cheap entry into electric brewing

[paul m]

Hi All,

I've found Reubens Blog v. useful ,and keen to go the electric route rather than gas bottle and ring burner. I'm still on the gas hob and 'er indoors don't want a brewery in the kitchen!

I've bought a 51L ss pot and will do 25L to 38L batches (two corny kegs). Any ideas on whats the budget way to get started down the electric route?

I'm thinking a 3kw element and then plug it into the wall.  My query is  what's the cheap way to control the heat output of the element? Is there some sort of variable resistor with a dial wired between the element and the wall? or is the way to go some sort of tempcontroller with sensor like with the fridge fermenter brewmate type thing?

All advise is appriciated

[Michael]

Vesku. It looks like an interesting brew day, and I like how the different the equipment is.

Do you have this with english subtitles? It would be nice to know what you are trying to show. Alternatively, a narration would be nice as well. :)

 

It looks like you have done so really interesting work. My hat is off to you!

[Vesku]

I'll just did one with english subtitles, takes a while to put it online though. It will be still "a bit confusing", wasn't really planning to do video at all, just playing around with my sons phone...

[Vesku]

English subs

[Vesku]

My new HERMS with just a cup of water in the HE. Induction heating, ON/OFF at the moment, but still accurate enough, keeps 10 liters +- 0.5C.

The controller is cheap "Sestos" from Ebay as is the induction stove "Royalstar". Spend about $160 on these.

I would like to make it a RIMS, casting the HE-coil into aluminum or lead, but it would need better control of the heating than simple ON/OFF and I don't have time/motivation to tackle that at the moment. It should be pretty easy to make a PWM-controller for the stove though. There's just a LM324 and IGBT-FET that is driving the high frequency coil + a microcontroller...

On the "minus" side, I had to make a counter flow chiller now that I don't have the "big HERMS" anymore.

Cheers!

[Vesku]

Finally on the topic, my electric kettle/HLT.

3kW element, 2 * 1.5kW (integrated). I have 2 switches for control:

1. on/off 1.5kW

2. on/off/half rectified(~ half power)

Cheap? Kettle 31L TM ~$50, box, switches, cables ~$50, heating element (TM) ~$30, insulation ~$30, valve etc. ~$50

Things add up... This is definitely a hobby, not saving any money here :)

About the power needs, a picture below tells more... boil with power of 1.5kW, 2.25kW and 3kW

I'm lazy, so I'm happy to adjust the power with the switches and a diode, couldn't be bothered to do anything more sophisticated... it's just a boil after all.

[Pilgrim]

Gidday Vesku,

How did you fit the elements into the pots? I'm building a new HLT and I plan on using one large manually switched element and a smaller element controlled by a controller that can handle 5 Amps. Did you have bosses welded into the pot or do they just seal with a washer and nut?

Cheers.

[Vesku]

The valve is done with fiber seals and compression, seems to be working fine.

I brazed a brass nut for the heating element, was planning to use fiber and compression for that as well, but the thread on the heating element was a bit too short for it.

So, I brazes a brass nut on the kettle with silver solder. I only have a MAPP gas for heating and I did over heat the ss kettle in couple of places, welcome corrosion.... Please Santa, a TIG + some ss fittings....not saying it's easy to TIG thin ss, but try to control MAPP with chunky brass nut and 0.5mm ss.

DIY all the way :)

[Lukas Thielmann]

Hi Vesku

This looks similar to what I'm hoping to get running over summer.

Are you using it as a kettle or just strike/sparge water?

How long would it take to get a 23L of wort to hot break with the element running at 3kw?

Thanks,

[Vesku]

I'll do my 1st patch tomorrow with this set up, I'll let u know how it goes.

I'll be using it for kettle and to heat the sparge water.

I use my HERMS for strike and mash out. We've an instant gas heated water, so it doesn't take too long to get the strike water ready with 2kW HERMS.

[Vesku]

Heating 13 liters for strike with the 2kW HERMS:

[Vesku]

Heating 19 liters sparge water with 3kW kettle (boil at 15 mins, rolling at 22 mins):

[Vesku]

Mash out ramp with HERMS, 4.7kg grains + 13L water: