This blog provides information for educational purposes only. Read our complete summary for more info.

Kyle Brown

Owner of Clawhammer Supply

There are many different homebrew systems on the market today and there is quite a bit of variety when it comes to what the systems are comprised of and how they work. For example, some systems utilize three huge kettles and even require a dedicated workspace and a special stand, while other systems only consist of one kettle and can be operated in an apartment.

The bottom line is that amazing, world class beer can be made on any system, if one knows what they're doing.

With that in mind, we're going to talk a bit about brewing systems, large and small. However, be aware that we're going to shamelessly use Clawhammer's 10.5 gallon, electric, brew in a bag (BIAB), single kettle homebrew system as a reference point. We've brewed beer and made mash with many different types of systems, but this is what we've been using lately. It's a good system to use as a comparison to other types of systems because it's pretty minimalist and quite different from what a lot of folks use.

Here's a quick overview of the reference system.

Electric BIAB Benefits

BIAB offers many benefits over traditional 3 tier brewing systems.

• Simplifies all grain brewing: Make great beer in 1 brew kettle!
• Smaller footprint : 1 kettle vs 3
• Less mess: Pumps and hoses keep the wort where it needs to be!
• Precision mash temps: Set the PID to a mash temp and it will hold it for the entire mash. 
• Quick clean up: Simply clean the brew kettle, mesh basket, hoses and pump at the end of the brew day. Cleaning 1 kettle is far quicker than cleaning 3 kettles.