Some new gear

[iowalad]

Outstanding!

Postage makes a proper beer pump a mere dream for me but may rig up an ugly sister equivalent and give it a go.

[Jim]

Re gas v electric, I've been cogitating this (it's OK, it doesn't stunt your growth ).

I reckon the thing will fit on our gas hob, which has an extractor above it. The only doubt I have is whether or not the hob will take the weight of 5galls + 3.5kg for the pot. Has anyone else put a 5 gal container on a normal gas hob?

[steve_flack]

Has anyone else put a 5 gal container on a normal gas hob?

Yes. It works. Mind you're back though if you have to lift it

I used to find that my old crappy cooker used to take about 1 minute to raise the temperature of five gallons one degree.

[Jim]

Thanks Steve, that's excellent. Our hob has a massive 'wok' ring, and I reckon the pot will cover another ring as well, so I can have 2 on to get up to the boil, hopefully. I'll give it a try, anyway, and if it's no good, I'll admit defeat and put an element in it.

At the moment I boil with the boiler on the floor then lift it onto the bench to feed it into the cfc - a dangerous operation!

[Orfy]

There's no way I could get a rolling boil on anything above 3 galon on my gas hob.

[Jim]

So you got the 33L one Nice. I was watching the 100L and the 33L and missed the end of both! Arse! Fortunately they come up regularly. They're the cheapest large capacity steel pots I've seen so far. Did you see the 'Thermobox' insulated steel pot in the 'seller's other items' list? I wonder how good a mashtun that would make. Probably constructed like a steel thermos with added insulation between the walls. I've asked them questions about temperature stability at 65c. Awaiting reply.

I only saw one other 33l before Christmas and I got outbid. Since then I've bid on a couple of the 70l ones - they would have been OK, but not really the size I wanted. Luckily (as it turns out) I got outbid on those ones.

Interesting about the insulated pot - have you had a reply yet?

[SteveD]

So you got the 33L one Nice. I was watching the 100L and the 33L and missed the end of both! Arse! Fortunately they come up regularly. They're the cheapest large capacity steel pots I've seen so far. Did you see the 'Thermobox' insulated steel pot in the 'seller's other items' list? I wonder how good a mashtun that would make. Probably constructed like a steel thermos with added insulation between the walls. I've asked them questions about temperature stability at 65c. Awaiting reply.

I only saw one other 33l before Christmas and I got outbid. Since then I've bid on a couple of the 70l ones - they would have been OK, but not really the size I wanted. Luckily (as it turns out) I got outbid on those ones.

Interesting about the insulated pot - have you had a reply yet?

Nothing yet, though if they're in turn waiting for a reply from the manufacturer, I'm not surprised that I'm still waiting. I was thinking about the 50L insulated pot as an upgrade to my 10kg capacity coolbox mashtun as I'm scaling up to 10gal brews and would also like to be able to do old style 'multiple mashes' with different strength brews from the same mash.

One application is for brewing Durden Park beers, and being able to get a good 'normal' beer as well from the second runnings. !0kg's is pushing the envelope a bit for that.

[SteveD]

I've just won the bidding on a 100L version of the same pot Jim bought. There were no bids so I was sitting on the £29.95 opening bid. Last 15 secs someone bid up, so I finished up with it at £35.95 plus the £14 postage. Big brew boiler on the way

Now...a suitable propane burner. Local hardware shop or screwfix for ball valve taps, tank fittings, etc. 2x2.4kw elements from the existing 70L plastic boiler will now equip a 100L HLT. I want to go gas for boiling to minimise caramelisation of the wort.

Sorry if I outbid one of you blokes, but as I'd missed a few I felt it was my turn this time

[crow_flies]

like this you mean....



this is the 100l version on a 7kw burner I picked up on ebay for <20 quid. Tap is going on it this weekend, got replacement gas line already, just need to replace my gas bottle and will be firing her up next weekend!

/CF

[SteveD]

like this you mean....


this is the 100l version on a 7kw burner I picked up on ebay for <20 quid. Tap is going on it this weekend, got replacement gas line already, just need to replace my gas bottle and will be firing her up next weekend!

/CF

Yes...like that one! Very nice. I can't wait. Was it from the same supplier, Catering Equipment UK? They kick off their 100L auction at £29.95, so, nice buy if it is. Looks like German manufacture, going by the box.

A question..is a 7KW burner adequate for a good boil of 50-70L volume? I'm not suggesting it isn't, I just don't know, being new to gas. I've seen burners of 8KW on ebay for about £21, £42 with stand. If it's up to the job I'll probably go for one of those.

[SteveD]

At the moment I boil with the boiler on the floor then lift it onto the bench to feed it into the cfc - a dangerous operation!

I know what you mean. In my capacity as 'Brewing Idiot' I would boil down 35L to 25L in a 70L boiler on the floor, then, as soon as the boil finished lift it with oven gloves and pour the entire still bubbling brew, hops, everything, into a 25L fermenting bin with false bottom (Attila the Tun). For the cooling, straining operation. Unbelievably I never had an accident. I don't do that anymore, so I got away with it!

Why didn't I use a hop strainer in the boiler?...........don't ask, don't even go there

[Andy]

[oblivious]

I found some nice history on the bear engine if you’re interested, I wish more of our pubs had them over here!


http://beeradvocate.com/news/stories_read/523/

[crow_flies]

Yes...like that one! Very nice. I can't wait. Was it from the same supplier, Catering Equipment UK? They kick off their 100L auction at £29.95, so, nice buy if it is. Looks like German manufacture, going by the box.

A question..is a 7KW burner adequate for a good boil of 50-70L volume? I'm not suggesting it isn't, I just don't know, being new to gas. I've seen burners of 8KW on ebay for about £21, £42 with stand. If it's up to the job I'll probably go for one of those.

Yes, same manufacturer and supplier - I wanted a smaller one originally, but this one had no bids, so I thought what the hell....
not sure if the burner will support a rolling boil for that much, most of mine will be 5g runs, I may do the odd 10g run as well - time will tell I guess! I got the burner from Ebay as well, they are still available -

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/GAS-KOCHER-40x40c ... dZViewItem

/CF

[SteveD]

Here's the English version, http://www.eatpaella.co.uk/

I make paella in 50cm polished iron pan I picked up in Spain for £8. Best way at my disposal is on the barbeque though on the cooker hob works, straddling 2 burners and revolving it a quarter turn every couple of minutes or so. Comes out luuuverly!


Back to beer....Hop and Grape supply: 8.5kw For 50-80 litre s/s tanks, 13.5kw For 100 litre s/s tank, so a 70L batch should be ok with the smaller burner. Although I'll be doing a lot of 50L brews, with the initial boil vol being 65-70l max, I got the 100L pot for the headroom when it foams up. My plastic 70L boiler requires CLOSE attention with a large paddle when it kicks off! Imagine Basil Fawlty with his Austin when it broke down