Best Equipment For The Boil - Your Experience

[bcp]

Just thinking thru a setup for the boil. We have an induction cooktop, which is very very efficient, quick & cheap - better than gas - but 30 litres might be too big for the elements. So need an alternative.
Volume - 30 litres is about me, i think. I don't need to make more than 20-23 litres at a time.

Interested in people's thoughts on the best equipment, and with some consideration for costs, efficiency & CO2 usage. I don't wanna pay more if it isn't significantly better.

Urns - I suspect precise temperature control for a steady boil might be a problem with some urns? Difficult to clean around elements? Don't the elements burn stuff? Aren't they slow and expensive to run? What makes one urn better than another for brewing?
Pots & burners - Can you use a BBQ? If not, what sort of burner? By the time you buy a burner & pot, is the initial outlay more than an urn? Even more difficult to control the biol?
30 litre pot - Recommendations? Prefer stainless steel, but open to aluminium.

 

[MarkBastard]

I'm pretty sure an electric element ends up being considerably cheaper than a gas burner. At least with LPG anyway. Not sure if natural town gas would work out the cheapest.

 

[rclemmett]

I currently use a 50L stainless pot to boil around 25L on an induction stove top, with the lid on... It works fine.

I also used the BBQ a few times but am happy with how long the stove top takes to bring the wort to boil.

 

[bcp]

I currently use a 50L stainless pot to boil around 25L on an induction stove top, with the lid on... It works fine.

I also used the BBQ a few times but am happy with how long the stove top takes to bring the wort to boil.

That's interesting - it'd be cheaper than an urn, and induction gives you precise temperature control.

I'm guessing 20 minutes for the boil? Was the pot a reasonable cost? And could i get away with a smaller pot, say 30 litres?

 

[Scotty]

I use a kettle element in a converted keg. It does the job well except im sure a gas stove would be quicker so I do a 90min boil every time. Unfortunately I do have to remove the element after each brew and thoroughly clean it because if it has caked on crap it affects the thermostat. (I found that half way through a boil when it kept cutting out at 65 degrees.) I still like my way because I do not need to worry about running out of gas and fire in general.

Scotty

 

[rclemmett]

That's interesting - it'd be cheaper than an urn, and induction gives you precise temperature control.

I'm guessing 20 minutes for the boil? Was the pot a reasonable cost? And could i get away with a smaller pot, say 30 litres?

Something like that... never bothered to time it. It cost me $99 from Daves Homebrew. The 50L pot is good because you're less likely to have a boil over.

 

[Cortez The Killer]

I use a 2400W immersion element

The single best investment in my brewery

Cheers

 

[SpillsMostOfIt]

I've always preferred brewing with electricity over gas, although I now brew with gas because I do not have enough electricity.

Consider a gas flame under a pot. A portion of the heat coming out of the flame never makes it into the pot.
Consider the same pot with an immersion element in it. All the heat that the element is producing is being dissipated through the contents of the pot.

Problem is that if you're in Victoria and using mains gas you're probably a greener brewer than if you are in Victoria and using mains electricity due to the way we use a lot of our brown coal to dry out the brown coal we're burning to produce electricity.

 

[sav]

My trusty 3 ring burner still gets 50lts on a good boil I think it was 30bucks
Make a sheild thats the key.

 

[bcp]

I currently use a 50L stainless pot to boil around 25L on an induction stove top, with the lid on... It works fine.

I also used the BBQ a few times but am happy with how long the stove top takes to bring the wort to boil.

Dave can't post it, but said it is a primus. At $120now , it's still half the price of anything else that's suitable for induction.
http://www.primusaustralia.com.au/pdf/pg_9...2_Stockpots.pdf

And how big is your hotplate? Mine is 210mm, and the pot will overhang a lot - not sure if it'll work...

Otherwise i'll have to consider some of the other good options people have put here.

 

[manticle]

Just thinking thru a setup for the boil. We have an induction cooktop, which is very very efficient, quick & cheap - better than gas - but 30 litres might be too big for the elements. So need an alternative.
Volume - 30 litres is about me, i think. I don't need to make more than 20-23 litres at a time.

Interested in people's thoughts on the best equipment, and with some consideration for costs, efficiency & CO2 usage. I don't wanna pay more if it isn't significantly better.

Urns - I suspect precise temperature control for a steady boil might be a problem with some urns? Difficult to clean around elements? Don't the elements burn stuff? Aren't they slow and expensive to run? What makes one urn better than another for brewing?
Pots & burners - Can you use a BBQ? If not, what sort of burner? By the time you buy a burner & pot, is the initial outlay more than an urn? Even more difficult to control the biol?
30 litre pot - Recommendations? Prefer stainless steel, but open to aluminium.

