Coffee urn for cheap eBrewing setup?

[Satchmo]

All you home brew addicts have me jonesin' for some homebrew again. I dusted off my ol' starter set and am almost ready to go. I have a turkey fryer that I will use for brewing outside this fall. BUT, I am looking at brewing inside for winter months and those super hot days in summer (I am hoping I can watch the kiddies while doing some brew as well).

After a ton of reading, I read about the Aussie's using coffee urns for BIAB. I figure it would work well for extract brewing as well. Some people with use them for HLT's as well. Considering I can get a 100 cup (6.25 gal) urn for $50, it seems like a fair redneck option for eBrewing.

How much do you think it would cost to convert a keggle/pot over to electric heat? I would like to do smaller batches and stay with 120v if possible. I would consider (2) 120v elements if I did a keggle size.

Again, I will be doing extract brewing and try out some BIAB. I am not concerned about smaller batch sizes with the BIAB method using a 6 gallon urn.

 

[smellysell]

So you want to boil in the urn also? Gonna be hard to do with that size urn with only 120v I think.

 

[Satchmo]

It's 1500 watts. An urn will percolate (boil) water for coffee....

This is where I got this dumb idea:

http://s678.photobucket.com/albums/vv144/BribieG/BIAB%20ELECTRIC%20URN%20ARTICLE%20PICS/

and

http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=36094

 

[smellysell]

It's 1500 watts. An urn will percolate (boil) water for coffee....

This is where I got this dumb idea:

http://s678.photobucket.com/albums/vv144/BribieG/BIAB%20ELECTRIC%20URN%20ARTICLE%20PICS/

and

http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=36094

Ahh, the element is already in there...

Takes me a little while to catch on sometimes. I have a 4500w element in my BK, which is a keggle. I have no experience other than what I've ready, but if you can get a good boil with it I don't see why it wouldn't work. 1500w might be pushing it, but if it doesn't get a good enough boil for you, you could always add a heatstick.

 

[Martin2D]

Wow, this is so cool. Thanks for the link, might need to use this at some point in time.

 

[Satchmo]

Ahh, the element is already in there...

Takes me a little while to catch on sometimes. I have a 4500w element in my BK, which is a keggle. I have no experience other than what I've ready, but if you can get a good boil with it I don't see why it wouldn't work. 1500w might be pushing it, but if it doesn't get a good enough boil for you, you could always add a heatstick.

I was wondering how many horses were under the hood on your setup. Well, the urn would have 240W/gal and your keggle has 290W/gal. 20% is a pretty big difference......

 

[smellysell]

I get a good, rolling boil at 70% though, so you should be fine.

I want to know where you get the urns for $50? I'd like to have a brew rig that I can take to group brews with my homebrew club.

 

[Satchmo]

Craiglist and eBay, my friend. There are two 100 cup (6.25 gallon) units out there: Regalware and The West Bend Co. They are around $125 new and usually around $50 used. One went on eBay for $37 shipped but I missed it.

I think I will give the Redneck Brewer a try.

 

[smellysell]

Craiglist and eBay, my friend. There are two 100 cup (6.25 gallon) units out there: Regalware and The West Bend Co. They are around $125 new and usually around $50 used. One went on eBay for $37 shipped but I missed it.

I think I will give the Redneck Brewer a try.

Keep us posted :thumbs: