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40 Litre Crown Urn BIAB


Sticky Wicket

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...what are the pros and cons?

 

Let me be the devil's advocate and start with some cons.

1. Electricity is more expensive than natural gas.

2. You are stuffed if some clown knocks over the power pole down the street when you are into the boil.

3. They cost more than a pot and have to be connected to a socket to work.

 

Let the flaming begin.

 

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Cheers John,

 

I like to listen to all pros & cons and appreciate the input, from what I have read on here you know your stuff, however.

 

1.Not convinced electricity is more expensive than gas when when bought by the bottle, and electricity is more likely to be a constant than a change over of bottle halfway through.

 

2. You would have to be awfully unlucky.

 

3. Not a biggy.

 

I do have a pub keg prepared and ready to go, all but the burner, unless you can convince me otherwise, I reckon I'm going electric.

 

All comment is welcome , I want to make the right decision!

 

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Hey Stickey,

 

I have a gas outdoor burner and I think its great! I have 5 brews down using it and a couple of starter worts and on the same 20lbs bottle of propane I'm sure by the wieght of the bottle I can still have another couple at least. Before I was trying to brew on the electric stove top[pinched] . The gas burner is so fast in comparison to bring things to a boil not to mention it is now so easy to control boil-overs. With gas all you need to do is turn it down a bit and because the the burner responds instantly to this reduction there's never any drama!

 

I'm not sure but I'd say that the Urn could not match that.

 

BTW, If you already have a keggle then I see this as a No-brainer!

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I don't think there's a right or wrong decision really. It's just whatever you want to do that suits you. I went for the urn because of its simplicity. But in saying that, a pot/keg with a burner really isn't complicated either. [lol]

 

Either way, the actual process of BIAB is simple whether you use an electric urn or a pot and burner. I surprised myself when I did my first batch at just how easy it is. It's just time consuming but it's fun.

 

With regards to Chad's comments about the boil overs, if you turn the urn off or turn the temp setting down, it will just turn the element off straight away so it may well act the same. However, I've never had any issues with boilovers. I just crank it up full bore and let it go.

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Hi Kelsey,

 

The electric urn is the way I am leaning at the moment. As explained I have a keg, however by the time I purchase the taps, fittings and burner it appears it isn't much cheaper, not to mention I will require the use of SWMBO lid from large cook pot, and will require filling gas bottles.

 

I have had a look online and can purchase the urn for approx $250 and that's it, effectively a turn key solution, can they be purchased cheaper?

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Fair call. It does sound like there'd be a little more involved compared to using an urn. I'm not sure if they can be purchased cheaper, new anyway. I bought mine from Craftbrewer for $270 I think it was, I got the concealed element model, the exposed element ones are a little cheaper but I preferred the concealed one when looking to buy one. They're easier to clean apparently.

 

The only thing I decided to do was get a 3 piece ball valve to replace the tap on it. Not that there was anything wrong with the tap, but my piece of tubing I use to transfer the wort from the urn to the kettle wouldn't fit over the tap, whereas it's a snug fit over the valve. You don't need that though, I just used a funnel into the tubing until I got the valve.

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+1 for the Urn.... certainly safer if you have young kids and easier on brew days imo. 1 vessle to faff about with compared to gas bottles, burners and a pot. Also you can brew indoors with an urn which makes a good heat source in the winter months.

 

Edit: pretty hard to run out of electricity half way through a boil too [alien]

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