Boil Coil in the Bayou?

Anybody tried fitting the boil coil in the bayou under the steamer basket? Is there room for it and still get the lid on? I'm looking at the 44 quart version specifically. If not, anyone tried it with another "all" stainless element?

I know I can just use the bag without the metal basket, but I am trying to make a Grain Mammy of sorts.

(I'm looking at the boil coil mainly because they have a 2250 watt stainless and I don't see any 120 volt above 2000 anywhere else. Only downside besides size is that it doesn't look like you can replace the just the element without the cord, etc. )

I doubt the boil coil will fit. A standard straight or ripple elements will.

I just bought an electric system from HighGravity that includes the 120V 2250W boil coil in the bottom of the 44qt Bayou. Coil fits perfectly.

Steamer basket goes in without an issue.

I haven't brewed with it yet -- will brew for the first time this weekend -- but it's my new BIAB setup. Wort goes out the bottom of the kettle, gets pumped in the top via a Chugger. Bag sits in the steamer basket while mashing.

I'm measuring the mash temp via a thermoprobe at the bottom of kettle, going right between two coils on the Boil Coil. The other option is to mount the probe at the lid where the wort-in is. Not sure what's more accurate. I had a HERMS, and measure the temp at the wort-in, but Highgrav says that because the probe is at the bottom and near the coil (without touching) it prevents overshooting. We'll see.

Did a test run with 8.5 gallons of water, and it looks like the element goes 2 degrees per minute, give or take. 45 mins to go from 65F --> 150F and then another 35 mins or so to go from 150 to 212.

re: Replacing the element

Yes, you can remove the element, keep the cord. The coil connection goes in through 2 holes near the bottom of the kettle. On the outside of the kettle, you attach a metal shield -- and then the plug attaches via two or three magnetic prongs inside the shield. The plug is removable. Blichmann is always good about selling parts, too -- so if you need a new coil, I'm sure you can go to Blichmann's parts website and get just the coil. Might save a few bucks from having to buy the coil, plug, assembly parts, etc.

BrunDog said:

I doubt the boil coil will fit. A standard straight or ripple elements will.

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Not true. 120V 2250W Boil Coil fits fine in the 44qt Bayou Classic. See my post above.

bobbytuck said:

I just bought an electric system from HighGravity that includes the 120V 2250W boil coil in the bottom of the 44qt Bayou. Coil fits perfectly.

Did a test run with 8.5 gallons of water, and it looks like the element goes 2 degrees per minute, give or take. 45 mins to go from 65F --> 150F and then another 35 mins or so to go from 150 to 212.

Click to expand...

Awesome! I've been searching threads over this issue for hours upon days. Thanks!

I stand corrected! I was venturing a guess, sorry!

-BD

I'm curious about how high gravity mounts their coil. I bought a bayou classic 1044 with the basket and the blichmann 120v boil coil, but even with mounting the boil coil at the very bottom of the kettle the basket is still resting on the coil. My plan was to copy high gravity's design since I had 90% of the parts.

Just a fyi to the OP, unless I got the wrong model kettle you might need to install some stainless bolts as a standoff or something

I just put the boil coil 120v (10 gallons) into the 44quart bayou classic pot with steamer basket. The coil mounted at its lowest point comes up about 4 1/2 inches. And the basket wants to sit about 4 1/4 inches of the bottom. It barely touches. I'm putting a set of 5 inch stainless bolts through the holes I the bottom to act as legs to correct this.

I have HG's 120v system and they have added three SS bolts to the steamer basket near its rim and these rest on the ridge of the pot to keep it elevated a bit more.

Thanks for posting the photos, I like that better than my idea.

Could the basket just sit in the middle of the boilcoil without scorching the bag or grain?

BrunDog said:

I doubt the boil coil will fit. A standard straight or ripple elements will.

Click to expand...

The standard 5500W straight or ripple all stainless elements will not fit with the basic weldless technique. The Bayou 44qt is about half an inch narrower than the elements are long, so a straight element will hit the far wall, and the ripple element may need to be bent a bit more. But they will fit out of the box with Bobby's/BrewHardware's 1.5" weldless triclover adaptor, as that adds about 1" to the space available for the element.