Hi all, I am selling my beloved BrewFlex 10 gallon system and eyeballing Stout Tank's 1bbl (40g Mash & HLT and 45g BK) kettles as the foundation of my next gen home brewery.
I'm upgrading so that I can split batches with friends, but want to still be able to brew a 10 gallon batch if the mood strikes me ("private reserve stock"). I anticipate two 5500w elements in both the BK and HLT (provided that I can come up with 60amps), controlled by a BCS-462.
I use Bayou Classic 62-qt pots on the BrewFlex and they are about 15.5" in diameter. The Stout Tank kettles are only about 4.5" wider in diameter so I THINK that I could still get away with a small batch but was looking for some reassurance from someone who has been down this road...
I am assuming that I can get the thermowell installed by Stout wherever I want, so I would probably go pretty low. I have seen where they stagger two elements on the vertical axis of the kettle too.... Coming in at different angles AND heights, so I was curious if they would both still safely fall below the liquid level in the boil kettle.
As long as I'm asking, my current system is HERMS. Is HERMS practical at 1 bbl scale? Up to this point, I've been doing single temp mash, but would like to leave as many options open in the future as possible.
Any other extrapolations from my current system that I might be thinking about incorrectly?
Thanks all!
Jason
I'm upgrading so that I can split batches with friends, but want to still be able to brew a 10 gallon batch if the mood strikes me ("private reserve stock"). I anticipate two 5500w elements in both the BK and HLT (provided that I can come up with 60amps), controlled by a BCS-462.
I use Bayou Classic 62-qt pots on the BrewFlex and they are about 15.5" in diameter. The Stout Tank kettles are only about 4.5" wider in diameter so I THINK that I could still get away with a small batch but was looking for some reassurance from someone who has been down this road...
I am assuming that I can get the thermowell installed by Stout wherever I want, so I would probably go pretty low. I have seen where they stagger two elements on the vertical axis of the kettle too.... Coming in at different angles AND heights, so I was curious if they would both still safely fall below the liquid level in the boil kettle.
As long as I'm asking, my current system is HERMS. Is HERMS practical at 1 bbl scale? Up to this point, I've been doing single temp mash, but would like to leave as many options open in the future as possible.
Any other extrapolations from my current system that I might be thinking about incorrectly?
Thanks all!
Jason