Plastic boil kettles (pail)

[Revvy]

2 of these would likely boil 6 gallons...lol. Can't get any cheaper lol. On 2 separate GFI circuits for safety sake...

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Travel-Coff...936577?hash=item2c9ac18c01:g:sg4AAOSwgQ9Vku5I

Very ghetto, but I would prefer brewing in my basement with these over brewing outside in foul winter weather with propane....jmo.

How would you mount them? the reason I'm considering stripping down a couple of the tea kettles is that they have everything you need, including the gasket to just drill a hole and mount them...

These remind me of the ones I used in my first ghetto sous-vide setoup using a cooler. I made a "lid" for it with pink foam and just hung everything in.

 

[GHBWNY]

It's safe if you have water/wort in it when you turn it on... I'm looking at building one as we speak. Going to strip the elements out of a couple of K-Mart 10 dollar tea kettles, use and 8-10 gallon HDPE bucket (possibly a Rubbermqde Brute 10 gallon white container depending on how rigid it is) and control it with probably with an STC-1000, or maybe a PI depending on how fancy I want to get with the controller side of things.

I'm primarily looking for something to boil indoor in the winter.

My goal is to keep this below $100 bucks, and still "trick it out," with a ball valve, diptube, thermowell, sightglass and some sort of mesh hop spider or basket to keep the hops out of the wort when I drain. I'm also toying with the idea of having an integrated wort chiller mounted in it too.


Turkey fryers aren't as common in Australia, The UK, and I guess even Canada, and evidently a lot of brewers rig plastic bucket E-systems up, so a lot of the research into the safety, and a lot of problem solving is found on their sites and youtube channels. They're ahead of the game on this in those places. Just like the Aussies were with BIAB and No-Chill Brewing, which we only heard of after John Palmer went to Australia and wrote about it for BYO magazine a few years ago (which people bashed on here for the longest time, and now is widely embraced.)


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JwyWr6F9Dpc

Gash Slugg (Gavin Ellicott) on the Homebrew Network Facebook Page has a great vid on how to strip the elements out of the cheap tea kettles.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLAcxHTvu4U

Either this guy is not married, or he waits until his wife leaves the house to use her $5000. quartz countertop as a workbench. If my wife saw me doing this, I would be a dead man.

 

[wilserbrewer]

The only thing that would concern me with these is if its just the tip that heats up thats going to be a very very high watt density surface (about twice that of the short HWD 120v 1500w water heater elements).. I have seen a thread somewhere here where a person used a short non foldover 120v 1500w element like this length in a rims and the result looked like something that was sitting in the bottom of my gas grill after a year... And that was with good flow across it.. with the tight space between the coils it sure to scorch unless the coils are stretched out ... Id use them for the HLT though. Just not for wort like I believe you suggested in the other thread.

Has anyone used one of these successfully that you know?

The heatstick has a length of 13", double that of a HWD 1500w element, I believe your statement of this being double the watt density is incorrect, and it actually appears to have more surface area and less wattage.


If you look at the close up picture of the ebay heatstick, the coils appear to have some clearance between them, I don't see this as a concern at all as wort will easily flow between the coils.

I feel your statement "sure to scorch" is speculation. Your reference to someone who experienced scorching using a HWD element is irrelevant, I believe he was not cleaning his element between brews which led to the scorching. FWIW, there are also reports of scorching from those using ULWD elements, I believe scorching is more of a situation occurrence more so then watt density alone. Yet you keep stating a warning when in fact you admit you have never boiled wort using HWD elements?

Can we please stick to the facts?


Yes, these elements have been used for boiling wort successfully, priceless has used these inexpensive immersion heaters to assist stovetop AG batches.
Of course these $8 shipped immersion heaters are not the best most glamorous solution, but making claims that they will lead to certain failure is unfounded..."sure to scorch" nonsense.

I don't believe priceless experienced any of the problems you listed above, and was satisfied with these inexpensive immersion elements.

 

[wilserbrewer]

How would you mount them? the reason I'm considering stripping down a couple of the tea kettles is that they have everything you need, including the gasket to just drill a hole and mount them...]

I believe they are not mounted, but just hung over the kettle rim.

 

[Revvy]

I believe they are not mounted, but just hung over the kettle rim.

I kinda figured. Though I bet someone could figure out a way to mount them down inside like other elements.

The biggest thing, and I know this from experience with handing elements is making sure they are submerged before plugging them in... I burned out quite a few of them by forgetting, that's why I decided to opt for the coffee urn sous vide vessel.

 

[wilserbrewer]

I agree, the kettle elements mounted is a better solution but more work to install.

Removable elements are nice because you can boil and ferment in the same vessel.

 

[cheesecake]

and for those of you that don't have a gfci outlet you can always use a gfci plug

https://www.brewhardware.com/product_p/plug15gfci.htm

 

[jlongstreet]

2 of these would likely boil 6 gallons...lol. Can't get any cheaper lol. On 2 separate GFI circuits for safety sake...

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Travel-Coff...936577?hash=item2c9ac18c01:g:sg4AAOSwgQ9Vku5I

Very ghetto, but I would prefer brewing in my basement with these over brewing outside in foul winter weather with propane....jmo.

I've used one of these along with my stovetop for 5.5/6 gallon batches the last few times. I haven't had any scorching problems. I use a cheap Home Depot spring clamp to hold it to the side of the kettle.

 

[alexacuna]

I've used one of these along with my stovetop for 5.5/6 gallon batches the last few times. I haven't had any scorching problems. I use a cheap Home Depot spring clamp to hold it to the side of the kettle.

That's awesome. I'm gonna order one of those to help bring them to a boil.

 

[IamTheBear]

Wondering if anyone has made any progress and real world testing on this. My goal is to setup a semi biab style system that would allow me to make 3 gallon brews easier during the week days.

 

[Revvy]

Wondering if anyone has made any progress and real world testing on this. My goal is to setup a semi biab style system that would allow me to make 3 gallon brews easier during the week days.

They are already being used in the "real world."

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m6Xa9rs9KZI[/ame]

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vH3u8OdS5_A[/ame]

I'm still trying to find the perfect plastic bucket to suit my needs. The trouble is the weather is turning nice and needing one for indoor winter brewing is becoming moot.

Though like you, the idea of saving time during the weekday is intriguing.

 

[alexacuna]

Wondering if anyone has made any progress and real world testing on this. My goal is to setup a semi biab style system that would allow me to make 3 gallon brews easier during the week days.

I've installed two 1500w heating elements in a large bucke that i'm using for a HLT currently. I haven't decided if I want to use it as a boiling kettle yet, but it might be there eventually. Brings 5 gallons to boil pretty quickly.

 

[sonex]

sunday I brewed 5.5 gals in a 8 gal fermentation bucket with a 4500 watt hot rod and had no issues with damage to the bucket. The cool thing is I used the same bucket to ferment in, no transfer necessary. I did a test boil with water to see if off flavors could be tasted and am happy to say none were detected.
The bucket was hdpe and was rated for 190f but with much research I saw no evidence to believe boiling in hdpe would leach anything into the wort. Can't wait for this one to ferment out for my first sample.

 

[estricklin]

sunday I brewed 5.5 gals in a 8 gal fermentation bucket with a 4500 watt hot rod and had no issues with damage to the bucket. The cool thing is I used the same bucket to ferment in, no transfer necessary. I did a test boil with water to see if off flavors could be tasted and am happy to say none were detected.
The bucket was hdpe and was rated for 190f but with much research I saw no evidence to believe boiling in hdpe would leach anything into the wort. Can't wait for this one to ferment out for my first sample.

For what it's worth I've transferred boiling wort directly into a plastic bucket, and no chilled it. When it reached pitching temp I pitched, it tasted fine. Done it with several batches when I had problems with my wort chiller and hoses.

 

[sonex]

For what it's worth I've transferred boiling wort directly into a plastic bucket, and no chilled it. When it reached pitching temp I pitched, it tasted fine. Done it with several batches when I had problems with my wort chiller and hoses.

Nice, good to know.

 

[IamTheBear]

I've been on a break from brewing and as always testing new ideas. I no chill as off right now in a plastic water Jerry can so the idea of off flavors is kind of years behind me. My goal in plastic brewing was to be able fill my strike water bucket the night before. When I get home the next day from work before I even go inside was plug in the bucket. Do what I need inside, let the dogs in grab a beer use the bathroom grab my grains. That kind of thing. Biab in a zapap setup, while mashing heat sparge and get ready to recirc. And then boil in my kettle under propane to finish off. 3 gallons should be plausible on a week night that way. Three gallons is better than no gallons after all. This is all to keep within the limits of a 5 gallon pail.

 

[dyqik]

So, I just boiled 6 gallons of water in my 7.9 gallon fermenting bucket (to help eliminate a possible infection). I used a 2kW Hot Rod as the heat source.

