Prototype Previews: Hopback and Heat Stick

I sent an email to plumbingsupply.com regarding the element in question and this was their reply: "Thank you for getting back to us.

We contacted the manufacturer of the Water Heater Element Part number
120-1500-ELD, and we were informed that the threaded base is Stainless
Steel Plated Chromium Steel." Not sure what that means but thought I would pass it along.

Bobby, I sent you some pics of the hop bomb jr. pulling double duty as a randall.

nutty_gnome said:

Hey Bobby- you offering crushed grain or just bagged whole grain on the new site? I ask because I didn't see a crush option and didn't want to presume anything. N_G

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I can crush. I didn't add the option just yet because I'm not quite done with my shop mill project to make it easier and didn't want to see it go too crazy yet. I can crush based on comments during checkout. What I haven't gotten my head around yet is if I have enough staff to process less-than-pound quantities. It is a LOT of overhead.

mredge73 said:

Just walked in to the hot rod conversation.
Anyone have any pictures of it in use? How do you suspend it in a kettle; and what does it mean to bend it 90 degrees?
Are their any advantages to this over welding on a 1.5" ferrule?

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There's a pretty extensive writeup on this page describing everything:

http://www.brewhardware.com/product_p/hotrod.htm

The overall height of the unit is 27" if the drop tube is left straight. If selected in the options, we can put a 90 degree sweeping bend at the top of the drop tube which reduces the unit's height to 24". The bend will move the cord grip over the sidewall of a pot, as long as that pot is not taller than 25". Note, if you select the option to put the bend in the drop tube, pulling three 10 gauge wires past the bend will be tricky. You'll need a strong pulling wire/string attached well to the wires and some lubricant to make it happen.Smaller wires are no problem..

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There are different philosophies on whether heat sticks are better than installed elements and why. For one thing, a heat stick is a way to temporarily use electric heating without modifying the pot. Maybe you want to use electric primarily or as a boost at home, but want to visit friends with the same pot on a propane burner.

I personally have never brewed with a heat stick, unless you count plugging in the hotrod in a pot full of water just to test things out. I should have taken a video.

The first 8 units or so shipped out today so hopfully we'll start seeing some feedback here soon!

Bobby - I love my hot rod prototype. In addition to adding a boost of heat.... they can be an economical way to maintain heat below a BIAB mash, or in any system that isn't well insulated. I love using mine below the false bottom in my 10 gallon recirculated BIAB vessel. Prior to using the hot rod (prototype) I was constantly fiddling with propane to manage swings in the mash temp. Now I have the hot rod hooked to a pid, ssr, and an RTD. These 'alphabet soup' items turn out amazing stability in mash temps. I don't even worry about maintaining temps. The bet part is I didn't have to modify a pot which makes life easier in the long run. It is a wonderful mobile heating tool.

I also use my hot rod as a sous vide heater in my 10 gallon BIAB kettle. The addition of the the hot rod has made my pot dual purpose. The ability to turn out awesome perfect pork loins and turkey breasts without any need to mess up the kitchen can not be understated.

nutty_gnome said:

Bobby - I love my hot rod prototype. In addition to adding a boost of heat.... they can be an economical way to maintain heat below a BIAB mash, or in any system that isn't well insulated. I love using mine below the false bottom in my 10 gallon recirculated BIAB vessel. Prior to using the hot rod (prototype) I was constantly fiddling with propane to manage swings in the mash temp. Now I have the hot rod hooked to a pid, ssr, and an RTD. These 'alphabet soup' items turn out amazing stability in mash temps. I don't even worry about maintaining temps. The bet part is I didn't have to modify a pot which makes life easier in the long run. It is a wonderful mobile heating tool.

I also use my hot rod as a sous vide heater in my 10 gallon BIAB kettle. The addition of the the hot rod has made my pot dual purpose. The ability to turn out awesome perfect pork loins and turkey breasts without any need to mess up the kitchen can not be understated.

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Can we see some pics of your setup?

Yeah i'd love to see how you got a drop in element working under a false bottom.

I'd love to see the sous vide set up

Bobby, I'm having problems checking out on the website.. I've tried using three different browsers, and was using paypal in each case, was directed to paypal, went through everything there, and then was back on brewhardware, hit submit.. Then it says choose payment method. Before getting redirected to paypal, there's no options in that dropdown, and after being redirected there's just an image of the paypal logo that you can click, but nothing to select. Not sure what I'm doing wrong..

wbarber69 said:

Yeah i'd love to see how you got a drop in element working under a false bottom.

