Just finished my Electric Brew Kettle! (Literally...)

I just had to share with you guys because I'm SUPER excited that I can now Brew AG indoors! When you live in a townhouse in NW PA like I do, it's no fun to drag the propane burner out into the 10°F bipolar weather we have around here! (I'm sure many of you already know this and share the same sentiments) So, I literally just applied the power and turned everything on and it worked perfectly the first time! (I had NO doubts!!) See, my SWMBO doesn't share the same excitement as I, so I thought I'd share my excitement with some like minded folk!

Now, this was kind of like just put together the essentials to get it working and I plan on adding on some more bells and whistles later, but it will get me through a brew day.

Now, let's put this puppy through it's paces! Tomorrow on the brew schedule, an amped up RIS!

Congrats! Any pics? Or details? I'm assuming 110v? Your gonna love electric!

Oh, and go pens!

Congratulations! I know how you feel about needing to share the excitement. I drew up a layout of my future control panel and I sent it to my brew buddies and even they were all [crickets] so I'm there with you on the excitement of reaching a new brewing equipment milestone.

Share some pics!

Thanks for sharing in my excitement!

This rig is a converted keg that started out on propane.

I added a 2" triclover ferule and to that attached a 5500W Camco heating element. I wanted to be albe to do 10 gallon batches in the future, hence the 5500W element. It's controlled by a cheap 40A SSR from Amazon which is controlled by an Auber PID (which still needs some fine tuning apparently). It's all powered by a 240V 25A GFCI protected circuit. You'll have to excuse my basement (my daughter's play area is in the background) we just moved in a few months ago and the basement is still a work in progress.

So a few pics:

You're still using your propane burner as a stand? That's pretty funny. I think the old burner is going to get jealous.

That looks like a serious element connector there. Is that triclover?

LandoLincoln said:

You're still using your propane burner as a stand? That's pretty funny. I think the old burner is going to get jealous.

That looks like a serious element connector there. Is that triclover?

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Yeah! It is! I didn't have anything else to put it on!

The element connector is from brewershardware.com. It's a pretty slick tool!

If only I could figure out why my PID is boiling the **** out of my test water when it's reading 122°F I'd be golden!

I think I figured out my problem. As a matter of fact, I'm certain I figured out my problem. I am (mistakenly) using a temperature probe for a LOVE TS with my Auber PID. Now. I understand (now) that the LOVE TS probes are 1000Ω@25°C thermistors. I'm beginning to get the impression that I won't be able to use this probe with my Auber SYL-2352 PID. If I can, does anyone know what the Sn property should be set to?

tyzippers said:

I added a 2" triclover ferule and to that attached a 5500W Camco heating element.
(my daughter's play area is in the background)

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Nice job on your kettle.
Gathering all the information I can for building mine. Going to use the Tri Clover element fitting also. Is the 2" ferule on your kettle the short or long one.

Way to think ahead on brewing near the playroom. She plays(while being closely watched of course) you brew, sublimily brewing becomes a fun/way of life for her. Next thing you know she is the Brewmaster of her own brewery and you get to retire and live upstairs. You sir are a genius.

Inkleg said:

Way to think ahead on brewing near the playroom. She plays(while being closely watched of course) you brew, sublimily brewing becomes a fun/way of life for her. Next thing you know she is the Brewmaster of her own brewery and you get to retire and live upstairs. You sir are a genius.

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Ha! Thanks Inkleg! When I read that, my daughter was playing a game about being a scientist on PBS kids. I immediately turned to her and told her to pay close attention!

But I think she's just going to take over her dad's already prosperous empire of beer brewing and I'll be living in one of my five summer homes!

Inkleg said:

Is the 2" ferule on your kettle the short or long one.

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I used the long ferule. I punched a 2" hole in my keg with a 1 1/2" conduit punch. It was a slight bit tight so I opened it up a bit with a SS air grinder. Then my buddy (I'm the student) TIG'd the ferule do the edge was just protruding into the kettle. Welded on the outside of the keg at about 30A. He did a pretty decent job given the lack of purge gas on the inside of the weld. We'll see if it rusts after the maiden brew...

