Buffalo boilers

[Baz Chaz]

Baz,
Do you keep the lid on for the whole boil, or is it open air mostly? ..

Lid on for me, check re rolling boil then reduce to simmering, leave lid on until last 20 mins then lid off, turn up to rolling boil again, cooling coil in for last 15 mins :thumb: I know some say leave lid off but Aleman suggested it's not the problem that some think it is (if it's good enough for him I'm happy to do it thay way :lol: ) and my beer turns out OK :drink:

I'm surprised from the heat and steam that the duct tape doesn't fail..

Nope it's not been a problem and I'm certain the mat is the difference here, its very dense rubbery foam and hardly gets warm on the outside when there's a brew on :thumb:

Here's a question...I used a permanent marker to mark every 2 litres in my buffalo...then after my first AG, I assume due to the acidity of the wort, the markings are all but gone. I'm a little worried about the ink in my brew, but more concerned about how I can mark the boiler, without scratching markings into the stainless. Through marking, I was able to tell how much wort I collected from mash and sparge, and also how much was lost to the boil, which seemed like beneficial info.

:hmm: I do a bit of educated guesswork with my brews :wha:

Eg, for my Riggwelter, recipe states 33.5 litres of liquor in total, 12.9 litres for mashing.
Firstly I heat up 18 litres of water in boiler to mash with.... use 4 litres to warm mash tun first (then pour away)

then I use a big measuring jug, put 6.5 litres in big bucket & dough in half of the grain, pour mixture into tun, repeat with remaining grains :thumb:

For sparging heat up 21 liters (1 litre left in boiler from doughing in + another 20 litres ).......thats the 33.5 - 12.9 = 20.6, but 21's near enough :whistle:

I sparge 25 litre into marked bucket before putting into boiler, if I'm doing a 23 litre brew I'll put 25 litres into boiler before boiling 'cos I tend to lose about 2 litre with hops and boil :!:

After wort cooled it's going into marked FV, so when I empty boiler I get 23 litres or thereabouts,

I measure with hydrometer so I know if I've met the stated SG, fingers crossed I've not had a bad brew yet using this method :pray: no doubt some might be shaking their heads, but it works for me :drink:
Hope that was of some help :

 

[jampot]

I have a buffalo 40 llt boiler now. Has anyone worked out the exact amount of water capacity is up to the max line?

 

[Baz Chaz]

Nope :hmm: but 40 litres would be a good guess :lol:

nows your chance to do some testing :thumb:

 

[jampot]

Right done tests, up to the max line is just over 37 ltrs

 

[jampot]

Strange, 1st 30 mins the the boiler produced a roliing boil but then the thermostat cut out for 20 seconds then back on, then after the 30 minutes it produced a roiling boil all the time. Any ideas on a mod, Or would the jacket do?

 

[Baz Chaz]

As you can see from my earlier piccy I just insulated mine and have no probs :thumb: Don't think cutting out for 20 seconds is a great cause for worry :idea:

 

[jampot]

I will give it a go. Did you leave the mat in one piece and wrap it all the way round or cut it into pieces and seal with the tape?

 

[Baz Chaz]

....... Did you leave the mat in one piece and wrap it all the way round or cut it into pieces and seal with the tape?

I wrapped the camping mat round first in one piece, starting at the tap, then trimmed the overlap so it was a nice fit round the boiler, held it in position with some cord round the top/middle'ish' and bottom.

When pretty fimly held in position with the cord, trimmed round top, handles and tap, left the cord in place, covered the cord first with silver duct tape, put an extra 'band' of tape round bottom, (reckoning the tap area would be the most likely place to have any problems), then finally taped over the vertical join.

So far nothing fallen off/unpeeled and yes, its been wet a few times with filling/cleaning etc.

The mat is quite 'dense' foam, but it seems waterproof, anything sticky, ie wort, just wipes off nice and clean.

I didn't insulate the lid due to there being several small vents in it. I brewed yesterday and with lid on got up to rolling boil for 15 mins then knocked it back to strong simmer for 60 mins then lid off for last 15 mins at rolling boil again, loss from evaporation was minimal :thumb:

 

[jampot]

Thanks, that helped...

 

[jampot]

Been reduced again

http://www.nisbets.co.uk/products/produ ... Code=CC193

 

[cotti]

Right done tests, up to the max line is just over 37 ltrs

Mine came to exactly 40 liters on the max line when i calibrated the boiler.

 

[jampot]

Right done tests, up to the max line is just over 37 ltrs

Mine came to exactly 40 liters on the max line when i calibrated the boiler.

Not mine sadly.....Unless my 2ltr measuring jug is off!

 

[cotti]

Right done tests, up to the max line is just over 37 ltrs

Mine came to exactly 40 liters on the max line when i calibrated the boiler.

Not mine sadly.....Unless my 2ltr measuring jug is off!

Its quite normal for these things to be off you can check it with some accurate kitchen scales and see:)

 

[DavePow]

Hello!

I know this is a very old thread, but it's perfectly on topic.

I have the Buffalo 40 litre boiler, and have a question about it. However first, I'll contribute to the other parts of this thread.

Capacity
-------
I've measured the dimensions of mine and it's got a diameter of 38.3cm, and a height of 37.4cm.
That makes the height to brim 43 litres.

The max line is 5.7cm below the brim, so that makes it 36.5 litres to the line.

Ball Valve
--------
I too have fitted a ball valve to it, replacing the tap. However, I did not drill a larger hole, I simply added a reducing connector (15mm to 12mm).
It was just a case of cutting a bit of 15mm copper pipe, and tightening the connections with a spanner. The original tap can be put back on without problem.
My hop strainer fits in, but needs a bit of PTFE to secure.

Rolling Boil
---------
My thermostat is inaccurate (eg, showing 80ºC gives an actual temp around 90ºC), but it WILL hold a rolling boil. Or at least, it used to. That brings me on to my question...

I've used this for all 5 of my AG brews so far. It was only on this fifth one that something different happened.
The wort would be merrily boiling away, then the LED would light ORANGE, and the heat would switch off.
(Under normal operation, the LED lights only green.)
Eventually (after twiddling the thermostat up and down for up to a minute), normal operation will resume, and the LED will return to its usual green hue. Turning it back up then brings the boil back on.

There is no mention of the orange LED in the manual. Does anyone know what it is? It seems like some sort of deliberate cut-out mechanism. Is it the same thing as Jampot was experiencing?

Anyway, hello all! This is my first post, and I look forward to contributing further in the future.

Dave.