Electric setup

Hi,

It's really cold outside during winter, so it's hard to bring water to a boil outside for a 5 gallon batch.

Doing it on an electric stove is not much of a plan neither.

So I'm looking for an electric set-up, but really don't what should I look at first...

Any advice?

Thanks

Paque

First step for me would be to determine where I wanted to brew via electric and is it currently set up with available electric, breakers, correct wiring, GFCI outlets, etc. Most brew with 220 but I run dual 110 elements (different breaker for each line) and can boil 8 gallons with no problem in *30 weather.

Very first questions:
What power do you have available to run your electric brewery?
120V - 240V?
30A - 50A?

What is your intended brew method?
All grain - extract - other?

Batch size - 5 gallon, 10 gallon or something else?

Please describe what you are trying to do. Maybe I can help.

P-J

Ideally, I'd like to brew in my basement...but I'm a bit worried about taking out the evaporating water...

I've only done 5 gallon extract batch so far, but planning to go AG by next spring....
Actually, I have avcess to 110V but I can spend $$ to ger 220V if it's worth it...

Trying to bring 5+ gal to boil with a single 110v element is going to be difficult if not impossible. If you have two separate 110v circuits, you can do what BradleyBrew has done and run two elements. Or, you can get a 220v line installed and run a single, higher wattage element.

Vapors need to be dealt with - an exhaust hood is the solution - is there a window or way you can pump the vapors out of the basement?

Read a lot of the build threads on here and start building up your knowledge base on what it takes to build a full on electric brewery. It's a lot of work and headache and money... But allegedly it's worth it in the end (unfortunately, I'm still stuck in the headache phase).

I've read many threads about electric setups and I understand that I have to plan ahead the goal I'd like to reach im the futur...but for the short term, my nees would be to manage a setup for brewing a full batch of 5 gallon extract and to get rid of the steam that comes along...

Short term...I built a heat stick & used that to supplement my kitchen stove. My plan was to mount a 220V element in my kettle & control with a PID. That was 2 years ago. For this winter I built another heat stick, run off separate 20A GFCI circuits & brew in my basement. I still plan to build a nicer electric setup, but this works good. For steam; I open a window & turn the bathroom fan on.

I did this a couple years back. I went all out and did a 220v 5500w with a control box, 15 gallon pot, a small 110v and small pot to act as a heat source for a HERMS and a march pump to move it all around. 220v pay off in shorter boil times, but you could do 2 110v on 2 different cictuits too.

There is no reason you couldn't simply replace/retrofit the pot/kettle you use on propane with a heating element and call it a day.

As you mentioned steam is a MAJOR concern. Mold will become a serious possibility. You need to consider if you can find a way to vent it. (There is a 75 dollar vent hood thread in this section section you might want to look at). A 7 gallon to 5.5 gallon boil will put 1.5 gallons of water into the air in one room, that is enough water for a normal sized entire house. In my experience it gets worse if you do multiple batches in a day, batches on back to back days and you are going to have an issue with anything that is requires significant boil downs (I did a couple where I needed to boil 15-16 gallons down for a 5 gallon batch, one was alot of popcorn which required multiple mashes and one was a 45lb grain bill for a 1.2 OG which required a couple runnings due to small mash tun) That much water evaporated without a vent is a bad idea.

Getting rid of the moist air is definitely necessary in a basement where it's already typically a bit more damp. However, you also have to be careful that you don't create a downdraft if that's where your furnace and gas water heater are located. You'll also want to bring in some fresh air from outside directed down near the floor under the brew area. This will establish a local air circuit that doesn't impact the pressure of the house or whole basement as much.

M'y house is equipped with a heat recovery ventilator (HRV) that makes the air circulate in the house and the basement as well... Does that prevent from the downdraft?

paque said:

M'y house is equipped with a heat recovery ventilator (HRV) that makes the air circulate in the house and the basement as well... Does that prevent from the downdraft?

Click to expand...

Not familiar with that kind of system.

But, a downdraft is air coming back down the exhaust system (chimney) of any oil or gas appliances and out through the appliance. This is cause by the interior air pressure being lower than the exterior air pressure, in this case caused by your brewing exhaust fan. If your bathroom fan or range exhaust vent to the outside the too will create negative pressure. Since they are not near the furnace that imbalance will likely be corrected through a leaky window or bad door seal.

IF you system recirculates air throughout the house the entire time you are brewing it MIGHT spread the load to the point that a down draft will not occur. But if it turns off at all you are into down draft conditions.

Hi,
I don't have any appliance powered by gas or oil....all is electric powered...so I guess that I don't have to bothet with the downdraft...,