blown element

[psi3000]

I have made two 1500w electric element wands and have been brewing for years with one. I have 4 batches on the new one i made. I was brewing last Friday and the new one started bubbling very hard all the sudden and then stopped a few seconds later. i unplugged it and pulled it out. It was blown.
Two questions:
1. What could have caused the new one to blow?
I dont clean all the blackish stuff off as its almost impossible. I was thinking maybe this black stuff kept the water from actually touching the element in the location which it blew.
2. Since this blew, there was even a piece of copper in the bottom of the pot, is the beer still drinkable? should I be worried about metal being in the beer?
In a side note when it did start to bubble up some black bubbles formed at the top.
Just wondering what you all thought.

thanks

 

[stlbeer]

Hows it taste? If it's ash flavored at all you're probably looking at dumping it. That flavor does not go away with fermentation or aging.

 

[psi3000]

mainly worried about ingesting any very fine metal particles. Probably nothing to worry about, just wondering.

 

[LandoLincoln]

No, I wouldn't worry about metals. Metals are heavier than wort so they're going to sink into the trub. I'd worry a lot more about a burnt taste.

As to what may have caused it...I can think of three things...

1) A connection was loose and this caused a lot of excessive heat at the connection, ultimately melting it.
2) The black crud did cause it to fail.
3) It was just plain ol' defective.

 

[mikescooling]

I'd also check the ssr, that it didn't fail in the closed position.

 

[augiedoggy]

I would be more concerned with the "blackish stuff" on the element... if it really is black and hard to clean off that means your scorching your wort at some point and I'm surprised you dont notice an ashy flavor in your beer... I scorched a couple brews from the same black buildup left unnoticed in a rims tube and the beer was noticably tainted... one batch was a dumper..

a brown film thats easy to clean off is normal, black caked on coatings are a bad sign of burning wort...

 

[BadNewsBrewery]

I wouldn't suspect the crud - I doubt it could form such a water tight insulation barrier that it would cause the element to fry. If the failure happened below the water level, then it probably isn't a connection you did. I'm guessing a faulty element, or you were pushing it at 240v and not 120v, which would cause it to fry for sure.

 

[bbohanon]

I would be more concerned with the "blackish stuff" on the element... if it really is black and hard to clean off that means your scorching your wort at some point and I'm surprised you dont notice an ashy flavor in your beer... I scorched a couple brews from the same black buildup left unnoticed in a rims tube and the beer was noticably tainted... one batch was a dumper..

a brown film thats easy to clean off is normal, black caked on coatings are a bad sign of burning wort...

+1 on this.
You should NOT be scorching your wort and if you are, its a sign of something going sideways with your equipment, how its wired or whats pushing it voltage-wise especially with 1500watt elements at full power. I haved used a Hot Rod heat stick with a 2200watt heating element in my some of my indoor small batch brews and never had an issue with scorching and it runs wide open power-wise.
Could be a bad element as others have suggested but you absolutely should NOT have a scorching problem with a 1500 watt element(or even 2 for that matter. Thats the red flag in my mind.