Sabco

It a good system, but I'd say "no". It's not worth it because you can put together your own RIMS system for much less if you have some DIY skills. The most expensive thing might be the actual brew stand, now I'm not a welder so I paid a guy $900 to put mine together. But its better than the Brew Magic stand. My system is a single tier RIMS (RIMS tube) system that uses a BCS 460 controller. I can do way more with it than you can do with the Brew Magic. For instance, I can start my HLT over the internet from work and come home to immediately mash in. Simple wiring of relays, a little TCP/IP knowledge, little pipe sweating practice (to build RIMS tube). Not hard but it takes commitment. Total cost was less than $2000. I have two friends who purchased the Brew Magic System one was a pilot for Depp Ellum brewing Company, and one was just a hobbyist. Near $10,000

http://www.embeddedcontrolconcepts.com/

 

Youre going to find more DIYers here in terms of all grain equipment. $6k is way more than I could ever imagine spending on equipment - so to me it isn't worth it. Including temp control and full kegging equipemnt and all other purchases I have made (not counting ingredients) I am still sub $2k.

What batch sizes are you looking to do?

 

Mine certainly doesnt look nicer by any stretch of the imagination but it gets the job done just as well. I can post pictures later on but I converted a rectangular cooler into a mash tun. Bought stainless steel brew pots when I found them at good prices. Built a hop spider, use a 50 foot copper immersion chiller. Have various buckets and carboys. Built a fermentation chamber from instructions on homebrewtalk. Bought a kegerator but will be building a keezer in a few months once I move into a bigger place (this will be my biggest single brewing expense). Right now I use my natural gas stovetop as my burner but you can get good enough burners for reasonable prices if you brew outdoors. FWIW I brew in my apartment so everything has to kind of work around the space I live in, it all needs to be able to store nicely and no one piece can be too large. I do 5 gallon batches.

All kind of piecemeal over the last few years but for me, functionality > form.

 

The rims system, new burners, and the hard plumbing are all I like about it. Hate the keggles, the fermenter, and the chill wizard.

 

If I were you, I'd buy 3 sanke kegs (15.5 gallon) to convert to kettles, two march pumps, build a stand, and purchase a control box from electric brewery.com

Kegs: chicompany.net or other sources, maybe Craigslist $120 x 3 = $360 for kettles + shipping
Two pumps with fittings & hoses ~$400
Electric Brewery Equipment ~$2250
Brew Stand can be done for under $200 if you build it

That's about $3200 ... This is my ideal homebrewery, I just don't have the $ for it.

 

I've often characterized homebrewing as a money pit. No matter how much you've spent, there's more stuff to buy!!!

That said, $6K is a helluva lot more than my pit will hold. If you're DIY enough to brew your own beer, then you're DIY enough to build a kick-ass system for well under $2K (I'm just throwing a number out there).

 

Since you are considering plunking down big bucks for the "hot side of brewing" perhaps the competition should also be mentioned. Now that I've had opportunities to brew on both, if given a choice btw a Sabco Brew Magic and a Morebeer Brew Sculpture, I'd go for the morebeer system.

 

Two things to consider, courtesy of advice offered up by Vikeman (who else?) in a past thread:

1) Will it make your beer substantially better?
2) Will it make your homebrewing routine substantially easier?

If the answer to both these questions is "no" than it is not worth paying substantially more for the equipment. A plastic cooler with homemade manifold and an aluminum kettle turkey fryer setup will set you back about $5850 less than you are thinking about without necessarily sacrificing quality or costing you needless labor.

 

Exactly what I was trying to get at but much more well said

 

If you already brew with extract, I would hold off on the Sabco and start with the following:
Convert a cooler to a mash tun with parts from Home Depot
Buy a kettle that will hold at least 7.5 gallons ( to brew a 5 gal batch)
Assemble an immersion cooler with parts from Home Depot
Buy a turkey fryer if you want to brew outside
Buy a mash paddle or a really big spoon
Buy a decent digital thermometer

That should be all you need to move from extract to all grain. Did I forget anything? This is pretty much my system, although it is more of a pile of stuff in the basement than a system.

 

I can understand wanting a cool stand. I want a single tier stand so I can wheel the whole shootin' match outside on the back porch and brew. When I'm done, I hose it off, clean it all up and push it back in the house and be done with it.

For $6000, it looks nice. I don't have many people over to brew, and I'm not interested in humble bragging if I brought it to a group brew away from home. Most would shrug at it, as homebrewers tend to be people that build majority of their stuff anyways.

Get someone local to weld you a stand up. Get two pumps, 3 kettles, add a water filter to it, and figure out if you want to automate your mash system. I've priced the metal, and the labor to have some coworkers weld me a stand, and I'd have less than $250 in it total for the stand and casters alone.

 

Some homebrewers have more dollars than cents.

 

I'm sure you can easily spend 2250 for someone to build the relay box and controller (I wouldn't). However, you can run your electric RIMS or HERMS system with a simple PID controller. In the case of the electric RIMS system (like the brew magic) you recirculate throughout the mash and control the heating element (low density hot water heater) with the PID controller. With a HERMS system, the PID controller can turn your recirculation pump on and off, pumping the mash through a pipe heated by the HLT.