Should have gone electric sooner

Good news topic this time!

I just finished the hard part of my first batch with the new electric kettle and PID setup. Incidentally the first time I also used my immersion chiller. What a difference!

I would previously go from about 5 hours of getting equipment to starting the chill. Depending on water change vigilance it would be another 3-6 hours to get it down to pitching temp. On occasion I put it into the filled tub and went to sleep, deal with it in the morning.

Today I spend about 4 hours (including the autotune and leak testing) to get from pulling out equipment to virtually done. I post this as the whirlpool settles, then it's a quick gravity transfer and pitch. Also since I wasn't using my bathtub for brewing related tasks I managed to get the mash tun cleaned out while the IC was doing its thing.

Other highlight was watching the temp rise and rise, instead of "I'll check back in 10 minutes." Having the ability to heat to near boiling then have the controller maintain it was hard to describe. The elimination of that first boilover from being away from the maxed out stove at the wrong time, the peace of mind knowing that there's something in charge of the operation, the convenience of turning your back for a couple minutes, a very different experience.

Now I just imagine what life would be like without those gravity transfers and hoisting. Multi-vessel, etc. If only I had a place to put it all. Even so, highly recommended just having the electric kettle in place of the stovetop.

Brew on!

Canada has a chilling problem?

masskrug said:

Canada has a chilling problem?

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Why wouldn't they? Geography lesson...Alaska is part of the US ...so is florida weather varies just like in Canada I'm ten minutes from Canada and my ground water gets pretty warm in NY in the summer too...

It's like an extra set of eyes in the brewery, Eh?
;-)

I wouldn't go so far as to say there was a chilling problem. I can't think of any place where the bathtub crock pot is the ideal solution. I'm also too poor to freeze water to make ice to chill the bath water more. Well that was a poor choice of words, but more accurately I don't have the freezer space to do so.

Zepth said:

I wouldn't go so far as to say there was a chilling problem. I can't think of any place where the bathtub crock pot is the ideal solution. I'm also too poor to freeze water to make ice to chill the bath water more. Well that was a poor choice of words, but more accurately I don't have the freezer space to do so.

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Don't you just have to put some water outside to freeze it

Well this thread seems to have de-railed entirely. Then again it was more of a status update but not being one for social media, and 80% of people not understanding the idea of "Electric Brewing" without a lengthy discussion as to how it differs from "Electric stovetop brewing." I digress. Since we're past that anyways...

Why does everyone keep commenting on the weather? The coldest thing in Canada is my ex girlfriend.

I probably would have quit brewing a long time ago if I hadn't gone electric (in 2009). My life is busy now, but electric brewing and other things that have streamlined my brewday, and allowed me to brew and ferment large batches, has kept me in the hobby.

I never would have gone all-grain myself if it wasn't for electric as I wanted it to it indoors and safely. (I'm also from Ottawa Canada and it's too darned cold here for 6-8 months of the year to brew outdoors).

Kal

I just went partial electric........ with a 2500 floating heating element used in conjunction with my gas kitchen range. The two combined reduced my heating times to insignificance. Heating, cooling, long mash and long boil all contributed to long brew days. I've reduced ALL of those. My heating time from hot tap water to dough in temp is just a few minutes with this setup. 3 to be exact, my heat time from mashout temp to full rolling boil was a mere 2 minutes at full flame with the 2500 watt electric assist (2.5 gallon brew). Mash is down to 30 minutes as my new standard, and I usually do a 45 minute boil. With my immersion chiller, and 6 restaurant ketchup bottles weighted to float upright and filled with ice, my chill time is about 7 minutes from boil to pitch. The huge immersion chiller I built, and the 2500 watt heating element made a huge difference. Reducing mash time was also a big deal. Altogether, it cut my brew day in half or less. The benefit of the floating heater was dramatic, and it's something that could easily be doubled or tripled for a larger brew.

If I couldn't brew in the kitchen, I wouldn't brew at all, and the 4 hour + brew day was too much of a time commitment.

H.W.