Long Time Beer Lover new to the game

Hey Everyone,

My name is Mike and a few of my buddies and I are getting into Home Brewing. We are at the stage of setting up our space. This is the kit we will be working with.
http://www.midwestsupplies.com/brewing-intermediate-plus-kit.html

Are biggest issue is heating. We will be operating in a basement. We are looking for something like a Portable Electric Burner (120v) Any ideas for us?

Thanks, Cant wait to start!

Anything wrong with the kitchen stove?

Welcome to the home brewing obsession. Good luck with your beer.

Hi, Mike - welcome! Your going to want the highest wattage electric plate you can find. When you're shopping, check the specs and get the most watts you can.

Google "brewing heat stick." This might be your best method to begin.

Welcome to the obsession!

Thanks guys as far as the kitchen stove I'd rated not have to carry a boiling hit 50lb pot down stairs lol. I was looking into the hot plates just didn't know if you all had one you recommended. Question on the heat sticks. Don't you have issues with wort burning on the heating stick effecting the flavor?

You don't have any place you can use a tripod propane burner...like a garage, patio or back deck??

Is it a 1800 watts induction cooker Cause that's why I use as well. you wouldn't be able to brew 5 gallons batches with it, but 2.5 gallons is perfectly fine i f you don't mind.

I'v been having some trouble bringing my wort to a rolling boil so I'm looking forward to add a heating stick as well as the cooker as a 2nd source of heat. You might get into this kind of problem too.

Also, if you're going to brew 2.5 gal batches, you might as well simply do BIAB. It's a lot easier.

Mgortal, we do have those spaces but our goal is to have everything done in the basement. Narrow stair wells make for carrying 50lbs of boiling liquid a pain. Also here in Chicago it will eventually get to be quite cold effecting the time it would take to boil. Thirdly, I'm lucky my buddy's wife is allowing us to do this in the first place I would love to see her face when we told her to pull her car in the snow so we can brew beer! lol!

MikeUnited1 said:

Thanks guys as far as the kitchen stove I'd rated not have to carry a boiling hit 50lb pot down stairs lol. I was looking into the hot plates just didn't know if you all had one you recommended. Question on the heat sticks. Don't you have issues with wort burning on the heating stick effecting the flavor?

Click to expand...

Not sure why you would have to carry boiling wort downstairs if you used your kitchen stove. However, if you prefer to do it all downstairs the advice given already is good. Heat plates are decent but rarely strong enough to do well with large volumes. A heat stick is better in terms of efficiency but you want to be sure you go with a Ultra Low Watt Density (ULWD) element to avoid any potential burning of your wort.

I do everything in my garage.....worst case you would have to carry the fermentation bucket / carboy downstairs full of 65-70 degree wort.

What I do is use a propane tripod and set it just outside garage (keep fumes outside).....and I do my cooling of wort with an immersion chiller...still in the garage....and then dump into fermenter....pitch yeast.....and carry to basement.

You can still do the bottling, etc. in the basement when time comes for that as well.

Now, if you dont have an immersion chiller and need to cool in water bath you could get a big enough bin and fill with water and ice to do that out in garage.....definately do not want to carry 212F wort down the stairs...way to unsafe.

Just a recommendation....seems like a 120V hot plate will be very limiting for your brewing.....slow heat up and max volume issues, etc....

Thirdly, I'm lucky my buddy's wife is allowing us to do this in the first place I would love to see her face when we told her to pull her car in the snow so we can brew beer! lol!

Click to expand...

BTW.....I make my wife pull her car out of the garage every brew day.....she moaned a little the first time...but I think she doesnt mind so much now because it means I will be out of her hair and in the garge all day....

You guys could always pitch in and send your buddy's wife out for an all day shopping binge.....just make sure you send her to the dollar store so it doesnt cost you too much!

Hey Guys Just wanted to give you all an update.

We went with the garage option. Picked up a 46,000 btu turkey fryer. Using our own kettle and the fryer worked out great. We have our first batch of stout is in primary right now and the yeast is extremely active. We will be switching over to secondary on Sunday and breaking the 5 gallons down into several different batches and adding some other flavors. Thanks for all of the input. This has been a great experience! Already brewing again this sunday. Now if only I can find a Lagunitas Day Time Clone! I have looked everywhere with no concrete options.

Cheers
Mike