Looking for some suggestions for a hot stick to aid my propane burner. Would like to speed up the lead time on my boils and strike water. Anyone have any experience with doing this or suggestions?
I brew electric on a 120v system and use a bucket heater to assist in heating times, I dont use it for a boil though, as it may scorch the wort, heres what I use https://www.sears.com/diximus-1500w-110v-water-heater-portable-electric-immersion/p-A093455653?sid=ISxMP3xSOxGGxDTxSURF
Very cool, yea I was just reading you don’t wanna use one during the boil, Also would help to be able to have warm-hot water out on the patio cause right now I’m hauling my equipment upstairs to the kitchen for washing
another solution is a sous vide, but it wont heat as quickly as that immersion heater, on the plus side you can program what temp you want
Thanks for the input it’s definitely appreciated, I couldn’t see my self spending 150 bucks on a hot rod although they do look sweet
I think bucket heaters can be had for around 20 at alot of feed stores.
Mine were more like $35 IIRC. They can also be found online.
Just ordered a 1500w from Amazon see how she does
mine cutes heating times in half.
That’s what I’m looking for, after switching to the no-chill method, that cut some serious time off my brew day with no noticeable ill effects, hopefully this bucket heater will round out the whole session
I started with this in my strike water years ago:
I would put it on a timer and wake up ready to mash…
That’s the one I got!
I use two 120v heatsticks to heat water and boil the wort in the basement.
I found that one is not enough and two gives a too vigorous boil. And so, I devised a regulator that controls one of them.
Every few years, I have had to replace one of them but they are easy to construct.
Also after brewing, as I am cooling the wort, I clean the stick to avoid any wort buildup on the elements.
Another advantage I found is that I can start heating the wort as I continue to sparge.
The only disadvantage I found was when I went from using a 5 gallon pot to a 10 gallon.
I’m excited hearing mostly positive input on this subject looks like I’m heading in the right direction
I got the same one myself. It definitely helped me get to mash temps way faster than my stove alone.
I have an Instagram Pot Immersion Cooker that I got for Christmas. My previous practice was to heat the Sparge water while the Mash was in progress. 1 day, it occurred to me that I could use it to heat the Sparge water with out using the Propane. You just set temp to 170 & get along with business until Mash Out & Sparge. Beats trying to coordinating Mash timing with reaching Sparge temperature. Also means I don’t have to lift Sparge tank @ 170 degrees to shoulder high.