Survey: Lets hear why you prefer Propane over Electric Brewing

[Hwk-I-St8]

I prefer brewing outside...when the weather is nice. In Iowa, that means about 4 months a year. The rest of the time it's sub freezing (sometimes sub zero) or heat indices in nearing 100 degrees. Both are brutal for brewing, but I march onward.

Someday I'd like a climate controlled brewing area with enough space to store my equipment. I want reasonable temps and to not have to haul all my stuff to and from the basement to brew.

That probably means electric for me, but I'm not holding my breath.

 

[shoengine]

As I live in the PNW I don't have any weather issues that can keep me from brewing outside (it is 45 and sunny today), but management of propane is a lot more annoying than electricity. I'd like to be all electric so I could brew in the garage in a fixed location and not have to worry about gas ventillation, as well.

With that said, I love brewing outside. Especially with friends and beer.

 

[PersonalBrewer]

I use propane, with an Edelmetall burner that uses a needle valve. The needle valve gives such fine control of the flame that in the brews I have done, you really only need to watch for boilovers in the first five or so minutes until you stabilize at a roiling boil. Once you settle down you're pretty good to go.

I'm in the Carolina foothills, so even in winter time I just pick a pretty day. Even so, I like brewing on my deck. Seems more fun than in the garage.

I guess I never really considered electric because I have a great place to brew outside and no good place inside.

 

[SFC Rudy]

I'm not throwing rocks, but why do you want to make 20-25 gallons of the same beer? If you're selling it, I get it. But..

I have homebrew beers I love and try to keep on tap, but it's also fun to make others, and then have to wait for my favorites to ferment so I can drink them. I like having a variety on tap is all.

I'm not right or wrong, I'm just not getting the 20-25 gallon brews, but to each his own.

 

[SoCal-Doug]

I'm not throwing rocks, but why do you want to make 20-25 gallons of the same beer? If you're selling it, I get it. But..

I agree. 3 or 4 five gallon kegs on tap in the garage, of vastly different brews, is a wonderful thing. Friends and neighbors can come over and sample a flight or find something that fits their taste.

 

[frankvw]

I prefer propane for many reasons. One is cost; in my neck of the woods propane works out a lot cheaper than electricity (but that's a local thing) and our electricity is unreliable. Once you've had a power outage in the middle of a brew you start thinking propane purdy darn' quickly.

Another is flexibility. An electrically heated vessel has plugs and power cords and what not dangling from them which get in the way when you want to swap or clean them. Not so with propane.

Electric elements also are slightly more cumbersome to clean than the smooth bottom of a brewing kettle.

I'm also slightly paranoid when it comes to combining electricity and water. Propane feels less like a shock hazard. But that's just me.

A drawback is temperature control. An electric element can be regulated with an electronic thermostat. While this is possible with propane, it will require expensive valves and other stuff best left to a certified LPG engineer.

 

[PersonalBrewer]

Off-topic

why do you want to make 20-25 gallons of

the same beer?......but to each his own.

Ummm, understandable to me. Ten gallons is two five gallon kegs. Rule of thumb being that you need a twenty gallon kettle to brew ten gallons of beer when using BIAB.

I've got a fifteen gallon brew kettle and several times have wondered if I would be better off with a twenty.

I routinely brew 7 gallons, and have begun adding extra grains to the bag, using less water for the mash and then adding water to begin the boil in order to get more wort. Works for me. I just bought another fermenter to be able to increase to ten gallons in two kegs.

The only negatives I see to ten gallons batches at a time are the bag being pretty heavy, and my understanding is that if you have a twenty gallon kettle it's harder to brew smaller batches.

I have three kegs on tap, always something for family and friends to chose from.

I have more time for drinking beer than I have for brewing beer.

 

[Dcpcooks]

After years of brewing on propane in a semi heated garage in the north we moved. I was really sad to give up my garage set up. I really loved those few nice summer days with the garage door up the windows and the back door open. Neighbors could stop by and have a beer and it was a social thing on the block.

I was pretty firm with the shwmbo before we even listed the old place that I needed a dedicated brew space. I wasn’t sure what that would end up being but swmbo wanted a smaller house and she wasn’t happy in the old place anymore. So we moved.

I ended up getting a 1200sq ft unfinished basement in the new house and I began the process of upgrading to electric. I was using a three vessel herms system on propane with a blichmann gas controller. I ended up just adding the boil coils to my existing pots and swapping out the gas controller with electric controllers.

The new set up rocks. As other have said it’s really nice to be inside during crappy weather. I’m sitting at my new bar reading HBT in my sweat pants drinking coffee while strike water is heating. The fermentor is in a cip cycle and I’m about to go mill my grain.

