Buying or setting up an electric boil kettle

[Muz]

I'm after some advice around buying or setting up a ~40 litre brew kettle.

I've been brewing for the last couple of years using my gas kitchen stove - which in my old house was pretty powerful. I just moved house recently and the new gas hobs can't really bring a full volume of wort to a rolling boil. This has given me the excuse I needed to move to an electric kettle which will also allow me to brew outside.

I've been looking for an out of the box brew kettle in Australia and come to the conclusion they don't really exist. Blickmann have one but Brewmart are the only Australian stockists and they tell me they're out of stock. I really like the look of the SS Brewtech 1V electric kettle but they tell me it won't be available in Australia for at least 6 months.

So I could build one but then I need to find a good element, buy a brew kettle, stick a hole in it and find some kind of controller.

It's doable but fair bit of work.

I guess my question is what have other people done that have an electric kettle? Do you have any advice or product recommendations?

Oh, any I'm not interested in Grainfathers, Robobrews etc. I like my HLT and mash tun. I want to stick with the three vessel setup.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Drewgong]

I'm after some advice around buying or setting up a ~40 litre brew kettle.

I've been brewing for the last couple of years using my gas kitchen stove - which in my out house was pretty powerful. I just moved house recently and the new gas hobs can't really bring a full volume of wort to a rolling boil. This has given me the excuse I needed to move to an electric kettle which will also allow me to brew outside.

I've been looking for an out of the box brew kettle in Australia and come to the conclusion they don't really exist. Blickmann have one but Brewmart are the only Australian stockists and they tell me they're out of stock. I really like the look of the SS Brewtech 1V electric kettle but they tell me it won't be available in Australia for at least 6 months.

So I could build one but then I need to find a good element, buy a brew kettle, stick a hole in it and find some kind of controller.

It's doable but fair bit of work.

I guess my question is what have other people done that have an electric kettle? Do you have any advice or product recommendations?

Oh, any I'm not interested in Grainfathers, Robobrews etc. I like my HLT and mash tun. I want to stick with the three vessel setup.

Thanks in advance.

Gday mate ive been looking into this myself for my 70l kettle . have a look at the blichman boil coil there expensive but i never found a negative review on them.
Ive decided to stay gas for now

 

[Muz]

Gday mate ive been looking into this myself for my 70l kettle . have a look at the blichman boil coil there expensive but i never found a negative review on them.
Ive decided to stay gas for now

Thanks. Yeah, I've been looking at the BoilCoil. Brewmart stock them. Only thing holding me back is that they have the US type plugs and I'd need to buy a controller too.

 

[Bellyup]

If the element has a US plug it will be 120volt,,,,,,, goes bang when you plug it into 240v

 

[dkril]

If the element has a US plug it will be 120volt,,,,,,, goes bang when you plug it into 240v

240v according to Blichmann and Cheaky Peak websites. The Yanks do use 240v for higher powered appliances.

 

[Muz]

So maybe I buy an SS Brewtech kettle, Blickmann Boil Coil & KegLand controller. Then I need to drill the holes in the kettle and convert the power cord to Aus... or just buy an adaptor. Can’t believe in 2019 this is the best solution but at least it’s a workable solution.

 

[seamad]

Crown Urn ?
Mine is now my HLT but still do single batches ( BIAB) in it now and again, especially kettle sours. Works as a kettle fine.

 

[Muz]

Yeah, I know a crown urn would work but for some reason I don’t like that idea as much as a proper kettle.

Induction is another solution I’d be keen to explore but my frustration here is that none of the ones available in Australia list how much weight they take.

 

[FarsideOfCrazy]

I know it's like a crown urn but what about the kl digiboil? It already has a controller, which for boiling will work fine. The 65 litre does this you a bit more head space for those boil overs, and if you've got a 15amp circuit more grunt to get it to the boil.

 

[clickeral]

Have a look at Cheeky peaks nano brewing offers they do pretty good boil kettles and you can go to larger elements depending on what power you have.

Ideally I would look at getting a mash to brew circle element to suit

 

[Muz]

Thanks. I hadn’t seen the CP ones. Funny as I emailed them about the Blickmann elements and they never mentioned these when they replied. Any advice on choosing an element and controller?

 

[clickeral]

Thanks. I hadn’t seen the CP ones. Funny as I emailed them about the Blickmann elements and they never mentioned these when they replied. Any advice on choosing an element and controller?

Depends how much power you have available and what size you go for also budget, I have the 70L pot and have 4800w over two elements would has done 60L at a rolling boil with the lid on, can do similar with one element but takes longer.

Recently got insulation for it to help with heat up times, will be getting more power when I move and look into a larger element

If you are aiming for 40L I would get a 50L pot from cheeky peak with the options you want but a 47mm hole for the element and then get either
https://www.mashtobrew.com.au/heati...-phase-stainless-steel-circle-heating-element or
https://www.mashtobrew.com.au/heati...-phase-stainless-steel-circle-heating-element

The 4500w would need a 20amp socket for single phase or you could run two elements on 15amp and one on 10amp
The 5500w would need a 25amp socket for single phase or you could run two elements on 15amp and one on 10amp

Worse case you could run all 3 on separate 10amp circuits but would need 3 controllers potentially or one that had 3 ins and outs

Controller wise depends what you want, but a brewpi setup with a decent pid would work (I like the inkbird gear) but depends if you are happy to diy or not

Other options are the electric brewery controllers but they are more for 3v setups

Electric brewing supply also do these https://ebrewsupply.com/collections/home-page/products/30a-pid-biab-control-panel-1-element

Other options
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/forum/threads/help-me-choose-240v-brewery-controller-no-diy.641359/

Or you can just go down the 2200w-2400w element route and run a 10amp controller

Have you seen these? https://www.kegland.com.au/65l-basic-electric-biab-kit.html would be ok as a mash kettle too

 

[Muz]

Thanks Clickeral for your detailed response. I really appreciate it!

I guess I'm looking to bring 39/40 litres to a rolling boil using a standard Aussie power point. I'm a little electricity illiterate so talk about about amps and watts confuses me somewhat. I don't mind installing an element into a pot but in the interest of living a little longer I'm not going to even attempt to wire anything (pretty sure you can't anyway if you're not a sparkie).

The mash to brew elements look great but I'm I'm going to need to wire them in right?