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  • Heating Elements

    Am in the process of building a small (300ltr) brewery and wanted to use immersion heaters in the kettle. It seems that 12-14 kW would do the job but I'm getting conflicting information on the length/surface area of the element that would be needed to avoid scorching. Can anyone help?
    Cheers
    Richard

  • #2
    12-14 kW??!? Wow, I'd hate to see your electric bill after running that thing. I'd have to hope that no other electrical equipment was on at the same time otherwise the demand charges alone would kill me. Before you go that way for such a small system, do some quick calcs to see how much your electric bill would be and see if that would be acceptable.

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    • #3
      That wasn't the question!!!
      But to put your mind at rest we pay about 18c/kWh and the system would be on a dedicated 60 amp circuit.

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      • #4
        I currently brew on a 800l electric system that has 6 x 4 kw elements (24kw)...though I only use 20 kw as I'm coming up to boil and 12 kw to keep it rolling. These elements are probably 2 feet long.

        Not sure about the length/surface area question and relation to scorching, but I have scorched the hell out of a couple of my first batches. Smoked Weizen anyone? I liked it.

        I put the scorching down to the elements not being very clean, with a layers of protein and scale on them, which I believed caused 'hot spots'. I now keep them spotless by jumping in the kettle and giving the a lot of elbow grease, plus caustic CIP every brew plus an acid CIP every 3rd brew (sames goes for heat exchanger). I also found that I need to keep the wort moving to prevent scorching and recirculate the sweet wort from the minute the heaters go on, until I reach rolling boil.

        Good luck,
        Jeff
        Last edited by Rosie; 05-19-2009, 12:47 PM.
        Jeff Rosenmeier (Rosie)
        Chairman of the Beer
        Lovibonds Brewery Ltd
        Henley-on-Thames, Englandshire
        W: www.lovibonds.com
        F: LovibondsBrewery
        T: @Lovibonds

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        • #5
          electric kettle

          Hey, an image I found of an agitator over elements.
          goodluck
          Attached Files
          Last edited by bootleg; 05-17-2009, 03:54 AM.

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          • #6
            Originally posted by RICHARD JENNING
            That wasn't the question!!!
            But to put your mind at rest we pay about 18c/kWh and the system would be on a dedicated 60 amp circuit.
            Okay, okay, just making sure. We only pay about $.09/kWh, but we also pay $14.50/kW demand, which would make something like the burner you described pretty expensive to run.

            Scorching is mainly related to heat and contact time. If you keep your wort thoroughly stirred, then no single molecule of wort is hotter than boiling temperature, which should keep scorching to a minumum. The picture that Bootleg sent is perfect, as long as you could keep it cranking as long as the heating element is on. If you do all this and still get scorching, well, maybe you can follow the Pete's Wicked model and incorporate it into the flavor profile of the beer.

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            • #7
              Thanks for the input. When the system is up and running I'll post the specs and a few pics.
              Cheers
              Richard

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              • #8
                Do searches on the homebrew forums to help with the electric questions. Homebrewtalk.com is great. You want extra low density or low density heating elements. High density elements will scorch the wort. I have a half barrel electric system I built. I use 1 4500w in my BK and it works great. I use replacement hot water heater elements. Make sure it is low or extra low density. This means that the surface area is quite larger than the high density. extra low density = 50 cu in, low density = 75, and high density = 150. I use low density with no problem. I normally do blondes, wheats, and creams.
                Nick Tanner
                Head Brewer/Founder
                Cherry Street Brewing Cooperative
                Cumming, GA
                www.cherrystreetbrewing.com

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