The bad things about e-brewing

[junkyard brewer]

I've read all of the sites and have yet to read about anyone who went electric and has regrets about it. I'm ready to pull the trigger, just want to read something bad about it. I know that might sound dumb, but would really like to know the downfalls of electric brewing.

 

[worksnorth]

I get ya!! Always like the positive reviews on things but learn a lot from the negative too. Wouldn't mind hearing a few myself... food for thought type stuff

 

[MercMan]

I've read all of the sites and have yet to read about anyone who went electric and has regrets about it. I'm ready to pull the trigger, just want to read something bad about it. I know that might sound dumb, but would really like to know the downfalls of electric brewing.

You can spend the money you save long term on more ingredients and brew more beer?

No, wait, you said something bad!!!

OK, you can't brew when the power is off. Is this bad enough for you?

 

[mattd2]

I got one - my Sestos PID has an error that any control period under 8 seconds (IIRC) is set to 10 seconds minimum, and either 0, 1 or 2 is set at 72 seconds (again IIRC). Not really a huge issue but something that would be nicer if it wasn't there.
Also since I DIY'd my panel/setup myself everytime I go to brew I pull out the multimeter to check the grounds on everything - not like they should spontainiously disconnect but it is nice to have the reassurance when dealing with something that could take my life.
Both things that if I knew now wouldn't turn me away from electric but just food for thought as you say

 

[passedpawn]

If you run your e-brewery off 240, it's not portable at all. Even with 120, you can't brew in the woods.

That's about it I think.

 

[UtahNate]

Only downside I can think of is that you can't brew when/if the power goes out. Of course you could always get a generator... Then you'd be able to brew in the woods as well.

 

[Yooper]

If you run your e-brewery off 240, it's not portable at all. Even with 120, you can't brew in the woods.

That's about it I think.

That's the only issue I can think of. I can't haul my rig out to my cottage for a brewday. And I can't brew if the power goes out.

I never brew at my cottage, and our power almost never goes out, though!

 

[mattd2]

Only downside I can think of is that you can't brew when/if the power goes out. Of course you could always get a generator... Then you'd be able to brew in the woods as well.

Damn it, now I got to put anothing on the wish list of "brewing" stuff... wait if I move that to the "what if we get hit by a tornado/tsunami/hurrican/Godzilla" stuff I think I might be able to sneak it into the budget... maybe

 

[heckels]

This is not necessarily specific to e-brewing since things can go wrong in any LP/NG setup, but electronics can be prone to failure, especially if you buy cheap stuff.

When building my setup, 2/4 of my cheapie SSRs were bad and had to be returned. Also, I had some issues with my BCS that required me to send it back to Derrin at brewers hardware. He did take good care of me though.

 

[junkyard brewer]

Ok, so the two downfalls so far are:

1) Can't brew when the power goes out. (I'll be drinking if the power goes out)
2) Not portable, if built on 240. Not exactly a huge concern for me, but we do plan to try and buy a house in the next year and a half or so....so that is a thought I guess. Still not enough of a issue to not make me want to do this.

One consideration is grounding, which is something I am sorta on the fence about anyway. I guess what's worse, a minor gas leak (I brew NG) or a ground that comes loose?

More pitfalls are welcome, please

 

[nealperkins]

Good question.
So, regarding the power going out, I had to buy a generator, I just couldn't stand the idea of a spoiled batch.
Also, since it's so much easier and satisfying to brew, you'll probably have way more beer than you can drink.
So, there really are no simple answers...life's a bitch.

 

[mrwizard0]

The element rusting is my biggest concern. I haven't installed an anode yet. Of course the cost was rough, but now I brew in the garage and don't have water or a drain so I have to get those installed.

 

[JayMac]

Ok, so the two downfalls so far are:

1) Can't brew when the power goes out. (I'll be drinking if the power goes out)
2) Not portable, if built on 240. Not exactly a huge concern for me, but we do plan to try and buy a house in the next year and a half or so....so that is a thought I guess. Still not enough of a issue to not make me want to do this.

One consideration is grounding, which is something I am sorta on the fence about anyway. I guess what's worse, a minor gas leak (I brew NG) or a ground that comes loose?

More pitfalls are welcome, please

It's pretty easy to see that in my [biased] opinion, electric brewing has fewer negative downfalls. I mean, the fact that you can't run out of electricity mid brew (except an outage-which is VERY rare) is almost reason enough alone to go electric!

