burner size/type

[regan]

to boil 25lt at the moment i am struggling on the kitchen stove with all 4 burners going

what i realy want to do is have 60lt boiling in my 70lt alu pot. what is the minimum burner i would need to boil that volume?

i would like something that runs off natural gas also, dont know if thats asking too much.

[Kevnlis]

Well first off, you are not going to boil 60L in a 70L stockpot, not without losing a lot of wort to boil over anyway. If you used a NASA with a high pressure regulator (or med pressure adjustable regulator) you could probably gently boil something like 55L and not have any worries, this would be just right to leave you with two 23L batches once you have finished a 60 min boil (including loss to trub and evaporation etc.).

As for running it off natural gas, that I am unsure of, you would also want to check with the local council or gas company to be sure you could legally install such a device to their mains gas loop. My suggestion would be to buy a NASA and MPR from beerbelly or the like.

[lethaldog]

I see no reason why you could not safely boil 60 litres in a 70 litre pot, i boil 30+ litres in a 40 litre pot and as long as you are on the ball it should be fine, to get mine heated i use a four ring Rambo burner which gets it up there pretty quick

[Kevnlis]

Go for it Leigh, let me know how you go

30L in 40L is 75%

60L in 70L is 86%

You have nearly half as much space for the wort to expand and in which to keep the foam that inevitably will develop.

[regan]

yeh yeh 55, 60 who cares its a large boil volume.

leigh how quick?

i was looking at the 4 ring burners the other day wondering if it would do the job.

[Kevnlis]

I am not sure a 4 ring will get 55L or 60L to a decent boil, and if it does it will take a very long time. I personally would not boil more than 50L in it, but you could probably get away with 55L if you don't go too hard with the NASA. My 4 ring takes about 20-25 minutes to get 27L to the boil in a 40L stockpot.

[SpillsMostOfIt]

I've seen Velophile's effing big pot (90litres?) with a four ring burner on bottle gas and it is too much .

If you're only going to use gas, the bigger pot is better as although it is perfectly possible to boil 69 litres in a 70 litre pot, your life might be easier with a bigger pot again.

I have no fears of boil-overs in my 75litre pot, even if I do a double (48) litre batch. I like that. I actually prefer bigger batches in that pot because of my electric elements, but that is another story and I don't want gregb to get too annoyed...

[lethaldog]

Go for it Leigh, let me know how you go

30L in 40L is 75%

60L in 70L is 86%

You have nearly half as much space for the wort to expand and in which to keep the foam that inevitably will develop.

If you watch the pot you wont have any dramas
I have never even come close to a boil over and i would gladly boil that volume in a 70 litre pot

[lethaldog]

yeh yeh 55, 60 who cares its a large boil volume.

leigh how quick?

i was looking at the 4 ring burners the other day wondering if it would do the job.

I get 30 litres to the boil in about 15-20 minutes

[regan]

what burner do you use to boil 48 spils?

[Kevnlis]

what burner do you use to boil 48 spils?

I actually prefer bigger batches in that pot because of my electric elements

[regan]

ok what electric element

[Kevnlis]

There are a couple different elements you can use. Simple kettle elements and submersible water heater elements. The water heater elements can be made into a wand and are more versatile, where as the kettle elements are quite cheap and easy enough to install. Have a search on here, I believe there are threads on both types

[SpillsMostOfIt]

Currently, I use Over The Side immersion elements (two of) in my big pot. 4108B from Tobins. 2400W each. About $85 per.

I've just installed a 2200watt jug element in my Pilot Plant Kettle (Pictures and wandering discussion on AHB.). $10. Before too long, I will have an over-engineered volume control for it. Bluetooth maybe.

[Kevnlis]

Bluetooth is over-engineered?

I will be waiting for that thread Spills!

The 4108's seem pretty popular, if this is the route you decide to take have a look at AHB for related threads, plenty there!

[SpillsMostOfIt]

Bluetooth is over-engineered?

I will be waiting for that thread Spills!

When will you start waiting?

The microcontrollers I'm using have a serial interface, as do my current and preferred bluetooth client radio sets. It makes sense as I'm building the whole thing around a serial interface (wired to begin with). It's cheaper (without bluetooth) than buttons and LED/LCD displays or whatever because it just needs a serial cable and a terminal emulator on the lappie I'm running BeerSmith on... The second hardest programming component is the PID algorithm after the user interface...

If the thing works as it should, I will want to make each bit water resistant for the purposes of cleaning (I am not aiming for CIP) and safety. Bluetoothing these bits means they are plastic encaseable and so water-resistantable.

On reflection, over the side elements are a great gateway heat source as they do not require mangling your kettle and remain very useful until they die. I have never been a fan of bbq gas.

[regan]

spills, after a fair bit of reading both here and on ahb you have me shopping for some electric kettles now. i might see what 2 elements do first up and upgrade when nessasary. cheers for the idea

[SpillsMostOfIt]

spills, after a fair bit of reading both here and on ahb you have me shopping for some electric kettles now. i might see what 2 elements do first up and upgrade when nessasary. cheers for the idea

Sorry 'bout that, chief...

It seems to me that the family Kettle has species Cordless and Corded, but they have a common mounting system. If you get the one that has a round flange-like inner bit, you will likely find replacements in future if you blow it. Now that I have mine, I think I will wait for the next Kmart '150% off' sale to get a spare or so.


For the AHB-challenged, it's a 20litre kettle purchased for about $20 with element, home-made thermowell and braid hopstoppa:



and with an Ikea splatter guard to prevent burning of bags, grains and brewers:

[regan]

2 elements installed. it took 45 minutes to boil 33lt starting at 23c. not bad but i could do better, and will.

now i just have to make sure i dont burn the house down, any sparkeys on the fourm? i checked my fuse box and found my shed runs 30amp and an outdoor swtich near the shead is on 15amp so am i right in assuming that 30a*240v=7200watt and if i take power from 3 differnt outlets in the shed to run 3*2200watt elements it will be safe? also 15a*240v=3600watt giving me only enough for 1 element?

[Biernut]

That would be only valid if GPO's were on three separate circuits ie three circuit breakers which I doubt, in this case probably only two. From what you say you don't have a sub board in your shed.