Thanks

Wow your first post didnt give that rig enough justice! Maybe you were just being modest! That is a sweet looking, tricked out boiler!

kpr121 said:

Wow your first post didnt give that rig enough justice! Maybe you were just being modest! That is a sweet looking, tricked out boiler!

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Thanks! I didn't want to have to go upgrading again if I wanted to go bigger. Let me tell you. I just brewed a huge RIS tonight as its maiden brew and it performed like a champ! I'm impressed with this element.

My major problems I encountered tonight were:

1: Wrong temperature probe for my PID. So I ran it in manual.

2: I realized I was missing some fittings (I thought I had them!) for my Therminator. So I ended up using my old immersion chiller. Didn't work so well.

3: My hop filter I got from brewershardware.com kept clogging! I invented quite a few new curse words. So, after the fourth time taking it apart to clean it, I set it aside and simply pumped through a SS strainer. I think the issue is that the perf is too coarse and the hop particles are getting stuck IN the perf screen instead of being filtered. (did I make that clear?) so perhaps the solution is to use the finer perf sleeve.

4: I need more hoses and Triclover fittings.

5: I found out my hydrometer was broken (damn cats!) when I went to measure my PreBoil gravity. So what I did was relax and had a homebrew.

This RIS is thick, so I assume the gravity is pretty high. It's supposed to be 1.128 and judging by the viscosity, I'm pretty certain I came close. We'll see.

kpr121 said:

Oh, and go pens!

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How about that game tonight? Do they know how to keep a game close or what? I bet if Geno were playing that game would have been a rout!

between the dogs and my propensity to have a brew during brew... i decided hydrometers were bad. moved to a refractometer and loving it. pull out the hydrometer from time to time to verify measurements.

theknub said:

between the dogs and my propensity to have a brew during brew... i decided hydrometers were bad. moved to a refractometer and loving it. pull out the hydrometer from time to time to verify measurements.

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I REALLY want a refractometer! Maybe this is a sign? Yep. I'm definitely going to replace the hydrometer with a refractometer. Though the hydrometer lasted four years and three apartments! It served me well. May it rest in peace.

tyzippers said:

I REALLY want a refractometer! Maybe this is a sign? Yep. I'm definitely going to replace the hydrometer with a refractometer. Though the hydrometer lasted four years and three apartments! It served me well. May it rest in peace.

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here's what i have, while brix only, it is solid http://www.amazon.com/dp/B003H7ILCW/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

otherwise, dual scale...
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B006GG0TDK/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

Sorry about the brew day problems, but glad the element worked for you and you now have beer in the fermenter.

Is this the filter you speak of http://www.brewershardware.com/FILTER1.html as I was thinking of getting one also. Do you think one of the finer filter sleeves would help?

Inkleg said:

Sorry about the brew day problems, but glad the element worked for you and you now have beer in the fermenter.

Is this the filter you speak of http://www.brewershardware.com/FILTER1.html as I was thinking of getting one also. Do you think one of the finer filter sleeves would help?

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Yep. That's the one. I've used it a few times and had a pretty good go at it. I've been thinking about this problem over night and I am thinking that the finer mesh sleeve may be the answer, but my certainty is only around 60% or so. It seems to make sense in my head, but I guess I'll find out in practice.

The RIS I brewed last night had close to 24lbs of grain in the bill and 6 oz of pellet hops. This is the most pellet hops I've ever thrown at the filter at once. I'm also thinking that I may need to devise some sort of prefilter for the pick-up tube. Which gives me another thought. Since my pickup tube sucks from about an 1/8" from the bottom of the kettle, it was sucking up almost all hop material at first with very little wort to thin it out. Perhaps that was part of the problem and a prefilter may be part of the solution for large amounts of hops.

Just thought I'd update on the first brew on the new kettle.

Despite all the problems during the brew, I still ended up with 5 gallons of wort that blew my blow-off tube out of the carboy and sprayed krausen all over the floor joists in my basement ceiling! I'd say this is a healthy ferment!

I really wish I knew what it started at tho...