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Mickeywheelspin

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Hi,

Long story short, I'm mid boil and my Buffalo is cutting in and out, what impact will this have on my brew? It gets to a rolling boil then stops for a couple of minutes then restarts.

I had issues with my first brew and had to tip it as the thermal fuse had blown. I bypassed the thermal fuse and cutout for the second brew which went really well but wanted to reintroduce a higher rated thermal cutout to prevent damage which I wired in last night - seems that 130 degrees isnt high enough. I cant remove the base to bypass it while its full so wondering if I just carry on and make the best of it or tip boiling liquid into an FV, bypass the cutout and carry on where I left off?

I don't fancy tipping boiling liquid to be honest, so what's the impact of a dodgy boil? I got hot break ok if that helps...

Thanks all.
 
I think you will have to carry on.
You could try giving the bottom of the boiler a scrape to dislodge any protein build up.
That is assuming you have an enclosed element as I am not familiar with Buffalo boiler and this was a tip with the Grainfather if it didn't reach a boil or the safety cut out..
 
My boiler boils too furiously so I set it just above 100*c and it cuts on and off. The beer always comes out fine but I usually do a 90 minute `boil' so that it has more time actually boiling. My taste buds tell me it's not a problem.
 
I would do what Crw does and just boil longer until you have estimated a 60 minute actual boil time.. you can get away with shorter boil times it is believed (unless you are doing pilsner) although I am not sure ever would.. but in genereal I think you could boil a bit longer and you should be okay
 
Thanks guys. I did go for a slightly longer boil in the end but possibly not long enough as I was about a litre over and missed my SG. Still 1050 but should be perfectly drinkable.

Bitterness and hop aroma may be down slightly, not much I can do about the bitterness now (although it takes plenty bitter enough now) but I'll up the dry hop to help the late addition hops a bit. Tastes like it'll be fine from the sample jar.

Lesson learned, I'll be bypassing the safety's again before the next brew.
 
I think you will have to carry on.
You could try giving the bottom of the boiler a scrape to dislodge any protein build up.
That is assuming you have an enclosed element as I am not familiar with Buffalo boiler and this was a tip with the Grainfather if it didn't reach a boil or the safety cut out..

Yep, enclosed element. Break material and hops may be an issue. I've also fitted a bazooka which goes over the element, a common mod for these urns but likely a factor.
 
Bitterness and hop aroma may be down slightly, not much I can do about the bitterness now (although it takes plenty bitter enough now)

Well actually there is. I've been reading about hop teas quite a bit recently and you can add bitterness by boiling some hops and adding the tea. Have a taste of your brew after it ferments out and if necessary just add some hop tea.
 
Well actually there is. I've been reading about hop teas quite a bit recently and you can add bitterness by boiling some hops and adding the tea. Have a taste of your brew after it ferments out and if necessary just add some hop tea.

MQ as of late I've been boiling about 40g of whatever hop and then adding tea and the bag to the FV for the duration of my kit brew with no dry hopping ( you know my paranoia of dry hopping over the summer). I'm liking the results but from what you've reading what do you reckon? Any tips would be gratefully received.
 
MQ as of late I've been boiling about 40g of whatever hop and then adding tea and the bag to the FV for the duration of my kit brew with no dry hopping ( you know my paranoia of dry hopping over the summer). I'm liking the results but from what you've reading what do you reckon? Any tips would be gratefully received.

It seems your happy with what your doing but I note you say you've been "boiling" your hops to make the tea. This is fine if you want to add bitterness as well as flavour and aroma but if you just want to add flavour and aroma alone you need to steep the hops as less than 80C as (hop bitterness isomerises at 80C and above). I read steeping at 75C for 20mins is good so will be having a go at this later this week - as I only want to add flavour and aromo. All bitterness will be added during the boil.
 
It seems your happy with what your doing but I note you say you've been "boiling" your hops to make the tea. This is fine if you want to add bitterness as well as flavour and aroma but if you just want to add flavour and aroma alone you need to steep the hops as less than 80C as (hop bitterness isomerises at 80C and above). I read steeping at 75C for 20mins is good so will be having a go at this later this week - as I only want to add flavour and aromo. All bitterness will be added during the boil.

Interesting MQ, you're right I do like the bitterness the 20m hard boil brings and I think sitting the hop bag in the FV for the duration adds to that (but I'd appreciate it if someone could confirm that). I do like the idea of steeping the hops at a set temp for a set amount of time, fine tuning hop aroma and flavour release, I like your thinking. I know I don't to AG brewing but I've just had the maddest idea, let's talk about a 23L brew. You take your amounts of hops and your boil time, you boil them in 6L of water (this is open to debate) up to flame out and then you turn the gas out and when done you seal the pot against infection(but with no sugars present the risk is very low). Then you steep 4.5kg MO and 500g associated grain as per your choice (I told you I'm not an AG brewer) for the hour at your preferred temp. You then add 17L of wort (I’ve got a 21L pot) and the hop tea in to the FV, giving it a good stir and then pitching the yeast when at temp without doing the full on boil? I know it’s going to be shot down in flames but I’m looking forward to see why.
Is it that you haven’t boiled the wild yeast out of the wort?
 
