Electric Burners

[The_Traveling_Brewer]

My brewing situation isn't ideal. I'm in a third floor apartment with a weak electric stove. In the warmer months I've been brewing outdoors on my propane burner at friends houses. Now due to winter and being unable to brew at friends house for a while, I'm looking into moving indoors with electric brewing. Ideally I don't want to move down to smaller boils but will if I have to.

I'm looking for recommendations for burners to buy. I'm looking to boil at least 3 gallons and only have regular outlets in my apartment. I'm not sure if the induction burners use regular plugs or not.

It's getting a little frustrating being unable to brew and I'm staining my brain trying to come up with a good method. Any ideas?



Thanks!

 

[thadass]

Can you put the stove out of commission while you brew and use its outlet for your electric setup? If it's 240V there's probably a good electric "burner" you can get (but I'm not familiar).
I brew indoors on a gas stove that isn't capable of boiling a whole batch but with my wide pot straddling two burners and a ~1150W heatstick I can plug into a regular outlet, I can get a roiling boil at 6 or 7 gallons.

Not sure how that would relate to the electric stove but hopefully you do have some options.

 

[flars]

My brewing situation isn't ideal. I'm in a third floor apartment with a weak electric stove. In the warmer months I've been brewing outdoors on my propane burner at friends houses. Now due to winter and being unable to brew at friends house for a while, I'm looking into moving indoors with electric brewing. Ideally I don't want to move down to smaller boils but will if I have to.

I'm looking for recommendations for burners to buy. I'm looking to boil at least 3 gallons and only have regular outlets in my apartment. I'm not sure if the induction burners use regular plugs or not.

It's getting a little frustrating being unable to brew and I'm staining my brain trying to come up with a good method. Any ideas?



Thanks!

Solution!

Model HP22S42 will heat 20 gallons from 70F to 210F in 55 minutes
Model HP18S16 will heat 20 gallons of water in a covered stock pot from 70F to 210F in 2 hours
S200 Insulation Blanket (shown below) maximizes heating efficiency when heating drums as heat loss is significantly reduced. The S200 blanket is durable and flexible, and complements any 55-gallon (208 liter) metal or poly drum. For indoor use.

Model
Power
Volts
Amps
Max Temp
Compare

HP932A
2050 W
120
17
1000°F


HP932B
2050 W
240
8.5
1000°F
ROPH-204

http://www.wenesco.com/hotdrums.htm

 

[ArcLight]

Blichmann is coming out with an electric heated system, though it wont be in time for this winter.
They also are coming out with a smaller pot (7.5 gallons instead of 10 gallons).
This could be useful for indoor brewers, though you will need to do something about the water vapor.

 

[dyqik]

There are a couple of induction hot plate "burners" that have been mentioned recently on here, if your pot is induction compatible. There's an 1800W one that might just about boil 5 gallons and run on a standard 20A socket (some say they will run on a 15A circuit, but that's really pushing it) and 3600W one that would run in place of your stove on the 240V socket. A google search will show up several options from about $70 upwards.

The nice feature is that they have some degree of built in temperature control (sensed via the bottom of the pot and the hot plate, so not completely accurate) that could be very useful for steeping grains - most seem to have a setting around 150F, or can be stepped in 10F increments.

If you have two circuits in your kitchen, you could supplement the induction hot plate with a heat stick that might let you get to full 5 gallon batch boils.