Sparge water heating.

[buddsy]

Im looking at a reasonable way to heat sparge water for a Brewzilla. Ive seen this on ebay and wondered if this is a reasonable way to go price/functionality?

20litre Electric Urn £54.00

Very interested in what current brewzilla (or similar) use.

cheers

buddsy

 

[Banbeer]

I have a 29Litre Brupacks Boiler and I have had it for about 8 years now and it's a nice bit of kit. If I were you maybe go for something a bit bigger if you have the budget as 20L is OK but you may have to add more during your brewday if you plan on doing 23L brews and this slows the day down.

 

[buddsy]

Hi Banbeer and many thanks for your replies.

The boiler you have looks great!

On brews with boil sizes up to 28l the largest amount of sparge water i could find was for 14.5 litres so this would still leave me 5 litres in the boiler. You think I would need more than that on backup? I could go up to the 30 litre boiler but didnt want to have something much bigger than needed.

Cheers

buddsy

 

[Banbeer]

Unfortunately most boilers have 'losses' that can be a couple of litres etc (so the element(s) don't burn out if empty) then I don't like my boiler filled to the brim even though I'm not boiling. I also like to set a timer for my boiler to come on about half an hour before I get up so it's reached mash temp when I come down to brew, this means that 17L is taken from the boiler for the mash (just saves time)

 

[buddsy]

As I understand the brewzilla allows you to do as you are saying. Programmed to be warming up to temp so you are ready to go first thing.

I could go for a 30litre unit for a little more but didnt want to go larger than I need.

buddsy

 

[Banbeer]

I look at it from my setup as I have quite a bit of space for brewing and storing and not everyone has that luxury.

This is my brewing room and I have a Kegerator next to this room.



The Kegerator has another tap fitted in the middle since this pic was taken, good luck with your brewing

 

[buddsy]

Wow that looks an epic set up!

I bet you can have fun getting creative in there!

buddsy

 

[BlackRegent]

This is what I use for heating my sparge water:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/10-20-30...var=522362646943&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649
Really good unit and just does its job without any major fuss. You might want to check the water temperature with a separate probe, but it's pretty close based on the built in dial. As far as I can tell, it's identical to the Grainfather sparge water heater, save for the absence of a Grainfather logo and the fact it's a lot cheaper!

 

[-Bezza-]

I use a 30l burco boiler for my sparge water.

- What holds much holds little. So if you don't need 30l, don't heat 30l
- I heat extra and use it for cleaning as I go
- I can use the kettle to catch the run-off water from the cooler, again used for cleaning
- I can make tea for a lot of people if I need to

The one you linked has a sightglass which I wish I had (also wishing I had one on the Grainfather). However, looks like that tap might be hard to replace if you wanted to (I replaced mine with a proper ball valve tap).

Additional consideration is just making sure you have enough current available on the circuit to have both the brewzilla boiking (1900w) and the sparge water heater heating (look like the one you linked is 1300w). That's more than a 13A draw there, so would need to be careful

 

[buddsy]

This is what I use for heating my sparge water:

Nice one that the one I was thinking about.

I use a 30l burco boiler for my sparge water.

- What holds much holds little. So if you don't need 30l, don't heat 30l

- I can make tea for a lot of people if I need to

The one you linked has a sightglass which I wish I had (also wishing I had one on the Grainfather). However, looks like that tap might be hard to replace if you wanted to (I replaced mine with a proper ball valve tap).

Additional consideration is just making sure you have enough current available on the circuit to have both the brewzilla boiking (1900w) and the sparge water heater heating (look like the one you linked is 1300w). That's more than a 13A draw there, so would need to be careful

You are correct with all your points!

Handy to be able to make plenty of tea too!

Sigtglass looks handy but Tap would be a problem to replace

Current could be an issue I think the 20l version bolier is 2250w

buddsy

 

[-Bezza-]

Current could be an issue I think the 20l version bolier is 2250w

OK, so that would take the current north of 17A sustained draw.

