I have been browsing the electric brewing forum for a while as I am intrigued by electric brewing setups but they all seem to be three vessel HERMS or RIMS configurations. Does anyone have just a simple electric boil kettle and cooler mash tun?
A little background about my situation. I currently brew all grain on my electric stove top with a 5 gallon kettle and mash in a 5 gallon cooler. I would like to move out of the kitchen so I do not stink up the place when I brew, making the SWMBO happy, and also be able to brew larger batches. Propane is not an option for me because I live in a townhouse and there is a city ordinance that prevents those who live in townhouses or apartment-like complexes from having a grill or anything that uses a propane tank larger than 1lb.
I had a 30A service installed in my garage with a 240V outlet and a kill switch. I was thinking of getting a 15 gallon 4500W electric kettle from here:
http://www.highgravitybrew.com/productcart/pc/Build-Your-Own-Brew-Kettle-269p2657.htm
Do I need any sort of control panel if I am just boiling wort? The only thing I found was that running the element at full tilt would increase the boil off rate a bit, but that is easily compensated for by adding extra water pre-boil. What have others who have made similar setups done?
A little background about my situation. I currently brew all grain on my electric stove top with a 5 gallon kettle and mash in a 5 gallon cooler. I would like to move out of the kitchen so I do not stink up the place when I brew, making the SWMBO happy, and also be able to brew larger batches. Propane is not an option for me because I live in a townhouse and there is a city ordinance that prevents those who live in townhouses or apartment-like complexes from having a grill or anything that uses a propane tank larger than 1lb.
I had a 30A service installed in my garage with a 240V outlet and a kill switch. I was thinking of getting a 15 gallon 4500W electric kettle from here:
http://www.highgravitybrew.com/productcart/pc/Build-Your-Own-Brew-Kettle-269p2657.htm
Do I need any sort of control panel if I am just boiling wort? The only thing I found was that running the element at full tilt would increase the boil off rate a bit, but that is easily compensated for by adding extra water pre-boil. What have others who have made similar setups done?