Double brew length with 1.5kw elements?

[Jerk Alert]

Hi guys

My girlfriend and I started researching AG brewing at the start of this year, slowly built all the kit and have now got 4 brews under our belts. 3 of which are ready and taste amazing! Can't believe it took us so long to make the leap from kit brewing, which in my opinion, always tastes a bit wrong.

We've been brewing in a co-op with 3 other friends - they help choose the beers and pay for the ingredients, we do the hard work. But we really want to produce more beer per brew-day. Hopefully double-up from 23L to 46L?

Our kettle is a 67L plastic bucket from Copper Kettle Home Brewing with 2 x 1.5kW elements. It's insulated with a camping mat and can get 30L to a violent boil with both elements switched on. After 20mins or so we usually turn one element off and it continues with a gentle, rolling boil for the last 40 - 50mins.

I'm thinking that with double the wort we might be able to achieve that gentle, rolling boil with both elements? Has anyone tried this with a similar set up?

I know the best way to find out would be to do a test, but it'd be a shame to waste water and energy if someone has tried this already.

Cheers then

JA

[joeskidmore]

You'll still be able to get your rolling boil, it may just be that given the increased quantity it'll take longer and you may have to keep both elements on throughout the whole boil.

What I try to do (to make reaching the boil quicker) is turn the elements on just after they become covered as you are sparging so they are continuously heating the wort as the boiler continues to fill (you may already do this - in which case, never mind).

[Jerk Alert]

Thanks for the reply! I appreciate it.

Glad to know that it should work. Great news for all involved! Next thing is to build an HLT. I currently use my boiler for both, but that sounds like a good idea to start the boil during the sparge. I think my next brew day will be a long one, but hopefully faster than 2 separate brews!

Thanks again

[lufcaidan]

Hi
Thought I'd throw in my 2 pence on this.
I've recently moved house and due to electricity constraints in my garage I was unable use both 3kw elements on my boiler for a 46l brewlength. I never could quite reach a vigorous boil and the resulting beer whilst tasting fine is extremely cloudy, I'm assuming due to lack of a hot break.
I'd give it a go anyway (im sure the resulting beer will be perfectly drinkable) but I can almost guarantee that the ridiculously long wait and unrefined beer will piss you off to the extent that you'll want to upgrade to more powerful elements. I ended up having some new outlets installed in my garage and will hopefully be testing them out for the first time this weekend.
Good luck anyway.

[chris2012]

You couldn't get the amperage in your garage to supply 6kW?

[jmc]

I have 1 x 3kw element in by 70L SS boiler and its fine as long as its insulated well.

I've recently upgraded the insulation from central heating tag -based one to one made to fit out of 2 layers of camping mat.
Having the insulation attached with belts helps as you can remove it when you're cooling the wort.

[simon12]

You could switch your elements to the ones in £5 tesco, wilko, argos, asda kettles low cost and there 2.2KW I think.

[jmc]

You could switch your elements to the ones in £5 tesco, wilko, argos, asda kettles low cost and there 2.2KW I think.

If you ran 2 of them you'd then have 4.4Kw, too much for 1 socket.

[simon12]

Sorry I must have missed where that was a limitation

[Jerk Alert]

For anyone who's interested, we had a successful 46L brew last night (well, more like 44L. But not bad for a first attempt), despite having to take the kettle apart to fix a leaky seal! Stressful...

It took an extra 15-20mins to get to the boil with both 1.5Kw elements on, camping mat insulation and lid on.

Once rolling, we turned off one element for the first half an hour. It achieve a boil but not vigorous. For the second half of the boil we used both elements for good measure. Proper rolling boil, but maybe unnecessary for the entirety.

Thanks for you help, everyone! We've now split the wort between 2 fermenters and will dry-hop a different hop for each one.