There are more options than using a hot water heater element though. The low watt BoilCoils will not scorch your wort, and they’re stainless.
I honestly don’t know what happened there. Sorry. I think I started to reply and one of the kids jumped on the computer to do their home work.
The instant hot water heaters are really awesome, assuming your tap water is good. The ones I have at the brewery put out 180 degree water right out the tap. We put our filters in front of the heaters.
I also have one at the house. It is exactly the same as the ones we have at the brewery. The difference is that the one at the house only goes up to 140, but the guy who installed it said that they are the same, the difference is that the industrial ones don’t have the safety feature to keep it from getting hot enough to cook a small child.
This may all be crazy talk, I dunno, but the fact that you don’t have to bring several gallons of water to temp a couple times during the brew day (dough-in and sparge) shaves hours off the brew day and really makes the brewday simple. I bet you could find an industrial strength one on Craigs List if you looked for under a grand. I think ours costs $1200 new and then installation.
The only problem is (and this all might be for naught) you really need gas because I have hard they are not very efficient if they are electric. At the house I have a filter in front of mine and use it at 140 when I want hot water for bits and bobs. I only brew 2 gallon batches at the house and only a few times a year, but if I went back to brewing 12 gallons at home the first thing I’d upgrade would be my instant hot water heater. Because, if you can’t tell, I love it.
All that said, it may end up being cheaper and just as simple to jjust have an electric HLT that you set up the night before and have hot water on demand that way. But the other thing is that, having it at the house, you literally can take a shower or fill a bath tub and never run out of hot water. They save thousands of dollars because the water is on demand and not just sitting there being heated when no one is even in the house. OTOH you wouldn’t ever want to fill a tub with 180 degree water.
thats funny. i thought it was some type of model code for instant hot, so im googling all over to find it ;D
i hear you on the benefits of instant hot-not just for beer but whole house. Im getting close to needing a new hot water heater anyway, so might give a look at the gas versions. They use these a lot in europe and they are pretty cool. just have to get the hang of mixing the hot and adding cold to get your desired strike water temps.
The 180 degree setting is really closer to 174 by the time it hits the MT and when thermal mass is all calculated I usually hot dough in temps no problem at 1.25 qts per pound. Might need a splash of cold water to adjust down cause it is usually a little hot. But I can grind my grain in seconds with MM 3.0 and dough in a 12 gallon batch in less than 10 minutes. Takes longer to measure the grain than it does to dough in.
im just wondering if the 120v blichmann boilmaker has enough power to boil wort in quick fashion. seems like 240v would be the way to go-perhaps someone can chime in on boil times they experience.
240v BoilCoil Ramp Rate in °F/minute = 0.0068 X Watts / gallons
I need to do a better job at timing but I recall roughly 4 degrees/minute when I was watching it. This was for 8 gallons using the 240v.
I emailed their support team about the 120 vs. 240, and they stated the 240 would give a more vigorous boil (I do 5 gallon batches). It is so vigorous that I actually back the power down to 88% using their controller.
If you are doing 10 gallon batches, I think 240 is the only option.
Brewing inside is so convenient once the initial setup is done. I actually did a batch every weekend for the past four weeks, a new record for me. When I had to haul junk up to the garage, I was lucky to do a batch every month.
This. For any electric setup. You can find the wattage here (http://www.blichmannengineering.com/products/boilcoil) and use math to figure out how long it’ll take to get from any temp to any temp.
For 10 gallons batch size, I would need a 240V, 5000W element in my BK to make boiling palatable to me. It would take 25 minutes to get from 148F to 212F with 13.5 gallons of pre-boil with a 5000W element. It would take a half hour to heat up my strike water from my normal starting water temp to a normal mash temp. Blichmann doesn’t make anything that size, so I’d have to do DIY with stainless welding - which is a pain… so I still run propane. 8)
Maybe I’m misreading your post, but the BoilCoil comes in 10, 15, 20, 30 and 55 gallon sizing. What size is your kettle?
I’m leaning towards 3 inline 20gal blichmann electric kettles and adding the herms coil for mash tun. No hurry so exploring at this point.
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That’s what I did but use a 15 gal mash tun
The high gravity fellas are awesome
It is a keggle. The dimensions of the one that fit it are the limiting factor, and the biggest one that fits is 3750w (I believe… That’s from memory).
That’s what I did but use a 15 gal mash tun
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very cool…im envious >:(
Its was a lot of work but fun to build. Nice winter project:) It does take some time to clean. I run caustic and acid through it every 3 rd batch or so.
I escape some of the cleaning by having a cooler mash tun instead of a RIM or HERM system. After brewing I dump the remnants of the BK into a slop bucket and scoop hop matter out with a paper towel. Add a few gallons of water and scrub a bit. Recirculate with my pump and drain. Add a few gallons of water/pbw and recirculate with the pump while I’m tidying up other equipment. This pbw solution then gets pumped into my cooler mash tun, which is pretty clean already because some of the hot water runoff from my immersion chiller has already been utilized here.
Saving this warm water runoff to utilize later can cut down on wasted time, water and energy.
I was going all electric until I bought a brew from a local micro that is all electric. I had an aftertaste of ashtray. That made up my decision right then. The entire batch would be a bust. So I second Keith’s comments and have the same idea on it. Just my opinion of course. If I had the water, I would go with the tankless water heater. My water is terrible, so I’m going electric on the HLT with a HERMS coil, and NG on the BK. I have a Monster MM-3 too and love the mill. I like the idea of electric on the HLT and setting it with a timer to wake up to preheated water for mashing in. Anything that saves time. I also love my stainless hop screen tube I made. It is 10" in dia and makes removing and dealing with hops a breeze. Keep us posted on what direction you go.
If you keep the element really clean you shouldn’t get the scorching after taste, but it is hard to do. You have to be really diligent. And you are exactly right, it tastes/smells like ashtray. I also think it does something different to hops bitterness. It makes the hops flavor “sharper”.
If you do go with an electric element I recommend keeping it about 1/3 of the way off the bottom of the kettle. the first one I built I had the element too close to the bottom of the kettle and it intensified the heat to where there was always a light scorch flavor.
We are building a 1 bbl pilot system at the brewery now and I am going with an electric HLT with float switches and temp control, RIMS - the whole works. Sticking with gas on the BK though. Going to have my gas plumbed directly into the city gas so never have to worry about running out of propane! Will have the instant HWH plumbed directly into the MT as well. And I have employees I can make clean everything up! All I have to do is brew! (Can you tell I love my job yet?) 
ok i need someone to do my cleaning ;D
Unfortunately I think you’d spend your bonus money real quick.
Interesting you noticed a “sharper” character to your beer. By chance was the system using a high density element ? Mine has a 5500 w low density element. I can see people having second thoughts about all electric but man it is awesome. Induction is supper bad ass also:)
Low watt density 5500 w (the crooked ones). The regular water heater elements scorch regardless of what you do.
I’m not saying the beer was bad, I brewed on it for two years and made some excellent batches. But there were times I noticed the scorching and I preferred the IPAs on my gas fired BK.