I LOVE waking up to hot strike water. Easy as 1-2-3.

pricelessbrewing · Oct 8, 2014

I Have a 15A lamp timer, is the $7 amazon heater good? Anybody have good idea on the longevity of it? What's the length that has to be submerged?

Looking to use with metal (AL) pot on gfci outlet on analog lamp timer.

squash1978 · Oct 9, 2014

pricelessbrewing said:
I Have a 15A lamp timer, is the $7 amazon heater good? Anybody have good idea on the longevity of it? What's the length that has to be submerged?

Looking to use with metal (AL) pot on gfci outlet on analog lamp timer.

I'd be interested in this as well. I BIAB and would be interested in finding a submersible heating element that is safe to use in a metal kettle.

Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

kombat · Oct 10, 2014

You guys all already have a ready source of hot water in your homes. I don't get why you'd spend all this money and effort on timers and additional heaters.

I draw my strike water from "hot" faucet of the laundry sink in the basement. This water starts out at around 120° F. I put it on my burner and light it. In the time it takes me to mill my grains, the water gets up to 160-165° F, perfect strike temperature depending on the beer I'm making. A device like the ones described in this thread wouldn't save me any time at all, and would cost me money.

TexasWine · Oct 10, 2014

kombat said:
You guys all already have a ready source of hot water in your homes. I don't get why you'd spend all this money and effort on timers and additional heaters.

I draw my strike water from "hot" faucet of the laundry sink in the basement. This water starts out at around 120° F. I put it on my burner and light it. In the time it takes me to mill my grains, the water gets up to 160-165° F, perfect strike temperature depending on the beer I'm making. A device like the ones described in this thread wouldn't save me any time at all, and would cost me money.

That's great you can take that approach, but if you lived somewhere the water quality was horrendous, like me, then I think you'd see the benefits.

I start with room temp water because I either have to buy it or collect it from my RO system. If I can have it hot when I wake up, then I'm ready to dough in and it saves time on my brew day.

rekoob · Oct 10, 2014

I like the idea.

I brew out in the garage (detached) or in the driveway depending on the wind. I don't have hot water out there or that would also be a good option.

I have a single tier three keggle system, I am assuming that bucket heater would be fine in the keggle to pre-heat the HLT... Right?

SudsyPaul · Oct 10, 2014

I have to admit, I like this idea. My only issue is that I like to sleep, and god knows when I'm gonna wake up when I have a day off from parenting

My buddy built something like this with an arduino, where his e-kettle can be timed and turned on/off remotely, and there's an alarm when the strike water hits temps.

I have so many doodads, I want to do this, but not sure I can justify it. My tap water gets to 115f, and it's usually heated with a bit of propane and a Cajun Injector (submersible element). It's easily at 160-165 by the time I'm done setting everything up in the garage.

tagz · Oct 10, 2014

kombat said:
You guys all already have a ready source of hot water in your homes. I don't get why you'd spend all this money and effort on timers and additional heaters.

I draw my strike water from "hot" faucet of the laundry sink in the basement. This water starts out at around 120° F. I put it on my burner and light it. In the time it takes me to mill my grains, the water gets up to 160-165° F, perfect strike temperature depending on the beer I'm making. A device like the ones described in this thread wouldn't save me any time at all, and would cost me money.

I'm under the impression that water that goes through the hot water heater isn't as clean. Is this inaccurate?

kombat · Oct 10, 2014

tagz said:
I'm under the impression that water that goes through the hot water heater isn't as clean. Is this inaccurate?

I've heard that argument before, and the best answer, as far as I can tell, is "it depends."

If you have an electric water heater, then I understand there can be significant mineral buildup on the inside of the tank and/or on the sacrificial anode. While personally I don't think this is a problem (the minerals are being taken OUT OF the water and onto the anode, so the resulting water should have even LESS minerals than water straight from the cold water tap), but I can understand why people would prefer not to gamble at all and just use bottled spring water.

However, my water heater is natural gas, and thus the water coming out of it should be identical to water coming out of my cold faucet, except considerably hotter.

As always, do what works for you.

tagz · Oct 10, 2014

kombat said:
You guys all already have a ready source of hot water in your homes. I don't get why you'd spend all this money and effort on timers and additional heaters.

I draw my strike water from "hot" faucet of the laundry sink in the basement. This water starts out at around 120° F. I put it on my burner and light it. In the time it takes me to mill my grains, the water gets up to 160-165° F, perfect strike temperature depending on the beer I'm making. A device like the ones described in this thread wouldn't save me any time at all, and would cost me money.

Sorry duplicate. Error with app.

NathPowe · Oct 12, 2014

I just woke up to hot strike water.

And I LOVED it.

Cheers.

govner1 · Oct 12, 2014

kombat said:
You guys all already have a ready source of hot water in your homes. I don't get why you'd spend all this money and effort on timers and additional heaters.

I draw my strike water from "hot" faucet of the laundry sink in the basement. This water starts out at around 120° F. I put it on my burner and light it. In the time it takes me to mill my grains, the water gets up to 160-165° F, perfect strike temperature depending on the beer I'm making. A device like the ones described in this thread wouldn't save me any time at all, and would cost me money.

++1 on this method. I have hot & cold water hose bibs in my garage "brewery" w/ bev grade hose & hot and cold charcoal water filters. I star at 120°F and can get to strike temp w/ 8 gal in 20 min or less.
Pump my strike water to my MLT for mashing then refill my HLT Andy sparge water is ready in no time.

Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

NewBrewDog · Jan 16, 2016

I BIAB in a 10.5 gal turkey fryer on a gas range. I've always had trouble with long waits for mash and boil, even with the kettle on two burners. I used the Allied Bucket Heater as a heat assist for mash water temp and mash-to-boil for the first time tonight. Mash to boil used to take well over an hour even when I partially covered (and obsessively wiped condensation) with lid. With the bucket heater I hit boil in 35 min from mash and I finally got a nice violent boil. I hope it will serve me until I construct an electric brew system. It's is nice having a shorter brew schedule.
Propane is not really appealing for me in Michigan winters.

raysmithtx · Dec 17, 2016

Posted to the wrong forum.

I LOVE waking up to hot strike water. Easy as 1-2-3.

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