Prototype Previews: Hopback and Heat Stick

CornyKegs 728
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My Hot Rod came in today's mail, so is yet to be wired but I am really impressed with the quality of materials and workmanship. This seems to be a top quality product.
 
I've taken tubing into a hardware store and they let me use a bender.
 
I got my Hot Rod on Saturday and I was immediately impressed with the design and build of this thing. Very sturdy with nice clean welds. I put it together with the 1500W element I bought separately Saturday afternoon. The only negative I had with it was that I had to add a #12 washer to the ground side due to the 5#mm Hex screw bottoming out without it. With the washer everything tightened down nicely. I did the leak test over night and everything had sealed up nicely. On to Brew day!! This thing worked really well for me. I am doing a full volume BIAB batch with 4.5 gallons of starting water in a 6 gallon pot. This is a new pot for me so I did a test run without the Hot Rod last week so I could compare times. Without the Hot rod it took me about 44 minutes to get to strike temp (155). Boil time was another story. After 47 minutes I was only up to 204 degrees from the starting point of 155. With the Hot Rod and my stove at full blast I got to strike temp in about 26 minutes. Getting to boil was the best part. It only took about 16 minutes to go from 152 to boil with the stove and the Hot Rod and I was able to maintain a good boil with just the Hot Rod. :rockin:

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Yeah, just plugged into a GFCI outlet. I unplugged it and removed it from the pot once I got to mash temp and just used the stove to add heat every so often to keep temps up. The boil is just a boil so no need for any controller as far as I can see.
 
I ended up with a boil off rate of about 0.8 gallons an hour. A little lower than the software predicted so I might have the stove on a bit next time. I am very happy with this product and wouldn't hesitate to recommend it to anyone.
 
That's not bad for what I presume is a 1500w element. My all-electric system with a 5500w ripple only gets about 2.5gph boil off.
 
Excellent. I've never used an element before so that is good to hear. Any special cleaning instructions for one of these things? I was also wondering how often I should do that leak test? The Hot Rod was really easy to use but I'm not gonna lie, I was a little nervous when I first plugged it in. (That's what she said).
 
A plastic bristle brush and some oxyclean will do the trick. It's gonna collect beer stone, just get used to it.
 
Question for those using hop back to filter with rice hulls. Do you pump hot wort through to sanitize? Or is it ok to just sanitize the hop back and fill with rice hulls?


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew
 
I suppose there are different places to use it as a filter, but if it's between the boil kettle and plate chiller, it's going to get to get heat sanitized for the whole operation.
 
Bobby, any word on when date-wise the Hopback will be available to the masses on your site for purchase?
 
As of right now, I'm waiting to hear back from folks who have either made up their own secondary screen or received mine and tried again with hops. I do have more units on hand, but I want to be sure the screen system works without clogging.
 
Question for those of you who have purchased the stainless elements. For those of you who have boiled wort have you had any (possible scorching) issues with the element being low watt density as opposed to ultra low watt density.
 
I used to be concerned with scorching until I made about 20 batches on elements. It's not an issue with that much liquid. Maybe if you had a heap of trub that somehow managed to overtake the element (the boiling liquid directly around the element would hinder this) you might have some scorching, but I highly doubt any of us find ourselves in that scenario. I have a nylon hop bag that is able to touch my element and even that doesn't get burned.
 
For those thinking of putting their own bend in the Hot Rod, I have a different idea in mind for mine. I'm planning to use a compact lb (right angle conduit fitting) to effectively give me the 90 degree turn. But rather than stop there I will come off the end of the lb with a little pulling ell thus pointing the power cord directly at the floor. This should help prevent the cord from teaming up with gravity to make things less than stable. I should get this assembled sometime this afternoon.

My choice of fittings was based entirely on the contents of my spare parts bin.
 
Wow, I wasn't complaining or nuthin' bobby. I see you've sent me something. I can assume its the new screen…
 
monkeyman1000 said:
I ended up with a boil off rate of about 0.8 gallons an hour. A little lower than the software predicted so I might have the stove on a bit next time. I am very happy with this product and wouldn't hesitate to recommend it to anyone.
Click to expand...

How hard was it to work that wire through the 90 deg bend?
 
bbohanon said:
How hard was it to work that wire through the 90 deg bend?
Click to expand...

10/3 SJOW with just the inner conductors, you'll have to use a stiff piece of wire to pull them through and you'll do better with some keg lube on the wire.

12/3 should be pretty easy with the outer jacket removed. Intact, you'll have to pull with a stiff wire as you feed it in.

Don't make the mistake of getting SO cable, it's thicker. SJOOW is what you need.
 
Bobby_M said:
10/3 SJOW with just the inner conductors, you'll have to use a stiff piece of wire to pull them through and you'll do better with some keg lube on the wire.

12/3 should be pretty easy with the outer jacket removed. Intact, you'll have to pull with a stiff wire as you feed it in.

Don't make the mistake of getting SO cable, it's thicker. SJOOW is what you need.
Click to expand...

10-4 and thanks for the info! Looking forward to getting El Hot Rod!
I have an AG Pliny clone ready to to test it out on.

:mug:
 
I've got to say bobby thanks for creating this... Used the Hot rod today and things went great.... Once I got to boiling turned the Hot rod off and my electric stove was able to keep it going the rest of the way!

6.5 gallon preboil 5.5 post boil in my 8 gallon pot


Great product
 
Hot Rod arrived today..I am very impressed with fit and finish on it. I am also surprised they are as cheap price wise as they are. If you are on the fence about getting one of these as a heat stick, dont be. I would pay twice as much for this item. Its that nice.
Planning on brewing an AG Pliny Clone indoors next week with this beauty.

Great job Bobby! Just waiting on your hop back to become available and I have more money to give you.
:)
Bill
 
Got the new set of hopback screens in the mail yesterday. Hopefully they'll solve the clogging issue. Just in time too. I was just notified by the guy I let use my hopback for a randall that it suffered from plugging on him as well. Even at low pressure with cold wort the issue is persistent. Now I know it wasn't due to rate of flow.
 
Not sure if this would work for everybody but I found a cheap way to attach the Hot Rod to my pot without having to drill a hole in it. I added two big flat washers to the clamp supplied by Bobby. I put the supplied nut in between them then tightened them down with the wing nut. Secure and easy to remove.

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