Propane Burner vs. Electric

It has been my experience that heating and boiling liquid takes up the majority of time during a brew day. At the moment I have a Bayou Classic Banjo Burner. I was wondering if any of you guys have had better experience (less wait time) with electric?

I've only use a camp chef stove with propane, there are a lot of bigger burner out there. I'm heating 7 gal water to boil with a 5500W water heater element in 15 minutes. Plus I'm in my basement, great in the winter.

Using both would certainly cut time off. Unless you plan on doing some rewiring (or already have a circuit nearby that can handle 30 amps) electric may not be a good stand-alone option (when compared to the banjo).

I use a "bucket heater" gizmo I got for $30 on Amazon to pre-heat water in buckets, and that has reduced my propane burn-time quite a bit.  It also allows me to crush grain inside without worrying about the burner running in the garage.  The bucket usually reaches ~120F on the heater, so I only have to use gas from there to ~165F for mash-in.    Similar for filling the HLT. 

You can install a water heater element in your brew kettle following the instructions and parts list at    theelectricbrewery.com      You can use a hole saw to cut the hole in the BK - you don't have to use the expensive punch recommended by The Electric Brewery, just work slowly and carefully.

I have mine wired to use both 240 V (heats fast) and 120 V (controlled through a Johnson digital controller to hold temps. If you're not very familiar with electrical wiring, trade beer for expert electrical work. A 5000 Watt element will draw 11.4 Amps. The same element will provide about 1200 W and draw 10.5 Amps at 120 V.

You don't need the VERY expensive control system described. You can use the controller to reach and hold temperature in a water bath for a HERM system or just use your electric BK to heat your water and run/pump it into the mash tun.

After the frustrations of using the kitchen stove, and not having the space in the garage (or access to water), I got creative.  I installed a high volume exhaust fan in some duct fittings in the wall in the basement where I planned to set up my boil kettle.  Then I ran some accordian ducting (clothes dryer type) from the ductwork to an outside basement window with a flapper cover on the outlet.

Now I can fire up my Hurricane burner in the basement and boil my wort, and all the fumes are sucked up and blown outside.  Works great.  I've done three batches that way now, and even after a long boil, you can't tell there's any propane burning at all.  Makes winter brewing easy as popping a cap!

On the 5500 watt 240 volt heater elements it is closer to 21.5 amps each as with 2 (BK & HLT) you need a 50 amp circuit if both are running at 100%, 43 amps is needed then.  I am in the middle of building an all electric system using the oscsys.com BrewTroller and following the Electric Brewery build process, 20 gallon pots and a 14.5 gal. conical fermenter (Santa came early this year).

I use this.
http://www.amazon.com/6530-ProChef-3000-Watt-Commercial-Induction/dp/B0037Z7HQ0/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1386788992&sr=8-1&keywords=induction+stove+3000


It takes about 55min to bring 7 gallons of 40 deg water to a rolling boil.


Jeff

When I build my electric brewery, I ran a 60 amp panel so I could run 2 220 V 5500 W elements at the same time. One in a HLT- HET and one in the boiling kettle. I used a 120 V 2000 W element plus propane stove for a couple years but it just doesn't compare to the 5500 W elements. 7 gals to boil in 15 minutes.

"On the 5500 watt 240 volt heater elements it is closer to 21.5 amps each as with 2 (BK & HLT) you need a 50 amp circuit if both are running at 100%, 43 amps is needed then.  I am in the middle of building an all electric system using the oscsys.com BrewTroller and following the Electric Brewery build process, 20 gallon pots and a 14.5 gal. conical fermenter (Santa came early this year)."

Damn! I copied my calculations wrong! My arithmetic said a 5,500 Watt element draws 22.9 Amps at 240 Volts and 11.4 Amps at 120 Volts, but the stupid computer typed it wrong.

I use a single 5,000 Watt element and avoid the need for two circuits. Mash water, sparge water, and wort boil all use the same kettle.

Dan

Thanks to all of you for your replies. I guess I'm not seeing anything which convinces me that electric will help cut down on the amount of time it takes to heat H2O vs propane. The money spent on the big screen in the garage was probably a good move.

MikeinRH said:

Thanks to all of you for your replies. I guess I'm not seeing anything which convinces me that electric will help cut down on the amount of time it takes to heat H2O vs propane. The money spent on the big screen in the garage was probably a good move.

Click to expand...

I chose electric for several reasons.  Cost is one, about $6 of electricity, less noise, no pilot light to blow out, no carbon monoxide issues, no propane to run out, and possible to brew out of the cold wind.  I have used propane since 1991 and electric also lets me approach semi-automation with valves and much more accurate temperature controls.
Just my 2 cents worth both work well.

What kind of equipment are you using?

I switched over an electric brew kettle (5.5KW) last year and would never go back to gas. Main reasons were to avoid the noise and the need to vent the garage. It also heats up the water quicker than my old gas setup and it is easy to add a controller to set temps. I only have one electric kettle and use it to heat water for the HLT/MLT and boil.

Dave

I made the move to electric about 3 years ago... well worth the expense.  Both HLT and boil kettle use 5500 watt low density elements.  With this setup, I cut over an hour off of my brew day (brew 10 gallon batches).  Brew in my basement and vent steam outside... great for all seasons.

We went all electric 3 years ago. In that time it has evolved into a very simple brewing system. I brew in the kitchen because I hate cold weather, and during the summer we are always on the boat or beach.

My current set up is a 15 gal ss BK and a 10 gal Igloo MT, and a single pump used in a modified BRUTUS 20 setup. There was not a stove outlet with 220 volt in the kitchen as the range is gas and I didn't want to rewire the house to accommodate. So I use two 110 volt circuits. One from the kitchen, and one from the Dining room via a 12 ga cord. Each circuit feeds a 2000watt water heater element via its own GFCI. The elements are driven by individual ssr's that are controlled in parallel with and Auber Instruments PID controller. Until this year I just use locally available high watt density elements from ACE hardware. No major problems as long as I brewed with a high percentage of barley malts, however the Princess (wife) and I both like high percentage wheat and rye beers. I believe the higher gluten content of the wheat and rye malts cause premature element failure. They coat/burn onto the high watt density elements during the boil, causing a hot spot and then they burn out like a light bulb. We now use 110 volt, 2000 watt, low watt density elements with no failure or burnout on problems.

As far as saving time, my system by calculation is slower than a big propane system but while it takes just under an hour to bring our 50*F tap water up to typical strike temps, Because it is very accurately controlled, I use this time for other set up tasks, weighing out and crushing the grains, weighing out the hop additions and etc. So I'm not constantly checking the thermometer or waiting for the water to cool because I got busy and didn't check the thermometer :-[ Based on this savings and recirculating to mash out while sparging has almost cut my batch time in half.

The cost of this simple system was significantly less than a temp controlled propane set up. Plus, I brew in the kitchen during the winter! In my boxers if I want ;D