I'm sorry James, your calcs. are wrong for immersion heaters
Alex,
using immersion heaters directly in the mash
44kW will get the 1000 liter still up to operating temp in a little over 2hrs.
44kW at 240vac 3 phase only draws 106 amps.
88kW would bring it up to temp in a little over 1hr and it would only draw 106amps at 480vac 3phase.
44kW single phase 230vac will bring it up to operating temp in a little over 2 hrs and it will draw 191 amps, so all of these are do able.
We have built electric heating systems for several stills over 200 gallons. The price for the heating system and programmable digital controller is way way less than 1/2 the price of a low pressure steam boiler.
The service to my business here is a 800 amp 230vac single phase service and I built a 60hp rotory phase converter to convert 100 amps to 240vac 3 phase for my 3 phase welder. We run mostly single phase welders and equipment. Alex, let me know what voltage and phase that you have available and the capacity in amps of your service and I will let you know if an electrical heating system is doable.
Our heating systems and programmable digital controllers are built using all UL listed parts. The enclosures are NEMA4x listed and we can supply explosion proof enclosures if needed. We can build heating systems and controllers in all voltages 208vac to 600vac in single phase and 3 phase.
I also sell natural gas and propane fired Rite low pressure steam boilers, so if you need a steam boiler let me know and I will send you a quote. 1000 BTUS of boiler output is needed for each gallon of mash to get you to your operating temp in 1 hr. James is correct that a 15hp boiler is what you need.