Hey Guys,
Last night I brewed for the second time on my all electric two vessel setup. It has a 2kw HWD 120v element in the boil kettle. I also use the boil kettle to heat the strike water.
I was brewing a pumpkin ale and had a tough time with a VERY slow sparge but finally got it all squared away and in the kettle. I started the boil, waited for the hot break and then added my hops and set the one hour timer. I started doing some other stuff since its mostly on autopilot now. About twenty minutes into the boil, I was away from it for about ten minutes when I smelled something burning. I ran to the kettle and it was almost ready to boil over so I stirred the worth quickly and the foam went away. I thought at first I had avoided the crisis. That was until I smelled the steam coming off the wort and it was burnt smelling beyond belief. I decided to finish the boil and see how it tasted. After the boil I tasted it and it was disgustingly burnt tasting. I dumped it out and I started to clean up. As I was cleaning up, I saw the element and it was partially covered in a VERY dark residue that seemed to chip off if i used a spoon try and scrape the element. Then at the bottom of the kettle I found more of the residue that had fallen off while I soaked it in oxyclean and ran the element a little.
Now the element still works and everything appears to be okay with the system. I was running the element at 100% but it didn't seem to hurt anything during my first beer I brewed on the system. I know it might be over kill but the boil didn't seem too aggressive to hurt anything.
The only thing I can think of that could cause this is that while bringing the wort up to boiling, I wasn't recirculating with my pump. This mean I get some pretty significant temperatures differences throughout the kettle. Is is possible it started to burn during this time and then it all fell apart during the boil? The boil started just fine and it smelled awesome but then whatever happened, happened, and it wasn't salvageable.
Any input is greatly appreciated!
Caleb
Last night I brewed for the second time on my all electric two vessel setup. It has a 2kw HWD 120v element in the boil kettle. I also use the boil kettle to heat the strike water.
I was brewing a pumpkin ale and had a tough time with a VERY slow sparge but finally got it all squared away and in the kettle. I started the boil, waited for the hot break and then added my hops and set the one hour timer. I started doing some other stuff since its mostly on autopilot now. About twenty minutes into the boil, I was away from it for about ten minutes when I smelled something burning. I ran to the kettle and it was almost ready to boil over so I stirred the worth quickly and the foam went away. I thought at first I had avoided the crisis. That was until I smelled the steam coming off the wort and it was burnt smelling beyond belief. I decided to finish the boil and see how it tasted. After the boil I tasted it and it was disgustingly burnt tasting. I dumped it out and I started to clean up. As I was cleaning up, I saw the element and it was partially covered in a VERY dark residue that seemed to chip off if i used a spoon try and scrape the element. Then at the bottom of the kettle I found more of the residue that had fallen off while I soaked it in oxyclean and ran the element a little.
Now the element still works and everything appears to be okay with the system. I was running the element at 100% but it didn't seem to hurt anything during my first beer I brewed on the system. I know it might be over kill but the boil didn't seem too aggressive to hurt anything.
The only thing I can think of that could cause this is that while bringing the wort up to boiling, I wasn't recirculating with my pump. This mean I get some pretty significant temperatures differences throughout the kettle. Is is possible it started to burn during this time and then it all fell apart during the boil? The boil started just fine and it smelled awesome but then whatever happened, happened, and it wasn't salvageable.
Any input is greatly appreciated!
Caleb