70 gallons with 2 x 4500w

Hello, my hlt, mash and brew kettle are insulated. Would 2 x 4500W on the HLT
And 2 x 4500w on the boil kettle be enough for 70 gallons start volume for the boil, 65 gallons final volume?
I was thinking about 2 x 5500w but my house breaker if 50A, so a I'd be pushing the limits.
I have 3 phase 220v comming in the house.
Tks for any input on that.
Takes,

No scientific data to back my opinion, but I would surmise it would work, perhaps not to speedy ramping to temp but it would get it done. Since your kettles are insulated, given enough time all those watts need to go somewhere...boil / steam! Ambitious plan and I like it!

Tks for the reply , I use a 89000 BTU burner and it does the job today, so I guess 9000w will get there and be safer on the house wiring at the same time,

Check out this great thread: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/squam-lakes-brewery-pictures-144764/


I think he's running two 5500s in a 55g boil kettle. My gut tells me that you will find the ramp up slow with your proposed set up. It will boil, but you'll be waiting. Does this help?

Here's a link to a spread sheet that will help you calculate electric requirements.

http://www.red-shift.net/stuff/Electric%20Heat.xls

Even at 100% efficiency it will take you over 3 hours to bring 70 gallons from 50 deg to boiling. Some of that time will be spent before the mash, but it will still take an hour to bring 7 gallons from 160 up to a boil.

Great spreadsheet ChuckO! Thanks for posting.

ChuckO said:

..... but it will still take an hour to bring 70 gallons from 160 up to a boil.

Click to expand...

That doesn't sound too bad to me? Perhaps run one element the night before to heat sparge / strike water? With a "slow to respond system", it just takes a bit more planning...you can't say, "I want to brew now" and be done in four hours, but the time spent heating initial volumes can be spent doing other things so it is not all that objectionable IMO.

If I may ask, what are you going to do w/ all that brew?

Great spreadsheet chuckO, thank you very much.
I share the brew with friends and we share coasts for grain, hops and energy and I brew 2 times a month max. It is also a pilot brewery for a maybe future production brewery, but I am not sure I will be going the pro way yet.
I was reviewing the electrical needs and I will go with 2 x 5500W on each kettle, HTL and Boil. I will have a 3 phase brand new installation just for the brewery and I think it will handle them all right.
I am attaching a pic of my system. All kettles have conical bottoms for easy emptying and the boil kettle has a connection on the bottom and a little above the cone to let the trub behind and a hop dam.
Tks for all the help so far.

I forgot to mention that today I pre heat my water with a tankless gas water heater, so my water gets in the HTL at 148C, from there I heat it to 165F to add to the mash.

dcarter said:

Great spreadsheet ChuckO! Thanks for posting.

Click to expand...

Wish I could take credit for it. I came across it while researching before switching my system to electric. I don't know the author, but it is available from a couple of URL's on the net.

Your time line doesn't sound too bad for 70 gallons, it's all in the perspective.

I did some thinking, more thinking, talked with some electricians and the guy who is manufacturing the heating elements for me and we decided to lower them to 4500W. I also read the great http://www.theelectricbrewery.com/ and exchanged some email with Kal.
Here in Brazil, altough the grid should be 220V, it is rated as so, sometimes we get 232V, 240V and this would certainly over used my home installation with 5500W elements.
It will take longer, but it will be WAY SAFER and at the end, I am not in a rush anyway, it is a hobby and time is not money here!
The 4500W elements should exceed my burner anyway, so, it has all the odds to be better then what I do today.
I also could easily add Kal´s 50A control panel to my setup in the future.
Tks the forum, as soon as I get the elements and test them, I´ll post the results.
Alessandro.

I have two 4500 watt elements in my boil kettle. 240 vac, 50 amp gfi breaker. I have brewed 35 gallon batches (preboil wort volume ~44 gallon) successfully. I run the elements at 100% power until a boil is reached and 90% power to maintain a decent boil. Personally, I think you would have a problem maintaining a decent boil with a 70 gallon batch.

Tks Steve for the input, just a question, which component do you add to control on how much % do you run the heating elements at?
If both 4500W dont cut the boil, then I will have to rething the process and the installation, I will have to make a project to the electrical company to raise the input power, but, I dont know if it is worth doing that.
I will not drill holes on the kettles, the heating elements will be like heating sticks and fix on the border of the kettles.
Tks.

I use a PID controller in manual mode which allows me to run at 90% power.