azazel1024
Well-Known Member
Our of curiousity for all of the electric brewers out there, I haven't found a whole lot, but what kind of heating times are you running with different sized elements?
My quickie poor back of the napkin math says that a 1500w element would take somewhere around an hour to heat 5 gallons of water from room temperature to a boil in a well insulated pot. Does that sound about right? So dual 1500w would be roughly half an hour and a 4800w element would be more like 15-20 minutes?
I have grandiose plans to eventually build a "real" electric brewery. That said, I am kind of curious if I could do a quickie PnP electric brewery with something like a couple of 1500w 120v elements or something similar Or do a hybrid propane/electric system where I use the propane to speed heating to mash/boil, but then use something like a single 1500w element to maintain the boil/assist with getting to temperature.
Anybody do something like that? Any thought's ideas? I pretty much just do 2.5-5.5G batches. I currently am doing BiaB, which I could see being an issue with an element in a pot, but I guess that could be avoided by not using the element for mash out heating. Any issues with elements and aluminum pots (price/weight I prefer aluminum, but curious about galvanic issues with a stainless steel element and an aluminum pot)? Would I need to go stainless pot if I went electric? Would a single 1500w element be sufficient to keep 5.5 gallons of wort at a boil if I brought it up to a boil using propane?
Could you insulate a pot and still use propane heating to assist the 1500w in keeping it at a boil?
Do you have to have a recirculating pump/whirlpool with direct electric heating to avoid scortching?
Just trying to get some ideas on how to save some propane and make the slow transition towards an electric brewery.
Thanks!
My quickie poor back of the napkin math says that a 1500w element would take somewhere around an hour to heat 5 gallons of water from room temperature to a boil in a well insulated pot. Does that sound about right? So dual 1500w would be roughly half an hour and a 4800w element would be more like 15-20 minutes?
I have grandiose plans to eventually build a "real" electric brewery. That said, I am kind of curious if I could do a quickie PnP electric brewery with something like a couple of 1500w 120v elements or something similar Or do a hybrid propane/electric system where I use the propane to speed heating to mash/boil, but then use something like a single 1500w element to maintain the boil/assist with getting to temperature.
Anybody do something like that? Any thought's ideas? I pretty much just do 2.5-5.5G batches. I currently am doing BiaB, which I could see being an issue with an element in a pot, but I guess that could be avoided by not using the element for mash out heating. Any issues with elements and aluminum pots (price/weight I prefer aluminum, but curious about galvanic issues with a stainless steel element and an aluminum pot)? Would I need to go stainless pot if I went electric? Would a single 1500w element be sufficient to keep 5.5 gallons of wort at a boil if I brought it up to a boil using propane?
Could you insulate a pot and still use propane heating to assist the 1500w in keeping it at a boil?
Do you have to have a recirculating pump/whirlpool with direct electric heating to avoid scortching?
Just trying to get some ideas on how to save some propane and make the slow transition towards an electric brewery.
Thanks!