Considering an eHerms 120V build.

I have been brewing on and off for quite a few years and have decided that my next piece of equipment will be an eHerms system built off a keggle. At some point I will probably upgrade, but for now I am only interested in going with 120V in a keggle. I want this to be portable and work using any 120V circuit. Looking for something simple enough but wanted to see what people have built in the past. I looked through the search results, but didn't see a ton.

I boil on propane with a keggle and use a 15G MiniBrew MLT for 10 gallon batches.

Cheers!

Do some searches. With a single 20 AMP GFCI circuit, the maximum you can use is a 2000 watt element. 2000 watts is marginal for 5 gallon batches. (Boil = barely or not for 6.5 gallon boil, VERY slow rise in HLT). I use 2 separate 20 amp circuits, with two elements in the kettle, which works good for 5.5 gallon batches. But I had to install another GFCI and have two cords going to the two separate circuits plus two elements in the boil kettle and two elements in the HLT. (The HLT and boil kettles cannot be on at the same time.)

But you're talking 10 gallon batches. You really need a 240 volt circuit. Then you can use a nice 4500 or 5500 watt element to give you the heat you need. Believe me, I did a lot of soul searching before going 120V. If my brew location was the garage, outside, or in a basement, it would be 240 volts. A single 120V circuit should be used for 3-4 gallon batches only, IMHO.

Well, my mentality is that I can run the HLT with the element for keeping the temps stable. The pre-heating of the HLT water can be done with my BK and transferred over using my pump. I'm simply interested in keeping my eHerms running as steady as possible using the element. Once I have a designated brew space the HLT will most likely be re-fitted with 240V equipment.

Thanks for the input though. It's all appreciated.

You need to read this article.
http://www.instructables.com/id/Homebrewing-Brew-Kettle-BTU-Calculations/

And after you read it you'll understand why you need 240V to do 10 gallon batches.

If sticking with a 120v system you will definitely want 2 elements going. I have been using 2 heat sticks for about a year now and they worked very well for getting my temps up to strike, then while fly sparging I would kick them on after the elements where covered with liquid. Basically I used them in place of a burner, but my control was limiting to shutting them off and on. Which for all intensive purposes was a VERY affordable way to brew indoors and make wonderful beer. I am now working on a more sophisticated system doing eherms. I was originally going to do this with the two 2000w elements I had, but after much consideration I decided I am going with 240v 5500w. It is ultimately what I wanted to do and decided to not build out the 120v with the intention of converting later. My reasoning was it will be quicker, easier, and I won't waste my time when I would probably upgrade 8-12 months down the road anyway. I'd rather build it how I wanted right from the start, and I found a place in my home that I could wire it in (made it and easy decision). With that said, if 240v isn't an option PJ has some schematics on how to do 2 element 120v setups that you should be very pleased with to accomplish the same thing. They key here is 2 2000w elements will do 10g just fine, just might add 20min here and 20min there.

For your purposes 120V will be fine, but if you want to be able to use it anywhere you'll have to keep it below 15 amps (or 1800 watts.) Insulating the keggle with something like a Keg Koozy will help.



edit:
That is if I'm reading this right. All you're looking to do is recirculate your mash using HERMS and you'll still be doing your boil and maybe sparge water with your propane burner?

AnOldUR said:

For your purposes 120V will be fine, but if you want to be able to use it anywhere you'll have to keep it below 15 amps (or 1800 watts.) Insulating the keggle with something like a Keg Koozy will help.

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I just looked at the Keg Koozy and it's kind of neat. If I wasn't mashing in a large round GOTT cooler I'd buy one!

RichBenn said:

But you're talking 10 gallon batches. You really need a 240 volt circuit. Then you can use a nice 4500 or 5500 watt element to give you the heat you need.

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Two 120v, 20 amp circuits will give you 4000w, which is adequate for 10 gallon batches IME. While a 5500w would be quicker, if you are limited to 120v, 10 gallon batches can be done.

wilserbrewer said:

Two 120v, 20 amp circuits will give you 4000w, which is adequate for 10 gallon batches IME. While a 5500w would be quicker, if you are limited to 120v, 10 gallon batches can be done.

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Key word here is "adequate". And using 2000 watt elements is on the ragged edge according to some, as the breakers are not really supposed to run right at their limit. With the added load of controllers, pumps, and the like, and voltage spikes), they will. And they'll not work on 15 amp circuits, which is what most homes have on most plugs. Looking around, the next size down is 1650 or maybe 1800.

Just saying he really needs to think about it. It's a lot like buying a 7.5 gallon pot for a 5.5 gallon batch. You can get it to work, but trying to do 90 minute boil volumes with lots of hops and you'll soon upgrade to a 9 gallon pot. Or getting a 5 gallon cooler to mash in. Pretty soon you buy that 10 gallon cooler because you can't do a high gravity beer. It's cheaper in the long run to do it right.

Yes, it can be done with 120 volts, but you do need two elements, and two separate 20 amp circuits(not plugs), and in the end you may wish you'd made a different call.

a 2000 watt element is not going to go over the recommended load on a 20A 120V circuit (80% constant use for 3 hours) unless you have it on for 3 hours with out it cycling off. As a side note 20A is standard in kitchens, I have only lived one place that didn't have 20A GFCI for at least one of the circuits.

As far as ability to boil, if you (which isn't even a concern here, you are using propane for that) as long as you have some time to wait for it to heat up (about 40 min from mashout to boil) 2000 W is enough for an 8 gallon batch, might not work with a wide kettle on a windy day, but you can always brew in side.

Check out my 120V HERMs chamber build. I think you'll see big lag issues with a HLT version but this 4 pot brew system works well for me. Sorry I can't figure out how to post a link to it from the app from my phone.

chickens4life said:

a 2000 watt element is not going to go over the recommended load on a 20A 120V circuit (80% constant use for 3 hours) unless you have it on for 3 hours with out it cycling off. As a side note 20A is standard in kitchens, I have only lived one place that didn't have 20A GFCI for at least one of the circuits..

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Older homes don't around here.

You are technically correct about the 80%, the 20 amp circuits can have issues. Why? Because you are not using a dedicated circuit. Those 20 amps are shared with many other plugs, and possibly even a light circuit or more. And most likely a pump or two will be used, and a controller, and they will add more to the load. Also, 120V is not 120V. It's 110 to 120V, nominally 117V. Resistance on heating elements are also not extremely accurate. For all these reasons I chose to use less than 2000 watt devices for 120V circuits.

Some new OTR Microwaves, Freezers, and Fridges now recommend or are required by code to use dedicated circuits, and they all use less power than a 2000 watt element uses.

So the poster using 2000 watt elements should find out what all is on the circuit(s) to be used, and make certain they aren't on.

chickens4life said:

As far as ability to boil, if you (which isn't even a concern here, you are using propane for that) as long as you have some time to wait for it to heat up (about 40 min from mashout to boil) 2000 W is enough for an 8 gallon batch, might not work with a wide kettle on a windy day, but you can always brew in side.

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He is doing 10-11 gallon batches (= even more water) So we were talking two 20 amp circuits.