Prototype Previews: Hopback and Heat Stick

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Brewing today and using the prototype 120v heat stick in conjunction with some propane to keep a nice rolling boil in and Amber recipe. It is so nice to not have to use so much propane! N_G
 
Are you not able to boil without propane with the heat stick? Is it because of the element, the contact that it's 120v? Probably more to it than that. I am not great with how all that works, so pardon my ignorance. Just curious. Cheers
 
Komocabo said:
Are you not able to boil without propane with the heat stick? Is it because of the element, the contact that it's 120v? Probably more to it than that. I am not great with how all that works, so pardon my ignorance. Just curious. Cheers
Click to expand...


Yes you could bring your brew to a boil with the stick. If it's 120v it'll probably take an hour though. 240v 20-30 minutes. The heat stick is better designed to speed up your boil though. Many people have built them in the past to assist them when brewing on the stove.
 
Bobby

Received my Hop Bomb Jr today. That's one high quality, well made piece of kit! Can't wait to use it! Hope to have some good feedback to you within two weeks.


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Komocabo said:
Are you not able to boil without propane with the heat stick? Is it because of the element, the contact that it's 120v? Probably more to it than that. I am not great with how all that works, so pardon my ignorance. Just curious. Cheers
Click to expand...

Yesterday's batch was a new approach - I needed to reduce 10 gallons of runnings down to a 5.5 gallon batch. My heatstick is set-up to run on 120V at around 1350 watts. So it isn't going to boil 10 gallons effectively. With the heatstick cranking, I didn't have to run the propane wide open to keep the boil... it was just a low flame which saves me propane and makes less noise.

But--- the heatstick did EXACTLY what it was supposed to do during the mash. After heating the water quickly with propane, the electric stick did hold temp on a 90 minute recirculated 11 gallon mash. That is where the convenience is for me - not having to micromanage propane heating of a recirculating mash is a real timesaver.

I am very happy with the quality of the heatstick - it cleaned up easy with water rinse and a damp cloth.
 
If my entire setup wasn't all-electric I'd love to try one of the heat sticks out too. Hopefully I can get my first hopback test done this weekend. If work don't pickup I'll have to start up a kick-started for my grain bills :)
 
The name for the heatstick has been chosen and the kicker is that the first name thrown in the ring is the winner. Wbarber69 wins with "Hot Rod". Since you just said you didn't really need it, what I'm going to do is give you store credit in the value of whatever the Hot Rod is going to be priced at (when I figure that out). Here's a first draft of the etch...

hotrod3.jpg
 
Any hop back testers brew with her yet? I skipped out on getting a blichmann so I'm really curious how this one is turning out.

I FINALLY opened up my gigantic brew hardware order today after moving into my new place...I'm so excited to piece this all together. Everything was extremely well packed, I love the thermometer and the element housings.

brew hardware order.JPG
 
Bobby_M said:
I'm not counting my chickens yet, but I'm 95% sure the HotRod will come with optional all-stainless elements (no rusting bases) and the price is not going to blow your hair back either, woo!
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Is that going to be 120v and 240v stainless elements, and will it be available in a 5500watt?
 
I wish there was an affordable ss version of my wave camco limelife element. That thing rusts like no tomorrow…right through food grade silicon.
 
240V/5500w ULWD, 14" foldback incoly/stainless
120V/2000w ULWD, 8" foldback incoly/stainless

The lengths were chosen with consideration given to my RIMS tube lengths and common pot diameters.
 
Brettomomyces said:
Any hop back testers brew with her yet? I skipped out on getting a blichmann so I'm really curious how this one is turning out.

I FINALLY opened up my gigantic brew hardware order today after moving into my new place...I'm so excited to piece this all together. Everything was extremely well packed, I love the thermometer and the element housings.
Click to expand...

This Saturday I'll be testing it out. 3-4ounces of Cascade ready.
 
If I'm understanding it correctly, I'm very interested in the hot rod. I'm looking for the 240v to run with the new blichmann electric tower of power. I could use this to maintain my HLT temp for herms and then transfer to BK for the boil? I love the idea of a easily removable element because I use a false bottom in my bk. this hot rod would fit my needs correct?