Electric is easy, quiet and efficient. Temp control is precise. In the old days I’d be running to the store to get propane, now I flip the gfci breaker and set my strike temp on the controller and make a pot of coffee and turn on the big screen or crank some tunes.

I don’t see a huge difference in time between my 5500watt coil and my blichmann burners, my electric set up is a bit faster. The brew space isn’t hot like it was with propane since all of the energy transfer is done directly in the kettle and not under and around like it was with propane.

I love a dedicated brew space. Fermentation, mill, grain storage, hot side, barrel storage and sinks are all in one area. The bar is just on the other side of the brewery and the big screen and stereo are right there. I can watch the game from the brewery or play darts while I have a pint. Heaven!

So I’m a huge fan of electric brewing. Far more of a fan than I thought I would be if that helps you decide which way to go.

 

[SoCal-Doug]

When I built my 3rd brew rig, I went all electric but couldn't take the full leap of faith, so I put burners on it also thinking there would someday be a need. After 10 or 12 batches on the new rig, I have yet to even light the burners. Once you go electric, you will never look back.

 

[myelo]

I do 5 ballon BIAB indoors on my range cooktop, which is propane. It has two 17,000 BTU burners.

I like being indoors, the propane is relatively cheap and all I need is the kettle.

 

[MaxStout]

I brew outside when it isn't cold, doing BIAB over propane. Wintertime I make 2.5 gal batches on the stove. If I were to go full electric indoors, I'd need to build in some kind of ventilation for all the water vapor, something I'd rather not do.

 

[corkybstewart]

I've never run out of propane in a thunderstorm! I also lived where electricity was not nearly as dependable as propane.

 

[PersonalBrewer]

I posted to this thread a couple of years ago.

Since then, I've had several good cash flow years and have thought about upgrading my system to electric. I've got space in the garage I could use.

After looking around and pricing various setups and thinking it through I've just decided to keep the propane setup, I like what I'm doing and enjoy it, it's as much a fun hobby as I've ever had.

I do brew in a bag, and have got 10 gallon batches in a fifteen gallon kettle down pat.

Maybe if I was physically unable to do what I'm doing it would be different.

However, I have not been able to taste the difference if I'm off temp a bit. If so, it's only for a while till I adjust.

I don't get into PH of mash, and finer details. I'm just drinking great beer that I like and having fun.

As a semi-retired old fart that's 74, I don't want it to be too much like work.

 

[firerat]

I use my mash and boil more than anything else as it's small, easy to set up, and I can use it in the tiny storage unit I call my brew shed. It rains here everyday for 8 months out of the year and I don't have a covered patio, so being able to brew in my little unit without messing with the pop-up tent is a huge plus.

That being said I prefer propane when weather permits. My BIAB setup is just more efficient reaching temps and I love using my 11 gallon pot. If I ever get out of this tiny toenhouse and into a spot with cover I'll likely use propane exclusively.

 

[wsmith1625]

Anyone using induction burners? I'm using propane and thought induction might be an easy upgrade. Once I read up on it, I hit a few snags and gave up. My kettle geometry is off and I like doing 5 gallon batches which require the larger 3500W burners. Has anyone worked around these issues?

 

[BongoYodeler]

Around here we get around 300 sunny, warm days a year.
I have a natural gas line running to my back patio where I have my gas grill and my brewing setup.
I bought the natural gas conversion kit for my Blichmann burner.
I have no easy access to 220v electric.
The choice was easy.

 

[corkybstewart]

Anyone using induction burners? I'm using propane and thought induction might be an easy upgrade. Once I read up on it, I hit a few snags and gave up. My kettle geometry is off and I like doing 5 gallon batches which require the larger 3500W burners. Has anyone worked around these issues?

I brew in converted kegs so I don't think induction would work on stainless steel pots, but I might be wrong. It's one reason we decided against an induction range for the kitchen.

 

[enkamania]

I am weird and love to brew outside. I do mash inside the garage now.

 

[BongoYodeler]

I am weird and love to brew outside. I do mash inside the garage now.

Your weirdness is my normal.

 

[VTX1300]

What weather? This is perfect! A propane fire outside. How things are meant to be.

 

[VTX1300]

I am weird and love to brew outside. I do mash inside the garage now.

So how do you brew outside in Seattle? I lived in Tacoma for three years and all I remember are the cold rainy season, the warm rainy season and the four weeks of summer. absolutely LOVED the summer, it's Just not long enough.

