Looking at picking up some Blichmann

equipment. I like the idea of being able to heat my sparge water and put it directly into the mashtun before I start boiling.

What suggestions would those of you who use Blichmann give me on the first pieces of equipment to acquire, new or used.

Wow, I thought there would be more Blichmann users to offer up some advice besides "Bring checkbook"

I'm a little confused at exactly what you are looking to do. Are you looking for kettles? Pumps? How do you sparge? batch or fly? How many gallons are you looking to brew?

I have some Blichmann equipment and I generally love what I have. Here is what I've got that is Blichmann.
Two Blichmann floor burners with Top Tier conversion kits. I have them mounted on my brew stand - not Blichmann. I also have the extended legs for the floor burner but not using them now -- my stand made them obsolete.
I have Blichmann Brewmometers on my boil kettles. Love them. No Blichmann kettles.
I have the Blichmann HopRocket. Great device.
I also have the HopBlocker. This is a piece of junk and not with the money.

So, what kind of Blichmann gear are you looking to buy?

Hopblocker sucks? I was thinking of picking it up. Does it do a poor job of blocking to hops and proteins? Would you like to sell the Blichmann legs?

Gothic_Horror said:

Hopblocker sucks? I was thinking of picking it up. Does it do a poor job of blocking to hops and proteins? Would you like to sell the Blichmann legs?

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My problem with the hop-blocker is that I do not have a Blichmann kettle ( you need to be able to easily remove and install the hop-blocker for regular cleaning). It is best suited for the boiler maker. My installation was more or less permanent and did nit work well. The experience might be different for those who have boiler makers. To be honest, the reviews that I have read on the hop blocker are all to the extremes: people either love them or hate them. There does not seem to be any middle ground.

Now for the HooRocket - Blichmann's hop back and Randall! It is great. It adds a nice hop aroma to my brews and does filter out the hop debris.


Finally for those legs, I am willing to part with them. What do you think they are worth? I think that the original purchase price was $35.00.

Mark

Thanks for the response on the blocker. I don't have a Blichmann boilermaker pot. I was going to piece together a stock pot and parts from Bobby or Bargainfittings, one of which would be a dip tube of some sort. Most of those are threaded, which may make it a pain for cleaning.

As for the legs. What would it cost to ship to 60625?

We use the blichmann floor burners with the leg extensions. The burners are awesome. We also have the blichmann Hop Rocket and use it while brewing and as a Randall/Hop Rocket. That is a great piece of equipment. We love it. I have written a review and also what parts are needed for the conversion at www.vikingales.com. Our next purchase is a single tier stand. Since you can't buy the stands individually we will probably fabricate one. Did you build your stand?

i have a good bit of Blichmann gear including the HopBlocker and it sucks. might work for others but it was useless for me.

PaulVikingAles said:

We use the blichmann floor burners with the leg extensions. The burners are awesome. We also have the blichmann Hop Rocket and use it while brewing and as a Randall/Hop Rocket. That is a great piece of equipment. We love it. I have written a review and also what parts are needed for the conversion at www.vikingales.com. Our next purchase is a single tier stand. Since you can't buy the stands individually we will probably fabricate one. Did you build your stand?

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HI built my stand using Unistrut. Check out this thread; there is a lot of information in it. My stand is shown at Post 194. Unistrut is really easy to work with and it provides an alternative to other builds within a respectable price range.

I attached the burners to Unistrut using Unistrut washers, bolts, and Unistrut nuts. I sandwiched the bottom of the stand between the flat washers and the strut itself. It works great.

Mark

I own a Top Tier with three burners, two Boilermakers (one more on the way), a Therminator, AutoSparge, and BeerGun.

I have owned but no longer own a HopBlocker and ThruMometer.

The HopBlocker never worked great for me, so I parted ways with it. For containing pellet hops, I now use a stainless basket from Stainless Brewing, which is terrific and is a better solution for me. The ThruMometer worked well but I moved on to a digital set up which is a huge improvement due to the faster reaction time of the probe thermometer.

Everything else I own has been a pleasure to use, no real complaints. The Boilermakers and Therminator are awesome. My main beef is minor, but the heat shield included with the Boilermakers could have had some more thought put into it. It is awkward to use, and basically seems like an afterthought.

I am moving from a single-kettle-two-cooler set up to a three Boilermaker automated RIMS system. I still haven't decided if I am going to DIY or go with the Tower of Power ($$$$), I although I am leaning in the direction of the TOP.

LuiInIdaho said:

I have some Blichmann equipment and I generally love what I have. Here is what I've got that is Blichmann.
Two Blichmann floor burners with Top Tier conversion kits. I have them mounted on my brew stand - not Blichmann. I also have the extended legs for the floor burner but not using them now -- my stand made them obsolete.
I have Blichmann Brewmometers on my boil kettles. Love them. No Blichmann kettles.
I have the Blichmann HopRocket. Great device.
I also have the HopBlocker. This is a piece of junk and not with the money.

So, what kind of Blichmann gear are you looking to buy?

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Any interest in parting with the hop blocker. I've been interested in trying it in my boilermaker but $60 is too steep for the possibility that I might scrap it after 2 brews. I'm thinking $35 shipped.

one of the problems i found with the HopBlocker is that during the boil the thing fills with hops and when i opened the valve the dip tube would clog right away.

Gartywood said:

Any interest in parting with the hop blocker. I've been interested in trying it in my boilermaker but $60 is too steep for the possibility that I might scrap it after 2 brews. I'm thinking $35 shipped.

Click to expand...

I sent you a PM regarding this.

Mark

I have never fly sparged, I brew 5 gallon batches. The new mashtun is a gatorade cooler with a false bottom screen.

I'm guessing I'll probably start out with one or two burners and move on from there