120V Boil - 5 Gallon Batches

[beer_engineer]

I am looking to get into all-grain brewing and specifically electric brewing. I live in an apartment and want to be able to brew year round.

I have been looking into purchasing a Spike brew kettle and retrofitting it for use with a 120V 2250W heating element - I want to use 120V for the simplicity and convenience in my apartment.

My question is how much trouble I will have reaching a boil for 5 gallon batches, assuming 6-7 gallon pre-boil volume?

Has anyone done something similar?

 

[Rev2010]

My question is how much trouble I will have reaching a boil for 5 gallon batches, assuming 6-7 gallon pre-boil volume?

Has anyone done something similar?

You'll likely get to a boil but it will be a very gentle boil, like that which you see in a Grainfather or RoboBrew. It will also take a long time to reach temps and add a lot of time to your brew day. I use a 10G Spike kettle on gas stovetop combined with a 1650w BrewHardware HotRod Heatstick. Couldn't be happier. It can boil even more aggressively than when I used a Blichmann burner outdoors on propane.


Rev.

 

[sicktght311]

I'm currently brewing on a 3 vessel 10gallon kettle e-herms system with a single 1650watt 120v element in each kettle. I have no complaints. Other than heat up times, it works great for me. If you leave the kettle lids on during heat up that makes a big difference, and i leave the boil kettle lid 85% on and i have no problem achieving a 212 degree boil. Added 2 layers of reflectix to the boil kettle, and a single layer to the HLT and it definitely helps. Its vigorous enough to boil off around .75 gallons per hour, which is reasonable. Keep in mind 2250watts is right around 18.75amps, so you'll need a dedicated 20amp circuit for it. If you try to add much more than a single pump, you'll end up tripping a breaker. I run my system through an inkbird ipb16 with two pump circuits and a single element control, into a 20amp circuit and i have no problems. If i tried pushing it on a 15amp circuit i'd most likely overrun. On a typical brew day i have 4-5 gallons in the Mash Tun, and around 8 gallons in the HLT which submerges the herms coil. Takes about 2 hours from ground water temp, to 152 degrees. I usually wake up early, fill the kettles, flip the switch, and then go about my morning making breakfast, and then grinding grains, and by the time i get all that done i'm ready to mash in. Mash temp to Mash out is about 20 minutes, and then Mash out temp to boil is around 45 mins. All very reasonable, and just makes me multitask more by cleaning as i go. Plus its zero chance of boil over, which is nice.

 

[sicktght311]

Before I got the reflectix on the HLT and BK