Heat Stick for strike and sparge

[ShineOn]

Been kicking around the idea of building a heat stick for the sole use of heating strike and sparge water.



Do you think just hanging one in my mash tun (round cooler) controlled by an SCT1000 pretty much overnight for the strike would be genius or dumb a$$? I know to keep the element away from the sides. I just think waking up to strike water would be awesome

In place of the stainless bottom tube why couldn't one use copper tube with a female adapter soldered on to avoid the JB Weld?

Thoughts? Sugestions? Want to call me a dumb a$$? I'm cool with any


BTW.....my worm/flake stand idea worked swimmingly

 

[Yooper]

My first electric HLT was a 10 gallon cooler with a 1500 w element, hooked up to a temperature controller and PID. I set it for 175, and it worked great. It took 90 minutes to heat up from room temperature to strike temperature. Heating sparge water took longer, but I wouldn't go over 180 degrees in a cooler.

 

[FuriousE]

Lots of good info in this thread...

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f36/i-love-waking-up-hot-strike-water-easy-1-2-3-a-381737/

I control mine with an SCT1000, and so far its working very well (I've only used it for one batch, though).

 

[Ski12568]

I use a bucket heater and just set it in my MT then once that is where I want it I pop it in the HLT. Takes about 1 hour to heat the strike water then a little longer for the HLT, I might have to give the HLT a boost with some boiled water or buy another bucket heater.

 

[doug293cz]

Been kicking around the idea of building a heat stick for the sole use of heating strike and sparge water.



Do you think just hanging one in my mash tun (round cooler) controlled by an SCT1000 pretty much overnight for the strike would be genius or dumb a$$? I know to keep the element away from the sides. I just think waking up to strike water would be awesome

In place of the stainless bottom tube why couldn't one use copper tube with a female adapter soldered on to avoid the JB Weld?

Thoughts? Sugestions? Want to call me a dumb a$$? I'm cool with any


BTW.....my worm/flake stand idea worked swimmingly

Be very careful with unattended immersion heaters. Fire started in a lab where I worked when the controller on an immersion heater failed, and dried up the tank of fluid it was in. Tank was plastic, and caught fire.

Brew on

 

[Onkel_Udo]

I use a bucket heater and just set it in my MT then once that is where I want it I pop it in the HLT. Takes about 1 hour to heat the strike water then a little longer for the HLT, I might have to give the HLT a boost with some boiled water or buy another bucket heater.

Hook it up to a 15 amp timer (appliance, not light duty lighting only timer) and have it kick off X minutes before you need it so that it cannot exceed 180 degrees before you can start attending to it.

 

[Ski12568]

I pull it out when it's about 1F over my target temp but probably not a bad idea to have one set anyway, just in case. Thank you

 

[ShineOn]

Hook it up to a 15 amp timer (appliance, not light duty lighting only timer) and have it kick off X minutes before you need it so that it cannot exceed 180 degrees before you can start attending to it.

I didn't think about a timer in conjunction with the controller. That would cut the time it's on it's own :rockin:

 

[Onkel_Udo]

I didn't think about a timer in conjunction with the controller. That would cut the time it's on it's own :rockin:

Meh, I use it instead of the control but again, I am an analog brewer.

 

[user 163849]

I use an old General Electric time switch with my heatstick to start heating my brew kettle before I go out to the garage. I do full boil extract brews so I start my 2kw heatstick about an hour and a half before I intend to go out and fire up the propane burner. The timer will shut down at the specified time on it's own. This gives it time to bring 7.5 gallons very close to boiling brfore I show up and light the burner, giving me a good headstart on my brew day.

For the lower temp of strike water the timer would be set to start heating later.