If you can get set-up with the right equipment early on it's easier. As somone who up until last weekend boiled 38 litres in two small pots (requiring two boils and two chills per 203 litre brew) on either a woodfired weber or an electric stovetop, I recommend getting what you can. However if you can't, I can also testify to the fatc that it shouldn't stop you - there's always a way. My small boil bots still get used in my kitchen so there's no waste.

Stainless steel pots are pretty damn expensive. Try checking asian grocers for large stockpots. I recently bought a 38 litre stock pot from an asian run novelty/gift shop for $50. It's a robust aluminium stock pot.

I bought a 4 ring burner (Rambo) for $100. It's powerful enough to boil my wort within reasonable time and easy to adjust to make it boil more gently. You need to factor in the gas bottle and regulator (potentially another $100 - 150). I bought them because for once I had the money to do so but I reckon if ytou're on a budget you could shop around and be resourceful. Brewers sell equipment, check ebay, freecycle and camping stores etc. Try your barbecue with a half or three quarter batch and do a test run.

I know little about urns.

 

[murrayr]

if you're doing 20-23 litre batches, your boil will want to start with 27ish litres. in a 30 litre pot you'll almost definately have a boilover. i use a 36 litre pot and i'd still prefer a slightly bigger one
cheers, murray

 

[absinthe]

my homemade nat gas burner gets 8.5kW's INTO the water (after all loses) and cost about $3 an hour to run, elec would be about half that ($1.50 an hour @ 8.5 kW) and that not taking into account the setup cost of getting a line put in to handle 8.5kW

and from what i remember about propane it would cost about $4.50 an hour with my 4 ring burner (nowhere near the output i have now) but its been awhile since i used propane so i could be remembering wrong

 

[raven19]

I use a 2400W immersion element

The single best investment in my brewery

+1 So useful for many processes in the brewery.

I am a big fan of electric over gas.

2c only.

 

[pbrosnan]

I've got a whole urn setup, 30L for the HLT, 30L for the kettle and a 20L for the HERMS. I top the kettle up to the max and boil overs are a problem, vigilance and the on off switch are the key. I took the trip switch out on the kettle so I don't have a problem with beer stone type build up causing cut outs. I use a little citric acid in water to keep the element clean. With the kettle filled to the max with runoff it takes a good half an hour to get to a boil. But there have been no real problems and I've probably done about 50 or 60 brews with it. I haven't used gas and intend to make a custom electric kettle with a 3600W and a 2400W element and use a 50 or 70 litre stockpot. I reckon electric is the way to go if you can.

 

[Plastic Man]

If you don't mind dropping down in volume a tad the old Bunnings 25l barrels with a Big W kettle element installed is a pretty cheap set up.

You can screw in a brass 25mm to 20mm reducer into the tap recess hole, and then a cheap ball valve, (also from Bunnings), total price about $40 for the bunnings stuff and $12 odd for the kettle, (been a long time since I bought mine but I don't think prices have changes that much over the years).

The barrels are more like 30 litres so there is a bit of room in them. I end up with about 24l in the barrel pre boil, the boil is pretty vigorous with the kettle element so after an hour I'll fill an 18litre cube to the top with enough left over to fill a 1 litre bottle, (basically a mini cube), that I'll then use for a starter. Works pretty well. You end up with a bit less in the keg than a "full" batch - but you just brew a bit more.

Cheap option though and works pretty well. To clean the element I just soak in no name nappy san for a day and give it a bit of a scrub with a plastic dish brush. The build up comes off pretty easy. Never had scorching problems.

 

[rclemmett]

And how big is your hotplate? Mine is 210mm, and the pot will overhang a lot - not sure if it'll work...

My hotplate is about 200mm and yes, it overhangs heaps.... but it does work. That looks to be the same pot in the link.

 

[Daniel.lear]

If your making AG beer, something to note, If you leave the lid on during the boil, you could be trapping DMS. While Aussie and European malts have low levels of the precursors that produce DMS (as oppsed to American malts), they do still exist.

I left the lid on during my first AG in an attempt to use less gas and control evaporation. Lets just say that corn flavolured beer was not what i was aiming to make.

Just a thought.

Leary

 

[Screwtop]

Best Equipment For The Boil - Your Experience, Urn? Pots? Gas? Electric? Other?

80L SS Pot

NASA LPG Burner and adjustable high pressure reg

Have used 30L SS pot, 50L Keggle. 3 Ring Burner and low pressure reg, Immersion Heater, Jug Element.

Screwy