The only real downfall that I consider an inconvenience is the possibility of an accident. Every brew, gotta check the grounding. Maybe that's just me, but I'm not going to take any chances. It is probably me being paranoid, because I certainly don't check any electronics I buy! Hopefully one day I can come to ease with it!

Make the jump- you won't regret it!

 

[BigFloyd]

I'm concerned that I won't be able to use my E-BIAB rig in the event of a zombie apocalypse seeing as how those darn zombies are notorious for climbing the poles and gnawing through the power wires.

 

[orangehero]

You trust your own wiring job less than some chinese laborer going as fast and cheap as he can? I know for a fact all my connections are tight.

 

[Adeering]

The only downside I have from switching to electric isnt even a downside to electric exactly, but more towards proper planning. I made a system that I wanted to be capable of both 5 and 10 gal batches (and it is) but I ordered my tanks from Stout and they are great but the curved bottom on the boil kettle is counter productive for me. I whirlpool so dont need the settling area, and the element has to be higher up so at 5 gallons the element is barely covered, which makes getting the hops strainer difficult as well.

Im going to get a custom hop screen built to solve that problem. But when the boil is done there is maybe an inch of liquid above the element, not a big deal but not great either.

As for power going out, as soon as you go any automation (whether electric or gas) you are in trouble.

Cleanup is a pain also, as I scrub the elements after every brew so it can be a long cleanup process

 

[jeffmeh]

The geeky finance answer is " You will have higher startup costs, but those costs will be amortized over each brew where your electric costs should be less than propane costs."

 

[IrishBrewer74]

Only negatives I have had so far is the set up cost of course.... Elements, cords, and control set up whether home built or bought will always cost more than a propane burner. Some examples have shown the electricity usage costs less than propane refills long term, but it will be years before I recover the cost of my e-brew build.

As mentioned cleaning is a pain. You have an element to clean around and clean the element itself and a temp probe too. These things are all in your kettle so be careful if you are stirring around in there for whatever reason. Plus you will now have wires coming from your kettle so moving it for cleanup is a pain.

The positives outweigh the negatives tho. First, you can brew inside as long as you have adequate ventilation. I'm in Wisconsin, so being inside to brew when its -20 outside is nice. It's also in really quiet. Although I was surprised at the noise an ebrew set up makes, it's still way more quiet than firing up a jet engine turkey frier. It's also way more efficient. Your heat source is inside the wort versus heat loss up and around the kettle.

Plus if you build it yourself you get that kick ass feeling of accomplishment when it's up and running. You'll be showing it off to all your friends when they come by.

Happy Brewing!

 

[junkyard brewer]

Thanks for all of the input. Anyone want to buy a 2 tier brew stand

 

[IrishBrewer74]

Why not build the ebrew setup up on it? Even if it has burners incorporated in it, you can still use it as a stand and to gravity feed.

 

[JayMac]

You trust your own wiring job less than some chinese laborer going as fast and cheap as he can? I know for a fact all my connections are tight.

I/my family can't sue myself if I happen to get shocked though! :cross:

 

[junkyard brewer]

Why not build the ebrew setup up on it? Even if it has burners incorporated in it, you can still use it as a stand and to gravity feed.

Because it's a little more tall than I like and I can better use the space in my garage by building a bench type stand.

 

[brewmcq]

10 minutes into the mash on my first brew on my electric rig, someone drove into a transformer and POOF! No more power. The whole town was "dark".

So I wrapped my kettle (eBiaB) with an old sleeping back, RDWHAHB.

When the power came back on 30 minutes later, I'd lost a whole 3 degrees.


Initial startup costs can be steep, but if you space them out over a year, they are negligible. For a 5 gallon batch, I'm estimating that I use less than $1.00 in electricity (we have ridiculously cheap electricity up here). I'd have to get 20 batches out of a single 20# LP tank to even come close to the same cost. My average has been 4 or 5 batches from a 20# tank... so over the course of 1800 or so gallons, the rig will pay for itself on energy savings along. While that's not a feasible argument in favor of moving to electric, if you assume 20 5-gallon batches (100 gallons per year, which is usually the "limit" allowed by states), you're looking at Over $400 per year savings. That number might help with the SWMBO. Plus... you can get a lot of ingredients for $400. I built my deck for $400.


