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I've been reading the forums for the last few days and I'm torn as to whether to invest in a propane burner for my new kettle or enter the realm of electric brewing. I'd really like to go electric but a I find a lot of the info out there hard to digest as someone who is new to it all, e.g., PIDs, SSRs, RIMS, etc.

I was hoping someone here could direct me to info outlining the simplest way to convert a kettle to be electric. Can it be done for a few hundred bucks and still have a PID? Can I get everything I need locally or at least in Canada? I have 110 and 220 outlets with GFIs already. My kettle is the 16 GAL Bayou Classic.

Thanks.

Tried twice to reply to this thread with a long explanation of electric brewing. Doesn't seem to be showing up.

There's a few guys here who have done electric builds, rubbertoe, john g, and fishdisease. Look through their posts and you'll find some build threads. Simple and cost are pretty broad terms to come up with an answer for you.

Yeah, most electric rigs are not very simple. I guess simplest and cheapest would be 1 PID, SSR, a big enough element, some other relays or contactors, all wired up in a control panel. Even the simplest design there will usually cost $200 - $300 for the electric side alone and that's not even talking GFCI (search for that, there's plenty of debate elsewhere).

You could go even simpler I suppose and use 2 110v elements, one with an on / off switch and the other on a PWM type control, plugged into different outlets. I'm not sure you could do 10 gallons with 2 2000W elements though but my guess is you could get by. You'd have to monitor temps manually in that case though but you'd have to do that with a propane burner setup too.

I have the simplest of all I would say. A variac and an element.

Yeah I think that's the simplest scenario as well. Not the easiest to find though. I suppose even if it cost a bunch the total could still be cheaper.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk HD

http://www.ebay.ca/itm/NEW-AUTOTRANSFOR ... 484e41dc0e" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Also this:

http://www.homebrewchatter.com/board/sh ... 9a822516a6" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Check this out.

http://www.instructables.com/id/Simple- ... wery-BIAB/

That guy uses a PWM controller that's available to buy.

RubberToe wrote:Check this out.

http://www.instructables.com/id/Simple- ... wery-BIAB/

That guy uses a PWM controller that's available to buy.

OK, anybody know how to make one of these?
http://www.highgravitybrew.com/productc ... 6p3084.htm

bluenose wrote:

RubberToe wrote:Check this out.

http://www.instructables.com/id/Simple- ... wery-BIAB/

That guy uses a PWM controller that's available to buy.

OK, anybody know how to make one of these?
http://www.highgravitybrew.com/productc ... 6p3084.htm

I think the controller used in this document is similar. Don't ask me where I found this, it came up in one of my searches over the last few years.

I could hug and kiss you in a plutonic way

Lol! I'll settle for the dancing banana icon, hah.

RubberToe wrote:Lol! I'll settle for the dancing banana icon, hah.

AS YOU WISH

bluenose wrote:I could hug and kiss you in a plutonic way

"Platonic", I hope. I shudder to think what Pluto would do...

derek wrote:

bluenose wrote:I could hug and kiss you in a plutonic way

"Platonic", I hope. I shudder to think what Pluto would do...

I stand by what I wrote...

A buddy of mine who lives in Iceland just built an extremely simple electric setup, brewing stuff is hard to get up there, so they make do with what they have.

His "kettle" is a 60 liter herring barrel

He then took 3 heating elements from electric tea kettles and mounted them in the barrel. Propane is very expensive, burners hard to find, and brewing outside can be very tricky up there.



He recently built a mash tun out of same kind of barrel, but before that I tried BIAB few times in his kettle with decent result. He just had a good thermometer and turned on 1 or 2 elements when the temp started to drop during the mash. Some sort of control would make it super easy and pretty cheap setup.

Here is a picture of his mash tun in the making

heck ya!
you can get those kettles at wallies for less than $10 each sometimes

ok electricians: how much juice are we talking about here? could one circuit handle three elements? Two?

80% of 15a= 12a.

What size (amperage) are the elements?

Sandy

bluenose wrote:heck ya!
you can get those kettles at wallies for less than $10 each sometimes

ok electricians: how much juice are we talking about here? could one circuit handle three elements? Two?

those kettles are typically like 1200 W or something, so like 10A. so depending on the circuit, one or two. note: not an electrician in the least bit, just used ohm's law

CorneliusAlphonse wrote:

bluenose wrote:heck ya!
you can get those kettles at wallies for less than $10 each sometimes

ok electricians: how much juice are we talking about here? could one circuit handle three elements? Two?

those kettles are typically like 1200 W or something, so like 10A. so depending on the circuit, one or two. note: not an electrician in the least bit, just used ohm's law

He used 3 2200 W kettles, so they are probably around 20A.

gm- wrote: He used 3 2200 W kettles, so they are probably around 20A.

Something tells me Iceland's standard voltage is 220V.

LeafMan66_67 wrote:

gm- wrote: He used 3 2200 W kettles, so they are probably around 20A.

Something tells me Iceland's standard voltage is 220V.

220-240V according to Google.

LeafMan66_67 wrote:

gm- wrote: He used 3 2200 W kettles, so they are probably around 20A.

Something tells me Iceland's standard voltage is 220V.

Yup that is correct

Is this something that an absolute novice would be able to make? Being able to brew indoors would be great.