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Electric brewery? - indoor brewing

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opa...@usa.net

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Jul 26, 2000, 3:00:00 AM7/26/00
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I've moved into a house with a 1600 sq. ft. basement and want to get
into the all-grain mode down there (heck, I'll settle for extract in
that much space!) Anyway, I've read the past posts on brewing inside
with propane or natural gas and have pretty much decided to forget that
idea (don't have nat.gas service anyhow). It just sounds too dangerous
to me.

So, my question is, does anyone have plans/suggestions/ideas for an all-
electric brewery? In other words, one that I can do in the basement.
It does have active 240 outlets down there btw if that matters. Can I
buy some kind of giant hot plate that will boil 5 gallons in a
reasonable amount of time? (minutes and not hours!)

I've read about plans that exist in an old issue of BT, but I can't
find that anywhere.

Any ideas are welcome!

Cheers!
Bob


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Before you buy.

M Jarvis [The BrewDomain]

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Jul 26, 2000, 3:00:00 AM7/26/00
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Alan McKay talked about this a while back. I think it's okay to
repost his original:

*******************************************
Hi folks,
Well, all my hard work is soon going to pay off as there is a
big bonus coming up. So naturally I am considering blowing it on
brewing ;-)

I want to put together something fully-automated. I'd prefer to
get something "out-of-the-box" if possible, depending upon price
of course. A guy across the river here in Quebec apparantly
sells a fully-auto 3-Tier 50 litre system for about $2000 CDN
($1350 US). The only problem is that it's electric, and I just
don't like that. It's fully computer controlled similar to
http://www.exothink.com/ (Hey, do you think this guy would make
me one ;-)) The price is OK by me, but I just don't want
electric.

I'll build if I have to, but would prefer to avoid that simply
because I have less and less time these days. Oh, and did I
mention that I'm damned lazy ;-) ;-) I actually wish I had time
to build because that would be pretty fun.

So what else is out there? I know there is also
http://www.braxonia.de/,
but that is crazy expensive.

thanks,
-Alan

*******************************************

Hope this gets you started on the right track....


Matt Jarvis
matt@<NOSPAM>brewdomain.com (remove the "<NOSPAM>" for correct email.
Take the Homebrewer survey at: http://www.brewdomain.com/survey.html
[View the Survey results by following links at bottom of Survey page]

-----------------------------------------------------------

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Up to 100 minutes free!
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Patrick Timlin

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Jul 26, 2000, 3:00:00 AM7/26/00
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opa...@usa.net wrote:
> I've moved into a house with a 1600 sq. ft. basement and want to get
> into the all-grain mode down there (heck, I'll settle for extract in
> that much space!)
> So, my question is, does anyone have plans/suggestions/ideas for an
> all- electric brewery?

Ya, what you want can be found right here...

http://home.elp.rr.com/brewbeer/plasticbrew/electric.html

a fun read even for people not really interested in making one
themselves.


--
Patrick Timlin --- pti...@yahoo.com
http://www.geocities.com/ptimlin/

Madhattr

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Jul 26, 2000, 3:00:00 AM7/26/00
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well i couldn't imagine trying to boil that much wort with an eletcric
burner.

i've done the two burner method on my electric stove in my kitched...i think
the temp. was about 90F in there.

do you have doors that lead outside from your basement????..if so, open them
up and get a propane cooker. use a fan to blow some of the fumes outside.
i did this once when it was raining outside and i wanted to brew.

matt
madh...@fast.net

"M Jarvis [The BrewDomain]" <mjarvis...@peak.org.invalid> wrote in
message news:07018d3c...@usw-ex0104-031.remarq.com...

Dan Listermann

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Jul 26, 2000, 3:00:00 AM7/26/00
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>So, my question is, does anyone have plans/suggestions/ideas for an all-

>electric brewery? In other words, one that I can do in the basement.
>It does have active 240 outlets down there btw if that matters. Can I
>buy some kind of giant hot plate that will boil 5 gallons in a
>reasonable amount of time? (minutes and not hours!)


I have been screwing around with using electric for a brewery. I have a cut
off keg with a 1" NPT half coupling welded to its side that will hold a
common hot water heater element. I have found that a 3500 W element 9.5"
long will boil 10 gallons eventually and keep a low boil. 4500 W sometimes
boiled over, but I was trying to boil 13 gallons. My current thinking is to
have two elements of different wattages installed so that I could turn both
on to boil the water and flip one off for the boil.

The 3500 W element produces about 200 W / in sq. This did not scorch a
1.055 brew. The 4500 W element is a low density unit ( about 100 W / in
sq ) and was no problem.

