Electric Brewery's

[Scott H]

We spoke about creating a discussion so people who have or people who are thinking about and/or building can share pic's info and pitfalls to avoid.

Just about finished building my bench and hopefully will have a chance to start wiring it up this weekend. Pics to follow shortly.

[James Millar]

Cheers, yep please let me know. That's a great price.

[Daniel Ashman]

How did you get on with the cable? Did you end up finding some, and if so where from and how much? Also where did you get the camco element and nema L6-30 twist lock plugs from?

[Barry]

Get your NEMA stuff here:

Sockets:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/NIB-UL-Listed-Locking-NEMA-L6-30-FO-FLANGED...

Plugs:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Brand-New-NEMA-L6-30-Plug-30A-plug-UL-Appro...

[Peter Smith]

I have a couple of these, new in packing, after my cost on them which was NZD $45 each, pm me if you want any.  They fit in a 50L keg.

Camco 02962/02963 5500W 240V Screw-In Lime Life Ripple Water Heater Element - Ultra Low Watt Density

[Nathan]

what sort of current would these draw?

[James Millar]

Cable was a box of beers from a sparky mate who found some at work.

Element - from a member on these forums (see next page)

Plugs - ebay (see next page)

[Scott H]

20-25a depending on your supply voltage

[Cain Harland]

Any one with experience with elements want to hazard guess at minutes per degree or even better degrees per minute I might expect to get out of a 2000w element in a RIMS tube on a 50L mash tun? obviously that wont be full to overflowing so more like 40 to 45L to heat.

[Scott H]

I would think Cain that it would depend on your flow rate and the size of the actual RiMs tube.

Other than that it seems like it would be something you'd only really know by doing. Unless there's a calculator online somewhere.

[DMAC]

Hi Cain, Ill have a go.

lets assume that flow is not the limitation so that all the power available from the element goes into heating the water. Then with 45 litres and 2000 watts it would be about 2 minutes per degree - this assumes that about 20% of the power is lost through the walls of the vessel, or that the element is slightly under its rating or that the line voltage is lower than ideal.

You can search "water heat brewing temperature rise calaculator" etc and find calculators and play around with the numbers.

Flow comes into it if it is too low. At 2kW and flow of 5l per minute the water/wort would be coming out at about 6 degrees high than it went in. This is about the minimum flow ive had when running ceapish pumps from kegking and ive just dumped a load of malt with oats or a big proportion of roast malts which seems to slow things down. it takes a few minutes to get back up to a higher flow. I have a pretty crappy false bottom but usually get about 10l per minute, in which case the wort coming out would be 3 degrees higher.

The above assumes the temp controller is deliverying all the power to the element which would likely be the case when doing a temperature step. when maintaing a temp it would drop the power.

hope that helps...

[Cain Harland]

Thanks DMAC I think my pump is a kegking one so probably will get similar flow rate to you. At 2 min per degree I probably wouldn't be heating to 75 mash out, I'm relay not that keen to add 20+ min to brew day but then I have never heated for mash out before and don't really care. It would be enough to mash in slightly low (just to avoid the possibility of being too high), and bring up to temp then maintain that temp. I would also use it during sparge to heat the wort on its way to the kettle and speed up boil a little bit.

I was thinking for a controller I would have 2 temp controllers, the standard one with a probe in the out end of the RIMS tube, plus one getting the temp of the incoming liquid, and a cycle timer set to something like 30 seconds on every 3 minutes. The element would be controlled by just the out flow probe, the pump would turn on from either call for heat or the timer. My thinking is 1/6 of of the time + a few minutes turned on manually at the start and end of mash is probably enough to pumping to get beautiful clear wort. For temperature control the timer will start the flow but the probe on the in side of the tube will keep it going (if needed) until the tun is at the correct temp. I could probably not have the timer as the hose and tube would lose heat faster than the tun and turn the pump on any way but it would be cheap compared to the temp controlers, thermowells etc so why not. Having the pump off some of the time would help avoid wort thrashing and stuck mash and probably extend the life of the pump (at least that's what I hope).

This is a bit of a long term plan/possabillity as I have spent my brewing equipment budget for now. If I do do it I am keen to stay under 10amp so I can run the thing of any outlet. My HLT and kettle are on gas.

[DMAC]

Interesting plan with temp controlers.

I have an electric brewery like system with three controllers (hlt, mash, kettle). Only the hlt one does any control of temperature. THe assumption is that the hlt and mash temp are so close that it is equivalent. as an alternative to your scheme, ive been thinking of using the mash PID to control the hlt and use the hlt as a safty controller. The idea being that the mash temp becomes the control variable and will therefore be more accurately controlled. I would use the hlt conrtroller to prevent the hlt from getting beyond a few degrees above the mash set point. This would be done by using the alram on the hlt PID to disconct the drive from the mash PID to the SSR. I think there will be some sublte issues with this like the integral part of the control system winding up when disconected in a over temp situation.

I think what im planning to try above would be actually more suited to a RIMS system like you aer thinking of. Use temp probes as you mention (inlet and outlet) but use the inlet as the control temp as it is a better estimate of the mash temperature according to the electric brewery guys. Then use the outlet temp and controller to act as a safety which removes power if the outlet temp gets too high (a few degrees above set point?). This is bassicaly a safety for the pump failing or the mash jaming. I would set the ss/element cycle time as short as possible (some have 2 sec min) to try keep the power even to minimise scorching.