Electric Propane Hybrid

[brewhokie]

So I've moved in the world of All Grain brewing and my stove top is not cutting it. Also we're moving into a new house and the wife and I agree to keep the mess out of our new kitchen. I'd love to go full electric, but with a new house and all the expenses that go along with it, it's not happening any time soon. In the mean time I thought of a plan that may be sufficient.

-Purchase a bayou classic SP10 burner. I'll use this for boiling and getting my strike/sparge water heated. Use an old keggle for my boil kettle.

-Modify my current 8 gal. kettle to be an e-HLT. Use a 1500 watt heater element to fine control water temps. I'll use an Auber PID to control the heater element. Also build a HERMS coil and recirculate with pump.

-I'll continue to use my current cooler MT.

This is the way I see brew day going:

-Heat strike water with burner to 10-20 degrees below strike temp. Remove from burner and use heater element to reach set temp on the PID.

-Dough in, mash, recirculate through HERMS coil in e-HLT.

-Use heater element to reach mash out.

-Sparge as normal, use Bayou Classic burner for boil.

I figure this setup would get me the precise control of an electric setup for strike temps, mash temps (through HERMS coil), mash out, sparge temps. However I could do this alot cheaper than running a spa panel, relays, 30amp outlets, cabels etc. I figure I can use 120 volt 20amp outlets and 20amp light switches which will cut costs alot.

Anyone have a setup like this? I'm a little worried about the weldless fittings and temp probe on the e-HLT when on the burner. Is this a realistic concern or am I just being silly?

 

[CidahMastah]

I would be very concerned about fire on my electric kettle. Those orings are rated at about 500F I think. Propane burns much much hotter than that (about 1800F I think), so if the flames push enough heat up the sides... toasted oring. Maybe melted element casing, depending on how they are setup.

I know for me when the electric tripped the GFI one time,... I simply dumped the brew into my mashtun and fired it direct (mash tun wasn't electrified).

I have an sp10 burner too, that is an a-ripper burner!

 

[Walker]

in addition to what CidahMastah said, I don't think you'll be able to ramp for a mash-out temp increase. Well...I mean you could do it, but it'll take you probably 25 minutes or more to get the temp up.

I can ramp a 5 gallon batch's mash up to 170 in about 5 minutes or so, but I have damn near 6000W in my kettle (4x what you are talking about).

 

[promontory]

its not perfect but I have a rig using a 25 gal hot water heater. I am able to get mash out temps by the time my mash is done. you can see pics at http://promontorybrew.com/ look back at some of the first posts... I have brewed 15 batches on this rig and am really happy with the results everytime.

 

[slakwhere]

i just put a 1500W element in a keggle and heated 8 gallons of water with it, it took about a degree a minute, so mash outs would be slow... but my intention is like yours, to use it for HERMS control, which i think it'll be fantastic for.

like Walker said, if you up the wattage in your HLT you could ramp with it, but if you really want to ramp you may want to go RIMS instead of HERMS if you can't get a couple of different heat elements or 1 big element running 240v.