Got me a boiler!

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marksa222

Landlord.
Joined
Mar 2, 2013
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Location
Flintshire
Ordered a 50l stockpot with ball valve tap, hop filter and thermometer probe thing for £90 from an ebay seller who happens to be 10 mins down the road from me. Really excited about getting into AG!

I plan on doing a BIAB to start with. My question is though, I have an electric hob at home which won't be sufficient. My brother who is also interested in brew (just got his first kit bottled) has a gas hob which seems to be pretty decent but I don't think its "the dogs b******s" of cookers. We boiled about 5 litres of water a while ago to use wilkos steriliser on his FV and it seemed to take about half an hour to bring it to a boil. I'm just a bit worried it'll take hours to get to strike temp, and might struggle to maintain a rolling boil.

Does anyone else boil 5 gallon batches of BIAB on a normal gas hob, and if so, is there any reason for me to be concerned?

P.s.. I really appreciate the advice given on here, I don't think I would have got passed my first kit or two without this all the kind pointers, tutorials and opinions people kindly give their time to share. :thumb:
 
You could put a couple of kettle elements in with no bother. You would need a qmax cutter but that's it. Or get a 7-8kw propane gas burner, about £25ish.
 
artyb said:
i personally.. brew on a ring outside as the 90 mins of steam is a bit to much for indoors...
a mistake I learnt the hard way, my walls were wet and my ceiling brown lol.
 
calumscott said:
http://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=39093&start=0

That's a 70l pot with a 40l brew.

An hour and a quarter to strike temp (57l) and holds a rolling boil no problem whatsoever. 7.5kW max I think...

Thanks! out of interest did you use a couple of burners? I googled "how powerful is a gas hob" and read somewhere that is was about 2kwh? Maybe thats how much it uses when its on for 15 mins or so though. I was thinking that was cheap!
 
I have a 50L stock pot and originally planned to brew on my gas hob but it soon became apparent that it wasn't man enough for the job. I went down the qmax cutter and element x2 route. Works a treat.
 
marksa222 said:
calumscott said:
http://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=39093&start=0

That's a 70l pot with a 40l brew.

An hour and a quarter to strike temp (57l) and holds a rolling boil no problem whatsoever. 7.5kW max I think...

Thanks! out of interest did you use a couple of burners? I googled "how powerful is a gas hob" and read somewhere that is was about 2kwh? Maybe thats how much it uses when its on for 15 mins or so though. I was thinking that was cheap!

Three or all four depending if I'm in a hurry...

kWh is kilowatt hours - the 7.5kW is the maximum power available so running that flat out for an hour would be 7.5kWh...

If you google the hob make and model you should find the instructions for it, the power output should be there.

Quite aside from that, I did the sums the other day - running all four, flat out for four hours would add about £1.25 to the price of your brew, pretty cheap all in all.
 
bobsbeer said:
You could put a couple of kettle elements in with no bother. You would need a qmax cutter but that's it. Or get a 7-8kw propane gas burner, about £25ish.
Thanks, I was thinking about that, but where would you get the gas from? Do you have to buy a bottle and then pay for it to be filled?
 
marksa222 said:
bobsbeer said:
You could put a couple of kettle elements in with no bother. You would need a qmax cutter but that's it. Or get a 7-8kw propane gas burner, about £25ish.
Thanks, I was thinking about that, but where would you get the gas from? Do you have to buy a bottle and then pay for it to be filled?

You get them from Calor on the whole - just from your local garage normally. You pay an upfront deposit then you basically swap your empty for full ones and pay for the gas. I reckon you'll pay around 4 times the price per brew over mains gas.
 
Cheers. Thats pretty pricey. I'll keep an eye out for people who have one lying round from a bbq they never use.
 
If you have any scrap yards near you, have a look there. Often free or a few quid, then change for a new one and only pay for the gas.
 
I picked up a 13kg propane bottle today, I just couldn't find an empty one to take in so I had to pay the bottle deposit of £35 then the 13kg of gas cost me £25

But I look at it this way, next time it will only cost me £25 to replace the gas :party:

I got mine from a local garden centre, easy as pie and chips :D
 
I managed to acquire this today;
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Is this what I need? It's empty at the moment. It says the brand on it, does that mean I need to take it there to fill or could I take it anywhere that sells propane?

I think ill need a regulator, a burner and a gas tube. Would I need anything else?

Thanks
 

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