Dangerous Electric Boil Kettle DONE!
I had some free time over the weekend and was able to work on the brew kettle. As of Saturday afternoon, I was boiling water and if it wasn’t for having a few things to do I would have probably ran over to my LHBS and got a few pounds of malt and hops.
The things I did dangerously was that I used all green wire (the standard AC convention is red or black for hot, white for neutral, and green for ground). Also, I have no enclosure around all that power. I also do not have a way to disconnect this from power (other than a breaker, which is currently switched off since I’m not brewing anything).
While I was at it, I replaced my valve with a non-leaking valve (my previous valve was actually for a compression fitting, so it leaked). There is a remaining issue – I have to replace the fitting on the thermocouple because right now I have a compression nut (which leaves a place for bacteria to sit and harvest).
This is the setup. Not perfect, but it works. The switch is for the PID controller (the black box). The SSR is hiding behind the boiler.
This is my counter protection – 3 6″x6″ ceramic tiles. I don’t think the kettle would damage my Formica countertop, but I don’t want to find out if I’m wrong.
This is the element running and boiling water.
Other Happenings
My cousin was selling a small freezer that would be perfect for us and would replace my current chest freezer with a small upright (and replace a non-energy-star freezer with one that is). Initially I was thinking KEGERATOR!, but after a night’s sleep I thought it might be better to do some fermentation temperature control. That means eventually I will make a schwarzbier, possibly a kolsch, and probably a bock beer early next year.
Cheers!