Brewing Electric

[bf514921]

How many people out there brew electric style? and or hybrid? i know there are a few but i bet there are more that i dont know.

I brew all electric, and have for awhile, its nice brewing indoors.

[DrPaulsen]

I still brew with an electric HLT. I switched over to a gas BK but am seriously considering going back to electric with the new Blichmann Boil Coil.

[bf514921]

Will let you know how it works when it's up and running. This buying and selling a house has cut into brew time I have a new shiny boiler maker and boil coil I haven't used yet

[bf514921]

Why did you switch back to gas?

[DrPaulsen]

I bought a new kettle with a whirlpool arm and wanted to play around with it for awhile before punching a hole for an element. I also wasn't convinced it would whirlpool very well with a standard heating element. Having used propane for 18 months, I'm mostly just looking for something more convenient - i.e. natural gas or electric. Gas has a lot of nice features - improved steam management, heating through the entire sparge process, & heating up a cold garage in the winter.

[bf514921]

Well for what it's worth. I had pretty good luck with my using the standard element and a kettle the placement of th grub pile was slightly different than expected.
It was off center by worked well

[bf514921]

Cold garage is what drove me to electric brewing

[carrisr]

I'm working on a hybrid system. Electric for hlt/herms and propane for the bk.

[bf514921]

Herms is nice. I took the suggestion of Lee and my stainless counter flow wort chiller is doubling as a Herms coil nor fittings but less holes to drill

[carrisr]

The downside of the CF chiller for HERMS is that you need 2 pumps.

[czubak]

The downside of the CF chiller for HERMS is that you need 2 pumps.

Wouldn't you want 2 pumps with a traditional HERMS or a CFC acting as your HERMS? You still want to recirculate the HLT fluid to keep temps more stable?

[TappedOut]

I've seen systems where folks use aquarium air pumps to blow bubbles in the HLT to churn it up. Cheaper than a second pump.

[bf514921]

Good point, but you would still need to mix the hlt

[czubak]

I have 2 pumps. I am just on the fence about adding automation (propane or NG) or waiting a while to do electric. Either way I think I will go the CFC route for a 2 fer 1 utilization.

[bf514921]

I am very happy I did