I am in the early stages of moving to electric and like many people in this forum the more I get into it the more crazy ideas pop into my head and the more over the top my rig becomes. I am currently at the point where we brew 10-12G batches on a regular basis with a HERMS setup fueled by propane. Brew days are around 5.5 hrs and things flow pretty smoothly. Now that things are running good I want to start working on my next upgrade which will be switching over to Electric which I am hoping will allow me to cut some time off of my brew days.
So here is my thought which I havent seen a whole lot about on here. I saw BobbyM mention it a while back but havent been able to find any info on anyone that has actually completed it as I am thinking. So instead of having one Element mounted in each HLT and BK I would mount 2 elements in each running from my control panel. )My big system will be 42G Barrels for HLT and BK). There would have to be a safety feature that would allow only two of the elements to be running at any time so as not to overload the system. But if you could do this then you could run 2 simultaneously in HLT to heat strike water, then PID would maintain temps using one element. Once you get enough wort to cover your element in your BK you would turn one element on to begin heating towards boil. After second (and third if desired) runnings you would then be done with HLT and hit second element in BK to get to boil in a hurry.
As I stated this would be massive overkill when running 10-12G batches but might be nice for big brew days with some buddies if we wanted to run 20-30Gallons in one batch. I basically have 2 setups. 1 Keggle setup for 10G batches and now I have just ordered the bigger 42G barrels for doing larger batches when desired. This is all in the name of overkill, efficiency and scalability.
I still have a ton of things to work through on this before I put things in motion but wanted to throw this against the wall and see if it sticks while I continued researching. I want to see what info I can get and also to see what I am missing or what I need to consider. I am planning to run 50-60A GFCI to my brewing area from my main panel and based on what I have read I should be ok with 60A running my control panel as long as no more than 2 elements are ever on at the same time.
I have attached an early mock up of what I am picturing for my control panel. Power is just an LED showing power on. Key is just fancy security measure because its cool. All element and pump buttons would ideally be push button with lights showing what is on. I feel like I am missing a few things on here but cant think of them at the moment. (Possibly selector switch for HLT or BK but not sure how this would work with 4 elements)
Again this is pretty much my first mock up so Im sure there is plenty wrong but thats why Im posting. Will need to get a lot more info on panel size and actual layout as things progress. Happy to answer any questions I can or provide any other info about what I am thinking about. Thanks for any iput and ideas.I hope you all can help me make this a reality
So here is my thought which I havent seen a whole lot about on here. I saw BobbyM mention it a while back but havent been able to find any info on anyone that has actually completed it as I am thinking. So instead of having one Element mounted in each HLT and BK I would mount 2 elements in each running from my control panel. )My big system will be 42G Barrels for HLT and BK). There would have to be a safety feature that would allow only two of the elements to be running at any time so as not to overload the system. But if you could do this then you could run 2 simultaneously in HLT to heat strike water, then PID would maintain temps using one element. Once you get enough wort to cover your element in your BK you would turn one element on to begin heating towards boil. After second (and third if desired) runnings you would then be done with HLT and hit second element in BK to get to boil in a hurry.
As I stated this would be massive overkill when running 10-12G batches but might be nice for big brew days with some buddies if we wanted to run 20-30Gallons in one batch. I basically have 2 setups. 1 Keggle setup for 10G batches and now I have just ordered the bigger 42G barrels for doing larger batches when desired. This is all in the name of overkill, efficiency and scalability.
I still have a ton of things to work through on this before I put things in motion but wanted to throw this against the wall and see if it sticks while I continued researching. I want to see what info I can get and also to see what I am missing or what I need to consider. I am planning to run 50-60A GFCI to my brewing area from my main panel and based on what I have read I should be ok with 60A running my control panel as long as no more than 2 elements are ever on at the same time.
I have attached an early mock up of what I am picturing for my control panel. Power is just an LED showing power on. Key is just fancy security measure because its cool. All element and pump buttons would ideally be push button with lights showing what is on. I feel like I am missing a few things on here but cant think of them at the moment. (Possibly selector switch for HLT or BK but not sure how this would work with 4 elements)
Again this is pretty much my first mock up so Im sure there is plenty wrong but thats why Im posting. Will need to get a lot more info on panel size and actual layout as things progress. Happy to answer any questions I can or provide any other info about what I am thinking about. Thanks for any iput and ideas.I hope you all can help me make this a reality
