110V electric brew system

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Benjibbad

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I've been tinkering with the idea for a while now. I want to build this on the cheap including a single tier stand. I was thinking around $500 I already have an electric HLT I built from a 5 gal igloo and 2 120V water heater elements. I was wondering if any one has experiance with 110V boil kettles? The HLT will take 5 gals of 80 degree water to 180 in about 15 mins. I have 2 110V elements in it. I haven't tried boiling in it because I don't want to damage the plastic.

Currently I am looking at adding a march pump for transfers, cooling, and whirlpooling mounted on a single tier.

I want to modify a new boil kettle 10 gal, but I don't want to spend 300 on a super nice one if I screw it up. I still want a ball valve, thermometer, ports plus I will be drilling 2 holes for the heating elements and 1 for the whirlpooler. I was going to use a shiron plate chiller and recirculate the wort through the whirlpooler for cooling. I will also vorlauf/recirculate through my MLT. It is currently set up for a fly sparge so it shouldn't be too difficult.

I don't want to automate it.

Any suggestions??
 
Since you only have a 10 gallon kettle I assume that you will be making 5 gallon batches. with two 1500 watt elements it will take about 45 minutes to an hour to boil. It will take about 30 to 35 minutes to get to 160* (Home brewery electric conversion kits Chart at bottom of the page). You will need a 30 amp line for the elements. The elements should be less than $15 each, the weldless fittings will be $14 each, the valve will be about $15 and the thermometer will be about $35. With that said the hardware will be about $125 give or take a buck or two. To make your stand that will leave you with $375 for steel.
 
RGR I will be doing 5 gal batches. Any suggestions on Boil kettles? I am using a 38Q turkey fryer now and I don't like the faucet drain on it. I also don't want to do a cheapo thin aluminium pot.
 
I want to go all electric 240v, but don't have the money right now.

Since I already have a 2kw heat stick, I might just make another one and route it to an outlet on another 20 AMP circuit.

It should cost me about $50, total, based on the last one.

If I have 4kw of heating power, how long will it take to boil:

7 gallons?

9 gallons?

10 gallons?
 
I want to go all electric 240v, but don't have the money right now.

Since I already have a 2kw heat stick, I might just make another one and route it to an outlet on another 20 AMP circuit.

It should cost me about $50, total, based on the last one.

If I have 4kw of heating power, how long will it take to boil:

7 gallons?

9 gallons?

10 gallons?

Not for nothing, did you even read the posts above yours? There is a calculator in the link posted two posts above yours.

There is a good calculator posted here: JT's Beer Home Page
Towards the bottom "Electric Heat Calculator". It says 6 gallons will take 19 min to go from 150 to 212 using 3000 watts (95% efficiency).

Insulate your boil pot to reduce heat loss will help too.

This thread may have some details for you: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/countertop-brutus-20-a-131411/
 
I am home with the flu and don't have a copy of excel here.

The calculator is a .xls file.

Hope you feel better soon. I haven't had the flu for years, and I hope to keep it that way.

If you want, check out OpenOffice.org - The Free and Open Productivity Suite. There is an app that will open/edit excel file. It's open source/free. If you're going to create docs/spreadsheets and share them, make sure to save them as the Microsoft compatible file formats (so others can open them). (plenty of documentation on the innerwebs).

Cpt_Kirks said:
If I have 4kw of heating power, how long will it take to boil:
7 gallons?
9 gallons?
10 gallons?

Here's what the spreadsheet says:
Heat from 150 (assuming after mash), 17,22,24.
70-170, 7/9/10 gallons: 27/35/39.
 
I use 2 2000w elements for about a 9-10 gallon boil and it takes about 30 minutes post sparge. Never timed it...I power on after the first sparge.

I'm sure it depends on ambient temps and kettle as well...from reading some posts I suspect a keggle takes a bit longer based on the mass involved. YMMV!
 
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