equipment - full grain 6/7 gallons (30L)

[alecrippa]

hallo,
I'm looking for suggestions for a full-grain setup.
I would like to go for ca. 6.5 gallons / 30 liters of beer. I already have fermenter and tools, and I am looking around for options for a brew kettle and heating unit.

I really like the setup a la' Robobrew, with a false bottom container inside the main vessel, but I would rather not go for these all-in-one solutions because if something breaks you're screwed.
Have you got any suggestion on how to setup something similar, that runs on a electric/induction plate?

I will brew inside, so I'm considering an induction plate.
Will a 2000W induction plate be enough for boiling 6.5 gallons? Or should I aim for 5.5?

Thanks for your help
AC

 

[bobeer]

I brew inside half the time, all grain on my electric stovetop, with a 3 vessel system. I have a 9 gallon stainless pot, a 10 gallon igloo cooler, and a 5.5 gallon HLT. To some, maybe even most these days, I'm brewing in the stone age. I'm one of maybe 2 or 3 of us in my brew club that doesn't use a grainfather or some other electric, all-in-one, kind of setup. Nothing is automatic with my brewhouse and everything works great and best of all it's easy to clean.
If I were to build it out again I'd probably do the same kind of thing.... My time to boil isn't very long because my tap water comes out at around 120 degrees so I pretty much start there with my strike water. To get it to mash temp, usually in the 160's, it doesn't take more than 15 or 20 mins; and that's with 6.5 gallons of water or so depending on what I'm brewing. I brew a lot of American style ales btw so no step mashes or the like for me.
Once the mash starts I measure out my sparge water and get that on the stove so it's at 180 by the time the mash it done. Then getting the 6.5 gallons of wort to boil takes about 20 minutes since the sparge was as hot as I feel comfortable making it.

My stove isn't anything special either. Just a flat-top electric. I've used a coil stove too in the past with the same kind of results and timing.

To answer your question, from my experience, the differecet of heating an extra gallon with an induction plate is pretty negligible. Might take a few extra minutes but will be worth the gallon of extra beer.