I’m all new to homebrewing and I bought a 15 gallons induction-ready kettle from SS Brewing technologies.
I’m searching for a powerfull system (with which I could use BIAB if possible) to heat and boil my worts of 12 gallons. My kettle is 15,75 inches wide… I can’t find any good heating system so far, all the induction plates/cooktops available are too small in diameter with at least 1,5 inches missing on both sides of the kettle if I would be heating with a 3500 Watts/240 volts!
What equipment/material do I need more if I would want to use this 5500 heating element? Do you know if I could adapt that element straight to my SS brewtech kettle of 15 gallons without having to make hole in it?And could I somehow integrate that element with a temperature controller? Any videos on how this works?
Many thanks in advance from the best and most passionate homebrewers in the world!
Any electric system I have seen at that size required wiring the house for the appropriate voltage and drilling a hole into the brew kettle for the element.
Assuming that an induction burner is powerful enough, I wonder if a simple stand could be made to safely support the weight of the kettle but allow full contact with the burner surface?
One of the cool things about induction heat is that the vessel does not need to be in contact with the induction burner top. Burner is a bad name since the cook top produces no heat. The induction cooker generates pulsing magnetic fields that generated heat via electrical current/heat in the metal of the pot above it. So you can build a stand that holds the pot just above it if necessary. You can also check weight ratings of the cookers and see if they are up to the task though that seems unlikely. I looked into induction for brewing a a while back and found batch size to be a major limiting factor with 10 gallons seeming to be a stretch so If you want to do 15 gallons you will likely need the biggest and baddest 120v induction “burner” you can find and a big ole standard 120v electric element in the pot ran to a outlet on the other side of your house/apartment. And if that doesn’t work add another element to the pot and plug it in somewhere in the middle the two. This is not a intended to be a end all solution or advisement just to help understand limitations of electric/induction heating for 15 gallons. if 240V is an option for you the dialogue changes a bit.
Don’t forget to consider what to do with all the water that’s going to get boiled off. I used to brew under the overhead door in my garage, but had to move the kettle to avoid condensation dripping from the door.
The portable induction ranges will not cut it for a kettle that large. The 240VAC portable induction range uses the same size hob (“induction burner”) as the 120VAC portable induction range. The hob on the portable induction range is less than 8 inches in diameter.
If you are dead set on going induction, you are looking at a 3-phase commercial stockpot induction range, which will set you back over $3,000.00US.
Could you gang together several of the smaller induction elements to get the power you need or does induction not work that way? if each hob is 8" across I could fit two or three under my kettle if arranged correctly. Obviously I’d need more power to do this but it’s an interesting idea.
Interesting indeed, I would bet that with the right diameter pot and compact but powerful elements it would work great. just a matter of running cords to different parts of the house to spread the load across different circuits.
I’d also wonder how the EMFs from three seperate induction coils would interfere with each other. Can’t say without doing the math, but that has the potential to lessen their power.
If dead spots are noticed where two units meet you could simply try another outlet until you find one the same phase as the adjacent unit (unless you have a phase checking device lying around) and then there should be no interference, and may actually produce a hotter spot where units meet. Interference on depends on phases being different, power of unit, and dead space between coil and housing. not sure there is any other way (short of being and electrical engineer) to know for certain other than just going for it.
If the impedance/inductance of the different elements is different, wouldn’t that also cause a phase difference? Again, without sitting down and doing the math I can’t say either way.
Not an electrical engineer, just an electrical engineering student.
To answer the original question…I’d go natural gas with a nice overhead hood…I don’t know anyone who has had a gas stove and then went electric and was happy with electric…
Could I use BIAB with an immersion heating system? If stainless steel, shouldn’t it be fine?
How does coil HERMS work => could I use one of these (HERMS Coils - The Electric Brewery) with my SS brew kettle without having to make a hole in the kettle?
To answer to morticaixavier, for a double portable induction set up, one guy is using that technique with success apparently, see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tMHNPCNYAww
Hard to decide when my budget is limited to around 200$/300$…
#1 the answer is yes but you have to have a fool proof way to keep the bag off the element otherwise you will put a hole in that bag real quick if and when your mash temp starts to drop… also for the size boils you want to do that bag will be very heavy and difficult to hold/maneuver at cabinet height in your kitchen. I have no direct experience with BIAB but it seems best an outdoor operation operation for bigger batches. Google BIAB images and you will see some of these monster bags. #2 that is a big question. Check out https://byo.com/hops/item/1325-rims-and-herms-brewing-advanced-homebrewing for more info. it is a article by BYO magazine.
my question for you is do you intend to do all grain batches or extract or not sure yet?
And are you limited to using one vessel/pot for the whole brew day?