2 1500w element brutus 20 type setup

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Rivenin

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well... thanks to my glass topped electric stove for shattering twice (due to brewing...). i've made the jump to do electric brewing! i've had my keggles for quite awhile now, but since i moved to an apartment i was just doing 3 gallon AG batches on the stove. As stated above... thats no longer a viable option!

So! i'll post what i have going so far and keep everyone updated.

Right now i'm just going to plug this into the wall and run 100% for the next two batches (my friend wanted beer for his party in about a month, hence why i'm brewing without the controller at first... i didn't have the cash sitting aside).

So here is whati have so far...

... a broken stove!

don't know how well this is going to show up, but looks like i hit it with a hammer and spider webbed out.
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keggle drilled for the ground post

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testing if my bulkheads leak at all (it's been about a 6-8 months since i've had liquid in these guys)

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false bottom picture... because, why not?

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potted elements

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going to clean them up after the silicone dries.

i'll post more as soon as more parts come in... which hopefully should be here tomorrow or weds!
 
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keggle drilled and now soaking in some hot oxy clean
 
just a single pump.
Basically it's going to be a reincarnation of my propane setup; just with electric instead of propane. here is a picture of the old stand. i wish i could have taken it with me! but it wont fit anywhere in the apartment :(.

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yours looks great though!!
 
MY NUTS ARE IN PORTLAND! MY NUTS ARE IN PORTLAND!! as per the USPS website... and not my wife... haha :ban:

and the best part is... this whole thing is going in the kitchen when in use... i don't have enough room in the storage area for a stand. i find that to be quite hilarious for some reason.
 
My nuts arrived!

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annnnnd we're testing!

so far...
No leaks.
about 2* a minute on 8 gallons... which scares me a bit considering i have to run a boil manually, but we will see!
 
times as follows with 8 gallons of tap water starting at 62*

62* - 6:24
70* - 6:27
80* - 6:31
90* - 6:36
105*-6:43
120*-6:49
130*-6:54
140*-6:58
156*-7:07
166*-7:11
176*-7:18
180*-7:20
184*-7:23
190*-7:26
193*-7:33
198*-7:36
this is where it started to slow.
206*-7:50
212*-7:55

All in all... Pretty damn great for what manual control i'm using here and only 3000w.

AND the once it hit the boil... i let it boil for awhile to see how crazy it would get. Honestly. at 100% with both elements, it was quite manageable and a nice rolling boil.

Tonight after work i'm going to run to the hardware store and get some reflectex for the mashtun and the BK and see how much that helps. then maybe i'd be comfortable stepping it up to 10 gallon batches? if all else fails i'd need 2000W elements instead of the 1500w i have now and i'm pretty sure i'd be golden.

Currently testing it for flow and doing great! like my sculpture? haha

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tonight should be fun!
 
reflectex'd.

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picked up 2 2000w elements last night as well.

hopefully after thiose few updates i'll be able to do 10 gallons with ease.

did not get a chance to brew last night, due to the fact the wife wanted to buy pizza, so we had to run out somewhere... no complaints here!

so i cracked the grain this morning and have the water weighed out and everything setup for a brew tonight... doing biermunchers cream of three crops tonight... which probably wasn't the best plan considering almost half of it is stuff that doesn't considerably ease fluidity in the sparge.... oh and i have no rice hulls... haha
 
decided to do it this way. it's like a "hybrid fly sparge".

basically, i pumped all my sparge water ontop (slowly... i could see all the way down through the water to the grain) of the mash and am slowly running it out, so it's like it's "washing" the grains. i'm 5 points over preboil as well, so eff% looks spot on!

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AND! we've hit a boil.

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Just ordered my SSRs, PID, indicator lights, switches and now i'm off to find some plugs and jazz!
 
So they still haven't replaced my glass top yet... Reason?
The maintenance man said he saw my equipment in the kitchen ON the stove and setup for using it as a distillery...
1. It hasn't been on the stove because the keg weight alone would break it.
2. i don't have the proper equpment for distilling...
3... he said i was using the keg on the burner... which, how would they know? and someone could plainly see the stove would NOT heat a keg... at all... hence the elements on the keg itself.

So i have an appointment thursday evening with the manger for the maintenance team to discuss this and plead my case... if all else fails i'll have to rip 250 out of savings to get the part and fix it myself
 
Auber goodies!

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and i'm minus one control box...
i thought everything would fit into a old NES that i had laying around... this would be a big fat negative!

so now i'm searching for something i can use that isn't expensive
 
one more picture of stuff that i organized this morning

2000w potted elements and the outlets.

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SSRs are out for delivery as well, so hopefully they will be on my doorstep when i get home!
 
Could I possibly trouble you to run a test for me? I'm planning to do something similar, but it would be a huge advantage to me if it could be run off a single, 15A circuit. Would you see if you can bring 7 gallons to boil on one of your 1500W elements?
 
i am almost 100% positive that it will not boil 7g on 1500w... from what i recall the temperature losses are more so then the gains on that low of a wattage.

But! i will test that here soon for ya :)
 
Thanks :)

My research has turned up lots of disagreement on it, but no one seems to have actually tested it.
 
Didn't get a chance to test the 1500w element yet. that will be soon :)

BUT! it runs! perfectly!

Yeah yeah... i'm Italian... i like my speghetti :)

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finally brewing with the setup.
it's about 4* off but i'll fix that before the next brew.

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also, my friend gave me about 11 cases of old henry weinhard's bottles, they're 12oz, but they're larger then normal and also quite a bit thicker... (one on the right is a widmer bottle)

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thought it was funny, as i was cleaning and unpacking them a label was on them, baiscally saying they haven't been used since 1990... love it!

