The Brewtalizer Electric Brewery

Submitted by michaelhamilton on Sun, 2010-05-16 15:04

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4035/4613290732_e078cc482c_o.jpg

The cooler is our mashtun (with copper manifold), gravity drained into the brew kettle and recirculated by the March pump for vorlaufing. Brew kettle is a 17 gallon aluminum pot with two immersion water heater elements (4500W & 3000W), each controlled by a switch in the control box. All of this is served by a 40A GFCI circuit.

Here's the control box (sorry for the links, I can't seem to post these images inline....)

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4016/4569509320_bbd487c34f.jpg

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4047/4568874683_2da103927f.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3520/4568846923_b0acb020f6_b.jpg

Next weekend is the big test!!

Mike (& Paul)

How is this working for you

Submitted by Smiling Bob on Mon, 2011-04-18 20:15.

I have a similar set up to you....less the electric brew kettle. I do have a stove receptacle in my brew room and have been toying with the idea of building an electric kettle. I assume you run both elements to get your boil going, and then cut back to the 3500w element to maintain the boil. How is it working for you? Also, what is the batch size you build, and how long does it take you to get up to a boil?
Thanks for putting up the photos...very helpful

Hi Bob, Our system works

Submitted by michaelhamilton on Tue, 2011-05-17 09:38.

Hi Bob,
Our system works very well for 10-11 gallon batches. With 7500W, we can get our strike water to 160F in as little as 20 minutes. As soon as we get our first wort into the kettle, we start heating for a boil. We then sparge, and drain the second runnings into the kettle. With 13 gallons of wort, we probably take another 25 minutes go get a boil.

It's highly advisable to have a GFCI breaker in your panel for this.

We love the system. It would be easy to design around a 5 gallon batch. e-mail me if you have other questions! mike.hamilton@gmail.com