Thermo pot with Tap

[lamont77]

So It feels like I've been reading for days now and im still a little stuck on exactly how to piece this all together. I'd love to have the money for a grainfather or braumeister but I don't so I have to get creative.

I saw on another post somewhere, a guy recommended emailing a German ebay seller who sells thermo pots with taps etc like so - http://www.ebay.de/itm/38-5-L-Edelstahl ... 1754352007

But I cant even tell if this has a boiler attached of if it would need a separate one.

I currently have NO equipment and I really want to get started in BIAB brewing. I don't like the idea of a plastic mash / boiler vessel.

Pleas please don't castrate me for not reading everything before posting this. I would really love your advice on a basic setup for BIAB that is stainless steel.

[Fastline]

These are just plain pots, you have to add your own electric elements or use on a gas burner and add taps

Lots of people including myself have bought them, they was very good value.

[rpt]

Are thermopots OK as boilers or only as a mash tun? If the latter then no good for BIAB.

[BrannigansLove]

I started BIAB using a 25L stock pot, with no taps, on my stove. It works just fine, but I was limited to 15L batches. As Fastline mentioned, you would need to sort yourself a heatsource for the thermopot, I'd add considering a standalone induction hob to the options.

[Fastline]

Generally people use a stock pot for Hot liquor tank a Thermo pot for a mash tun and a Stock pot for Boiler

Because the thermos pots have two skins and insulation in between they would not be suitable for BIAB on a gas hob

As far as the induction hobs go you will need to check through the previous threads to see if the bergland stock pots work on a induction hob or not, as not all pots are suitable, generally the induction suitable pots have triclad bottoms, bergland stock pots do not have tri clad bottoms

[Fil]

probably the easiest route to BIAB in Stainless steel is a 40l buffalo boiler costing £100-£140 iirc not bad vfm after you price up a stock pot, elements(2 x as its quicker to hit temps and has built in redundancy should one fail), valves, fittings and qmax hole punches to cut holes for elements and valves etc..

the stock tap on a buffalo is generally swapped out for a 1/2" bsp fitting/valve combo to facilitate creating a siphon to maximise the drain and attach hop filter option on the inside and hose for the siphon on the out side of the valve.

a further mod that may be necessary is to upgrade or bypass the dryboil protection switch as boiling beer can exceed the expected max temp of water expected in the vessel.

if you use Qmax punches to make holes in the thin walled SS stockpots and thermapots from the german ebay seller a diy brewery build isnt very complicated, and these days there are online suppliers like the homebrewbuilder and angel brewing that sell all the bits you may need. with the right tools its an achievable weekend afternoon project.

afaik the cheap SS stockpots have had mixed reviews from folk using induction plates, some say yes others no??

[Meatymc]

For what it's worth, here is my set-up to get c23L fermenting liqour:

Bought/Made
33L pan stainless steel - Hop & Grape Darlington.
Bag made out of voile - Dunelm
Large strainer - IKEA
Cast iron gas burner - ebay
Propane bottle - any local supplier

Already had
Plastic bin for sparge (used to be for dog food) - probably supermarket
2 x portable camping gas stoves - any outdoor outlet/supermarket etc
2 large household steel casserole pots - simply came with a saucepan set

The propane/gas ring came about as I couldn't use the gas hob in the house (don't ask) so ended up brewing in the garage. I generally aim for around 17L mash and then sparge another 10L or so. The 2 small camping stoves are to heat up the sparge water

I don't chill - just seal up the pan at flame out and leave it alone until near pitching temperature - usually cool enough within 24 hours although is longer at height of Summer. I then simply 'jug-out' a few litres into my fermenter until the weight of the pan is low enough for me to pick it up and pour the rest in. DO NOT TRY AND LIFT THE PAN WHEN FULL - MOST AVAILABLE PANS HAVE CRAP HANDLES THAT WON'T TAKE THE WEIGHT/STRAIN

I'm sure everyone will think this is very amateurish and vastly increases the chance of infections but had no problems so far (famous last words) and the risk should be dropping now the weather is cooling. It's probably also not very 'efficient' but I'm getting 20/21L to bottle from c4.5KG of grains and had nothing under 5% so far - I'm happy with that.

I will be looking at improving the set-up next year when we should be finished renovating the house although if it ain't broke - why fix it!

[alexlark]

Same setup here but I installed a 2.4kw element in the 33L pot and made an immersion chiller. I then syphon off as much as possible into the FV and tip the rest through a voile lined Ikea sieve. Job done.