Author Topic: Beer brewer, pressure canner, 5 gallon crock pot? from Hot water heater, old keg  (Read 5746 times)

Offline Dawai

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Base of everything, enjoying life, all about eating, drinking, making things, using things you've made.

First lil tidbit? you can reshape a oven element before you heat it and it becomes brittle.. I use them all the time in powder coating ovens I build.  Last set I straightened out straight with loops going out through the wall.

FIRST, I looked at what others were brewing with on homebrewtalk forum. I didn't like anything sticking into the pot you could not pull and clean, so wet elements did not turn me on. I reshaped a $12 oven element. (I am cheap too).  Then.. put stands on the keg, then cut a old water tank up and made a hard shell for it, filling the space with cerwool fibre for insulation. Found a PID, SSR (solid state relay) and the K type thermocouple on ebay for $27.  Worked fine to brew several 12 gallon brews of beer.

Then I got a load of deer meat, someone was cleaning out their freezer and had just killed a couple. (I gifted most of it)  I put all the meat into canning jars and canned it on the stove top. I took all the bones and "trash" meat and put it into my keg-cooker, added to the 12 gallon mark and let it cook all day.  CLEAN up, I was not happy.. the grease around the insides of the keg took a hour to clean.

SO I modified (here we go).. cutting the legs off the keg, removing the drop out the bottom valve I had welded-screwed in. Repositioned the element in the bottom of the tank.  NOW, it is a 220 volt 4,000 watt hot plate, still has the cerwool around the inner ring with the element in it. 

On the upper ring (disc harrow from a tractor) I used the plasma circle cutter to cut a hole in the middle, used the slip roll to form a ring to fit the 12 1/2" pressure cooker, and IT GOES inside the 15 gallon keg. A buddy had sewed me up a hi temp insulating blanket to fit a keg and I am going to use it finally.

USING IT? well with the probe in the bottom? the "mass" of the pressure cooker and water must be accelerated to temperature, I have to setpoint on 200c, then once it hits 10psi, canning pressure I drop it to 120c and at that time it controls and does not wander, the pressure cooker does not require constant viewing and control. Them pressure cookers scare me. (A stove eye, it works by a bimetal coil, as power goes through it, it clicks on till the bimetal coil heats, then the trips, it controls the flow of electricity, not the temperature) unless you have one of the new fancy stoves that has a sensor in the middle of the eye.. (I had one, but as a bachelor then I never used it or appreciated it)

  The keg-cooker has a 1/4-20 nut welded to the side to pick up the temp there near the bottom of the tank, the stainless stock pot, like the pc- it gets it's temp from the can where the element is.

We bottled 12 gallons of fermented beer yesterday, canned 28 cans of deer meat, 26 cans of $1 a lb chicken breasts, after cleaning that deer meat from the bones, I got 8 canned quarts of "dog food" for that 100lb dog of mine. 

SO.. this has been tested now and I may leave it alone for a while if it makes me happy.  Needs some paint, some Romex wiring replaced with a rubber cord. It has completed the beta test phase now.
I Hung a 24 foot Ibeam this morning in the ceiling by myself, programmed a Arduino this afternoon for a solar project, Helped a buddy out with a electrical motor connection issue on the phone, then cut up a chicken for Hotwings. I'd say it has been a "blessed day" for myself and all those around me.

Offline dsquire

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Dawai

Wow, you have been a busy boy last couple of days. Looks like your getting this cooking and brewing down to a science.  :thumbup:

 I can see it now, we are going to have to make a new category called "Recipes".  :Doh:

I like what you have done with the photos, much easier for the members to view and I'm sure that you will get lots of feedback. Thanks for sharing this with us.  :D :) :D

Cheers  :beer:

Don
Good, better, best.
Never let it rest,
'til your good is better,
and your better best

Offline Dawai

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You mean like this??  Home made Beef tamales, Home made stuffed peppers, Home made tortillas, home made taco meat, seasoning and sauce, and then the Home made beer??   (my wife's cooking)

(see why I am 300lbs of hillbilly now)  I don't wander far from home.. she has me.

I am on my fourth batch of Biker-home brew beer.. changed suppliers of some of my ingredients and it changed the color and flavor a tad.  A real brewer could compensate before it is fermented and ready to bottle.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6sxrC9PxXAM  THIS brew, about two back.. funny.. I used "spring water" from the Varnell springs in it, I walked by, having eye trouble.. and it was "moving".. I thought.. crap.. the tadpoles have hatched out. When I figured out it was that vigorous I went and got the camera.
I Hung a 24 foot Ibeam this morning in the ceiling by myself, programmed a Arduino this afternoon for a solar project, Helped a buddy out with a electrical motor connection issue on the phone, then cut up a chicken for Hotwings. I'd say it has been a "blessed day" for myself and all those around me.