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Pretty easy. Its BIAB. So the false bottom only has to be perforated for flow and keep the bag off the element. My false bottom is a perforated aluminum pizza plate similar to http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007GJNW9E/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20 with 3 stainless ubolts http://www.homedepot.com/p/Lehigh-2...l-U-Bolt-7122S/100203609?N=5yc1vZc2aoZ1z0yg27 from Home Depot acting as feet (curved side down). The false bottom sits about 3.3 to 3.4 inches off the bottom of the pot. This accommodates both the space needed for my drain elbow and the hot rod. I cut a small U shape in in the outer edge of the pizza plate to accommodate the down-tube attached to the hot rod. For BIAB it works great. It would not work for an unbagged process.

Beer brewed with this system has been rewarding and, overall, the process is simplified and faster when compared to processes I used previously.

For sous vide, the system operates like it does in the recirculating phase of BIAB except there is no grain or bag, just a delicious vacuum packed bundle of meat resting on the false bottom to keep it off the hot rod's element. The PID, SSR, and hot rod along with the march pump keep the water at the proper temp and moving.

I'll snap a pic or two later this evening.

WichitaBrewer said:

Bobby, I'm having problems checking out on the website.. I've tried using three different browsers, and was using paypal in each case, was directed to paypal, went through everything there, and then was back on brewhardware, hit submit.. Then it says choose payment method. Before getting redirected to paypal, there's no options in that dropdown, and after being redirected there's just an image of the paypal logo that you can click, but nothing to select. Not sure what I'm doing wrong..

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Ditto here, same thing

Good. Glad i'm not completely crazy.

I'll order one as soon as the website will let me.. Next, I'll have to decide if I'm daring enough to assemble it myself, or get an electrician.. Hoping this might pave the way for me to be able to do decent sized batches entirely inside!

Bobby,
Are you still including a clamp for attaching the Hotrod to the side of the kettle? Can you post a pic if so please?

Bobby, does the cord grip create a water tight seal at the top of the Hot Rod or do I need to seal that somehow? Just wondering if I have to worry about steam from the boil condensing on the cord and running down into the unit itself and causing problems.

tolonen said:

Bobby,
Are you still including a clamp for attaching the Hotrod to the side of the kettle? Can you post a pic if so please?

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Yes, I am, but as of right now the clamp design requires you to either drill a 1/4" hole at the top edge of your pot or drill a hole in a spring clamp that you provide and mount the clamp to that if you'd rather not drill a small hole in your pot. I'll post a pic a bit later.

monkeyman1000 said:

Bobby, does the cord grip create a water tight seal at the top of the Hot Rod or do I need to seal that somehow? Just wondering if I have to worry about steam from the boil condensing on the cord and running down into the unit itself and causing problems.

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The grip is water tight.

I received mine today... Great job bobby this thing looks way better than anything I have seen. I took pictures but can't seem to post them here..

Edit here we go

http://imgur.com/a/xgsa3

<iframe class='imgur-album' width='100%' height='550' frameborder='0' src='http://imgur.com/a/xgsa3/embed'></iframe>

Any word on when the hopbacks will go live on the site for purchase?

well, got mine in, time to get some good cable and plug.

The ordering issues with the website seem to be fixed. I've ordered my heat stick.

Here are some shots of a HotRod installed in my 10 gallon Bayou.

I got mine today!

Love that logo

Bobby_M said:

Here are some shots of a HotRod installed in my 10 gallon Bayou.

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What's the gray wire hanging out in the first pic?

WI_Wino said:

What's the gray wire hanging out in the first pic?

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Looks like wire going to a temperature probe.

That makes sense. I would love to see a setup that has everything firmly attached to the hot rod (PID and whatever other electronic gizmos are needed, I am an electric brewing noob) so it's literally a drop in and plug in scenario.

WI_Wino said:

That makes sense. I would love to see a setup that has everything firmly attached to the hot rod (PID and whatever other electronic gizmos are needed, I am an electric brewing noob) so it's literally a drop in and plug in scenario.

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Baby steps. I'm just some guy who can barely claw my way through autocad and have a factory that will make what I draw. Getting this hardware thing made was an amazing feet in the grand scheme of things.

Bobby_M said:

Here are some shots of a HotRod installed in my 10 gallon Bayou.

