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I'm curious about some take off times?

I know this may raise some controversy given the many variables which would ultimately dictate this time.

Finally finished my electric conversion and made my first run with it last night and I felt like it took a lot more time than propane to reach take off.

I'm running a keg still, 5500w element driven by an SCR. I've got a 4" still dropping into a thumper w/ 2" pipe and liebig condenser.

Took about an hour. A batch of Jimbos bourbon at about 6%.

But I had issues with my cooling water feed and had to improvise on the fly. I created a closed loop system w/ small fish tank pump in a 5g bucket into the condenser, then dropping into a separate 5g bucket with my wort chiller. Not ideal but the best I could come up with they quick!

My overall net was low and I think the cooling inefficiency was a culprit plus me learning to drive my setup with the electric stuff. It was great not hearing the burner for a change!!

Anyway like I said curious about the take off and figuring out how I'm driving this new setup.

Thanks for any input!

There is a handy calculator called Heating Time To Temp that calculates time until goal temp based on entering volume, energy, start temp and goal temp. It seems to be quite accurate.

Thanks NineInchNails I'll give it a look and try.

By “take off time” I think you mean the time from start to first drops. There are multiple factors that may make your rig perform different than my rig but just for comparison sake, it takes me about 35 minutes from start to first drops. 15 gallon boiler with a 5500w element running at about 5000 w. 12-13 gallon wash at about 7%.

I usually heat on full until I start to see foam forming and coming up the column (sight glass between boiler and column), then I back the power down to strip. You can often hear the boil coming, if you are paying attention.

If you are stripping a wash that will foam, be careful trying to get to boiling fast, on high power. Running at full power, you need to be there to watch it and be ready to back it off quickly. It only takes a few seconds to create a foamy mess in your column, PC, and collection vessle.

Otis

Yeah that's exactly what I'm referring to Otis.

35 minutes would be outstanding! During the next run I'll have my condenser well fed, but I want to utilize my ammeter moreso and watch the watt usage as you mentioned.

I appreciate the info and advice! It's gonna take some getting use to but I thoroughly enjoyed the conversion to electric.

NeckStiller wrote:Yeah that's exactly what I'm referring to Otis.

35 minutes would be outstanding! During the next run I'll have my condenser well fed, but I want to utilize my ammeter moreso and watch the watt usage as you mentioned.

I appreciate the info and advice! It's gonna take some getting use to but I thoroughly enjoyed the conversion to electric.

NeckStill. I just reread your OP and noticed you are using a Thumper. My time listed was just for the pot. It takes extra time to heat up the thumper once your pot starts to boil. I don’t have a time on that. Good luck. Otis

NineInchNails wrote:There is a handy calculator called Heating Time To Temp that calculates time until goal temp based on entering volume, energy, start temp and goal temp. It seems to be quite accurate.

Great Tool.
But one question.
Any idea how to calculate BTUs of a "typical" propane single ring shrimp/crawfish boil rig?

TDick wrote:

NineInchNails wrote:There is a handy calculator called Heating Time To Temp that calculates time until goal temp based on entering volume, energy, start temp and goal temp. It seems to be quite accurate.

Great Tool.
But one question.
Any idea how to calculate BTUs of a "typical" propane single ring shrimp/crawfish boil rig?

Just math. I do not know of an existing online calculator, but I'm sure one exists. Below are some notes I saved regarding calculating BTU:

1 btu to raise the temp of 1 pound of water 1 degree in an hour
1 gallon of water weighs 8.337 lb
the temp difference between we'll say 70 F. and 212 F. is 142F
so 142 btu's * 8.3lb= 1178 btu's to boil 1 gallon in 1 hour. multiply that by 5 and = 5893 btu's
so it takes 5893 btu's to raise the temp of 5 gallons of water from 70F to 212F in a one hour time frame
your element/propane burner is capable of about 5120

Note your starting temp and weight or volume of water. Begin heating and keep track of time. Once you've reached your goal temp, you'll know how long it took.

Keep in mind that the boiler does not conduct 100% of the heat that the burner produces. A lot of heat rolls out along side of the boiler. Your calculation of your burner's btu might only be accurate for the boiler you used when you calculate it.

rad's calcs heat up time is accurate way to figure out your net watts hitting the mash...it does exactly that without all that nasty math.

as far as BTU's go you could use an online calc to convert your watts found by rads calcs to btu's. and be really accurate.

the ring burner probably has an input rating of btu, say "60,000" thats how much heat you get from the gas it burns in a perfect world on full blast. gross to the pot is about 60% of that number and net to the mash is likely 50% ish of it.

Our (Imperial) gallons are easier to work out, they weigh ten pounds.

Geoff