You definitely couldn't plug the Brewzilla and boiler into the same dual wall socket as that will only be rated to 13A.

A ring main would normally be rated to 32A but that's peak draw not necessarily sustained. So whilst in theory you could plug into separate sockets on the same circuit, I understand (as a non-electrician) that the issue is whether there is heat build up in the wires which could pose a fire risk in the wall. I appears that it is a hard thing to determine as the thermal performance of wire will depend on a variety of factors such as type of cable used, the insulation in the walls, whether the cable is tacked to studwork or concrete etc.

Safest option would be to buy an IP-rated 13A extension lead, unroll in full and plug the sparge heater into a different circuit. It's what I do.

 

[buddsy]

It's what I do.

...or go gas!

Cheers for the thought. Will be something I need to consider

buddsy

 

[TheOsprey]

Could you not heat sparge water in the brewzilla, then keep warm in a mash tun while you brew?

 

[Galena]

For what it's worth, I heat all my water up to 90 degrees, with any mineral additions in my electric mash kettle. I then decant my sparge water into one of those plastic picnic coolers used for mash tuns. With an immersion chiller it takes about 1 minute to get the temperature back down to mashing temp. and then I mash in my electric mash kettle.
I drop the first runnings into a bucket and then batch sparge from the plastic mash tun which has usually hit the magic 76C by this time, I then combine the two for the boil.

 

[cheeseyfeet]

I usually go with a 20l mash volume and a 10 to 12l sparge on my brewzilla.

You could heat 30l in the brewzilla to 90c , decant 12l to a cooler box, then add 2l of cold to the brewzilla to get your strike volume and potentially temp.

Even if the cooler isn't very good, it would still be in sparging range after an hour or so.

 

[nickjdavis]

The tea urns that have been linked previously are perfectly acceptable devices for heating sparge water. I have a 17L version but rarely use more than 11L for sparging on a 20L brew length. The taps on them though are generally **** (wont easily allow silicone tubing to be connected...but I guess if you just plan to pour the sparge water into a can and then manually pour over the mash this wont be a problem!!) but, in most cases, can easily be replaced with a traditional ball valve if you are willing to forego the sight glass (on some models the sight glass seems to be integral to the tap so you cant remove the tap without removing the sight glass). If the sight glass is useful to you then the walls of these things are usually so thin that its easy to add another tap by cutting a hole with a Q-punch or stepped drill bit.

The only other thing to note is the temperature controller is often less than accurate....be careful if you set it to 75 that it hasn't actually heated a lot hotter than this....another hole cut in the side for a weldless dial thermometer may be in order if its not convenient to dangle a traditional thermometer into the water.

 

[Wynne]

If you plan to ever do 2 brews in quick succession you may be glad of 30L HLT capacity. You could mash-in the second brew as soon as the first is in the kettle then heat water for a second sparge provided the electrical supply is adequate.

 

[buddsy]

Thanks for all replies many options to consider as always there is more then one way to skin a cat.

At the moment I feel nickjdavis thoughts are in line with my own.

I dont have a insulated mash tun and decanting and keeping warm seems a bit of a faf considering the price point for a 20l tea urn heater.

Just seems a simpler way to go.

I do agree the temp setting would need to be measured.

Ref the amps and draw I checked my kettle at home is 2800w. Assuming I had both brewzilla & urn running from a double socket I wouldnt turn on the urn until the brewzilla was at mashing temp so I dont think they would be both pulling full Wattage at the same time?

buddsy

 

[Henders]

Doesn't the brewzilla maintain temp, similar to my Klarstein thing? Or do you just turn it off when it's at mash temp? Obviously scenario 1 means they could be simultaneously pulling the big watts.

Sheesh, this thread makes me want a tea urn, but reading and posting this has reminded me I need a new re-circ pump! Stop giving me spending ideas!

 

[AMyd666]

I've been considering a sparge water heater also and like the look of this with the digital readout. How to fit a barb and hose though

https://www.amazon.co.uk/MYLEK-Cate...itre&qid=1596131098&sr=8-16&tag=forumyield-20