Gas Or Electricity?

[under]

:icon_offtopic: Can italian spirals run on natural gas?

 

[under]

Also anyone know the prices on rental and refill on these 45kg bottles. I think there is Supagas and elgas locally.

 

[brett mccluskey]

i get my gas bottles from the local ELGAS distributor/servoThanks for the info about gas,duck.I've heard it several times on ABC radio that the gas in the country areas are ALL the same,propane,butane,or lpg Like i said,it's too expensive to send 2 tankers to fill up different tanks,so it's all the same.My burners work quite well.I can't tell any difference between swap'n'go gas and the 220kg's

 

[Acasta]

How much would it cost to fit a 50L kettle with enough elements for a boil?
EDIT: preferably weldless.

 

[argon]

How much would it cost to fit a 50L kettle with enough elements for a boil?
EDIT: preferably weldless.

Craftbrewers sell 2200w SS weldless elements for under $40 each. i have 1 in my HLT and can get a weak boil of around 40L in over an hour from room temp. Planning to get 2 more of these and put them in the kettle. I reckon it'll get a pretty strong boil. Have both of them on a tempmate or something to maintain a rolling boil without flogging it too hard.

So for $80 you could put together an electric kettle... just make sure you connect them to separate circuits if your current electrical system can't handle the 4400w load.

 

[schooey]

Umm...gas must be a lot cheaper in country Vic than it is in NSW or the cylinders are only the standard 45kg household cylinders? They're about 1.3-1.4m high and about 400 dia? One of those costs me $90 for a swap out.... The 225kg cylinders are the big mothers at the servo...

 

[Acasta]

Very nice, i saw G+Gs for about 60, but this seems pretty good. How would you rig the temp mate if you are going to have two separate circuits?

 

[argon]

I'd probably just have one on full guts and the other on the tempmate set above boiling temp. Then hopefully the one on the tempmate would turn off as needed to maintain the correct boil... Would take a bit of tweaking though to get vigour right.

Bit of a stab in the dark, cause I haven't fully looked into it but sounds achievable to me.

Anyone else?

 

[Acasta]

Sounds pretty good, as long as the single coil wouldn't over boil on its own.

 

[argon]

Yep... Then if the single element did the job I guess you wouldn't need the second one. Or at least be able to turn it completely off and have it there only for fast ramping up to the boil.

 

[Acasta]

Yeah, waiting for the boil seems like an annoyance. Im assuming your going to no-chill still, do you worry about loss of fresh hop character?

 

[manticle]

So if I want to keep doing BIAB I need to do it outside the house....the smell was too much for the missus.

That doesn't bother me in the slightest though.

Was looking at those imersion element rod thingys to get a pot up to a rolling boil...
....or those little burner stands for gas with all the jets.

My only concern with the gas is that it would chew though a 9l gas bottle very quickly.

Or urn.

any advice would be great.

I have decided to dedicate my first BIAB brew to my missus and call it " Five Horses Lager" .

nag nag nag nag nag.

I use an immersion heater for my HLT and gas for my kettle. If my gas runs out I can finish the boil with my immersion heater. My burner brings the kettle to the boil quicker. If there's a power shortage I can heat my HLT with the burner.

I did not buy both at once but having both is really handy. Immersion heaters are also good for step mashes and raising temp if you are a couple of degrees short.

 

[white.grant]

:icon_offtopic: Can italian spirals run on natural gas?

No

Mongolians can though

 

[under]

Meh. Im thinking a 45kg is a good investment anyways. That and a bigger pot. Or maybe even going the esky and using my 50l keg.

 

[The_Duck]

The spiral burner COULD be setup to use Natural gas by boring out the jets by a bit to allow for a greater flow rate required for Natural gas to burn.

Not exactly practical I grant you. A mongolian would be much easier.

Keefer Bros in Melbourne offer their burners with natural gas jets OR LPG jets. Many others likewise.


Duck

 

[Rodolphe01]

all this talk about gas burners, size of bottles, types of jet, types of gas, cost of gas, etc is making me glad i went with electric (as stated in my previous post) - just plug the damn thing in

 

[felten]

fire is always better h34r:

 

[QldKev]

Not where I buy it.

I worked out for the cost of the amount of LPG I use per batch, how many minutes to earn the $$ back. I'm not spending an extra hour on brew day to save 2 or $3.

QldKev

 

[jbirbeck]

I use a combo at the moment of natural gas (on a 4 ring burner) on the HLT, electricity to heat the HLT quicker and get the kettle to the boil quicker, and LPG which does the kettle as the 4 ring on Ng doesn't have the grunt to get the wort to the boil quickly or well...it will do it but it takes ages and most often needs to be covered.

I have considered dropping the LPG and going with the NG and electricity on the kettle as well. I like the combo methods as I can cut down on the time taken for brewing. Two young kids with a third on the way - time is the most valuable thing in my brewhaus...don't give rats as to whether it costs more to do this or that. I do love having NG and electricity working together because they never run out...the electricity is even better now the solar panels are on the roof.

 

[Nick JD]

I worked out for the cost of the amount of LPG I use per batch, how many minutes to earn the $ back. I'm not spending an extra hour on brew day to save 2 or $3.

QldKev

An extra hour?