wanting to know if I'm setup for building e-brewery

I have this in my basement, close to the doors to the backyard.

electrical panel is about 12 feet away in another room separated by dry-walled cinderblock and the breaker for this outlet is 20A

what more would I need to be plug-and-ebrew capable?

thats a 240v 20a recept I believe. (line1&2 plus ground) most people design their systems around 30a power sources with a neutral and a ground. If its too much of a pita to run a new line over to your brew area. An easy solution would be to drop a new 30a recept directly below your panel and just make a long cord over to you brew area. At approx $2.50 per ft it won't cost too much if its only 12 feet to the panel from your brew area.

thanks, bigcheese

not enough juice. if you're going to wire, wire BIG. i'd go 50amp and a 50 amp GFCI. then you can run multiple elements for heating water faster or doing back to back brews.

Depending on your requirements, this could be all you need. I've been happily brewing 5 gallon batches (~6.5 gallon preboil) in a converted keg on 120v with a 2000w element for over a year. The keg is not current controlled and is heavily insulated. There is just barely enough power to reach a rolling boil.

Is it easy? Yes. Super easy.
Is is fast? No way.

If putting in a new circuit is a major obstacle, don't let it prevent you from moving forward with the project. It can be done!

AWESOME answers, fellow brewers, thank you

another question: I'm thinking of going with these. not sure i would need them to run simultaneously or not, but 50amp sounds ample.

what would I need to tell my electrician to do to make this work? I would guess that I just tell him to wire it for a water heater without the plumbing

I don't see the power specs on that page. Did I miss it? You need to know the power consumption and req'd voltage before moving fwd

4500-watt, 240-volt

You can run two of those on a 50a outlet. Tell your electrician you need a 50a GFCI protected 4 wire outlet "here" (point to your desired outlet location). He should be able to figure out the rest.