I envision...

Due to rural internet connectivity I apologize in advance if any questions that I ask have been reiterated to death. Searches and reading pages take INCREDABLE amounts of time for me, and I have done some searches... but please link pages if you are lucky enough that you have internet that outdates the stone age connection I have.

I am back to planning my brew house, and am getting steel together for a brewtus 10 style single tier stand. I have an electric drop close by and can get a 60amp connection and close to a natural gas line. I have been on a 3 tier propane RIMS system for years and love some features of it, but have been dreaming of this update for a LONG time.

I would like to build a 2 element (HLT and boil) 3 burner NG single tier eHERMS system. I would like to use gas to direct fire strike water in mash tun, and make the major temperature raises in HLT and BK using both gas and electric, while maintaining temps for mash, or boil with elements. I know I can be quite successful using one or the other, but speeding up heating times by using both and the easier automated temp control with electric appeal to me since I am keeping automation on the table as a possible future upgrade.

If there is anyone with a system already that uses both electric and direct fire on a kettle, I would love a link or more info, otherwise I will try to draw rough plans of what I envision to get critique.

I haven't seen anything quite like what you're describing.

My concerns - using NG to heat some of the kettles with the elements in them, you'll have to be very aware of your element plug box and cord. Also, the heat you get from the NG not be controlled by the PID and will make it difficult for the PID to lock in solid values to maintain temperature. If you just use the NG to get close to temp, and the electric element to reach and maintain final temps, it should be easier. But, realistically - unless you're doing massive batches (like full bbl), I don't think you need both the NG and the electric. I can get 11gal of water from tap to strike (60ish-160ish) in only a few minutes when using a 5500w element. If you've got 60a available, you could put a 5500w ULWD element in your BK and your HLT and get up to temperature quite quickly, without having to worry about running NG lines and burners and dealing with all of that.

-Kevin

Well the idea behind having both is I have both available and both are cheap sources of heat. I can use gas + electric to get within a few degrees of temp quickly, then hold or make small temperature changes with electric only.

I also like being able to heat strike water dirrectly in my MLT while heating my sparge water for eHERMS in HLT. Smaller volumes and faster heat times. I am looking at 1/2bbs system, and in reading most things I have seen have been 25-35min heat times on 5500w element only. While not bad, if I have a 100,000btu burner going at the same time I can probably reduce that time in half.

Yes I do have to worry about heat shielding my electric elements and have been planning thusly, also I have found some shielded burners to use. I dont mind being a pioneer in a new method, but if someone has already done/tried this I would appreciate input. Of course if this turns out to be a pipe dream, I may keep BK and HLT as electric only, and put a burner under MLT for direct firing.

For what it's worth - I heat my strike water in the BK while I heat the sparge / temp control water in the HLT. It allows me to get everything up to temp quicker. I totally get it - some times doing things because we can / want to is worth it, but I think you're looking at a long road of headaches and complication (don't forget ventilation if you're using NG indoors like your plans seem to be).

That being said - I'm not actually contributing like you were hoping for, so I'll bow out. Keep us updated if / when you get around to building this.

he could setup a temp control gas fired system that goes to say 140, then use electric to dial it in / maintain temp... same goes for the bk

Gas for the BK and electric for the other stuff, would seem to be the usual mix.

To save time on heating strike water you could fire up both BK and HLT. Then pump from BK to HLT and stabilize temp before pumping strike water from HLT to MLT.

I don't see anything but downside in attempting to heat the same vessel by both electric and gas.

I use electric HLT, direct fired MLT with RMS to hold temp while recirculating, and a direct fired BK.

The HLT is gravity fed, and the MLT and BK are at the same level with manual controlled burners.
The HLT and RMS is PID controlled.

I heat my strike water in the MLT to temp, turn off the gas and turn on the RMS. Let it settle in and get stable, turn off the RMS, then add the grain.
After about 15 minutes, the grains have sunk, and then I start the RMS.
Mean while, the HLT is heating my sparge water.
When the mash is done, I switch hoses and pump it into the BK, then sparge/pump, sparge/pump into the BK until I have my pre-boil volume.

It's not automatic, but it works well at holding temps and heats up fast, which was the goal.