I wanted to convert my brewery to electric for a couple reasons, cost to operate, precise temp control, and the cool factor.

I decided starting with the HLT would be the most challenging part but the most critical to the process.

My objectives for the project were as follows:

1. No dedicated rig - in other words when brewday is over the whole system needs to be able to be packed away.
2. For simplicity reasons I only would require to fire one element at a time – no big deal unless I was doing back to back brews which I never do.
3. The control box needed to be big enough to add another PID for whatever reason down the road.
4. It has to have some WOW factor.

A few years ago I met Paul Muth (P-J on the Brewboard) through a mutual friend. Paul is a wealth of knowledge on brewing, electricity, and plumbing.

I mentioned to him one day that I was considering converting to electric and soon after that conversation a plan was hatched.

Supplying Safe Power

First I had to run 240V into my garage where I brew. An elegant solution was to purchase a “Spa Panel� which included the 50A GFCI circuit breaker. I mounted the 50A GFCI breaker in my main panel and then fed the empty subpanel with 6/4 wire.

The subpanel has 4 breaker locations in it – two take up the 30A 240V circuit and I only ended up using one of the 2 locations left to run a 120V circuit so far.

This way ANYTHING that is plugged into either the 120V or 240V outlets from the subpanel will be GFCI protected -a vital safety measure.

Finding the Parts

I purchased a Hammond 1401C box from Ebay for $20. Perfect size and very tidy looking. Next were the brains of the system.

I went with Auber Instruments for the PID, thermocouple, and 25A Solid State Relay with heat sink.

I purchased some specialty plugs, switches, receptacles, etc. from Mouser and the rest came from my local home improvement center.

Putting it all Together

Now I was ready to start cutting holes and mounting the hardware on the kettle. Paul turned me onto Stay Brite 8 silver solder and Stay Clean liquid flux and coached me through the soldering process. This stuff is amazing and once you get the hang of it really easy to work with. Paul and his handy dandy metal lathe provided the fittings once we defined what we wanted the HLT to do and look like.

First came the element mounting. The fitting started life as a 1� female barb fitting. A few cuts and turns on the lathe and voila! The fitting has two special features – the threads were turned on the kettle side for sanitary reasons and a recess was turned on the outside so the seal is made at the intended place, the gasket. Then the electrical box got soldered in place ensuring enough room to fit the element socket.

Next I decided to mount the HERMS coil in the HLT by going through the side wall.

Through the use of the modified flare fittings the HERMS coil can easily be taken out and flare caps can be used to cap off the inside fittings.

The thermowell is another modified flare fitting and adapter with a small length of copper tubing plugged at the end. The thermowell can be easily removed and a flare plug can be put in place if necessary.

The sight tube really shows how the Stay Brite 8 silver solder really shines. Paul and I came up with an elegant solution to hold the tube. A few cuts of copper and the standoffs were born.

With some careful balancing of the vice grips they were soldered in place and holding nicely. I think the copper will bend before the solder joint fails…last came the hole for the elbow and a little more soldering. The tube is secured to the elbow with a barbed flare fitting.

A Motorized Stirrer

After the first test run it became apparent that I wanted an automated stirrer setup.

Again, this had to be functional, practical, and have some WOW factor.

I purchased a Molon motor from Herbach. The key to mounting the motor to the lid are the stand offs that elevate the gearbox over the lid to help alleviate heat transfer from the lid. The standoffs and screws are all Stainless. Mounting a shaft was easy but the actual stirrer needed to be something special. Some brass sheet, inspiration, and high temp silver solder and the “prop� was born. This baby moves some water let me tell you.

The best part about soldering versus welding was I did it all myself – not relying on a welder and paying for the service. The added bonus is that if I ever upgrade to a larger HLT or it gets damaged for whatever reason I can undo everything that has been soldered and keep the fittings for another project.

Carl Krivutza

Keep an eye out for Carl's next project, the electric brew kettle.