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.

[Barry]

From what I can see SAE20 non-detergent is what you want.

3 in 1 is just one of the most common/available brands in US, I can't see why brand would matter. Repco?

[Scott H]

You could prob get that from a lawn mower shop or service Center it's where I get my sae30

[Steve Dorrington]

Can anyone tell me what options there might be to replace my two stuffed Keg Resources (Keg Kings) 2,200 watt elements in an all electric setup?  They've only done 10 brews but one's earthed and the other has bare conductors visible, where the lead connects to the element body.

I want something that preferably mounts in the existing 32mm holes, is about the same total power (I have a 20A outlet) and has proper screw terminals on them not flying leads.   

Any ideas would be appreciated as I have a 40L Hefeweizen ready to go.  

Thanks

Steve Dorrington

Wellington

[Peter Smith]

Get http://www.amazon.com/Camco-02953-Screw-In-Ripple-Element/dp/B0002Y...

I am going for this type due to crappy keg king ones in a 50l keg bk

[Steve Dorrington]

Thanks for the quick replies. Karl has hooked me up with 2x 2,400w elements that are 1"NPT meaning they will go in the 32mm holes I have already. Anything above 2,400w per element also means changes to my control box.

Steve

[Steve Dorrington]

The brewery is back up and running after finding out on brew day #2 that the 25A SSR had shorted as well as one of the elements.   

Still Aubrins helped me diagnose the problem on Sunday by email and got one here in 2.5 days from Georgia, USA. That's fast and I'm very impressed.  I hunted for one locally on Monday before ordering online that night but the least expensive was a $60 from Jaycar and $86 from Element14.  Aubrins price was $15+ $44 freight US. So I ordered a couple and a spare PID too.  

The 40L of Hefe finally got brewed last Saturday.  Third time lucky :)

 

[Rhys Williams]

I've been using these - only $9 us - shipping free
If you use a decent heat sink they seems to last.

http://www.dx.com/p/ssr-40da-40a-solid-state-relay-grey-silver-2567...

[Barry]

They're the ones I have but I got mine from aliexpress. Similar price. Haven't used yet so can't vouch for them but HEAPS of electric breweries are running them.

[Peter Smith]

Same the Fotek ones are everywhere... there are stories of SSR sticking in on position, Barry is right that an mechanical relay switching the full 40amp side is a good failsafe

[Nathan]

So I scored a nice U shaped 500W element thinking I can hook it up to a PID to maintain HLT temps after I give it a kick in the ass with gas.

Now I have just mounted it into my proposed HLT by making some silicon washers from a silicon oven mitt I bought from the warewhare no leaks yet but now I'm thinking is 500W enough to maintain HLT temps......Thoughts?

[Peter Smith]

I tried my 50l keg mash tun last night for the first time, all good and hit 74% vs 63% biab , but wow that thing soaks up heat had to fill it at 90c and use boiling water to get it to 74 strike, keg started at 15c I was glad my hlt urn is 2kw still took ages to hit temps. I think the 500w may just hold temps if the hlt is well insulated but it's not going to cope with any top ups, can u insulate it and still run gas? Personally I would get a 2kw one when you can. I can see Herms setup coming sooner then I expected as I had to add hot water to keep mash temp where I wanted it. Does anyone have spare copper compression bits for the Herms coil they want to sell?

[Nathan]

Well I ran the 500w element just through straight power no PID on Sunday and I had to keep unplugging it as it was getting to hot but this was after i kicked its ass with gas burner to get to temp.......Just got in from the shed wiring up a PID to it,all works good....Cant wait for next brew day as I have also setup my 3 tier gravity stand tonight as well, Also used a cheap 2400w "heat stick" from aliexpress to help getting to boil so with that and gas I got there in about 20mins was awsome...3.5hr brew day cant complain