Author: Marshall Schott

From heating strike water to boiling wort, the brewing process demands quite a bit of energy and there are myriad options available to brewers these days. My introduction to brewing began with a humble setup that involved boiling wort made from extract in a pot on my apartment stove. A few years and numerous batches later, I decided to ditch extract for all grain, which led to the acquisition of a propane burner for full volume boils.

I brewed with propane for a few years before getting fed up with constantly paying $20 to refill my tank and eventually made the move to natural gas. That was over 4 years ago and I’ve since brewed hundreds of batches on what I zealously referred to then as “the best investment I’ve made.” Compared to propane, brewing with natural gas was definitely an upgrade, not only because it’s a cheaper form of energy, but it’s available 24/7. So certain this was my forever system, I built a brewing bench into the wall of my garage, sacrificing the space usually reserved for my car.

I’ve been aware of folks using electricity as their brewing energy source for awhile, but my interest remained low for a few reasons, perhaps the most obvious being I’d invested so much in my natural gas setup. Additionally, I was worried making the move to electric might somehow complicate my process. It wasn’t until some people I really trust who had recently converted to electric wouldn’t shut up about how amazing it is that I began to reconsider my position, and it didn’t take much for me (my wife) to be enticed by the idea of having my garage back.

I communicate regularly with the folks from Ss Brewtech and my interest was piqued when they mentioned to me last year that they were working on an electric system. When they finally announced their new eBrewing line, I was excited to see it hit every mark on my list of requirements and finally decided to slide into electric brewing.

Prior to agreeing to review Ss Brewtech’s new systems, I let them know I planned on doing full volume BIAB batches and asked how they suggest avoiding scorching the fabric filter on the element. Their response: We designed the system so that it won’t scorch the bag, you have nothing to worry about. Who was I to question the experts?

The product reviewed for this article was provided by the manufacturer in exchange for an honest review; no other compensation was provided. The opinions expressed in the article are solely those of the author and a concerted effort was made to approach the review from an unbiased perspective.

The time had come to demo the natural gas and outfit my brewing area for electric, which given the exBEERimental nature of what we do, meant running dual 240v 30 amp GFCI dedicated circuits. While I handled ripping out my brewing table and workbench then repairing the wall, I outsourced all of the electrical stuff because I’m not an electrician and like living. The Ss Brewtech 1V eBrewing controller arrived first and the nicely packaged kettle showed up a couple weeks later, hot off the line.

While the controller required no assembly, the kettle had a few parts that I immediately set to piecing together, a task that took all of 10 minutes.

Ss included a rubber trivet for the kettle to sit on that not only protects the brewing table surface, but reduces the chances of the kettle moving around (note: this is an add-on item and is not included with the 1V system).

Once together and in place, I cleaned and passivated the kettle per the provided instructions, after which it was ready for use.

In the 3 weeks after receiving this system, I brewed 3 batches and ran numerous other tests with water to get a good feel for how it works. What follows are my thoughts on specific aspects of the Ss Brewtech 1V eBrewing Kit.

1V Electric Controller

Possessing numerous components that work together to control the brewing process, the attractive 1V controller is the brains of this outfit. While the relatively small footprint means it can be easily placed next to the kettle, Ss will soon be offering a t-rail bracket so that the unit can be secured to the wall.

Extending from the bottom of the controller unit are a male L6-30 power cord that gets plugged into the 240v socket, a female L6-30 cord that receives the plug from the kettle, a standard 110v grounded plug, and a female 3.5 mm jack that connects to the temperature probe in the kettle.

With everything properly connected, the side-mounted power switch gets turned to the “ON” position to fire the unit up, which results in the PID display lighting up nice and bright.

One of the unique things about this particular PID controller is that it doesn’t rely on high speed switching to modulate heat, but rather an internal solid state voltage regulator (SSVR), which means wattage to the element is proportional. Simply put– this feature is what allows a fabric grain bag to be placed directly on the element without risk of scorching, a claim my experiences with this unit wholly confirm.

At the top of the controller is a small toggle switch used to set the controller in either manual or automatic mode. When set to manual mode, the user is able to set the percentage of power going to the element. Crank it to 100% for quick heating of strike water and set it to 75% to maintain a perfect rolling boil. Automatic mode is used to dial in precise temperatures, which is ideal for step mashing, maintaining a single infusion rest temperature, or holding kettle sours at a particular temperature for extended amounts of time.

Another convenient feature of the PID controller is the ability to change the decimal position to make getting to specific set points quicker. The default is tenths, and while holding the up or down arrows down for a bit leads to more rapid changes, moving the decimal makes it even faster.

Directly beneath the LCD display is an activation button used to turn the element on, and beneath that are 2 accessory activation buttons.

When turned on, the accessory buttons send power to the 110v receptacles located on the side of the control unit. These can be used for pumps, bucket heaters, mobile phones, vacuum cleaners, hand blenders, TV and xBox for playing COD4 Blackout while brewing, or anything else with a 110v plug.

That about covers the 1V controller, quite a bit packed into such a quaint unit.

eBrewing Kettle

Rather than using a standard ripple water heater element, Ss Brewtech designed what they refer to as a halo element made of an alloy that’s more resistant to heat and corrosion than stainless. Packing 5500 watts, the halo design is purported to more effectively distribute heat throughout the kettle compared to other types of elements.

Permanently attached to the element are a male L6-30 power cord and a male 3.5 mm thermoprobe cable that get run through a triclamp port on the bottom of the kettle and secured in place with a stainless retaining nut.

