new house has 220 line into garage... use it for brewing?

[HomersTomaco]

I've never done electric, but the new house I bought has a 220 line in the garage for some reason. I have been looking to upgrade some stuff anyways. Do you think I should use it for going electric? What stuff would you get?

I do all grain, usually 10 gallon batches.

Thanks for the help

 

[Bowtiebrewery]

Well to start off, that is promising that there is a 220 line there, however it would be important to find out what size wire it is and what amperage it is at. For 10g batches (as i do) i use a 30amp GFCI circuit and can use only one element at a time. Its not a big deal. A dual element setup would be more costly and only save you maybe 20-30 minutes during the brew day.

Secondly, You should think about ventilation. Although you are in the garage, you do not want to start having a moisture problem. There are several kinds of DIY Venting solutions on this forum.

Thirdly,
Water and waste. Although not entirely necessary to have a water supply and drain near by, it makes your life and brew day much easier.

Equipment and budget: There are several different kinds of electric setups here. Kal's Electric Brewery is a great example and can be found at www.electricbrewery.com but the expense of it can be a bit intimidating. There are several budget builds also available on this forum. I encourage you to look around.

 

[brrman]

I ran a dedicated 60A line to my garage just for that purpose!

You would have to check to see what size wire is run from the panel to the garage to determine how many amps you can handle. Get an appropriate GFCI breaker to put in the panel (this is where the wire size comes in - you may only be able to handle 30A). Even with 30A service to the garage you can run an electric brewery, but only one element at a time, which is not uncommon.

Building an electric brewery can get as complicated as you want it to be. A stainless hot water heater element added to a 15G pot with a $35 boil controller would give you a decent boil kettle for 10G batches. You could go eBiab or full three vessel eHERMS system. Sky is the limit. Just do some browsing in the Electric Brewing forum subsection.

edit: dangit, Bowtie - you type faster than me. lol

 

[jbb3]

Hopefully your breaker panel has the circuits labeled. In your panel, find the breaker that protects the 220v circuit to the garage and take note of the amp rating for that breaker. Not knowing if you mean new house or just new to you; If the house is of new/newer construction, you should be able assume the wire is sized according to the breaker size. Unless the previous HO did some DIY wiring...

 

[itsnotrequired]

to parrot what others have said:

- what size circuit breaker and conductors are on the circuit?
- does the circuit include a neutral or not?
- is there a receptacle installed? what type is it?
- is there a gfci circuit breaker on the circuit (highly unlikely)?

answers to these questions are the first step in determining the suitability of the installation for electric brewing. and no doubt, ventilation, water supply, water drain, etc. are important as well.

 

[Bowtiebrewery]

I think the best thing you can do before anything is to just figure out what the circuit breaker is first.

Then you should set a budget. When i started, i did mine on a college student's budget and beg borrowed, stole, and rednecked things together. Did it work? Yeah!! Did I end up having massive issues down the road because of shortcuts and shoddy work. Oh yeah...

Jays Mistakes:
In fact i got zapped once because i had a wire lead slip off and touch the keggle
Blew a hose out because i overused crimps and blew boiling sticky wort all over me the walls and the ground (I ended up winning a medal with that beer though soooo....)
I couldnt control my condensation and ended up peeling the paint right off the ceiling of my parents house
Slow drips that made brewing and cleaning a nightmare


So think it over pretty hard and think about what it is that you want. Personally. I wish i could go back save up and buy a nice big Spiedel just because its a BIAB setup and is more compact, controlled and overall less equipment.

 

[jbb3]

Jays Mistakes:
In fact i got zapped once because i had a wire lead slip off and touch the keggle
Blew a hose out because i overused crimps and blew boiling sticky wort all over me the walls and the ground (I ended up winning a medal with that beer though soooo....)
I couldnt control my condensation and ended up peeling the paint right off the ceiling of my parents house
Slow drips that made brewing and cleaning a nightmare...

LOL... That's a great story...

Maybe you should change your handle to; Shoestring Brewery!

 

[Bowtiebrewery]

^^ Those are the ones I can remember... and those are only the ones that pertain to electric brewing...

Im clumsy... In fact just yesterday I was changing my fittings over to cam locks and I was cutting some stuff with my knife and I had an oops moment and cut the crap out of two of my fingers. Its been a bad year for me with shap objects.

 

[mredge73]

The line was probably for a dryer; look for a dryer vent nearby.
If so it is probably 30A; this is fine for a single element boil kettle but you will be doing some wort gymnastics.
Ideally you want #8 wire or better with a 50A breaker to run two elements at once.

If it was for a dryer then there should be a dryer vent, water, and sewer drain nearby (maybe inside the wall).
You will need a vent hood to handle the boil and a shop sink to clean; so you may be in business.
Electric brewing is very convenient but can get expensive, cost me well over $1000 to move my equipment inside.
You can dabble in it if you like; check out the hot rod.