Here's my brewstand

[mexican]

Well, a couple of people have asked to see it so here it is. No, I just want to show off actually and I've finally had a little time to get everything together.

Here's what it looks like.



I am running an electric kettle with a pair of hot water heater elements doing all the hard work. I've now done three all-grain batches on it and have had great success so far.

Go to my web site http://www.gdrury.com/Beer/TheBrewery.html for some more info on the setup.


mexican

[brewsters millionths]

thanks mexican, congrats on the kit. went and had a look at the details. i might go down the electric route myself. still to consider the pros/cons a bit more. just trying to find weldless fittings and thermometers here is hard work. zymie is on ebay with them , but doesn't answer when i ask if he'll post to the uk.

[BeerMan]

just trying to find weldless fittings and thermometers here is hard work.

brewster are you at an FPO. I just quite brewing when I was in Italy way to hard to get ingredients and gear, besides Germany was next door. Anyway I would be happy to order and ship to you. Just drop me a PM if you want to set something up.

[brewsters millionths]

thanks for that beerman. i may take you up on that.

[mexican]

thanks mexican, congrats on the kit. went and had a look at the details. i might go down the electric route myself. still to consider the pros/cons a bit more.

Thanks. Now that I've gone electric I won't go back. Its a bit of work to get set up and you either need a sparky as a friend or be confident wiring things up yourself. Water and electricity really do not mix ! I couldn't be happier with my electric system now.

The only other thing I've got to change after the move to electric is my immersion chiller. Half my chiller is above the level of the wort in the kettle because it sits on top of the heater elements. I'm going to rewrap the chiller to be a double coil. Thay way I should be able to immerse the whole coil in the wort. I'll also start on a 'wort-o-matic 2000' in the vein of push and sven's controller soon.

You just need to be really careful setting an electric system up and have someone else check it out to make sure there are no safety issues. When I put it together it only took a couple of hours to fit everything but I spent several days checking everything again and again before even applying power to it. I also run ground leakage detectors just to make sure.

I suspect some people don't like an electric system because you cannot tell, just by looking at it, whether then thing is on or not. Propane, on the other hand, is easy. If its on there is a flame and if the flame has gone out there is the smell.

mexican

[BeerMan]

Mexican
Are you using 120 volt or 240 volt?
Are your washer cut from the silicone or what ever they are made of baking pans?

[mexican]

Mexican
Are you using 120 volt or 240 volt?
Are your washer cut from the silicone or what ever they are made of baking pans?

240 volts. Houses in oz use 240 volt 10 amp power outlets, though usually laundry outlets are higher amperages. I connect to two 240 volt 10 amp outlets on seperate circuits in the house. I couldn't run both heaters (1800 and 2400 watt) from a single 10 amp outlet. The larger element was chosen based upon the maximum rating of a standard outlet. That way I can plug in to any outlet and don't have to search for outlets with high enough ratings.

Yep, the washers are cut from silicone baking dishes. I paid $2 for a round dish and got around 10 washewrs from the side. They can certainly ahndle the heat. After three batches they have discoloured a little and there has been no deteriation as yet.

mexican

[awalker]

Electric does have some pros going for it

Always available
I can set up the boil kettle on a timer so its ready when i get up
Controllable temp with a thermostat

Brewster I just have the Bruheat 5 gallon boiler at the moment, which has been great.

But there is also these"
Brupaks Stainless Steel Boiler
50 litre £199.00
75 litre £265.00

Complete with lid, hop strainer, 3kw element (50lt) or 2 x 3kw (100lt). These are not domestic appliances. Elements are fitted but wiring must be done by a competent electrician (flex & wiring diagram supplied."

http://shurl.org/bPmxw