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It's starting to get cold out there but I still want to brew. I started looking into electric brew kettles (i am still new and only using extracts kits). Most of the stuff I read online is about adding a heatstick to your brew kettle. I no nothing about welding, so that intimidates me.

I found this water bucket heater on Amazon that people in the comments talk about using it to supplement their stove top for boiling wort. Some comments, however, talk about how its hard to clean properly.

Has anyone here used this? and what are your thoughts? It's currently 50% off, so its only $40, which seems like a great deal if it was to work.

Other then using this, do you have suggesting for brewing inside?

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  • If you do go this rough be sure to use GFI outlets. Otherwise you risk electrocution. Using a stove is a much better option and works quite well. Just use a lid.
    – Chris Plaisier
    Commented Jan 26, 2013 at 15:36

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If you're boiling 5 gallons or less on the stove top, then brewing indoors can be done using your regular kitchen setup, assuming you've got an extractor fan in the kitchen to vent all the water vapor. For partial boils, it worked well, but for full boils, it took a over an hour to bring the mash liquor up to temperature, and even longer to bring the full 5 gallons to boil after sparging. The largest ring on the hob was 2.2kW, so YMMV.

I did this for a few months before building a rig based on www.theelectricbrewery.com.

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  • On my really quite sad stove in my apartment I can get 5 gallons to boil in 15 to 20 minutes. The key is to keep the lid on which retains a lot of the energy lost to water vapor. Without the lid on it took 45 to an hour to boil. That seemed like an easy fix. I do half batches and full batches in almost the same time as it takes with a propane burner outside.
    – Chris Plaisier
    Commented Jan 26, 2013 at 15:35
  • Unfortunately i do not have a fan on above my stove, so i guess that wont work. I read the article about the heat source on your site., and it peaked my interest. I don't have $1500 to spend on a control unit and I dont plan on doing more then 5 gal batches anytime soon, so i think i am going to go a cheaper diy route, like this one. However your site was awesome and very easy to read for a new brewer and not very electrical person, so i definitely will be buying you a beer. Thanks!
    – JayUnt
    Commented Jan 27, 2013 at 2:04
  • It's not my site, but please buy Kal (the guy that runs it) a beer if you find the information useful!
    – mdma
    Commented Jan 27, 2013 at 15:35
  • @mdma Will the water vapor from long term brewing cause damage that a landlord would be irritated with?
    – Matthew Moisen
    Commented Dec 13, 2014 at 4:56
  • I would guess so if you don't have an extractor.
    – mdma
    Commented Dec 13, 2014 at 9:34
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I bought three of these but after multiple attempts learned they shut off at boiling temperatures and are therefore useless for boiling wort. After discovering this, I thought I would use them to speed up the process of bringing 7 gallons of 170*F wort to boiling, but after a few tests discovered that keeping the lid fully on during this period was faster than the 3 bucket heaters.

I'm going to use them only for a future HERMS setup.

Oddly, when I was doing research on these, about half the posts stated these do not shut off at the boil, while the other half did. Given that only one company produces these, I don't understand the discrepancy.

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I brew using a 36 l (10 gallon) stainless steel kettle on a 3.5 kW stand-alone induction top. Even at 80 % effect, the induction top brings 25 l (6.5 gallon) to the boil in less than 30 minutes.

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