Homemade Plastic Boiler - The Thunderbird

[arturobandini]

If he's become more expensive than a standard fermentation bucket then I don't see the advantages. Shop around, I think there are other drum sellers on ebay too, i've a guy going to let me know if he gets any 10gallon in as I'm currently using a 30litre FV but i'd like MORE! When I do upscale I'll be relegating trusty 30l to my HLT

[floydmeddler]

Sounds good. These blue food grade drums are everywhere really. I'm sure local takeaways and restaurants all over the country have them and will more than likely give them away happily.

[arturobandini]

You're not wrong Floyd. Below is a link to a 55ltr blue drum which would more than likely make a decent 10 gallon boiler. I'm giving it serious thought but I spotted a Chinese restaurant on the walk through the village and he had a load of similar sized drums out the back. Might have a quick word and see how they are. The only thing about these 55ltr drums on eBay is he says they have a pronounced garlic smell which should dissipate...Garlic Porter anyone?

eBay Link 55ltr Blue Drum

Here is a guy with 30ltr drums and likes local pickup but points out he can arrange postage

eBay Link 30ltr Blue Drum

[floydmeddler]

Seems like a nice drum although it looks square as apposed to completely cylindrical. Thinking this may cause some splashing problems once the boil gets rolling. At the same time, I may be completely wrong!

If I were you, I'd call into your local Chinese restaurant and offer to buy one of them. Hopefully at that, they'll offer it for free or very cheap.

[norn_irn]

apart from ebay any one know where else you can pick these up??? im in northern ireland

[floydmeddler]

Go for the round one rather than the square ones, round being a much stronger construction. 100 deg c is right on the limit of the working temperature range of hdpe under low load conditions. You'll be pushing your luck boiling for 90 mins using the square type drum imo.

I've been doing 90 min boils in mine for the last 5 brews and it holds well. Don't take the chance with the square!

[Bobba]

Firstly, thanks a lot for the inspiration floydmeddler!
Just thought I'd share my experience with my mango chutney boiler here. I previously posted a separate post viewtopic.php?f=6&t=24638&start=0&st=0&sk=t&sd=a of the boiler which was based around your design floydmeddler. I got the container from a seller off ebay who seems to specialise in these containers. http://stores.shop.ebay.co.uk/D-V-liqui ... QQ_armrsZ1
I'm very impressed with it. The handles are rock solid and I think it could make an excellent fementer also. The screw lid was also useful for getting the boil going faster.

I made two changes to the design, nabbed from other homebuilt boiler posts
The first being that I had two kettle elements - this gets the boil going within 20mins or so
The second was that I put a difference hop strainer in, the made reason of which is I wanted to make use of some hop pellets



I also found that the mango smell did fade over the couple of weeks it took me to get the kit together. And a quick boil of steriliser soon totally zapped it.
The water after a boil was found to taste just like tap water so no worries there.
Regarding the square containers available. I found with mine that the plastic did soften just a little bit when boiling, and I wouldn't want to go any thinner....the disaster of springing a leak part way through a boil would be inconceivable!

[floydmeddler]

Thunderbird has a twin brother! I feel like the proud father That looks amazing. I love the hop strainer. Have been considering a second element on mine too as I do want to speed things up a bit. A little tip for you: to clean the elements and have them like new, add 2 tablespoons of citric acid and enough water to cover elements. Leave for around 48 hrs and the gunk should literally fall off with a spray of water. They will come up looking brand new.

What have you got connected to your faucet? Is it generic? Would love one for myself.

Well done!

[Bobba]

here's a closeup floyd....

it's just an L-bend with a 15mm-8mm on the end so i can fit a bit of food grade tube over the end....that way i can get a syphon effect to get as much wort out as possible through the hop strainer. Otherwise I get left with the last couple of pints.

The hop strainer was really straightforward to make by the way, so long as you've got a standard pipe cutter you can cut the sections up in no time

Yeah the elements are pretty grubby, they're both second hand enjoying an exciting afterlife in their new existence!

I'm totally chuffed with it, it works a dream in fact. I've done two extract batches so far, the first with lots of messing around with lots of saucepans and mess and running around like a nutter.........and now, this lovely thunderbird! awesome
the only thing about the two elements is that it's prob more prone to boiling over - the first run certainly did!

[floydmeddler]

Very nice. What most people do is switch off one of the elements as soon as the boil is reached. That way the dreaded boil over is avoided. What an awesome Thunderbird!

[jammy]

Sorry Floyd - just thought of another question

Are these sturdy enough to be able to hold in immersion heater element do you reckon?

Mick

i have fitted 11inch immersion heaters to 2 of these barels they work great,you can buy the nuts and fibre washers on ebea
they will pull the barrel up square and make a good seal.washer fitted on inside only(i used a smear of silicone sealant )
but will prob be ok without.

[Mike8578]

Right Floyd, and others. I have the barrels, and I have the kettles (Tesco)

I've taken one out and am wondering where the thermal cutout is on these. I can see the boil-dry cutout at the bottom of the casing, but other than that can only see a white-ish sprung peg in the middle of the unit. Is it that that I need to remove?

[floydmeddler]

Does it look like this?

l_7839682ef3484b49b7c9b23e59dba015.jpg (30.42 KiB) Viewed 3316 times

If so, just cut off the long section with the cut out mechanism and that's it. You don't need to go near the white peg.

[crunchysaviour]

bits.JPG

Hi Floydmeddler,

I'm building a mash tun and boiler for my jumping-in-at-the-deep-end all-grain first-ever brew. Thank you for this concise diagram.

The part to the left of the tap proves elusive to me. I'm trying to connect my ball valve to my tank connector (both 15mm) in the most elegant fashion by using a double-ended threaded sleeve thing like that, but I can't find one!

It's frustrating that these plumbing trade fittings all have special names that must be known in order to find them on, for example, Screwfix's website or something.

What is this part called?

I could resort to using the compression fittings with a short length of copper tube but your setup seems far more sensible.

[floydmeddler]

I don't even know the name I'm afraid. I went to B&Q and sized it all up there and then. Do you have a B&Q near you? I'm sure they'll have it.