Shiny Questions

[andysmok]

I have a few questions about buying shiny equipment. I have found a link to buying these thermos brew pots which are actually from flebay (France);
http://shop.ebay.fr/catering-service-fr ... rom=&_ipg=
They come in a variaty of sizes 38.5L, 50L, 60L, 70L, 80L. I see that a lot of members of jims site use these type of pots for mashing in, but i can't seem to find anywhere in england that sells them.
I have contacted the seller in France and shipping to the UK is quite reasonable IMO, 13.90 euro.
This seller also sells stainless pots which look good for use as a copper.
It would be great for someone to point me in the right direction of what size of pots i should get ie; 80L thermos and a 70L copper pot? Also is there a company in England which sells this sort of equipment.
I have been AG since January and love making my own beers and feel ready to buy some real equipment to make my brewdays more enjoyable and straight forward which is why i would like to build a proper setup over the next few months.

[stu-le-brew]

I have several of these stainless products, I would advise buy as big as you can - with the same amount of work you make more beer.
I started of with an insulated mash tun that was (from memory) 25-30ltr which constrains you to making about 25litre (five gall approx). I have now upgraded to a 100ltr copper, 70ltr insulated mash tun (with an insulated lid) and 70ltr HLT all from the same supplier mentioned above. The material is not the thickest in the world, but is made rigid by the rolled rim, its also not so difficult to drill holes in. My HLT and Copper now have holes for bottom tap and dial temperature probe, and the HLT has additionally an immersion heater element and a temp probe used to control the heater with a PLC.

The vessel I use as a mash tun is possibly too big but at least does not constrain me on strength of beer, so I can easily make a 60ltr batch and still have room in the mash tun.

For your information the company is actually based in Germany, but for some reason trades on EBay France ?
I am very happy with them

[MightyMouth]

Quite a few people have bought from this supplier when they used to sell on ebay.co.uk. I have a 70 lt boiler and a 60 lt bain marie from them and the do the job well for the money. Wish they still sold through ebay UK though.

[Nermal]

I bought a 38.5 litre thermo box from these people about a month ago.

It arrived promptly, but the inside had several dings from the tap rattling around as it was only poorly wrapped in tissue paper not bubble wrap and more annoyingly, the base had a big dent on one of the rims (been dropped or something), even though the box was in good condition.

I'm not sure if they are selling seconds or something, but from at least one brewday photo set on here I can see someone else with a dent in the same place on their thermo box.

Not sure whether to recommend them - the thermo box works well and is good value, but just expect a few dings and a dent or two when it arrives.

[andysmok]

Hmmm, I like the look of these thermo pots but just wish there was a seller in the UK. Apparently there was a Uk seller on ebay once but it looks like they have stopped trading. I think i'd be quite disappointed if mine came bruised and battered, but having said that for the price it is not going to effect the performance i supose. I think i shall root on the Internet a little more.

[Garth]

Both my 50 litre thermo pots arrived safe and vitually unharmed from Germany, this was a couple of years ago when they advertised on ebay.co.uk

get them bought, they'll be fine, although I've noticed the price is a lot higher now

my first one took nearly 2 weeks to arrive so be patient

I'm after an 80 litre one soon, 50 is just a bit too small

[prolix]

I bought a 70L thermo as a HLT from them this year (french ebay) and previously a 40 and 70l thermos (uk ebay) as mash tun and boiler.

They are great, went for those sizes as I can brew 10 gallons and they came with tap hole pre drilled. Got element here (water heater, wall mounted) so only drilled two small holes and dremelled outside to install and 3kw each, so boils not simmers as with 2.4kw kettle elements.

(thanks to who ever it was I got the ideas off of )

[Damfoose]

I bought a 38litre thermo pot from the same people. i am now thinking of making a huge change to my brewery and getting 1x100 litre thermo pot 1x70 litre thermo pot and a 50 litre one.

Use the 70 as a HLT the 50 as a mashtun and the 100 for storage of the wort means I can mash get all of the wort into one place and then make 2 diffrent brews using the same malt / wort but diffrent hops could even water one of the brews down a little pre boil to make it a little less alcoholic.

On the plus side the 38 thermo pot I got from them was the best purchase for brewing I made they really are fantastic as mashtuns loosing at most 1C over a 90 min mash , You really can not go wrong with one. Mine does have 3 lines that are about 8" long going straight down the inside of the tun that has a very slight rust look but other than that the thing does exactly as requested keep the water and grain at 66C for an hour and a half.


Unfortunatley at the moment wallet says NO !

[CJBrew]

These look pretty damn good. Compared to http://www.zen37219.zen.co.uk/boilers.htm (see halfway down the page, 75l SS boiler for £240), I think I could be well on the way to having a shiny MT _and_ BK for the same price.

A couple of questions for people that have these already:

Using a thermo pot for a mash tun do you need any extra insulation?
How easy would it be to attach a temperature dial type thing, and a false bottom or bazooka type thing? Wouldn't drilling through it mess up the insulation?
Is it correct that there's already a tap and hole at the bottom? What's the quality of the taps like- would you want to get a nice sort of ballvalve to replace them?

Chris

[Nermal]

A couple of questions for people that have these already:

Using a thermo pot for a mash tun do you need any extra insulation?
How easy would it be to attach a temperature dial type thing, and a false bottom or bazooka type thing? Wouldn't drilling through it mess up the insulation?
Is it correct that there's already a tap and hole at the bottom? What's the quality of the taps like- would you want to get a nice sort of ballvalve to replace them?

Chris

I'm not using any additional insulation and people report losing about 1C over 90 minutes - plus extra insulation would hide the shinyness

You'd have to do the whole 'drill a hole in the outer skin big enough for the tool to punch through the inner skin to fit in, the punch through the inner skin' thing. I'm going to have to do this to install my temperature probes - not looking forward to it. QMax cutters / punches seem to be the thing to have.

Some sizes have a tap - the 38.5L does - I think the 70L one did too. It's not very good quality - very messy on the inside - 1/2 inch ball valve can be screwed straight onto the through bit of the tap though so it's easy enough to replace.

[Scotty]

Don't worry at all about them, get 'em bought! My 100l pot arrived within in the week and although it had the odd dent, for £60 delivered you cannot grumble! Plus after a few uses it'll have more dents.

[andysmok]

Im going to get the 70l thermos (because of the hole already drilled to accomadate there tap)which i'll change for a ball valve.
also the 100l ss pot to use as a copper, not sure whether to go with gas or get an element for that? and i have my Hop and Grape style plastic boiler 10 gallons which should do me for now as a HLT. Would anyone know what would be the biggest batch i could do with that 70 litre mash tun say a 5% ABV beer

[Garth]

don't assume the 70 litre has a tap or a hole for it, iirc when they sold stuff on ebay.co.uk last year, anything over 50 litres came without tap or hole

they aren't that hard to fit, you have to use two different sizes holesaws, the correct size for the tap on the inner skin (probably 20mm for a 1/2" ballvalve) and a larger one on the outside skin to give clearance to the tap, but the stainless ain't that thick to drill through and B&Q now do the Bosch Cobalt drills and arbor to do this, you had to go to Screwfix before to get them.

[andysmok]

OK Garth I'll use my great knowlege of the German language (google translation tool) and ask them the question because if it doesnt come with the tap i might aswell buy the 80l instead

[andysmok]

I have spoke to the suplier and he has confirmed that the 70 litre thermos does come with a tap. http://cgi.ebay.fr/MARMITE-THERMOS-CAPA ... 286.c0.m14