Minimum power requirements?

Although my old man is a licensed electrician, he doesn't comprehend an all electric brew setup. Although it could be my half ass explanation of one.

Any way, i'm going to run power to my brewshed from the disconnect? under my meter. I only want to do this once, so how big of a breaker to run a full electric setup? I don't have one now, but I want everything in place for future expansion. I will have a 220 line also.

As you can tell my electrical knowledge is crap. But if I an relay this to pops, he can decipher. If it matters, I plan a circuit for the air conditioner (cold room)
one for 110 outlets, and one for lights. Anything missing?

Frick... Id run 100A service there.

50A for the brew rig and then have 50A for the cold room and other peripherals.

Get the panel installed and then you can easily wire a 240VAC outlet for the rig and run 120's for all of the other stuff out there. But if you want to do it once, Id do 100A service.

I'd say a minimum of a 50 amp 220/240 service. A single 5500 watt heater will take 20-25 amps. If you plan an electric LT and kettle, 80 amps would be better.

If I did go all electric, am I right in assuming I would nee at least 3 220v outlets.
One for the bk one for hlt, and one for mt? I do plan at minimum to do recirc mashes, so i'd need at least one for a rims tube.

wildwest450 said:

If I did go all electric, am I right in assuming I would nee at least 3 220v outlets.
One for the bk one for hlt, and one for mt? I do plan at minimum to do recirc mashes, so i'd need at least one for a rims tube.

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No, you need one.

Then you feed it into your brewing control panel and through a dist. block like I show in my build.

Ah, I see. You just need a big enough breaker to handle the amperage for all 3 pieces.

wildwest450 said:

Ah, I see. You just need a big enough breaker to handle the amperage for all 3 pieces.

Click to expand...

You need a breaker large enough to handle the MAX you will be using at ONE time. I mean, you probably wont be mashing while you are boiling.

So, you could probably easily get away with 50A for 9000W of power at the rig. You can have your cold room etc on separate breakers obviously.

I mean, my system COULD use 18,000W, but I would never be using all that at one time. I will only use 9000W at any given time.

I can use 9000W to reach a boil, but then I cut it to 4500W (one element) running on a 75% duty cycle for instance.

When I am heating strike water I will use 9000W, for mash control 4500W (one element) on PID control.