Burco Boiler mod

[Simonh82]

The burco is a great bit of kit. I'm using mine for BIAB. To get a 23L brew in the fermenter you need a bit of extra wort to top up the boil along the way.

I can fit 27L in at the start of the boil and use Brupaks antifoam to keep the boil contained. I then top up with about 3L during the boil and try not to add any during the last half hour of the boil.

Some people will boil this top up wort in a separate pan in parallel with the main boil but I've not found this necessary.

My only grumble with it is the large dead space at the bottom but by tilting I only lose a couple of litres.

 

[BeerCat]

Might be worth mentioning that I don't use any kind of external boil control now. I managed to damage the solid state relay so now I just let it boil.

Same here , its on full or off. It seems to be running smoothly since i adjusted the thermostat and gave the element a really good clean. I think that's possible what was tripping it off.

 

[Steved53]

Yep, it's a concealed element. No problem for the bag and cleaning is dead easy.

I've just managed to burn a hole in my brand new bag, just trying to get the mash temp up a couple of degrees, concealed element and all - be a little cautious!

 

[Tony1951]

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My only grumble with it is the large dead space at the bottom but by tilting I only lose a couple of litres.

It probably drains a lot better because of that dead space. I wish my ACE boiler had more dead space. I get a lot of bunged up drain offs. You are always going to lose that trub and hop mess anyway. You either leave it in the boiler or you rack off the top of it in the fermenter.

 

[Steved53]

Incidentally, people seem to go on about how the Burco is a better boiler than the Buffalo (and maybe they mean the older ones), but from what I can see the Burco Cygnet is built exactly the same as the Buffalo.

Apart from the lid, and the stamping of Cygnet, and the volume difference, the rest seems the same. The photos showing the inner workings (stat etc) seem to be an exact copy of my 40l Buffalo (or vice versa!).

 

[Steved53]

Just for interest, I did have the usual problems mentioned for this boiler, and decided to take a look inside.

You can see where the thermocouple is attached to the base of the boiler. You might notice that mine is just kicking up a little, away from the base. I cut an old spade connecter, and slid it under the far end of that little housing, and screwed things back down. I also removed the cutout from the base, and refitted it using a couple of the tiny washers to move it away from the base a fraction. This is a much safer arrangement than detaching the cutout altogether. The cutout is still close enough to the base that the thickness of thermal paste is still touching both surfaces, but there is not quite metal to metal contact. This should still perform its function, but things would have to reach a higher temperature than before.

All tested and working, but only with water. We'll see how things go.

I noticed that if the stat does cut out, you can often bring things back on by turning the stat to fully off and then fully high.