-gallon-3-Vessel-445p5064.htm

[ynotbrusum]

I have a couple Stout tanks and the EBC 130, so I switch the power over when running Herms, as well as taking temp at the return from Herms coil to mash tun during the mash (using a stainless T with temp probe there), but at a kettle thermowell when ramping up to strike or boiling (by powering up the kettle element at those points).

It is less automated, but works perfectly well for now.  I have ordered a 20 gallon SS Infussion mash tun (with dual manometer tubes), so I am awaiting the ability to dial in Herms flow rates visually (like your mash tun with sight glass - Blichmann G2).

Cheers!

[philm63]

Update - Got the 3-vessel HERMS system by High Gravity with the EBC-330 panel. Still in the set-up phase, wiring, installing the condensate hood, etc. Gonna be a few weeks or more before I can fire this thing up.

So, Kevin, did you get 10-gallon kettles, or...? I do 5-gallon batches so my kettles are 10-gallon G2's, whirlpool arm, auto-sparge, Boil Coils, and an extra temp probe for the BK. Curious to know your experiences so far with your system. Did you have any issues dialing it in?

[Kevin]

I got the 15 gallon kettles. The only issue I had was that one of the settings in the EBC-330 was not set correctly. I made a call to Dave at High Gravity and he had me fixed up in less than minute.

The first thing I did after getting all the hoses cut and the quick disconnects attached was to do a volume test using just water so I could set up an equipment profile in Beersmith 3. I used the following video tutorial to do that... https://youtu.be/HwEbjOt8OR8 The profile ended up being pretty accurate for volumes but I've found that I'm losing more heat in the transfer of strike water from the HLT to the MT than the software anticipated. I'm going to try underletting next time instead of going through the sparge arm to see if that helps. Overall though I'm loving it.


IMG_2807 by Kevin Profitt, on Flickr