I do miss brewing outside on a warm sunny day. However, I LOVE having a dedicated brew space. There is absolutely nothing else in that space that isn't directly related to brewing. That means I don't have to spend an hour pulling stuff off various shelves in the garage, from the basement and the kitchen. I know my electrical work is solid. And If I want to "travel" to brew, I'll take my Blichmann burner and an LP tank with me, so regardless what happens, I have an LP backup (and in the meanwhile, the SWMBO uses my Blichmann for canning... win-win).


This will always be a Ford vs. Chevy debate. Both systems do the same thing: they make beer. I catch crap from on of my LP "purist" buddies about how I'm now "lazy" because to brew a batch, all I have to do is "push a button"... but I think he's just jealous.

In my eyes, there just isn't a downside to moving to electric.

 

[Vellum]

I have two batches on my electric rig. Only thing I don't like is the cleanup of the brew kettle. My 15 gallon polar ware was already a bit unwieldy but with the addition of two element housing and chords (i brew on 120v with two 1700 watt elements) it is even more so.

Like many others above, the pros outweigh the cons. I was always worried about where we were going to live as my wife and I move around quite a bit. Generally apartments frown upon open gas burners in the patio. I don't have to worry about that with the electric rig.

 

[Homercidal]

I'm currently (Still) upgrading to electric. BUT, I have kept my old kettles, and I can still brew using either those or my electric kettles on my gas burner.

So in case of power outage, NO PROBLEM!

Actually, I think I'm going to go brew a Chocolate Stout right now!

 

[LandoLincoln]

Hmm. Well...other than the high cost of setting everything up...

Making sure the element is really clean can be tedious, if you have a curvy ripple element. A toothbrush helps.

My chiller temperature display just decided to go 9 degrees higher than normal, and this is one of those cheap units that doesn't allow you to calibrate it. So now I have to get a new one.

Some people have had problems with accidentally dry-firing heating elements and popping them in the middle of a brew day. Which would effectively end the brew day, unless you had a replacement element on hand. I added some float switches to my pots so my elements can't fire unless the liquid levels are high enough. Because I know me and I would totally accidentally dry-fire an element.

On good weather days, it's nice sitting outside and brewing, so sometimes I miss that.

Other than that...no, I can't really think of any negatives. There are many positives, though. But that cost...phew. It is a big one to get over.

 

[passedpawn]

Hmm. Well...other than the high cost of setting everything up...

Making sure the element is really clean can be tedious, if you have a curvy ripple element. A toothbrush helps.

Some people have had problems with accidentally dry-firing heating elements and popping them in the middle of a brew day. Which would effectively end the brew day, unless you had a replacement element on hand. I added some float switches to my pots so my elements can't fire unless the liquid levels are high enough. Because I know me and I would totally accidentally dry-fire an element.

I had a lot of trouble cleaning mine while in the keg, and I was always concerned with the time of replacing the element if it fried. Incidentally, I've used the same elements now for 4 years.

I am rebuilding my keggles so that the 5500W elements are really easy to remove for cleaning or replacement. There is just a camlock holding it onto the keg. Very sweet.

I've accidentally dry-fired a few times, but never longer than about 15 seconds. I have a friend who does this intentionally to burn off the crud on them. He watches for them to turn bright red then turns them off.

On good weather days, it's nice sitting outside and brewing, so sometimes I miss that.

I do all my 240V brewing outside. It's doable if you have a large covered area with the right power. In my case, I can also draw my chilling water from (and back to) the pool.

 

[louie0202]

Biggest issue I have is if the pumps jam up, seize, or the mash gets stuck the pots etc are so heavy its a gameover batch. You learn little tricks etc and since I worked out most of the quirks I love it now. I never had a pump seize, but learning the right way to prime them etc takes a little patience.

 

[MuddyCreek]

I love it.

E Herm System and I would never look back. If I were to build another rig, it would be a BIGGER E Herm rig.

I would put more temp probes in my MLT and I may add a circ pump to my HLT just to be a psycho about it.

 

[kevink]

I am rebuilding my keggles so that the 5500W elements are really easy to remove for cleaning or replacement. There is just a camlock holding it onto the keg. Very sweet.

I've accidentally dry-fired a few times, but never longer than about 15 seconds. I have a friend who does this intentionally to burn off the crud on them. He watches for them to turn bright red then turns them off.

My new kettle's element is also removable, but with 3" tri clamps. It definitely sucks cleaning an element in the kettle when you can't see the bottom half of it! I hated that about my old kettle.

Your friend is a genius and also a little crazy! I would love try that but wouldn't want to risk it. How many times do you figure he's done that?