I have brewed several batches on my electric stove which in my opinion is a pain in the arss. Finally bought a weldless fitting for one of my keggles, a burner and stand and took the brewing process out of the kitchen. Actually did it right on the front porch because my bar, keezer and fermenting area is in the entry room of my home.
I have to say it went so much smoother, cleaner and was so much faster to boil and hold stable temps. I will never brew in the kitchen again. I own three keggles just need to get them all ready to use at once on a brew stand I have yet to build. After the holidays it will be done, maybe sooner. Doing a 3 tier gravity system with a HLT, Mash Tun and Boil tank all with nice large keggles.
Anyways a quick pic of this weekends simple setup. I brewed a Citrus IPA and a Lemongrass Wheat. YUM!
Congrats on the move to gas- too bad it’s not NG. I hooked mine up to the house gas and brewed in the garage. Three summers of that and the brewery moved into the kitchen. Lol. I can still do 12 gallon batches in the 80qt on the stove. Never thought I’d be brewing in the kitchen again…
Funny, I moved from gas back to the kitchen. Downsized to 3 gallon batches and it’s great. Propane sucks, don’t like having to go buy a refill tank and worry about whether I’m almost out all the time or not. Even with a back up tank, sometimes I got lazy to refill the backup.
Your climate is conducive to outdoors brewing… here in Michigan, downsizing to 3 -4 gallons and doing it on the kitchen stove in winter just seems… cozy…
Oh yeah, no doubt about that. A 15lb tank would last me about 5 beers. I think that was with only using it to boil. I did the strike and sparge water on the stove to save propane.
I have the same problem! I brew on the patio in my condo with propane, and even though I have to have a backup of propane at all times I’m not looking at my slow electric stove as a good alternative…plus Colorado winters aren’t that bad.
I have found that if you’re doing an HLT and your kettle on a stand the size tank in the pic will last about 3 batches, but I’m heating my water from 50 degrees. I have also found that with a 1/2 bbl HLT i need to refill it after mashing to have enough sparge water, so I end up heating a total of about 25 gallons from 55 deg. And as far as back ups go, I have three tanks and sometimes I’m still too lazy to go get them all filled.
Not to drag this thing too far off course but Ray have you considered electric? I used to brew that way and it is the most cost effective and efficient way to brew. Less heat generated as well. If you have modern wiring then probably a 220 setup would give you some real heating capacity, though 2 or 3 1500w elements can do the job as well as give you throttling ability.
My house has old wiring and only 60 amp service. As soon as I get new wiring done and a higher amp service installed I’m returning to electric brewing. Then I’ll have a 220 plug or two just for brewing.
A 1 KW bucket heater is one way to minimize the gas usage. I brew in the morning, and have the timer set to be on about 5 hours before I get up. It is a wonderful thing to go to the kettle and find the water at or near mash temp for a 10 gallon batch. Found mine at the farm supply store.
Congrats on the upgrade rayallen. I use a single tier propane system that works well. I want to eventually move to NG but for now propane will do just fine.
I like the idea of supplementing electric with gas as well. Anything to facilitate the process is a plus.
