Kettles

[jt]

Ok, may have some extra cash shortly, maybe time to look at mash tun or kettle.

probably kettle first, current one struggles to hold 23 litres at a good boil but the insulated pail tun will cope with 5kg plus a bit

What's the opinion on what's out there ?

The 40 litre urns from trademe - Dan, don't you have one of those - what's the deadspace, how's the 2000w element manage to get a boil going ?

Mr Houghs 55 litre polarware - would you dare drill a hole to fit an element in that ?

Converted keg ?

I'm staying electric, I know we've had a great summer, but I'm going to stay inside the garage where it's gunna be warm in winter

any good tips, tricks, hints or good buys out there ?

cheers, jt

[Dan]

If I had the money I would have bought all of Mr Houghs equipment! extra space, extra beer
The urn has done its job with the 2kw element for nearly 2 years now, the boil isnt super vigorous but it obviously does the job, it does take nearly an hour to reach boil after lauter which is a bit of a pain in the ass, all up 6 hours from dough in to final clean up, 90 min boil, an extra element or a 3kw would save me some time, and get a more vigorous boil but the 2kw chugs along ok.
As for deadspace, I usually drain all but 500ml or so of wort from the kettle by tilting during runoff when using whole hops, when using pellets it can go up to 4 litres depending on how restrictive my tap filter gets and how long I can be bothered watching the tap as it slows down to a trickle.
When left level I think its about 4 litres below the tap but I cant remember, will have to recheck sometime!

[Barry]

Do you have the lid on while you're bringing to the boil Dan? Thats what I do, I only take it off once boiling. MUCH faster to get it boiling - half the time in fact.

[Dan]

Yes most of the time I do, but if Im not present when hot break peaks, the hot break ends up all down the sides of the kettle, on the table and on the floor! messy.

[Barry]

haha, I know the feeling. I have a heap of head space in my kettle, doesn't matter a shred with the lid on.

[jt]

I power up as soon as I have wort covering the element. From the end of the mash to start of boil is less than an hour with a mash out and a batch sparge

Sounds like the 40 litre urn needs a bit of engineering to reduce that deadspace below the tap Dan ?

Is the element upgradable / replaceable ?

[denimglen]

I've got the 40L urn.

Added the 2400w (I think - can't remember the exact figure) element from a still to the side which runs in conjunction with the original element.

Added compression fitting + 1/2" copper pick up tube to the tap. I get around 1800mL of deadspace. It's a lot but most of the time the majority is hops and about 300-400mL of wort, which I save and plan on using for starters.

One thing to consider is if you're using an immersion chiller is that you'll need to shape the bottom of it around the elements.

With the sight glass and tap already installed it's a freaking great buy.

Gets a 29L boil going vigoursly.

HTH.

[jt]

1800 ml is fine, I'm losing 1 to 1.5 litres to hop & trub now.

Sounds like there's some thread on the inside of the urn from the tap DG ?

[denimglen]

Yup, just need a compression nut and an olive and something for a pick up tube. I just used a scrap piece of 1/2" copper bent into a 90.

[Dan]

Been meaning to make one of those for about 2 years now, still using the pot scrubbers and tilting the kettle to get the last of the runoff, now that I think about the scrubber in the kettle now has been there for about 8 months, yesterdays brew drained dry with all cones and ran clear, usually when using pellets the wort is murky, the scrubber clogs more easily, and cleanup is harder, im gonna stick to all cones now if I can!

[jt]

Umm, how's it drain if the outlet (tap) is above the pickup in the bottom of the kettle ?
Thought it woul be like a syphon, the outlet needs to be blow the inlet, gravity & all that ?

[Dan]

I guess they must use a length hose on the tap that runs lower than the kettle floor to keep it going!

[denimglen]

Drains fine with the pipe below the tap.

If you had a pipe on the tap then you would probably be able suck out a little more and have less deadspace.