Advice On Going Electric.

[onescooter]

I am considering changing my kettle to electric for several reasons I won't get into but can not get a great deal of info on the topic. Seems to be heaps on settle up a HLT with contollers and such but not on kettles. I guess what i would like to know is whether a similar setup will work as a controller would be trying to maintain a specific temperature?
What size element would be recommended for a standard 21 litre batch size, and are any controllers needed to throttle back the boil if it gets too vigorous?
Obviously there are dangers to watch out for, but stills that home brew shops sell have pretty basic element setups in them, so I figure something similar may work.
If there was a dummys guide to electric kettles, this is what I would need.
Cheers
Scott.

 

[Goofinder]

I use a 30L urn for my HLT and kettle. It's got a 2300W element in it according to the specs and manages to produce a rolling boil that is not overly vigorous. I've been getting about 22L out of it, but I haven't been paying much attention to what goes in yet. It's got a thermostat control that I just put up past 100 deg so the element stays on the whole time during the boil.

 

[kirem]

I have an electric kettle, have a look for a thread; mallee mash house. In fact my whole brewery is electric.

I use a sutronics burst fire controller on a 3.6kW element. This works very well. I have my element at full noise until I reach a rolling boil then turn the power down (using the sutronics controller) to maintain the rolling boil.

As far as I am aware you cannot set a temperature because as you boil off water the sugar water ratio changes and this changes the boil point.

electric kettles are great, all the power goes straight into the wort and is not wasted on heating the surrounding air and anything else in the near vicinity.

 

[poppa joe]

GOOGLE..."cd's old electric boiler'......
Heaps of info there.....
Cheers
PJ.

 

[Back Yard Brewer]

I have a kettle capable of at least a 50ltr boil. I have installed two screw in ellements (stokes). Both are 250mm in length with a built in thermo well for a temp probe. Because you want a boil the thermo well is a little useless. One ellement is 1800w and the other 2400w. Works a treat. I have both going at full power and it gets a fantastic boil. On the odd occasion I may turn the 1800w off. In the case of a 30ltr boil I would almost think a 2400w would be enough. The ellements were around $80 each from memory.

BYB

 

[pbrosnan]

Hi there,

I too have an all electric setup. 30L urn for HLT, 30L urn for the kettle and a 20L that I use for the HERMS exchanger. The kettle only has a 2.4k element and takes about 30-45mins to come to a boil with the kettle filled to about an 3-4 cm below the rim. I'm looking at building a 50L using a stainless steel pot and 3.6k and 2.4k elements. I agree with Kirem, electricity is more available, more efficient and less polluting (in a small space) than gas.

 

[Online Brewing Supplies]

Less polluting.Not
GB

 

[Carbonator]

are any controllers needed to throttle back the boil if it gets too vigorous?

Scott, you will need to do that because it sounds like your trying to boil something out of the water, than the water itself, so with your element, you will need reduce the intensity of the boil. I have discovered a controller that will do that.

With 21L, you will have trouble controlling the boil, so I suggest going 1500W. (It would be fine to have an un-controlled second element that you can switch off, once near your desired temperature, but it depends on your budget.) Perhaps considering upping your capacity to around 50L, then 2000 or 2400W would get the results you need.

It isn't a thermostat, more like a dimmer control.

Less polluting.Not
GB

GB, I think we are talking about CO from un-flue'd gas burning and "never waking-up" pollution. Not something I recommend experimenting with!

 

[Crazy]

I went all electric about 12 months ago it is a god send. Less noise and wasted heat. I run a 3600W element in the 90L HLT, a 3600W element in my heat exchange unit and a 4800W in my 90L kettle. Both the HLT and heat exchanger are run by simple on/off solid state relays controlled by temp controllers via a PLC but the Kettle is manualy controlled by a zero cross over solid state relay with a pot connected. The zero cross over SSR literaly decides at each point where the waveform crosses the zero point weather to turn the relay on or off. By switching at the zero point you reduce the amount of interferance created and have total control of the power output from 0-100%. I use it at 100% to reach the boil and then drop to about 70% for the 65L pre-boil volume.

From memory I paid about $80-$90 for the unit including heat sink and pot and still have two left if any one is interested, that were going to be used for the other elements before I decided to go down the path of automation up to the point of sparge.

Derrick

 

[Millet Man]

Go the electric!

For a 20-23 lt size batch a single 2400W element is fine for a kettle, you should get about 3 lt per hour evaporation depending on heat losses etc. in your setup. For a 20 lt batch I start with about 25 lt pre-boil, evaporate 4.5 lt over 90 min boil and about 0.5 lt trub loss.

Cheers, Andrew.

 

[onescooter]

Thanks for the quick info. Have a lot of info to read before I get back with more questions.
Thanks again, I am now changing to electric, is just a matter of when.
Cheers
Scott.

 

[justsomeguy]

Hey onescooter,

I went electric a couple of years ago and haven't looked back. You don't really need a separate controller for the kettle elements as long as they aren't too high a wattage. I run two elements, 1800 and 2400 in my kettle and can handle both single (24 litre) and double( 44 litre) batches with no problems. I can adjust the boil simply by adjusting how much of the top of the kettle lid is on or not as well as by wrapping a camping mat around the kettle or not.

Have a look here to see what my setup is like. I've made some changes since such as putting a 1800 watt element in the HLT and remounting the elements but its basically still the same.

HTH

gary

 

[hanzie]

Hi

I have a pot with 3000w hot water element. My first 4 batches was fine but I just burnt 2 in a row. I had to tip them down the drain. How can I avoid burning my wort? Is anyone else having the same problem?

I actualy went and got a 3 ring burner last weekend and did a batch but it feels like a step backwards. No burnt taste though.

Hanzie

 

[Yorg]

Is your element low heat density.
Anything below about 40 watts/sq inch would be fine. If it is a regular high density element, that is your problem.
If your element is in a coil, is there a small gap between spirals that particles can be trapped in and be scorched.

 

[wakkatoo]

Just found this website. Heaps of options available on here. Thermal electric

 

[browndog]

Hi

I have a pot with 3000w hot water element. My first 4 batches was fine but I just burnt 2 in a row. I had to tip them down the drain. How can I avoid burning my wort? Is anyone else having the same problem?

I actualy went and got a 3 ring burner last weekend and did a batch but it feels like a step backwards. No burnt taste though.

Hanzie

Hanzie, can you please describe what you mean by burnt. As wort is mostly water, I can't really understand how you can burn it.

cheers

Browndog

 

[hanzie]

Hi

By burnt I mean a burnt aftertaste in the beer after its been chilled and carbed. Smells burnt and taste like a good beer when you first taste it then a horrible bunt/scourched taste come through. Not like burnt toast thats kinda bready but like burnt plastic.

All my first beers were around 1040-45 then the last 2 was fairly big around 1065. After the first one come out I completely stripped my kettle and cleaned every fitting, thread and taps meticulously in case I had an infection. But that didnt fix it.
I suspect the element is too hot. So last weekend I brewed a pale ale on a 3 ring burner in the same pot and it seams ok.

Any ideas

 

[randyrob]

Hey Hanzie,

does your electric element have a fairly decent surface area? got a piccy of it?

Rob.

 

[hanzie]

Hi

Its about 300mm long and the website says it heats at 120Kw/m2 if that make any sense.



Hanzie

 

[browndog]

Well that is strange, there are a lot of people using elements bigger that 3000W and not having this problem.

cheers

Browndog