Newbie question - do I really need a boiler?

[Stig]

Hello all, first post newbie here. *waves*

I've done a few kits now, and they've been fairly ok, only one so far out of six has been put aside for keeping slugs off the garden, not a bad score.

Since you ask they were:
1) generic lager that came unlabelled with the youngs starter brew kit from Wilkos
2) Edme stout
3) Brupaks fixby gold
4) Tom Caxton Ale (TAKE THAT, SLUGS!)
5) Edme stout again but two cans and no sugar, experiment which worked, woohoo!
6) munton's midas touch, here I discovered what chill haze means.
Brupaks scammonden dark and Birkby bitter on the way.

So there's my entire brewing history thus far.


Anyway, I've been inspired by the posts on here to look at brewing from scratch.

So I've checked the relevant threads here and the links and looked into all the equipment I should get, and one main thing strikes me - these boilers, surely they must use a phenomenal amount of electricity?
They are after all basically an enormous sticky kettle? And boiling a few mugs of tea takes it out of our meter, let alone a few gallons.

There must be a good reason why people don't just stick a big army surplus mess pot or cauldron or something with a thermometer in it on the gas cooker instead? Otherwise everyone would do it, and most of the experts on here seem to have a boiler.
So should I get one, and if so, why?

Cheers!

[brewzone]

I just checked british gas prices and a kwh is something like 24p

If You use an electric boiler rated at say 2.7kw then for three hours useage it works out

at (.24p*2.7kw)*3hrs=£1.95

for a 3kw boiler it is

(.24p*3kw)*3hrs=£2.19

If using a dual element boiler then simply just double the above costs.

So per pint assuming 40 pints per brewing session it costs less than 6p

/Chris beat Me to it /

Happy New year

/BZ

[Stig]

Thanks Chris and Brewzone.

You're both saying it will not cost that much, which I'm certainly not going to dispute, I'm more than happy with your calculations, thanks!

The fact of the electric boiler method being far faster than boiling on a gas stove is also something that, on reflection, is going to make a massive difference, considering the time that the whole thing will take compared to the kits I'm used to.

I think the reason I asked the question, is that in my ideal hippie fantasy world, I'll be growing my own veg, and grains, brewing my own beer, and doing it in as self-sufficient a way as possible. So at every step I always ask: could I do this in a field?

(In reality just for now by lucky chance I'm working full time and have DINKies income and all mod cons but come the end of civilisation, it'll be me and mad max over a camp fire )

Money aside, If there aren't any technical reasons why I couldn't just mash over a gas cooker, and it's purely just that it will take longer, then that's good enough for me.

[sparky Paul]

I just checked british gas prices and a kwh is something like 24p

That will be for primary units, just another way of getting the standing charge off you by charging you more for the first xx units.

Secondary units (which you would be racking up brewing in the average household) are usually closer to Chris's figures, in the region of 12-15p per kWh.

I ought to turn to nocturnal brewing, only 4-5p per kWh for those of us with Economy 7!

[Aleman]

I'm running a propane powered boiler and use around 4Kg of Propane each brewday which is £5 a time . . . . I'm changing back to an electric boiler for my small brewery

[Damfoose]

I'm running a propane powered boiler and use around 4Kg of Propane each brewday which is £5 a time . . . . I'm changing back to an electric boiler for my small brewery

Your going back to lecky for your small brewery and im moving over to gas on my small brewery. Then again my garage is a few meters from the house so one less cable running accross the ground for me is a good thing.

[yashicamat]

I did for a short while try doing my beers on the hob with a big stockpot. Using the massive wok ring in the middle (I suspect that it's similar to Chris' 3kw one) it would struggle to boil 18 litres of wort. Furthermore, it took a day and an age to get to that point.

My electric boiler is far far better, primarily as has been said, because of the far more effecient transfer of energy. The element surrounded in water (moving from convection) is probably transferring heat into the liquid at an efficiency of about 98% I would have thought (a small loss is probably conducted out and radiated from the back of the element into the air or along the cable). By comparison, huge amounts of heated air are circulating about when you've fired up the stove.

[Parva]

We all want lower bills but we also want good beer, plug it in and brew! Happy new year.

[edit1now]

Wasn't there a post from someone in Oz boiling on a wood fire in their farmyard?

[Aleman]

Wasn't there a post from someone in Oz boiling on a wood fire in their farmyard?

Yes, She lives in the outback with no electric or Gas, so uses Charcoal (Home produced) to fire the brewery . . . . I've not heard much from her in the last few years (my fault I stopped visiting the Oz Craftbrewers Forum) . . . . but she has been really successful in the Oz brewing competitions

[Stig]

Thanks for all your replies. I'm firmly convinced. Boiler on it's way!

[sdcspeak]

Do yourself a favour and get a twin element, I bought a Hop and Grape boiler with one 2.4kw element, it took forever to heat up the strike water. You don't have to use them both all the time.

Happy Brewing

SS

[BarnsleyBrewer]

Buy a cheap kettle from Tesco and remove the element.