Electric/induction BIAB

[Rxbrewer16]

Just bought our first house (real house anyway) and moved from a gas stove where I was able to do 5 gal BIAB batches, to an electric porcelain top that struggles to boil water enough for sweet corn....

With that being said, my father in law (happens to be an electrician and appreciates the occasional six-pack of homebrew) helped install 220v service to the garage. I figured I wanted to build an electric setup at this new place, so I wanted to have access in case I decided to build a setup that required it. I have had my eye on the avantco ic3500 and a bayou 1064 with the intent of continuing the BIAB process. I have read about every thread on here regarding induction, but before I pull he trigger on the new equipment, I just wanted to see some more recent thoughts on induction vs basic electric heating element setup as well as thoughts on compatibility of the avantco 3500 and the bayou 1064. Thanks in advance.

 

[bferullo]

I am a huge fan of induction. That being said, when i started, I researched kettles like crazy. Ultimately, a lot of induction brewers use the bayou 1064. I chose not to because I had heard the bottom tends to be a bit flimsy as compared to some of the other options. I have read of some warping when used with induction burners.

I use Northern Brewer megapots. They work great, and work even better if you wrap them in reflectix (spelling? the stuff used to wrap HVAC ducts).

Now, if I was to do it all again, I would go with SPIKE brewing kettles. They were not induction compatible when i was doing my setup, but now they are according to the site. I originally had a SPIKE kettle and it was an amazing kettle for the cost. The customer service was hands down, and the welded ports were so much easier than dealing with weldless fittings.

In terms of the ic3500...I have the 1800 watt model (no electrician relatives so I have to wait for the cash to upgrade), and its great. I believe It's exactly the same specs wise except for the obvious wattage (i.e size). I do about 4 gallon batches on this burner with no issues, so you should be able to do 5 gallon on the ic3500 with not problem.

And for what its worth, my LHBS has an induction setup as you describe that they use for demo's. You may not get the "roaring" boil people do with gas, but I have never worried about it. It gets a rolling boil, and I have made award winning beers. I do a lot of IPAs and still get the desired hop utilization.

 

[tmendick]

I agree with both IC3500 with a New Spike Kettle probably would have kept me in induction brewing. I did use a couple of wraps of reflectix and only had it set to 2700W out of 3500W to get a good, rolling, though maybe not vigorous boil.

 

[Epos7]

I'll be interested to hear what setup you end up with. I'm in a similar boat as you, just that I'm a newbie and am planning to start with propane with an eye toward going electric in the future. I'm ordering a custom Spike 15 gallon kettle with a few extra ports so I can choose between induction and ULWD when the time comes.

So far Spike has been really great to work with.

 

[bferullo]

I'll be interested to hear what setup you end up with. I'm in a similar boat as you, just that I'm a newbie and am planning to start with propane with an eye toward going electric in the future. I'm ordering a custom Spike 15 gallon kettle with a few extra ports so I can choose between induction and ULWD when the time comes.

So far Spike has been really great to work with.

I would lean towards Induction. There are less "parts" to worry about. The advantage to other electric is the ability to automate and build a control box. For me, that was too much of a hassle. I like some of the manual process.

 

[BeardedBrews]

I went traditional element, partly to keep cost down, and partly because I wanted the higher power output.

I haven't been disappointed with my setup, but after about 15 batches I have made some changes in my process and have some points to consider while you're thinking about yours.

1. I have stopped heating during the mash. I struggled with the balance between re-circulation rate, avoiding a "stuck" bag, hot and cold spots, and finding a good way to maintain some free liquid around the element so it heats evenly. I added reflectix to the outside of my kettle and to the lid, then I read this article, and decided it was good enough for me. Wilser preaches this approach, and I think for good reason. The purpose of BIAB is simplicity.

2. I don't really use my PID. It's there because I had to have something, but since I'm not trying to hold the mash steady, I really just use it to get to strike temperature. After that it's all manual mode.

3. I hate cleaning the element. I use a straight fold-back and it's a pain to get into the bottom of kettle and rub a scrub pad around and through all the bends and corners. I always seem to pinch my fingers. The one time I said "screw it" and left a bit of the filmy haze on the element it baked onto the element during my next batch. After hours cleaning that up I am back to scrubbing the element at the end of each brew.

4. I love the speed of the large element. With a 6 gallon finished size (9 gallons of strike water) I can go from cold to strike in ~30 minutes, and close to the same for mash to boil.

5. I love having a large kettle. It means I don't have to stress about efficiency, and I don't worry about boil over. The flexibility on efficiency is especially nice if you want to play around with shortening your mash times without sacrificing your batch size.


For me, I wanted to keep costs low and I enjoy tinkering with the wiring stuff. That meant the element in a keg approach was perfect. That said, I see huge benefits in clean-up and ease of use by going to the induction top. My post is mainly just highlighting some things I didn't even think about when I was designing, and wish I had.

-B

 

[Rxbrewer16]

Welllll, bit the bullet and bought the avantco ic3500 and the bayou 1064 the other day. Today ordered ingredients for a belgian blonde, two-hearted clone, and an irish stout. Gonna break in the new system with a weekend brew binge.....

 

[Rxbrewer16]

Fired up the avantco using my old pot today. Brought 5 gallons of water from 72F to 152F in 23 minutes (3.478F/min), then proceeded to take that water to a rolling boil in another 23 minutes (2.609F/min). I don't have the data on my old NG stove, but I was impressed with the resukts anyway. Tap water to boil in 46 min, no insulation, no lid, ambient temp ~80F.

 

[cvisinho]

^ is exactly the data I came on here for. Love it when a search works out on first try.