How many BTU's are needed?

[boomtown25]

My buddy is a welder and has agreed to (at some point) build me a bare bones brew stand for free out of angle iron or square tubing. I intend on one end to have a tall HLT tower with burner, the middle will be a cooler mash tun and then the other end will be a burner for the BK. My local sporting goods store has turkey fryer burners for $29.00 that put out 58,000 btus and I was going to have my friend weld these in place on the frame. will this be enough to bring a keggle to full boil?:rockin:

 

[Maxkling]

Yea, but time is more of a factor... Would you ever do 10 gallon batches?

Your standard Bayou cheap burner is around that.

Be prepared to go through propane. Have you considered electric?

EDIT:::
You also need to make sure they dont have the thermocouple auto shutoff on them. A good bit of the cheap ones have them.

 

[boomtown25]

Thanks for the heads up- I was unaware of that feature. And yes, in time I do plan on doing 10 gallon batches. How expensive would electric setup be?

 

[eastoak]

Thanks for the heads up- I was unaware of that feature. And yes, in time I do plan on doing 10 gallon batches. How expensive would electric setup be?

more than $29. the electric suggestion was thrown out there but it's pretty involved, it's not the same as, say, deciding between a plate chiller and an immersion chiller.

 

[passedpawn]

Thanks for the heads up- I was unaware of that feature. And yes, in time I do plan on doing 10 gallon batches. How expensive would electric setup be?

More $$$, but not that much more if you consider that you don't have to buy burners.

But, there isn't really an easy way to do it without putting on I giant DIY hat and digging in. If you don't have some comfort level with building electrical things, it's probably not a good option. If you decide to give it a try, there is a great deal of info here on this site... probably the best source of real build data anywhere.

I would never go back to propane, EVER. But I design electronics for a living. If I was a bus driver, I'm sure I'd be using burners.

 

[Maxkling]

more than $29. the electric suggestion was thrown out there but it's pretty involved, it's not the same as, say, deciding between a plate chiller and an immersion chiller.

There is a difference between electric and automated. Same with the gas, you just buy burners, or you can go with an automated gas setup. Element are dirt cheap, pwm setups are dirt cheap. If you know what your are doing 100 to 200$ for a nice, safe, and efficient set up.

With that it wont take many brews to save the money in propane refills. Plus you can brew inside safely.

EDIT:::

For simplicity there are people just using high amp switch to turn on and off the elements, IMO I wouldn't go that route. YOU, yes you, not me or everyone else on here, can make it as simple or as complicated as YOU want.

 

[kappclark]

you may already know, but there is an entire forum dedicated to electric brewing on this board.

 

[boomtown25]

Now I'm interested. My goal is cheap but easy brewing. If I can make an electric setup for $200 or less I'm in. I looked at the electric section and there are posts of people building brewing setups that resemble the inside of a Nuclear Sub and cost nearly as much. Can someone direct me to a good "how to" post which is basically "2 elements for HLT and BK and a temp controller on both? I'm no electrician, but pretty damn good at DIY and following directions

 

[Maxkling]

If you go with temperature control it will start to get expensive. But if you want it to essentially act the same way as a turkey frier, you just need a way to turn on and off the power. Then monitor the temperature manually.

 

[boomtown25]

So I am assuming (probably wrong) that you insert a heating element (like in a hot water heater) somehow through a hole drilled in the side of your HLT/BK then plug it in the wall?

 

[Maxkling]

So I am assuming (probably wrong) that you insert a heating element (like in a hot water heater) somehow through a hole drilled in the side of your HLT/BK then plug it in the wall?

Theoretically, yes. Browse the electric brewing forum. Ill see if I can dig up some very basic setups for you.

 

[eastoak]

i saw heating elements at home depot today for $24, 5500 watts. pretty cheap.

 

[boomtown25]

I have done a good bit of research now on this now and while i have no doubt I can put something like this together, most of the sytems I see involve high dollar control panels which tend to get pretty expensive. Here is my question now with the fact that Eastoak has sighted $24 550 watt elements at HD. I think (unless someone wants to correct me) I could build an ekeggle by placing a 5500 element through the side of a keggle and putting a ball lock valve on the side. I could heat my say 10-15 gallon of water up to mash temp and strike the mashin cooler mash tun. I could then heat up the remaining water in Ekeggle to sparge temp and transfer via ball lock to HLT cooler. I could then collect the wort back into ekeggle while sparging for final boil. This would use one element (and heating vessel). My other option in mind is maybe a 5500 element in keggle and a 1500 (run on 120 watt outlet) for strike and sparge. My thought is 5500 to boil, 1500 just to heat. Does anyone have issue with doing it this way? I do not think I need a temp controller on the 5500 element in eKeggle because I am trying to boil and that is basically "get as hot as I can" and any strike or sparge temp I am trying to reach I can just use my ditigal thermometer on the wire to reach temp and remove the 1500 watt element. Sorry if confusing, just trying to do this as cheap yet efficient as possible.

 

[Maxkling]

You really do need a form of control on the boil element. Once its at a boil, there is no need to boil off 3 gallons in an hour (exaggerating a little). People usually use PWM's to control the boil element. Its simple and for under 30$ including the SSR and PWM. Once you hit a boil turn the knob down until you find a nice balance.

Make a post in the electric forum, they maybe able to lead you in the right direction. Lots of people use small carry around toolboxes for their control panels. It can be done cheap, safety is the biggest issues. You need to be on a GFCI, and know electricity and how it works. Other wise youll find out the hard way.

 

[joety]

My brother is doing a basement remodel and putting in a cooktop. He has a 550 CFM commercial exhaust hood lined up but is looking for the right cook top. He found a unit with two burners at 27k each. I figured he could do AG by starting with HLT and MT on top and BK on the floor; then lift the BK up top when full to boil. Will he be able to bring 7ish gallons to a boil with 27k of output?