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Bobby, isnt the 10gal Bayou 13.6"d ? Based on your previous post, the HotRod at ~2" plus the 5500w element at 12.5" should not have fit, you suggested that 14.5" was about right??

Btw - it looks REALLY great. Well done on the product design.

Yes, I mispoke.. that's the 60qt.

Thanks Bobby-
I got mine two days ago put it together gave it the overnight water test... this thing is absolutely beautiful!!! I may order another one its so nice- the bend fits perfectly out of the keggle-
First class all the way bobby!

Awesome.. I still haven't quite figured out a way to mount it in a keggle type install. One idea I had was to make the bend a little lower down so that the mounting clamp I made up will actually clamp to the horizontal part of the tube and then the 1/4-20 stud could just drop into a hole that you'd drill in the top of the upper rolled keg lip. I'm also messing with ideas that would mount it to the ring of keg top material that is typically left when you cut a 12" hole in the top of the keg.

I probably should have ordered mine with a bend. I was a bit worried about being able to get the wires past a bend. I was thinking of cutting a slot out of the extra material in the top of my keggle so I can get it close enough to use the mount you supplied.

How hard is it to put the bend in with a manual tubing bender?

As requested, so here are some pics of the Hot Rod in action in my 10 gallon recirculated BIAB system. I have one of Bobby’s early prototypes. So this one looks a bit different than the ones currently shown for sale.

As I noted earlier in this thread, I am running 120V through a 5500watt element as a boost to my propane for strike water heating and then just using the hot rod to maintain the mash temp in my recirculated BIAB system. The element is fired by a PID connected to the SSR; the PID fires based on the temperature of an RTD at the outlet of the pump. This is not an unusual setup for an electric element.

First pic shows the Hot Rod in the strike water near the drain elbow. Next pic shows the aluminum pizza peel I use as a false bottom. Note the u-shaped cut out on the rim. The peel has 3 stainless u-bolts that hold the false bottom about 3.4 inches off the bottom of the pot. This is enough room to clear the Hot Rod and the drain elbow. Next, you can see how the rim of the peel accommodated the Hot Rod downtube. Then the pizza peel goes in the pot.

I rigged a wood top with a hole in the middle as a return for the recirculating mash. You can see in the next pic that I have a flat copper diverter off the end of the tube to spread out the returned mash water.

And there is the whole, glorious, ghetto-riffic system. Works great! Makes beer I am happy to drink!
N_G

Hey guys,
First, I'd like to say that I received my Hot Rod two days ago and it is beautiful.
I just got around to wiring it up today and just wanted to post a little heads-up to those doing the same because I just created a bit of a headache for myself:

The ground lug isn't quite deep enough to fully tighten down the screw. I was installing the ground and tightened the screw down with moderate pressure then checked the ground-it was still a little loose and the lock washer wasn't engaged so I decided to tighten it i touch more (I've had lock washers in the past that took a little more than moderate pressure to engage)...and the head of the screw sheered off (takes less force than you'd think). Evidently it had bottomed out before tightening all the way down on the ground. So now I get to try my hand at extracting the screw (not really that hard but I do need to run by the hardware store to get the right size extractor). If these are all the same then I'd suggest that you either shorten the screw (it was literally only about a half-turn too long) or add an additional flat washer as a spacer. As it was, the ground wasn't tightened down and the lock washer wasn't doing anything.

Again, great product...just wish I'd noticed this before it happened. Hopefully this'll prevent the same from happening to anyone else.

Really looking forward to buying one. I plan on using 220v in a keggle. I would like to see some reviews & photos in a keggle before I pull the trigger. I have a 10 gallon pot with a 120v element to assist my stove now, but want to step up to 8 gallon batches soon.

I don't own a keggle but this is how the version with the bend and 2,000 watt element fits in a 15 gallon Penrose kettle. It's hard to tell from the pic but there is around 4" of clearance over the top of the kettle. I think keggles are 2-3" taller and slightly narrower. I'd be a little surprised if it didn't clear.

Maiden voyage for the Hot Rod today; this is the best money I have spent on brew gadgets ever! Thanks Bobby

I tested mine in a keggle today with about 8 gallons of water. I still need to do a little work on the keggle to mount it better but it looks like it shouldn't be a problem. It took about 45 min to get the water from 65 ish to boiling. I used 10 gauge wire and it was tight to get it in there. I got a straight one but I think I'm going to see if I know someone with a tubing bender so I can put a bend in mine.