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Bobby_M said:
240V/5500w ULWD, 14" foldback incoly/stainless
120V/2000w ULWD, 8" foldback incoly/stainless

The lengths were chosen with consideration given to my RIMS tube lengths and common pot diameters.
Click to expand...


Will a 14" fit into a keggle with the ferrule without putting stress on the element?
 
I use one of those in my HLT it's more like 10.5 inches. Also I got mine a little cheaper at lowes, or maybe it was homedepot I can't really remember but I think I paid like 19 or 20 bucks for it.
 
I brewed a fresh hop with my Hop Bomb Jr. last week and it worked great. Except that I tried to stuff way too many hops (2-3 oz fresh) into it, and my wort had so much hop junk from 4# of fresh hops, that the Jr. clogged up halfway through.

So, kids, don't overstuff your hopback. Take it nice and easy. It sure is a great piece of equipment!
 
grathan said:
Will a 14" fit into a keggle with the ferrule without putting stress on the element?
Click to expand...

I can't confirm yet. A keg is about 16" ID. I reduced the housing depth on the HotRod to just under 2" so I know it's going to be very close without any manual persuasion on the element tubes. One way of looking at it is most people cut a 12" hole in the top of a sanke so the vertical rod of the HotRod would have to be a bit angled anyway. If that's the case, you can bend the element upward a bit to level it out and it may fit.

The manufacturer already has tooling to make the 14" foldback so deviation is more expensive.
 
dcbw said:
I brewed a fresh hop with my Hop Bomb Jr. last week and it worked great. Except that I tried to stuff way too many hops (2-3 oz fresh) into it, and my wort had so much hop junk from 4# of fresh hops, that the Jr. clogged up halfway through.

So, kids, don't overstuff your hopback. Take it nice and easy. It sure is a great piece of equipment!
Click to expand...

I just finished my brew day. Fail. I only had 2 oz. of whole leaf hops, so I thought I was safe. (my fault, I misread the thread and thought it could hold up to 4) I got maybe 16 oz of wort to push through and had to reconfigure the setup without using the HopBombJr. I would say the size of the HopBomb Jr. only lends itself to 1 oz max of dried whole leaf hops.

Good thing about failure...more testing = more beer
 
Ok thanks. Try it again with 1oz and let's see what happens. Just to clarify this data point, how many oz of hops did you use in the kettle, pellet or whole, bagged or free floating?
 
Bobby_M said:
Ok thanks. Try it again with 1oz and let's see what happens. Just to clarify this data point, how many oz of hops did you use in the kettle, pellet or whole, bagged or free floating?
Click to expand...

I went full balls on my first test, Pliny Clone. I used 7 oz. pellet placed in a hop screen device, and my kettle also has a hop screen on the outlet port. When I flushed the therminator I didn't seen any gunk backflush so I think I just over stuffed it with 2oz and the expansion blocked it up.
 
Bobby, any thoughts on making the HopBomb Jr in a larger size? HopBomb Sr? If possible, I would like to get to where it could take a few oz if hops, or a bunch of rice hulls to act as a filter that would be inline between the pump and plate chiller, or maybe inline with the kettle and the pump. Its sounding like bigger would be better?
 
Bobby_m, I was wondering if you'd ever thought of building a hopback with a more inline design. Meaning you'd have one port welded to the very bottom and the other port would use the TC to camlock cap you already have for sale. It might help with the trapped air issue you talked about before.
 
@ Komocabo to answer your question using this as an inline filter between BK and plate chiller I did just that on my trial run, worked great, filled with rice hulls takes about 2 oz of hulls to pack full. See attached picture. @ BobbyM I will be sending you a review in next day or two via email as requested. By the way this was a 10 gallon imperial Pumpkin batch with a ton of trub and 3 oz of free floating hop pellets. Got nothing out of the plate chiller when flushing so this thing really did great. ImageUploadedByHome Brew1412090560.326338.jpgImageUploadedByHome Brew1412090749.155907.jpg


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InkBird 300

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