 

[z-bob]

I do a mix. (Propane is cheap to set up but expensive to run unless you buy your propane in bulk) I heat my strike water with a 5500W electric bucket. I generally bring 3 gallons to a full boil and add a gallon of cold water, and that gets me pretty close to strike temperature. The bucket boils the water so fast, I could boil several buckets if I was doing larger batches. In the winter I mash and boil on the natural gas kitchen stove with a 110V heat stick for an assist. In the summer, I use a propane turkey fryer burner instead of the stove, but I still use the heat stick to drastically reduce the amount of propane I use. I crank it up to get to a boil, then turn the gas way down and let the heat stick do most of the work.

 

[Transamguy77]

Propane for me all the way, way more convent and portable. Electric has way more going on, some aspects are appealing to me but not with the time, money or energy to switch.

I love seeing the electric setups you guys have, it just doesn’t appeal to me. And as far as weather goes brewing in the summer I know I need to start later in the day so it’s a bit cooler as the brew finishes up and I don’t mind the cold so brewing in the winter I actually enjoy and the wort cools pretty quick with the cold ground water.

 

[memphisbrews]

I brew on a propane three vessel HERMS system, a propane BIAB system and a Picobrew Zymatic which is electric. The HERMS system is BCS controlled and mostly automated but a pain to clean. The other two systems are much easier to use and cleanup is a fraction of the effort.

At this point in my life, I think that the simpler the better. If I were to start brewing from scratch, I would get one of the automated BIAB electric systems like the GrainFather but they were not available 10 years ago when I built my huge system. I brew in my garage but if you live in an area where you can setup a basement brewery, that sounds ideal. If you can get a 240V system setup it would be even better.

This is a really fun hobby and there is no reason to over complicate it unless that is just what you enjoy (that was me before having kids).

 

[jrgtr42]

Anyone using induction burners? I'm using propane and thought induction might be an easy upgrade. Once I read up on it, I hit a few snags and gave up. My kettle geometry is off and I like doing 5 gallon batches which require the larger 3500W burners. Has anyone worked around these issues?

I use induction. I didn't change anything from my previous propane rig except how I'm heating water.
I upgraded my kettle- which I was thinking about doing anyway.
Many stainless steel pots will work with induction - they usually are labeled as such, but the quick and easy way is if a magnet sticks to the bottom, you're good.
My old Graniteware pot even works on my induction.
I find the time to temp is much faster than my old, mid-range propane rig (I do still keep that for other uses and if I want / need to be portable.)
From tap to strike is around 20 minutes, and less than that from sparge to boil - I batch sparge, and if I'm not careful, my first runnings are boiling before the sparge is timed out.

 

[hooper]

Buying propane is not fun. Modified my propane burner to use natural gas. Put a quick disconnect in the gas line at the A/C unit. Run a 50 Ft hose that I use in the garage or out the back window to brew in the backyard. Gravity feed from a 10 gallon Igloo to a 10 gallon Spike kettle to 6 gallon batches. Electric looks intriguing but my system works and I'm not into pumps and hoses.

 

[enkamania]

So how do you brew outside in Seattle? I lived in Tacoma for three years and all I remember are the cold rainy season, the warm rainy season and the four weeks of summer. absolutely LOVED the summer, it's Just not long enough.

Actually, wind is a bigger problem than rain. I don't mind a little rain. I can always run back in the garage.

 

[wsmith1625]

I use induction. I didn't change anything from my previous propane rig except how I'm heating water.
I upgraded my kettle- which I was thinking about doing anyway.
Many stainless steel pots will work with induction - they usually are labeled as such, but the quick and easy way is if a magnet sticks to the bottom, you're good.
My old Graniteware pot even works on my induction.
I find the time to temp is much faster than my old, mid-range propane rig (I do still keep that for other uses and if I want / need to be portable.)
From tap to strike is around 20 minutes, and less than that from sparge to boil - I batch sparge, and if I'm not careful, my first runnings are boiling before the sparge is timed out.

I'm doing 5 gallon BIAB batches, so strike water volume without a sparge is between 8-8.5 gallons. Can your setup handle this? I'm very interested in what equipment you have. Thanks.

 

[jrgtr42]

I'm doing 5 gallon BIAB batches, so strike water volume without a sparge is between 8-8.5 gallons. Can your setup handle this? I'm very interested in what equipment you have. Thanks.

I have a 10 gallon kettle. I'm not sure if it will handle that volume water plus however much grain - I do traditional 3-vessel brews.
Guessing a 12 - 15 kettle might be a better idea.

 

[beernutz]

Just dropping in to add that 20# propane refills are $9.99 at Costco.