cheap entry into electric brewing

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Barry on June 20, 2011 at 2:31pm

3kw is pushing the limits of your wall socket, but probably doable.

For the kettle you probably don't need temperature control, just full on. For HLT it's good to have a thermostat - I have one of these: http://www.craftbrewer.com.au/shop/details.asp?PID=888

You only have one pot though? You kind of need 2 unless you're doing brew in a bag - one to heat the liquor (water) and one to boil the wort.

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Permalink Reply by JoKing on June 20, 2011 at 3:13pm

Definately 3kW is pushing the wall socket. 3kW = just over 13Amps... wall socket = 10Amps. Kiss your circuit breaker goodbye!

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Permalink Reply by mattd2 on June 20, 2011 at 9:27pm

To me that is the more worrying thing is most circuit breakers I have seen are 20 amps but the wall sockets are 10 amps... so the circuit breaker would not trip as it is under its rated load but the wall socket could melt or catch fire.

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Permalink Reply by paul m on June 20, 2011 at 8:55pm

Thanks Barry,

as with most folk its one step at a time for me. I'm just getting back into brewing after 4 year break. I just did kits before and after reading the great info in this forum decided to make shit hot beer that friend like rather than pauls yeasty homebrew. Its still early days for me. I'm about to start on BIAB. when i do the mash tun i'm thinking of using the family chilly bin- so no element there right? For the HLT i'm thinking of getting an urn from Trade me. 

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Permalink Reply by Andre Jaworski on June 20, 2011 at 3:27pm

I Use a 3kw element for a 50 L boil and I get a reasonable boil, could be slightly better though, but as the boys are saying above it is probably pushing it a little but I haven't burnt the house down, melted any sockets or blown any fuses yet. 

I think I will upgrade the wall socket soon though.

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Permalink Reply by David Upex on June 20, 2011 at 4:42pm

You'll need some sort of triac based system, this is the same as a light dimmer for your lounge but it will have to be a high rated one to handle ~13 amps.

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Permalink Reply by Nick T on June 20, 2011 at 6:47pm

I got a simmerstat from Mastertrade, which is what they hook up to cooktops - you  will need to build it into a box of some sort, but not too difficult to do, or get a sparky to do it for you. Mine is attached to a 4kW element in the kettle, not yet tested. (Electrician coming next week to upgrade the garage to 35amps so I can run the 2.4kW HLT and bits and bobs at the same time.)

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Permalink Reply by Richard Jack on June 20, 2011 at 9:24pm

does the simmerstat cycle like a stove? or cycle really really fast like a triac or ssr?

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Permalink Reply by Vesku on June 21, 2011 at 6:41pm

It's slow, there's a sort of thermostat inside it that brakes the circuit as it gets hot when the current goes trough. I think it's the easiest/cheapest (you don't need a sensor) way to go and good enough to control the boil. There's a lot of cheap PID's in Ebay, if you want to go more precise...

I've bought a couple of controllers from this Ebay seller

 

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Permalink Reply by paul m on July 8, 2011 at 10:23am

Hi Nick,

how did you go with the 4 kw element? good rolling boil? what size batches do you do? how long to get to the boil? I'm trying to decide on 2 x 2.4kw elements or 1 x 4kw in my boil kettle

 

cheers

 

Paul

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Permalink Reply by Steve Baker on June 21, 2011 at 7:07am

I run an extension cord to the kitchen stove to drive my 3kw element. They're usually rated at 20A.

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Permalink Reply by paul m on July 6, 2011 at 8:41pm

Thanks for all the input. I've got my sparky coming in the next week to check circuits and wiring. To keep below the 10amps i'm thinking of installing in 2 x 2.4kwatt elements and then control using 2 ssr. Any advise on that?

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