I've pretty well decided I'm going to go electric to brew in my basement. I was considering NG, but the evacuation hood and make up air was going to be a major expense and production. I thought about electric induction heating, and still might do it some day, but again, a major expense for both the "burner" and a compatible brew pot. So now I'm trying to figure out what kind of heating element to put into a keggle, and I have questions:
1. 240V vs. 120V - O.k., no real question here, I'm going with 240, just for reference.
2. High density, low density, or extra-low density? I presume that a high density element might cause scorching. Is this true? This place has all three, and if you scroll to the bottom of the page it explains the difference (150, 75, and 50 watts/square inch, respectively).
3. Screw in thing or large coil? The screw in types are attractive because installation and replacement should be easy. But it looks like the big coils might have even lower density. FYI, here's a screw in type, and here's one of the big coil things.
4. What material? I think if is isn't specified, most of these are copper with nickel plating. Will that last long in a BK? How about incoloy? Or more interesting, what about teflon coated like this one?
5. What other things should I be considering? Will a heating element melt a hop bag? Might it have an impact on my hop containment/filtering, which I haven't decided on yet? Anything else?
-Eric