[William]

Anyone use this: BoilerMaker™ G2 Electric 20 gal / 240 v Brew Pot by Blichmann Engineering™  I'm intrigued, but am skeptical about electric. Any thoughts?

[Big Monk]

Anyone use this: BoilerMaker G2 Electric 20 gal / 240 v Brew Pot by Blichmann Engineering  I'm intrigued, but am skeptical about electric. Any thoughts?

What is there to be skeptical about?

[William]

Don't know anything about it I guess. Wondering how quick to a boil, etc. can't find any reviews out there.

[Big Monk]

Don't know anything about it I guess. Wondering how quick to a boil, etc. can't find any reviews out there.

I would think the pot is the standard Blichmann G2. You want to look for reviews of the Boil Coil. If you look up the specs for the Boil Coil that should be the stuff you are looking for.

The 20 gal G2 has a 5kW element.

[natebrews]

I have the 10g boil coil in my 9gal brew pot for 5gal batches (7gal preboil).  If memory serves, that element is 3750W.  The only thing that I haven't been super happy with is that it isn't easy to take out and clean.  You basically have to clean it in the pot which isn't too bad, but it would be nice if it just unplugged and pulled out.

So, it brings the wort up to a boil plenty quick.  I control it with a TA4 based PID controller that I put together but it is functionally the same as the commercial electric brew controllers out there.  There is actually an equation on Blichmann's site that lets you determine the time to a boil for a given volume of liquid and boil coil size.  If memory servers, it was pretty close. 

Since the 5kW heater for 20g is a bit lower ratio than 3.75W for 10G, I would expect the time to boil to be somewhat longer than what I see.  I think even if it was 50% long for mine, it would be fine.  After brewing electric, I wouldn't want to go back to propane.

As a side note on the Boil Coil, I have dry fired mine several times by accident (forget to turn off the heater when running strike water into the tun) and it has survived with no issues at all and I have never had any scorching issues. 

Edit - I went and found the equation:  Ramp Rate in °F/minute = 0.0068 X Watts / gallons

[Peculiar Thomas]

I have the 120V, 10 gallon version of that pot and can recommend it for anyone considering electric. I am able to get a really strong boil, pretty quickly. It heats up maybe a degree or so a minute, maybe a little faster. The 240V will be able to get to boil that much more quickly and probably a must for the larger volume. You'll need a separate controller not sold with the pot and to make sure that you have a circuit with sufficient amperage. My 120V is fine on one of my kitchen circuits, rated at 30a. I opted for a 3rd party controller because the Blichmann one is very pricey. I found a well reviewed one on Amazon that had the right specs but am now saving my pennies for a Wort Hog.

[William]

Tell me more about TA4 based PID controller. I really would rather not spend $575 on the Blichmann controller. 

[28th Street]

Check out Auber Instruments - best PID and SSRs out there.

[natebrews]

Unless you are skilled in electronics, you might not want to do it the way I did it.  I used a TA4 controller and a manual PWM timer with a switch so I could have it servo the temperature of the liquid when heating for strike/sparge and I had a knob for when I was controlling the boil (since the difference between a boil over and a nice low boil is almost not temperature).

In any case, the TD4 controller has a manual control option in it that the TA4 does not.  You can get them on Amazon or Ebay with the Solid State Relay (SSR) for maybe 30 bucks.  Again, it will require some wiring and construction on your part if you want to go that way.

[bruck]

I decided to outfit my current HLT and keggle with the boil coils. Installed them today and excited.  Needed to order another piece.. adapter to plug into my dryer outlet. I swear that Blichmann misses no opportunity to charge you. I even went to Home Depot to see if I could make it for less than $70 and I couldn't find the plug. Anyway. Indoor brewing is imminent now.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[natebrews]

What did you go with for a controller?

[bruck]

This:  http://shop.greatfermentations.com/product/blichmann-power-controller/blichmann-tower-of-power

Pricy, but better than the more expensive one.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[natebrews]

That will be nice.  You may learn as I did that boil overs are less apparent when you use electric.  You don't get all that hiss and noise from the boil over hitting the burner, so it can be boiling over and you won't notice until you look at it.

Electric is really nice in that it is so quiet though, just wonderful.  If I didn't have the blower running it would be near silent.

[bruck]

Pretty excited. Will like not having to fund Blue Rhino or whatever propane dealer you have.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[bruck]

Do you do 10 gallon batches? How quickly you boiling 13 gallons? I got the 15 gallon coils.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk