14 Gallon electronic solution for heating?

[RobbieOByrne]

Hello brewers!

I upgraded to morebrew's 14gal economy pot $139.

http://www.morebeer.com/products/14-gallon-stainless-brew-kettle.html

Before I had a lil 5 gal setup, and i'd used a table top electronic hot plate. It was slow, but it worked...

Now i'm trying to figure out what to do. I'll be using BIAB. I thought of the Electronic Heating Elements but something is bothering me... the home brew stores that sell it charges around $50, but I can buy a water heater heating element for $8. These online stores also require expensive boxes to control it, why not a lil twist knob?

So what's the simple and cheapest solution? Gas is out of the question as I'll be doing on a tile top indoors. Thanks for the advice!

 

[ForTheLoveOfBrew]

Are you using this as a boil kettle?

 

[RobbieOByrne]

Biab

 

[burdbrew]

The more I read about brewing with induction, the more I want to try it. I'm not sure if the Morebeer kettle is induction ready, but your situation seems to lend well to it. You will need 220 for 14 gallons either way....

 

[TexasWine]

So what's the simple and cheapest solution? Gas is out of the question as I'll be doing on a tile top indoors. Thanks for the advice!

I think simple and cheap is encapsulated in the brewhardware hot rods. No need for a controller. Just plug them in and go.

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

If you don't have access to 240v, like me, you can buy two and put 1500 or 2000 watt elements in them. I went 1500 so I could have a more mobile brew set up.

 

[RobbieOByrne]

The problem with the Hot Rod is I'll be BIAB, it may burn my bag. Also I need a way to control the amount of heat coming off of the coils for the mashing.

 

[TexasWine]

The problem with the Hot Rod is I'll be BIAB, it may burn my bag. Also I need a way to control the amount of heat coming off of the coils for the mashing.

I BIAB with the Hot Rods. There's no way to burn the bag because you shouldn't need to apply heat during the mash. And for that reason you don't need a controller for them either. For the mash just insulate your kettle with a sleeping bag or a cheap reflectix wrap.

 

[RobbieOByrne]

Thought it was best to keep it at exactly 150?

 

[TexasWine]

Thought it was best to keep it at exactly 150?

150F might be what you want for some beers, others you'll want to mash higher, and still yet others will be lower, and even another variation is to have multiple steps where you have various mash temps.

But I digress. What you're interested in is maintaining a single temp. If you insulate the kettle well it won't lose more than a couple of degrees in an hour. I've even put my kettle in a warm oven to maintain temps. Or if you're like some of us, your mash is only 30 minutes long and you might lose less than a degree with mediocre insulation.

Bottom line, there's no reason to think you have to apply heat during the mash.

Personally, my main rig is a BIAB system with recirculating mash, temp controlled by a PID. However, on double brew days a bring out the Hot Rods and sleeping bag and do two batches in parallel. Before that I was stove top and sleeping bag only. Made great beer using all these methods.

If you haven't done so, I'd recommend reading through the thread linked here...

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=233289

It'll give you some ideas as to the various ways to BIAB.