Interesting MQ, you're right I do like the bitterness the 20m hard boil brings and I think sitting the hop bag in the FV for the duration adds to that (but I'd appreciate it if someone could confirm that). I do like the idea of steeping the hops at a set temp for a set amount of time, fine tuning hop aroma and flavour release, I like your thinking. I know I don't to AG brewing but I've just had the maddest idea, let's talk about a 23L brew. You take your amounts of hops and your boil time, you boil them in 6L of water (this is open to debate) up to flame out and then you turn the gas out and when done you seal the pot against infection(but with no sugars present the risk is very low). Then you steep 4.5kg MO and 500g associated grain as per your choice (I told you I'm not an AG brewer) for the hour at your preferred temp. You then add 17L of wort (I’ve got a 21L pot) and the hop tea in to the FV, giving it a good stir and then pitching the yeast when at temp without doing the full on boil? I know it’s going to be shot down in flames but I’m looking forward to see why.
Is it that you haven’t boiled the wild yeast out of the wort?

I can kind of see where your going with this but...getting my machine gun out...

You have to boil wort. This is for a few reasons i) To sanitise it ii) boil off unwanted compounds like DMS iii) boiling aids in shelf life once the beer is packaged.

But technically you can just use water and hops to add bittering, aroma and flavour to wort as hops do isomerize (extract the bitterness) in water. However all the calculator are for isomerisation in wort. Isomerization happens at different amount at different densitys of wort (gravity) (I think- but I'm pretty sure) and this is what calculators will help you work out. So You wont really know your IBU's if you only use water unless there's a calculator on the web somewhere which works out IBUs in water
 
I can kind of see where your going with this but...getting my machine gun out...

You have to boil wort. This is for a few reasons i) To sanitise it ii) boil off unwanted compounds like DMS iii) boiling aids in shelf life once the beer is packaged.

But technically you can just use water and hops to add bittering, aroma and flavour to wort as hops do isomerize (extract the bitterness) in water. However all the calculator are for isomerisation in wort. Isomerization happens at different amount at different densitys of wort (gravity) (I think- but I'm pretty sure) and this is what calculators will help you work out. So You wont really know your IBU's if you only use water unless there's a calculator on the web somewhere which works out IBUs in water

So boiling the hops in the wort is just more efficient, told you I'd enjoy finding out why, But..... (you didn't think I'd let it go) So you boil your wort but steep your hops separately at lower temps than the boil, it allows you to get different flavour and bitterness releases from the hops that you then add the tea to the FV. As you're doing steeping hop s at 75c for 20mins this week to add aroma. My thinking is that you can give a low alpha content hops a hard long boil, and you can give a high alpha hop a low temp steep and see where it goes.
 
degrees
Well actually there is. I've been reading about hop teas quite a bit recently and you can add bitterness by boiling some hops and adding the tea. Have a taste of your brew after it ferments out and if necessary just add some hop tea.

Ok, I'll wait and see - thanks for the tip. Hopefully It'll be ok as the temperature generally didn't drop far below 95 degrees so well over the 80 degree mark to extract bitterness.
 
So boiling the hops in the wort is just more efficient, told you I'd enjoy finding out why, But..... (you didn't think I'd let it go) So you boil your wort but steep your hops separately at lower temps than the boil, it allows you to get different flavour and bitterness releases from the hops that you then add the tea to the FV. As you're doing steeping hop s at 75c for 20mins this week to add aroma. My thinking is that you can give a low alpha content hops a hard long boil, and you can give a high alpha hop a low temp steep and see where it goes.

I don't know if boiling hops in water is more efficient than boiling in wort as the focus of my research into hop tea was what temp to steep at and how long to extract flavour rather than extracting IBU's using hop tea, so I've reached the limit of my knowledge on that.

As such I would have no idea how much IBU's/bitterness I would extract from the low alpha content hops given a long hard boil if I were to boil them in water
 
My buffalo boiler used to do that, I bypassed the thermal cutout switch.

To play it safer I think you can buy a cutout switch which reaches a higher temp.

Been working fine for over 12 months now
 
Mine used to do that too, 5mins boil, 5mins cutout. I had a newer buffalo with a 140 deg cutout . I bypassed that and the problem remained. The culprit was the temp pot\ rheostat. I wired that that out and now it boils continuously. I'll send a link to my wiring
 
Mine used to do that too, 5mins boil, 5mins cutout. I had a newer buffalo with a 140 deg cutout . I bypassed that and the problem remained. The culprit was the temp pot\ rheostat. I wired that that out and now it boils continuously. I'll send a link to my wiring

Here's pic of the rewire


http://wp.me/p6775V-2q

wpid-wp-1441020659379.jpg
 
Thanks. For the previous brew I bypassed the cutout and fuse and had no issues so hopefully its not the pot. For this brew I left the fuse bypassed but put in a new 140 degree cutout and the problem came back. It may be a dodgy cutout (bought for pennies on-line), or may be a build up of crud between the element and bazooka. It's frustratiing when you know what the problem is but with the boiler full you cant get in there to change it.

I was toying with wiring in a cutout bypass switch to short it out so if it causes further issues I can bypass it from outside, but I reckon I'll just bypass it and wire in a new fuse rated at around 190 degrees to protect against catastrophic failure.
 
Mine kept doing the same, so I fitted an additional element. When the buffalo brings the wort up to the boil, I turn it off and switch on the additional element and that keeps it at a lovely rolling boil.
I know this doesn't help mid brew, but is worth considering in the future. Even have a Q-max cutter which I'm happy to loan to you if you want to cut a hole in the buffalo.
 
Lesson learned, I'll be bypassing the safety's again before the next brew.

Got mine with:
- safety cut-out @ 140 degrees (from 125)
- blow out fuse @ 184 degrees 16A (from 168)
- silicone between the temp probe & the pot.

Don't like the idea of bypassing safety's. Better to raise them a bit (at your own risk).

Still suffered from thermostat topping out until I stuck the silicone inbetween the sensor (as opposed to just letting it fly loose).
 
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