New to Electric

[BobbyRob]

Alright I want to move to All Grain and I was looking at set ups for it but I need some help.

What are the pros and cons to electric boiling? I feel that would be the easiest way to set things ups but I wasn't sure if there were some effects from it. I was thinking of having a heating unit in one container that would filter onto the grains in a cooler. Then I would move the grains to another container with another heating unit to boil it.

What do you boil in for electric? Plastic or stainless steel? Boiling in plastic just seems wrong to me.

I'm also going to check the forum for some DYI grain mills but if you have any suggestions please let me know.

Thanks

 

[theknub]

bobby,
this site is a plethora of information. you can find just about everything here. as for a good primer, have you checked this out? http://theelectricbrewery.com/

as for pros, no more propane or stoves necessary. consistency batcj to batch, fine tuning of temps, etc.

cons, mostly a diy type of thing. yes you can be some off the shelf things, but mostly you will be doing it yourself with help from here and other places.

i personally boil in SS but i have seen some plastic builds. i will be using a three unit system. a 10g cooler as my mlt, a 15g ss bk and a 15g hlt with a herms coil.

 

[BobbyRob]

Wow that's an amazing amount of information! thank you

One of the things I truly enjoy about the hobby is the DYI so I think this is the way I'd like to go. I'm sure I'll have more questions as I go but this is a great place to get started. Thanks again

 

[movet22]

I would say that the only real 'con' I can think of would be if you are completely reckless and irresponsible in your setup, the amount of electricity is dangerous. But that can be said about propane too. As mentioned above this site and Kal's are dynamite resources and the number one thing to remember is- do NOT cut corners with safety!

The pro's are astounding in my opinion. The quality and consistency of my beers has gone through the roof since converting to an electric setup. my biggest pro is how much it has sped my brew day up, I can go from grain to fermenter in ~3.5 hours, including cleanup! (I was at about 5.5 hours on propane and that did not include cleanup) It can get expensive, but it certainly doesn't have to.

And I do my boiling in a 15 gal SS pot, but my mash is done in a 10 gal rubbermaid conversion.

 

[WAORGANY]

I would say that the only real 'con' I can think of would be if you are completely reckless and irresponsible in your setup, the amount of electricity is dangerous. But that can be said about propane too. As mentioned above this site and Kal's are dynamite resources and the number one thing to remember is- do NOT cut corners with safety!

The pro's are astounding in my opinion. The quality and consistency of my beers has gone through the roof since converting to an electric setup. my biggest pro is how much it has sped my brew day up, I can go from grain to fermenter in ~3.5 hours, including cleanup! (I was at about 5.5 hours on propane and that did not include cleanup) It can get expensive, but it certainly doesn't have to.

And I do my boiling in a 15 gal SS pot, but my mash is done in a 10 gal rubbermaid conversion.

Same as above, as well as it is much quieter and cost less to boil/heat water, good luck!

 

[highland_brewer]

I agree with all of the above. One thing to note when you boil/heat with electric you are applying ALL of the heat to the liquid instead of the vessel. I am in the process of building mine right now modeled after the Electric Brewery.com design. It has been fun the entire way, but I am a big DIYer so nothing really scares me much when it comes to building or constructing something.

 

[RichBenn]

After you get done with the ElectricBrewery.com, do some searches in this forum. PJ has done an incredible number of diagrams for different controllers for different systems people have built, and there are at least 20 complete builds documented here, including BIAB, HERMS, RIMS, and others. Some with expensive and full featured control systems and hardware, like KAL's, and some quite simple.

If you are doing a build with a cooler for the mash (mine is), figure on a stainless pot for a HLT(hot liquor tank) and a separate pot for boil. You may want to consider BIAB, in which only one vessel is needed for everything, and you could always upgrade later.

Good luck and good searching! There are so many ways to make great beer!

Edit - DIY grain mill is the Corona mill with a drill. You can get great efficiency with those. Anything better than that you should just buy any of the quality two or three roller grain mills that most of the vendors sell, IMHO.

Rich

 

[Black]

I will never regret going electric. I can think of a hundred pro's but very few con's, other than the initial cost.

If you are a DIY kind of person, just go for it. As for theelectricbrewery.com, it is THE reference. I built my rig like Kal, but with different parts. It is a very good source for info.

I boil in aluminum. I mash in aluminum. My HLT is all aluminum. I prefer stainless, but aluminum was more readily available in my area and MUCH cheaper (50%)

Go for it !


Cheers !