Author: Marshall Schott

About 5 years ago, just as electric brewing was really starting to take-off, I found instructions online going over how to make a heat stick. This was before I’d upgraded to natural gas and the idea of balancing my propane usage with electricity was appealing, plus I thought it’d be super cool to set the heat stick on a Christmas light timer so that I could awake to pre-heated strike water. About $20 and 20 minutes later, I had myself a heat stick that looked more like a tool for plumbing than it did a brewing utensil. Unfortunately, for some reason I’m still unaware of, it didn’t work out all that great– once the temperature of the water it was heating would hit 150°F/66°C, the GFCI on my outlet would trip, which annoyed me so I gave it away and eventually made the move to natural gas.

I’ve been mostly pleased with my current setup, the only real drawback being that setting up a timer on a gas burner is a pain in the ass, so I accepted that the first part of my brew day would consist primarily of waiting for however long it takes for my burner to heat my strike water. When contributor Jake Huolihan recently converted his brewery to electric and started talking about how convenient his brew days had become, I began rethinking my own setup. Despite having solar on my house, I didn’t want to go full electric because with as much as I brew, I’d end up paying more for the electricity (thanks California) than I do for natural gas. This is when the idea of going hybrid popped into my head, the same idea I’d had years before, though this time I’d make sure to do it right.

There are a few electric heat sticks I’d seen pop-up over the years, most too small or under-powered for my liking. Then contributor Greg Foster bought and started raving about the HotRod Heat Stick from BrewHardware, a place I’ve been buying certain parts from since early 2012. After months of mulling it over, I finally bit the bullet and bought one for myself!

The product reviewed for this article was purchased by the author, which obviously makes this review more honest than reviews of products provided by the manufacturer; the author does not actually believe this and understands at least enough about the nature of bias to get why some might see things differently, though still thinks it’s a banal and cynical argument.

Since I wasn’t quite ready to have a 240v outlet installed near my brewing area, the 1500 watt HotRod was a solid option since it would work on my standard outlet. When placing my order, I opted for the straight tubing just to ensure it would fit nicely in my large brewing vessels. As I’ve come to expect from Bobby/BrewHardware, my heat stick showed up a few days later and was packed very well. I excitedly unboxed it in preparation for assembly.

Assembling the HotRod took all of 45 seconds and couldn’t have been easier. While the element was attached to the power cord, it was detached from the actual unit, likely to make it easier to ship. All I needed to do was attach the element using the provided tri-clamp fitting.

Before taking the HotRod on its inaugural test run, I gave it the once-over just to make sure there weren’t any obvious defects that might cause problems later. The weld connecting the length of stainless tubing to the stainless element casing was solid and very smooth, leaving me confident the innards would remain dry during use.

Before attempting to use the HotRod, I submerged the element in water for 15 minutes then disassembled it just to make sure the tri-clover fitting was water tight. It was.

I put the unit back together and placed it in a kettle of water in preparation for testing, the included hook being positioned over the lip of my kettle to hold it in place.

I loosened the hook’s wingnut to adjust the placement of the element, fastening it when the element was about 1 in./2.5 cm above the bottom of the kettle.

The only thing left to do was plug the HotRod in. Electricity and water can make for a shitty brew day, hence the importance of plugging the HotRod into a GFCI outlet, which I happen to have right next to my brewing setup.

BrewHardware offers a unit that has a GFCI built into the power cord for a small price increase, definitely the route to go for those who don’t have such an outlet available to them.

SPEED TEST RESULTS

To test how long it would take to raise a standard volume of brewing liquor, I decided to heat 9 gallons of water and track the progress every 10 minutes until the water reached 168°F/76°C, a fairly typical strike temperature on my setup.

My groundwater clocked in at a balmy 79°F/26°C out of the faucet and over the first 20 minutes raised over 26°F/15°C.

The temperature continued to climb at a bump over 1°F/0.5°C per minute over the following half hour.

Predictably, the rise in temperature every 10 minute interval decreased as the water continued to warm, but not by much. By precisely 1 hour and 20 minutes, the water was sitting just north of my target temperature.

While the volume of water was a bit high relative to the standard pre-boil wort volume for a 5 gallon batch, I did let the HotRod continue to heat it until a gentle boil was reached, it took another 45 minutes.

| THE VERDICT |

To some, waiting over an hour for water to reach strike temperature might seem like more of a hassle than sticking with a standard gas burner, understandably, as even I can heat the same volume to the same temperature in about 1/3 the time. However, I didn’t purchase the HotRod Heat Stick solely for the purpose of heating strike water, rather my impetus was convenience, and based on this alone, I absolutely love it!

With so much going on in my life, I’m constantly looking for ways to improve my brew day efficiency so that I can continue doing it as often as possible. As someone who tends to brew pretty early in the morning, I always felt like waking up to light a burner only to wait for it to my heat strike water was such a waste and picked up the HotRod Heat Stick as a solution. I initially planned to use a standard Christmas light timer but found most cheap ones were 10 amp. Having decked out most of our rooms with Amazon Echos (excellent brewing multi-timer, only $80 for a refurbished one), my wife recently picked up a Wemo smart plug and suggested I consider one for my HotRod.

It works beautifully! Not only does the Wemo allow me to set a timer for the HotRod to turn on at a specific time, but I can also control it with my voice– “Alexa, turn HotRod off.” Back To The Future being one of my favorite movies of all-time, this tickles the hell out of me!

I performed the speed test in my standard brew kettle for the sake of applicability, but I’ve been using it in my Ss Brewtech InfuSsion mash tun and have found heating to strike temperature requires slightly less time due to the insulation; I have to believe this would be similar for other insulated vessels such as converted cooler MLTs as well.

While I was able to achieve a very gentle boil using the HotRod Heat Stick, it took over 2 hours and that was just water, which is less dense than wort. Since a very vigorous boil may not be totally necessary, a single HotRod could potentially work for brewers looking to streamline their brewing gear and don’t mind a little added time, though I wouldn’t recommend it for batches any larger than 5 gallons (it’d kick ass for 2.5 gallon batches). BrewHardware doesn’t appear to offer a more powerful HotRod currently, though they do have DIY kits that would probably be pretty easy to retrofit with a higher wattage element and 240 volt plug… but as BrewHardware points out:

It is extremely important that you consult with an electrical professional for advice or wiring help. Under no circumstances should these be used without proper wiring, ground fault circuit protection, over current circuit protection. We are not licensed electricians so we cannot provide wiring advice.

With a single 20 gallon InfuSsion mash tun, I’m able to heat the full volume of brewing liquor for 10 gallon no sparge batches of moderate OG as well as all of the strike water for two 5 gallon batches, splitting off half into another mash tun once heated. Overall, the convenience of waking up to pre-heated strike water in addition to being able to supplement my natural gas usage with electricity has more than made up for the cost of the HotRod Heat Stick. I’ve absolutely zero regrets and trust those seeking a similar electric solution will appreciate it as well.

The HotRod Heat Stick is currently only available for purchase direct from BrewHardware.com. Be sure to check out all of the HotRod options as well as everything else BrewHardware has to offer while you’re there!

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