Electric keggle boil time?

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Highlandsbrew

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I am currently using a natural gas burner to brew with but I have been considering building a few electric keggles for using in my garage this winter. How long on average does it take to bring 13 gallons to boil using a 4500 watt element?
 
You are looking at about 20-25 minutes from sparge running temp.

With only 4500W you will probably have to run that thing at 100% to keep a nice vigorous boil. I run my 5500W element at 3700W to maintain a vigorous boil in 7.5 gallons.
 
I agree on the time The Pol posted. I only have a 4500W and I run it at 80% and get a nice boil. It will depend on how much insulation you have on the keg if any.
 
You are actually looking at almost exactly 28 minutes. That is quite a while... which leads me to think that you will really be running at about 100% the entire time. Wish someone who boils this volume with electric would chime in with how many watts it requires.
 
Sorry, slightly off-topic, Pol, what % evaporation rate do you get at 3700W for a 1 hr boil?
 
You are actually looking at almost exactly 28 minutes. That is quite a while... which leads me to think that you will really be running at about 100% the entire time. Wish someone who boils this volume with electric would chime in with how many watts it requires.


I am doing a 10G batch on Sunday. Pre-boil will be right around 13 gallons and I will record the time it takes to come to a boil and also what % I need to keep it at a boil. I do start the element as soon as it is covered up by the first runnings. Most of the time it is almost at boiling as I am starting to pump in the second runnungs.
 
This weekend I had a pre-boil of 12.96g but lets just call it 13g. Took about 30 minutes to get the boil going. I failed to realize that I had the controller set to 93% instead of 100% to get the boil going. I would expect 5 minutes to be taken off the time if it was at 100%. Once the boil was up and going I dialed back the percentage to 75% and still had a nice boil. I did get my anticipated 1.5g/hr of boil off. This is a 4500w element.
 
Thanks drez, when you say pre boil, are you starting at mash temp around 160 or from out of the tap?

Out of the mash. I batch sparge so after the first runnings are in the kettle and covering the element I start the element then just add the second running to it.
 
Using a 5500W element in a keggle and fly sparging I turn the element on at full power as soon as the wort covers the heater. The wort is boiling within a couple minutes, and I have to throttle it down before the sparging is finished even with a full keggle. I mashout at 170 degrees with my HERMS prior to sparging.
 
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