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Hi, From a old electricians viewpoint? you could have GFCI recepticals in the circuits. They measure the line current to the neutral return, if "ANYTHING" goes out the ground they trip immediately. (the lil button pops out) Meaning if your element wears out and a "hot coil" enters the water and you touch the pot it trips before you die, hopefully. If you can get by with one circuit, you can put in a single receptacle and feed the other circuit off the "load" secondary side. (3000 watts / 120 vac = amps)
Very inventive on the control box too, even has a handle to tote it. All holes should be in the sides thou since water pools on the tops of things.

It works, run the wheels off it, I would.

Very neat build. I did a test run with a single 1500 watt electric heater element, dipped it from the top, much more dangerous than I just noted there. (I still ride my Harley through Atlanta too thou.) I now have a 4200 watt 220 volt oven element underneath. (and no GFCI breaker yet)

While the "gas guys" are laughing we are both fixing to die? well.. I got pictures somewhere of a house foundation where there was a gas leak when a rusty (steam) regulator failed and blew the house flat.

With the digital controls (no tun needed), you can "brew your grains in a bag or a top double boiler", hold your heat within a degree or two, and "follow" the brew sheet exactly repeat, over and over and over, today, next month, next year. I can do that with gas too, but it involves more money put in to get a true gas "furnace valve" you can switch from pilot to flame.

Instead of the relays (relays work great) you can put SSR cubes in, they are quieter, last longer, and do less surge (non zero crossing) plus by switching by electronics you have less voltage arc-spike to blow your elements. Most PID's have either a 5 volt SSR drive also or a relay output to turn on relays.

Come hang out with me, drink a beer. I am still learning and can't get enough of everything. Now I am evolving to "version 2" I may sell this first one and move on. There is a lot of people who "don't have your creativity but have money to spend".
 
Just saw this, thanks for the reply!

I do have GFCI on both outlets on the walls. so that part is taken care of :mug:
Also, there is SSR's on both outlets so those are good as well. :mug:

I just put an order in for 2 more element nuts... going to start using my smaller system i've had in the patio storage for smaller 2-2.5 gallon batches again... my wife is pregnant and we're a bit out of the way for most of our friends... so i'm usually the only one having beers. and 5 gallons of the same beer is a bit much for me sometimes :mug:

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So i'll update this as soon as they get here!

p.s. another great mention to bargain fittings. i placed the order about noon today and by 12:20 i checked my email and already had tracking number... they're nuts! i love it
 
and blam!
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had about 2 gallons of water in the pot. and this is it about 15 minutes later.

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:mug:
 
I'm starting to plan on a E Brewery build like yours and was wondering if you have made any changes since this was posted. I love the tool box too! I am really excited to start this build :D
:tank:
 
Awesome. I've never seen this build before. I built a 10gal 240v Brutus 20 a couple of years ago but sold it when I moved to Portland. About to build another one, but I've decided to do dual 1500w elements and make it super ghetto with no bling at all. We'll have to do a Brutus20 brewday some time.
 
Hey all!

I've made a few changes actually... stepped away from the tool box as i wanted something that i could hard mount onto the stand. went BACK to 1500w elements as i wanted to be able to plugin anywhere (like if i wanted to drag it out to a friends house or something)... chopped the complete tops off the keggles (cleaning is actually completely easier now... don't haev to worry about that damn lip that catches everything) ... but all in all, the functionality is exactly the same.

And yes! i'm down for a matching brewday :)

My father in law got me a mash tun for xmas as i was having issues keeping temps with the keggle mash tun... so it's back to a 3 vessel system. Now i just need to make my stand a wee bit bigger... would have just stayed with the keg/cooler only, but i'm doing some larger beers lately and had some water issues :)

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i don't have any pictures, but the chiller has also changed :) haha... i like to mix things up a bit apparently!
 
I have a question regarding the electric brew: Does the electric element scorch the beer? I would have to believe that HERMS and steam are the best to avoid scorched beer.


Your thoughts?
 
Nope, I've never ran into an issue with scorched wort at all (with either the 1500w elements or the 2000w elements). I'm positive it can come to a point where it would under certain circumstances, eg. larger 240v elements running at a high % the whole time, RIMs getting too hot (temperature probe in the wrong place, etc), too small of a pot with the elements running too much. That kind of stuff, but i've made some extremely light and clear beer with no issues. (blondes and cream ales have came out wonderful). I wouldn't ever go back to propane willingly :mug:

Now... when i started messing with water chemistry... that's a whole separate game :mug: :fro:

To avoid any sort of scorched beer though, a HERMS or steam powered system where it's not under direct heat under flame or contact with a high wattage element would be best... but most people with electric systems don't experience the scorchies that people hear about... when it happens it's usually due to like, dumping in sugars without stirring (LME as well) so it hits the element, or the hop/BIA bag hitting the element, or running it too high during the boil.

hopefully that helps! :)
 
resurrecting this:

So have you ever done a 10 gallon batch with 2 120v elements. how much time it gets to get rolling boil after the sparge so from ~150 to ~212

Thanks,

Yev
 
hey bud! just sent you a message back about this.
But i only did one 10 gallon batch with the 2x1500w setup and the boil wasn't very aggressive. at the minimum i'd recommend 2x1650w setup or perfect would be 2x2000w
 
i have 2 20amp circuits in the kitchen. but i would like to stick with 15A next time i move
going with 2 1650 watt reliance elements

thanks,
-Yev
 
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