Hop & Grape Stainless Steel Economy Boiler

[Bubbles]

Even the 12" ones? Hmm. What about the more traditional perforated copper tube?

The Hop Stopper looks mad. Large surface area being the idea I suppose.

[rukkus]

Yep i added a nice bulkhead and bazooka eventually. But a hop bag and the stock tap did me just fine for ages.

Nope i didn't bypass anything electrical. I've heard of people having cut out issues but mine seems to be ok after a good clean. I've also had it cut out due to thermal switch cutting out on the extension cord. That was due to me not unwrapping the cord enough lol. Nothing to do with the buffalo but goes to show how much heat electricity can generate

[rukkus]

I know lars also has a buffalo but i think he might have disabled the thermo switch. Might be worth popping him a dm for some info you you are thinking along the lines of a buffalo.

[Ciderhead]

For those that have converted fermenters to boilers - would a 6" or 12" bazooka strainer work better? I'm thinking the 12" would allow a quicker runoff of the wort and less chance of clogging.

What's the optimum height on the FVs for the tap/strainer and the kettle elements? I presume the kettle elements should be an inch or two above the tap?


Cheers.

Directly opposite each other to give a good boil, put the tap in the middle, I put the first at 1.5" off the floor and the second 2.5" just for differential agitation during boil.

Have you considered a hop spider? works just as well as chucking in to the boiler and probably better as they are constantly flushed from the active part of the boil at the surface.

[newToBrew]

I converted a 33  l fv into a boiler - 2 elements few inches up from bottom - one peice if advice - keep ur tap and hop strainer as low as possible + mines a little high and I haven't sealed horned copper right so usually have a few litres at the end that o have saucepan and sieve into the fv

I did get a keg and hole sawed te element and. Tap fittings but couldn't stop leaks.so got the fv and converted haven't tried the keg since !!

[DEMPSEY]

Not having the element in the kettle and having the connected problems is why I have gone on the journey of having my element outside the pot,thus only having a clean Stainless Steel pot to clean after each boil.

[Bubbles]

Nice photos Ciderhead. Very crafty indeed. How does that gizmo work with pellets?

[Bubbles]

I converted a 33  l fv into a boiler - 2 elements few inches up from bottom - one peice if advice - keep ur tap and hop strainer as low as possible + mines a little high and I haven't sealed horned copper right so usually have a few litres at the end that o have saucepan and sieve into the fv

I did get a keg and hole sawed te element and. Tap fittings but couldn't stop leaks.so got the fv and converted haven't tried the keg since !!

Cheers man. I've bitten the bullet on this anyway and abandoned the idea of going shiny. Got my bulkhead tap, bazooka screen etc. ordered so I'll be going down the road of converting the FV after all.

Anyone know whether the Youngs or the Hambleton-Bard fermenters are better suited to boilers? Thicker walls on one or the other?

[Bubbles]

Not having the element in the kettle and having the connected problems is why I have gone on the journey of having my element outside the pot,thus only having a clean Stainless Steel pot to clean after each boil.

That sounds like an interesting setup Brian. Any links or pics?

[Ciderhead]

Nice photos Ciderhead. Very crafty indeed. How does that gizmo work with pellets?

no clue, I dont like pellets doirty horrible things like horse nuts!!
Anyway with the last group buy on hops I still have 800g in my freezer
I save my pellets for dry hopping.
Only joking pellets break up in very small particulate size so although you would keep most in the spider but a lot of the fine stuff would get through, the basic copper below is just in case I have a disaster and loose it in it, not happened in 20 boils but I was a boy scout



who was complaining of leaks, used LDPE washers you find in plumbers merchants or woodies.
Also make you own out of one of her silicon baking trays, the ones that replaced traditional tins

[Bubbles]

who was complaining of leaks, used LDPE washers you find in plumbers merchants or woodies.

Would the plumbers tape be an acceptable substitute for the washers?

Where did you get those elements? Ripped out of a kettle?

[Greg2013]

Ok so Ciderhead thats a boiler but what do ye make yere mash tuns out of? Bucket fermenter again?

[DEMPSEY]

Not having the element in the kettle and having the connected problems is why I have gone on the journey of having my element outside the pot,thus only having a clean Stainless Steel pot to clean after each boil.

That sounds like an interesting setup Brian. Any links or pics?

You can follow what I am doing here with my kettle.
http://www.nationalhomebrewclub.com/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1361834396

[Bubbles]

Anyone know whether the Youngs or the Hambleton-Bard fermenters are better suited to boilers? Thicker walls on one or the other?

Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?

[Bubbles]

Youngs are a bit thicker, but I wouldn't say there's a huge difference. I use Youngs as kettle and HLT with no problems.

Cheers Tube.