Blichmann Boil Coil

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A kettle is a kettle. The blichmann needs to make room for the dip tube but other than that, use the template and drill 2 5/8 holes.

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This is 2 4500w coils in my HLT Keggle.

So I'm looking at using in my 15 gallon spike kettle. Printed out the template. My kettle valve is installed lower in the spike kettle then in the Blichmann so when aligning the template to the valve the bottom 5/8 hole would be too low....so not sure what to align the template with. Anyone else run into the same thing? Suggestions? Was thinking about getting the 120v for my 8 gallon kettle but same deal....when aligned with the valve it's too low. Starting to wonder if I should sell both kettles and just get a 20 gallon Blichmann.
 
....so not sure what to align the template with. Anyone else run into the same thing? Suggestions?...
It doesn't have to be aligned with anything. You can place it anywhere in the kettle, as long as it doesn't interfere with anything inside and there is room for the plug on the outside. The lower in the kettle the better.
 
It doesn't have to be aligned with anything. You can place it anywhere in the kettle, as long as it doesn't interfere with anything inside and there is room for the plug on the outside. The lower in the kettle the better.


What he said

And if it does interfere with your kettle valve dip tube, you can spread the coil apart. I re rolled a 5kw coil to fit into a 1/2bbl keg.
 
Krieger, have you had a chance to install the boilcoil in the bayou 10 gal pot? I'm looking at doing the same, but would like to know if it's possible to use the Basket as well?



Or if any one else has done this could you let me know your thoughts?


I did this for my eHERMS; 10G 240V coil in a 10G Bayou Classic. See below...

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Has anyone installed a Boilcoil in a 20 gal. Stout Kettle?. The kettle is 15.75" inside Dia. so I guess I would have to use the 4500W coil which has a 14.4" Dia? But really want the 5000W element (it won't fit?) to boil 12.5 to 13.5 gal. of wort for 90 min. to yield 11 gal. to fermemt. Is the 500 watt difference going to make that much more time to come a boil?
 
Inside a 20 gallon boilermaker

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I brewed my first batch using the 10g 240V BoilCoil in a homebrewing.org 9gal pot. I'm very pleased with the performance. I found that I had to run it at about 85% to maintain a nice rolling boil with 8g of wort in the pot.

I have the system setup to act kind of like a RIMS with the full volume of water, half in the kettle and half in the tun. I am using a TA4 temperature controller and a separate PWM knob to control the element with a switch to change between them.

One thing that I did find out, by accident, was that dry firing the element didn't destroy it immediately. When I pumped the water into the tun I forgot to turn off the heater. Then, while it was recirculating I had to go deal with something else for a few minutes and my in/out flow rates weren't quite matched so the top turn of the element got exposed. The splashing wort burned onto the element pretty bad, but with a scrubbing pad and some barkeepers friend it cleaned right up and I was able to continue.

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One thing that I did find out, by accident, was that dry firing the element didn't destroy it immediately. When I pumped the water into the tun I forgot to turn off the heater. Then, while it was recirculating I had to go deal with something else for a few minutes and my in/out flow rates weren't quite matched so the top turn of the element got exposed. The splashing wort burned onto the element pretty bad, but with a scrubbing pad and some barkeepers friend it cleaned right up and I was able to continue.


I always forget to turn my coil off in my RIMS when the water level drops below it. Definitely discolored from dry firing. It's still working though... Knock on wood.
 
I'm probably 20 batches into my boilcoil and I wouldn't trade it for anything (brewing wise). It has been great, the only thing that is a tiny bit annoying is cleaning the scale off of it that can form sometimes. Since it is a coil, it just takes a lot of time working around the loops to get the stuff off. It isn't a big deal, and I only have to do it every 5-8 batches.

I guess the real proof is that if mine broke today, I would go buy another one to replace it without hesitation.
 
Still happy with mine. I've probably done about 15 batches. Only issue is cleaning it is kind of a pain, but not too bad really. I recommend it still.
 
I've got the 55 gallon G2 kettles with one element in each for brewing 1bbl batches. Other than having an initial problem with the cords which was due to a manufacturing issue and Blichmann swapped the full coils and cords out without an issue, they have worked great. I am still thinking I am going to get another coil for the BK just to speed up getting to a boil, but that is for another day. I brew about once a week now, but that should also be going up soon.

For cleaning I got a fairly stiff plastic brush with a long handle and use that with warm pbw. Gets the coils to look like new.
 
I've got the 55 gallon G2 kettles with one element in each for brewing 1bbl batches. Other than having an initial problem with the cords which was due to a manufacturing issue and Blichmann swapped the full coils and cords out without an issue, they have worked great. I am still thinking I am going to get another coil for the BK just to speed up getting to a boil, but that is for another day. I brew about once a week now, but that should also be going up soon.

For cleaning I got a fairly stiff plastic brush with a long handle and use that with warm pbw. Gets the coils to look like new.

I had been wondering about performance on the larger batch volumes. With the single coil, what kind of times do you get for your temperature raises and how is your boil performance on that full 1 bbl volume?
 
I have not timed it exactly, but I will try to get better numbers tomorrow when I brew. General numbers if I turn on the HLT at 8 am I can usually start transferring my strike water (165-170) around 10 30, starting point is probably 65-68. I turn the boil element on as soon as it is covered and by the time I am done fly sparging and have my 35 or so gallons boil volume it is around 180, and takes about an hour to an hour and a half to get to actual boil. Both numbers are longer than I would like, but it does work as while I am waiting for the strike water to heat, I will go put things in the smoker, count the money, etc. When I am waiting on the boil, I usually eat lunch and then keg whatever is in the fermenter that I need to put the fresh wort, and clean out the grain from the HLT. The boil is a good rolling boil, but that is full blast, and I did put 3 layers of reflectix on the boil kettle.

From turning on the panel and starting the strike water heating to everything cleaned up is usually an 8 hour day. I think with a second coil in both vessels I could cut that down to about 6 hours. Since I have other duties at the brewpub though, it works for me. With our pending distribution though, I may add the extra coils.

I will try to remember to take a picture and better notes on the actual times tomorrow.
 
Ok, I turned on the HLT at 8 AM this morning. The temp of the water in there was 65. At 10:30 it was at 170, it may have been there for about 15 minutes or so. My mash temp was 152, and I fly sparge with 170 water. Once the coil in the boiler is covered, I turned on the BK. When done fly sparging the BK was at 180. It took about an hour and a half to get to a boil. I totally forgot to take a picture of the boil, I am sorry.

I would guess that 2 coils in each kettle would cut heating my strike water from 2.5 hours to an hour and 15 minutes, and getting the boil going in probably closer to 30 minutes as I could turn them on as they are covered. With my current panel and setup, I would just have to switch the cables around as I have 50 amp service and the panel can fire 2 elements at a time.
I did plan ahead and had an extra wire pulled and have 3phase available, so when the time comes to upgrade to 2 or 3 bbls, I will have to have the extra wire hooked up and will have to upgrade to 3 elements per kettle, and get a new panel, but we are a ways away from that.

Hope this helps!
 
If it is helpful, there is a calculator on the Blichmann site that lets you calculate the heating time for a given amount of water and an electric heater size. I used it for mine and it was pretty close.
 
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