From 140F tap water to boil took about 45 minutes, the last 15 wrapped in a moving blanket. I got a reasonable boil with the bucket lid half to three quarters on. All this in a 58 degree basement.

 

[alexacuna]

So, I just boiled 6 gallons of water in my 7.9 gallon fermenting bucket (to help eliminate a possible infection). I used a 2kW Hot Rod as the heat source.

From 140F tap water to boil took about 45 minutes, the last 15 wrapped in a moving blanket. I got a reasonable boil with the bucket lid half to three quarters on. All this in a 58 degree basement.

I should try doing hot tap next time I do this. Trying it with a 1500 heat stick as my main heat source. I'm looking to upgrade to a 5500w heatstick for my 10 gallon pot, but it heated nicely with the 1500 watt.

 

[dyqik]

I should try doing hot tap next time I do this. Trying it with a 1500 heat stick as my main heat source. I'm looking to upgrade to a 5500w heatstick for my 10 gallon pot, but it heated nicely with the 1500 watt.

Hot tap water isn't a good idea for brewing with (water heaters tend to concentrate minerals in odd ways, and you can get off tastes in the water), but it's good as a test for raising from mash run-off temperatures to boiling.

 

[alexacuna]

Hot tap water isn't a good idea for brewing with (water heaters tend to concentrate minerals in odd ways, and you can get off tastes in the water), but it's good as a test for raising from mash run-off temperatures to boiling.

Thanks for the heads up!

 

[augiedoggy]

Hot tap water isn't a good idea for brewing with (water heaters tend to concentrate minerals in odd ways, and you can get off tastes in the water), but it's good as a test for raising from mash run-off temperatures to boiling.

Dont tell owly55 that...

 

[TexasWine]

Hot tap water isn't a good idea for brewing with (water heaters tend to concentrate minerals in odd ways, and you can get off tastes in the water)

Even with tankless systems?

 

[augiedoggy]

Even with tankless systems?

My tankless hot water heater actually has a warning on it thats states its not intended for potable water use... I assume this is because there are some heavy metals like perhaps lead using in the heat exchanges construction..

 

[wilserbrewer]

My tankless hot water heater has a warning on it thats states its not for potable water use... I assume this is because there are some heavy metals like perhaps lead using in the heat exchangers contruction..

I would guess it has more to due with liability than the water coming out of the unit. If you put no sticker on it, might one assume it is safe for potable use? So the choices are either potable, or non potable and the expense of certifying as potable would kill the lamb.

 

[Onkel_Udo]

They are already being used in the "real world."

I'm still trying to find the perfect plastic bucket to suit my needs. The trouble is the weather is turning nice and needing one for indoor winter brewing is becoming moot.

Though like you, the idea of saving time during the weekday is intriguing.

Have you looked at the 13 gallon barrels on Ebay? I use one with the locking ring top as a fermenter. It was formerly used to hold "Soy meal based growth supplement" that is technically food grade but not used for growing food and it is shipped in its own thick bag in the barrel. I am sure I am on another watch list now.

$25 delivered.

 

[augiedoggy]

I would guess it has more to due with liability than the water coming out of the unit. If you put no sticker on it, might one assume it is safe for potable use? So the choices are either potable, or non potable and the expense of certifying as potable would kill the lamb.

good point... or they might use non leadfree brass or solder in it construction since its made overseas...

 

[Revvy]

Have you looked at the 13 gallon barrels on Ebay? I use one with the locking ring top as a fermenter. It was formerly used to hold "Soy meal based growth supplement" that is technically food grade but not used for growing food and it is shipped in its own thick bag in the barrel. I am sure I am on another watch list now.

$25 delivered.

Are you talking about the blue ones? I think they're a bit too big for my needs/my space... I need to look at them, but I'm looking for something that doesn't take a heck of a lot of space, both on brewday and in storage.

 

[Onkel_Udo]

Are you talking about the blue ones? I think they're a bit too big for my needs/my space... I need to look at them, but I'm looking for something that doesn't take a heck of a lot of space, both on brewday and in storage.

The 13 gallon ones are much smaller than you might think. The seller that keeps calling them a "gallon" gives pretty detailed dimension (he is more expensive, though). These are not the 30/50/55 gallon drums. They are slightly taller than an ale pail but only a bout an inch bigger in diameter.

 

[Revvy]

Thanks for the idea!

 

[Onkel_Udo]

Thanks for the idea!

13" W with handles...23" T to the top of the lid.