Coffee brewer

I've been working on building a Brutus 20. Gathering pieces here and there and I've almost got everything together. Well, today I'm out running with the wife and I lucked into this fine machine. It's a 30 gallon Grindmaster Heavy Duty water boiler. I couldn't have got a better deal. We were at a Home Buys store that had all yellow tagged items 50% off. Had this guy marked at $100. Got it for $50. They had no idea what they had. Still has the plastic on the stainless. It's new! Should be useful in brewing. What's everyone think? What's the best way to use this machine in beer making.

Excellent pickup. Def good for heating sparge water. What I'd imagine to be a great use for it. Might need to modify that spout to make it a bit larger for a more rapid flow but otherwise I think it'd work quite well.

Yeah, I'm planning on changing it out for a ball valve. Thinking of changing out the drain on the bottom to a ball valve also so i can recirculate and turning this thing into a big BIAB system. Gonna need a big bag.

What is the voltage and amperage?

120/208v 57 amp

Do you have a 60A ckt for this?

That does seem like an incredibly good deal. Not sure how this would work into a brewery. Won't boil, and it doesn't look like it will regulate water at strike temperatures (i.e., 165-ish).

I couldn't believe it was actually 57 amps. I looked up the specs and it is 57 amps. 12,000 watts. Holy crap!

More like 16,000 watts and 66 amps if you try to run it on 240v instead of 208v. Its lifespan would certainly suffer as well.

And it would be 3 phase. You can probably get at the wiring terminals on the elements and run only one of them for 1/3 the wattage. You may not even need to do this if you supply single phase. Try to find a wiring diagram for this beast and post it.

Yep. I installed a 100 amp panel in my garage where this will be located fed off my house's 200 amp panel. Plenty of power there. According to the paperwork that came with it it says if water boils to adjust the settings so it is just below boiling.Somewhere around 190 degrees it where it should be normally. Not sure if it will hurt it to boil in it or not. But it sounds like it can boil water. I'm thinking of disconnecting the dial and controlling the contactor with my digital temperature controller. Just a thought. Thanks for the input. Just trying to get some ideas.

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I'll post a pic of the wiring diagram when I get off work

Here is the wiring diagram that came with it. It can be ran either singe phase or 3 phase.

Ok. Finally got to wire it up and test it out. It stopped heating at 204 degrees. I changed the set point a little and now it boils easily. I think I want to install my PID controller and use it to control the contactor. I don't have much control over the boil the way it is now. Either all or nothing.View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1472953300.286042.jpgView attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1472953317.906984.jpg