Boil kettle temp probe

[augiedoggy]

The reason you can run a flame at full blast is because there's a limit to how much heat a certain size pot can convey to the liquid. I've measured a few systems and the effective BTU is very low, like 12kBTU. It also doesn't go up much when you visibly make the flame larger. A 5500 watt element puts an effective 19kBTU into the kettle so it's noticeably more powerful than a burner. At 100% output, the boil is scary.

Good to know.
I knew that immersion elements were way more efficient than any type of direct flame but it didnt occur to me this way.

 

[processhead]

Its unlikely but you can do it.. do a search here on ULWD scorch... as mentioned people who have turned off the element and then back on minutes later without stirring first have scorched beers with them.. there are even photos.. its easiest to do on high gravity beers.

I suspect that many of the cases of reported wort scorching have their basis in this.
As long as the wort is boiling, all of the kettle solids like hops and hot break are in suspension.
When the boil stops the solids settle on and around the element. When the element heats up to resume the boil, the solids on the element concentrate the heat and scorch. Manually stirring the kettle gets the solids back in suspension and off of the element.


An element located too close to the bottom of the kettle elements or that is not ULWD could aggravate this situation.

 

[augiedoggy]

I suspect that many of the cases of reported wort scorching have their basis in this.
As long as the wort is boiling, all of the kettle solids like hops and hot break are in suspension.
When the boil stops the solids settle on and around the element. When the element heats up to resume the boil, the solids on the element concentrate the heat and scorch. Manually stirring the kettle gets the solids back in suspension and off of the element.


An element located too close to the bottom of the kettle elements or that is not ULWD could aggravate this situation.

Yes that's pretty much what I was trying to explain above.. it happens here enough where I've heard of it at least a half a dozen times.