Dan Listermann

dc...@roanoke.infi.net.this.line.modified.to.prevent.spammers.com

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Jul 26, 2000, 3:00:00 AM7/26/00
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BYO magazine (www.byo.com) had an article about 12 months ago or so by
a guy who built an electric burner out of 3 high BTU electic stove
element and some fancy wiring to some heavy outlets. You might want to
see if someone you know has a copy.

Good luck,
Dan Cole

Kel Rekuta

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Jul 26, 2000, 3:00:00 AM7/26/00
to
Madhattr wrote:

> well i couldn't imagine trying to boil that much wort with an eletcric
> burner.
>
> i've done the two burner method on my electric stove in my kitched...i think
> the temp. was about 90F in there.
>
> do you have doors that lead outside from your basement????..if so, open them
> up and get a propane cooker. use a fan to blow some of the fumes outside.
> i did this once when it was raining outside and i wanted to brew.
>
> matt
> madh...@fast.net
>

ROTFL.

My friends at County Durham Brewing run an all electric brewery. I think its
four or five
hectoliter. It has run without equipment problems since opening in 1996.

I'm looking into heating my new liquor tank electrically. My new kettle is
designed for
flame firing. The mash/ lauter tun is nothing more than a used keg at this
point.

Electric is a good solution for a basement brewery. I don't have a problem with
propane
in the basement, because I have really good ventilation. I'd prefer natural gas
for economy.
Certainly, electricity isn't much cheaper these days. A boil in reasonable time
would take
a lot more juice than the clothes dryer!

Good luck!

Kel


Dr. Pivo

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Jul 27, 2000, 3:00:00 AM7/27/00
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On electric stuff:

Ever since I went over from wood burning, I've used electric.

With increasing volumes, it has ended up at 6KW which does a 150 litre volume.

Some of the lads use 12KW and boil 250, and there are some that manage
the same volume with 6 but don't get quite as vigorous a boil, and have
longer times at all temperature changes.

The easiest thing is to take a standard heating element (3 coil), and
"punch" a hole in the side of your vessel, weld a 50R (that's a 2")
female on the side, and the standard heating coils screw right in.

Probably best to purchase without the standard thermostat controls as
they are not sensative enough for mash temperatures and will prohibit
boiling. That being said, the little "box" that is used for mounting the
thermostats, is a dandy way to protect the outside of the coil (the
electrics) from shorting out from a boil over.

Remember that 3 phase can be "delta" wired or "Y" wired which is two
different effects.... just hang independent connects to all three coils,
and for the sake of the thrice swilling god of all brewers, ground the
bloody thing all the way back to the mother box.

What you end up with if you choose this route is what the beer trolls
call an "immersion heater" (as opposed to the heat being on the outside).

You will probably want some sort of false (phalse, Dan?) bottom with
this, as you would want real loose stuff (liquid, no grains please) next
to the coil.

The actual heating coils, are standard resistance coils around (what's
the bloody English word?.... ceramic, I think) CERAMIC!! bases. They
are then surrounded with a metal. Copper and Stainless are the usual
choices. I'd pick the latter, as you'll soon find that they tend to get
"fuzzy" with residue, and having something that is easy to clean and
resists harsh chemical treatment is better than things that aren't, and don't.

I think I've used this present set-up for about 17 years. I've replaced
two copper clad coils before I finally decided stainless, and I think
that one has been chugging along for about 11 now.

If you do choose this route, I think I've bumped into most of the
pitfalls along the way, and feel free to contact me about some of the
suggested do's and dont's.

Dr. Pivo

Dan Listermann

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Jul 27, 2000, 3:00:00 AM7/27/00
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Do you use hot water from the domestic heater to start? What temperature is
it? How long does it take to come to a boil?

Any idea of your watt density.

Are you hops loose?

Dan Listermann


Phil

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Jul 28, 2000, 3:00:00 AM7/28/00
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"Dr. Pivo" <d...@pivo.w.se> said...
> On electric stuff:
<Snip>
> …the little "box" that is used for mounting the

> thermostats, is a dandy way to protect the outside of the coil (the
> electrics) from shorting out from a boil over.
>
I have a home-made electric boiler (plastic fermenter with a catering
boiler element in it). It boiled over the other night and tripped the main
circuit breaker in my flat. This was actually a blessing in disguise as it
stopped boiling immediately and I lost very little wort.
Having said that, this was about 2am (cheaper electricity at that time) so
it was pitch black and I had to find my way to the socket and pull the
plug out before resetting my electrics.
Oh, the joys of home brewing…

--
Cyclops

MDixon

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Aug 1, 2000, 3:00:00 AM8/1/00
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I followed most of this link. I figured before it died I mention that I
have a buddy with a Bruheat he wants to sell. Mark can be reached at
gris...@aol.com if anyone is interested. He has never used, it was owned
by a gentleman in VA, and it was purchased in a large lot of brewing
supplies.

Cheers,
Mike

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