Not recommended - Winging it. or Beer in a Burco.

I'm going against everything I know to be sensible.

I know that when doing AG figures are paramount. To get a beer that you want you need to know your efficiency and your system figures.

I've had one of these sat on the side for a month and I have a few hours spare and a keg of homebrew to go at.

So I'm brewing with new kit inside. I'll let you know how it goes.

27 Litres 3kw.

Well mash waters up to temp.

What to brew?

IPA or a Stout, Goblin? Mild.......

Mild it is.

Orfy said:

Mild it is.

Click to expand...

I think we all saw that one coming

Interesting piece of equipment! Let us know how it works out.

So you are using this as a mash tun? Are you worried about temp differences between top and the bottom where the heater is?

beerthirty said:

So you are using this as a mash tun? Are you worried about temp differences between top and the bottom where the heater is?

Click to expand...

Not yet.

HLT and Kettle.

May be tempted to insulate and use as a MLT as well.

Just made a syphon tube while the mash was doing.

Sparge water heating up. Seems like #4 gives me ~78°C.

I'm used to a 50L boil kettle. this is only 27l.

That thing looks like it would make a great HLT.

It did!

HLT spot on - Kettle not so good.

I think the thing is set to 100c max. (Makes sense really)

I think I gonna have to bypass the thermostat.

Luckily because the thing is stone age it'll boil then cut out then boil then cut out.
I'll just have to go for a 90 minute boil on this one.
Thankfully I has an over shoot on my prepboil gravity by a few points so I can afford a bit less boil off.

It's in the fermenter.

Never seen one of those before. Interesting. I'll be eager to read more about how this turned out.

Chad

Chad said:

Never seen one of those before. Interesting. I'll be eager to read more about how this turned out.

Chad

Click to expand...

You have never seen a large coffee urn?! Damn tea drinkers... Sorry Orfy.

Hate tea, hate instant coffee.

Love real Coffee and real Ale.

Chad said:

Never seen one of those before. Interesting. I'll be eager to read more about how this turned out.

Chad

Click to expand...

I'll do a bit more with it.

I have a PID controller that I've made but have yet to figure out how to program it. If I can figure it then I'll bypass the stat with that.

I suspect chad meant he has never seen a large coffee urn with the high flow rate "coffee hound" modification.

Orfy said:

Hate tea, hate instant coffee.

Love real Coffee and real Ale.

Click to expand...

Other than living in England I don't know why I ever thought you were English. You may immigrate at any time.

beerthirty said:

You have never seen a large coffee urn?! Damn tea drinkers... Sorry Orfy.

Click to expand...

I make my coffee in a French press. It never would have occurred to me that that thing might be a coffee urn. Damn. I suspect it will be much happier in its new life. Percolating industrial amounts of rotgut robusta can't be gratifying.

It's just a water boiler. Nothing as sophisticated as a percolator. Although Burco do make them.

I ended up changing the recipe.

Burco Bodge Stout.

BeerSmith Recipe Printout - www.beersmith.com
Recipe: Burco Bodge Stout.
Brewer: Orfy
Asst Brewer: the dogs
Style: Dry Stout
TYPE: All Grain
Taste: (0.0)

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Batch Size: 23.00 L
Boil Size: 27.00 L
Estimated OG: 1.044 SG
Estimated Color: 28.7 SRM
Estimated IBU: 38.3 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 80.0 %
Boil Time: 75 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amount Item Type % or IBU
3.00 kg Pale Malt, Maris Otter (3.0 SRM) Grain 72.3 %
0.75 kg Crystal Malt - 60L (Thomas Fawcett) (60.0 Grain 18.1 %
0.15 kg Black Barley (Stout) (500.0 SRM) Grain 3.6 %
0.15 kg Chocolate Malt (Thomas Fawcett) (508.0 SRMGrain 3.6 %
0.10 kg Barley, Torrefied (1.7 SRM) Grain 2.4 %
30.00 gm Styrian Goldings [5.00%] (75 min) Hops 15.8 IBU
30.00 gm Styrian Goldings [5.00%] (60 min) Hops 15.1 IBU
30.00 gm Styrian Goldings [5.00%] (15 min) Hops 7.5 IBU
1 Pkgs Yeast Cake Yeast-Ale


Mash Schedule: Single Infusion, Batch Sparge. - Hot
Total Grain Weight: 4.15 kg
----------------------------
Name Description Step Temp Step Time
Step Add 10.83 L of water at 81.0 C 70.0 C 60 min


Notes:
------
Winged Recipe.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

There's been a couple threads on here over the years about Burco Brewing. I hadn't heard of it, but I guess a lot of folks on your side of the pond have had some good results with those puppies.

I first heard about it in this thread. https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f36/smallest-fastest-all-grain-rig-world-91914/

And this. https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f11/coffee-urn-hlt-89901/

Seems like getting a couple of them and you could have a decent rig, especially if you got a couple of those 10 gallon sized urns.

In fact it looks like this homebrew supplier sells Burcos actually to the homebrewing community. http://www.brewuk.co.uk/store/index.php/ag-equipment/30ltr-burco-water-boiler.html

I googled Burco and Beer Brewing and found some more.

http://www.berriman.co.uk/hobbies/brewing/howibrew.shtml

http://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=4641&start=0&st=0&sk=t&sd=a

Thanks Revvy.

Lots of brewers use them in the UK.

This mainly stems from the lack of decent burners available the UK does not have turkey fryers or banjo burners.

I'm not looking replace my main outdoor system. I'm just thinking of doing indoor batches in the winter. I was just playing with it to see how it did.
The problem with these things is that they are cheap commercial items using low quality electronics.

Thats a great idea orfy! It makes a lot more sense as an HLT than those plastic bucket/electric HLT things you can get from Hop Shop. Our guy here in Ireland sells them for BIAB and doesn't even have a tap on them :-/

I have an 11g EKeg HLT for my main out door brew sessions.

I don't see the point of an electric Mash tun when a converted coler does such a good job. I do mainly classic British style ales with well modified modern malts that only need a simple mash. No need to change temps.

I also need to heat my sparge water at the same time has mashing so really need a separate vessel.

Lots of folk do use them for HLT, MLT and Copper though.

Orfy said:

Thanks Revvy.

Lots of brewers use them in the UK.

This mainly stems from the lack of decent burners available the UK does not have turkey fryers or banjo burners.

Click to expand...

You think? I thought the reason most of us use kettle elements is because of our 240V sockets. Bringing 10g to the boil with a couple of elements takes no time and gets a good boil going. I've got burners but I never use them, I don't like having to babysit them and/or running out of gas is a pain.

Never actually seen anyone use a burco as a kettle, interesting.

It takes about the same time.
If I had a 100,000 BTU gas burner I think I'd be happier using it. Mine is around 18,000
I like an 11 gallon brew pot compared to 6 gallon.

Like I say....Cheap.
By orfy, shot with N78 at 2009-11-17