On the front of the kettle are 2 vertically aligned triclamp ports, the bottom of which an included 1/2″ 3-piece ball valve gets connected to. While I’d usually use the top port for a thermometer, this seemed unnecessary given the thermoprobe, so I covered it with a stainless blank included with the kit.

One of the simplest yet most convenient features of these kettles are the etched volume markings, which lined up perfectly with my trusty measuring bucket.

Ss opted to placed the rubber coated handles on the front and back of their eKettles as opposed to the sides, something I initially thought would have no impact, though I’ve realized actually adds some convenience by keeping things more streamlined.

Included with the kettle is the same trub dam that comes with Ss Brewtech’s other kettles, a simple little piece of gear designed to help keep trub out of the fermenation vessel.

Ss Brewtech is currently offering the 1V eBrewing kit with a 10 gallon/38 liter kettle, but they will be releasing a 20 gallon version soon. So, how does it work?

Ss Brewtech 1V eBrewing System Performance

For an initial test, I filled the kettle with 9 gallons/34 liters of 62°F/17°C tap water and timed how long it would take to bring it to a boil. However, I failed to realize the controller was set to manual and only at 90% power, but even so, it only took 39 minutes for the water to reach a boil. That’s just under 4°F/2°C per minute.

On a subsequent test with the controller set on automatic, I was able to heat 9 gallons of water from 62°F/17°C to 160°F/71°C in just under 22 minutes. And just to test the accuracy of the thermoprobe, I compared it to my Thermapen thermometer.

Over the following 2 weeks, I brewed 3 batches using a traditional full volume BIAB approach. With the controller set to automatic, the strike water was brought to the exact strike temperature before I mashed in by dropping the bag full of grist into the water, after which I set the controller to maintain my target mash temperature. Trusting what the Ss Brewtech guys told me, I allowed the bag to come into direct contact with the halo element during the mash.

In sticking with my typical method, and as a loather of pumps, I stirred the mash every 10 to 15 minutes. I also took temperature readings periodically throughout each mash that showed the mash stayed within a 1.5°F/0.5°C range of my set mash temperature. At the end of a 60 minute mash set to 154°F/68°C, the temperature was dead on.

After removing the bag of grains, I flipped the controller back to manual mode and set it to 100% power. As soon as I saw bubbling on the surface of the wort about 16 minutes later, I reduced the power to 75%, which maintained a perfect rolling boil.

Side note: I made the mistake of not reducing the power on one batch… no amount of Fermcap-S will restrain that foam!

After each boil was complete, I turned off the element by pressing the “heater on” button before chilling the wort with my Hydra IC, conveniently relying on the thermoprobe and controller to gauge the temperature.

The chilled wort was then racked to a fermentor and I noticed the trub dam did a damn good job at keeping trub in the kettle.

It was time to clean up. I started by turning off the main power switch on the control unit then unplugging the element and thermoprobe on the kettle from the controller. Next, I dumped the remnant wort down my utility sink drain, gave the kettle a quick hot rinse, Scrub Daddy’d the kettle and element surface, then rinsed it again. Clean as a whistle in under 5 minutes.

I expect some gunk to build up over time and plan to remove the element for deeper cleanings after every 10th batch or so, but this worked good enough for me. The kettle was then placed back on it’s rubber trivet, plugged into the control unit, and was ready for another go.

| The Verdict |

If it isn’t clear by now, my overall experience with the Ss Brewtech 1V eBrewing Kit has been grossly positive, certainly more than I expected. I’ve used numerous Ss products over the years and have learned to expect awesomeness, but this unit has far surpassed anything I hoped for. It’s fast, efficient, easy to use, and surprisingly fun to brew on. Moreover, having converted my home to solar power, my brew days are now essentially free!

There are so many things I love about this unit– BIAB without concern of scorching the bag, it’s dead quiet, and it has a small footprint, to name a few. Forcing myself to take a more critical perspective, I found a few things I thought others might want to consider before picking one up for themselves.

As far as electric brewing systems go, the 1V is reasonably priced at $949, particularly for a powerful 5500w unit. However, a dedicated 240v circuit is needed to run it, which depending on where one chooses to brew, can require a costly installation. Easy access to a dryer plug? That’d work too.

The only thing about this unit that I found myself scratching my head about is the fact the cables on the element are permanently attached. I’m certainly no expert, there’s probably a valid reason for this, but in my mind, cleaning the kettle would be a tad easier without those cables dangling around. It hasn’t been an issue, though I make an effort to ensure the ends stay dry.

While I don’t use pumps in my brewery, I know quite a few folks who would prefer to recirculate during the mash. It seems simple enough to me to include a port at the top of the kettle for this purpose, though something like The Hangover would come in super handy for this as well.

Obviously, the 10 gallon/38 liters kettle, which is actually closer to about 11.25 gallons/43 liters per my measurements, limits the batch size that can be brewed with this rig to about 6 gallons for full volume BIAB and 9 gallons if using a batch or fly sparge method (with another vessel). For those who want to brew larger batches, Ss Brewtech has plans to release a 20 gallon/76 liter eBrewing system soon.

So, would I recommend the Ss Brewtech 1V eBrewing Kit to others looking to go electric?

Without hesitation! It took me making the jump to brewing electric to fully grasp just how awesome it is, and having brewed with others on various electric systems, the Ss eBrewing unit is easily up there with the best of them. To anyone who has been considering electric systems, you owe it to yourself to add Ss Brewtech to the list.

Ss Brewtech eBrewing systems are currently available at SsBrewtech.com. If you have any questions about the 1V eBrewing Kit, please leave them in the comments section below!

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