DIY false bottom for Burco

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

I thought I'd share how I made a new false bottom for my Burco (30L Burco Cygnet MFCT1030 to be precise) to strain the wort from the hops after the boil.
In the past I've used a mesh filter fitted to the inside of the tap, a bit like a 'bazooka' style one, but I got a bit fed up with (a) the amount of wort it leaves in the boiler; and (b) the inconvenience of cleaning it out.

Here's a pic of what I made, and of it installed in the boiler:

So basically it's just a 30cm one-piece stainless steel tamis (drum) sieve, with a skin fitting ('SKF') marine tank drain fitted through the middle. I clipped out a neat hole for it with wire cutters.

You can see I also cut a bit out of the side to make room for the tap, but other than that the only tweak was to put three small (M2 x 8mm) stainless bolts through to stop the weight of wet hops pushing the drain down against the floor of the boiler.

The 30cm diameter fits nice and snugly into the 'outer' tapered recess in the floor of the boiler and the drain fitting sits nicely above the inner recess in the centre. The bend on the silicone hose pushes it towards the back though so I stuck a little offcut of hose in there to keep it centred (top left of first photo).

The only thing I'd change another time would be to use a coarser mesh sieve. This one is 20 mesh (0.9mm hole) but 10 mesh (2mm hole) would be better because the 20mesh stuff traps bubbles of steam under which makes boiling a bit too 'bumpy'. That's easily fixed by putting a few 2mm holes through here and there.

Just for reference, the parts I used were:

• 30cm 1 Piece Stainless Steel Sieve: I used this one from Amazon (£16.67) but I suspect this one from eBay (£5.84) would be the same if you don't mind waiting for delivery
• Stainless Steel Skin Fitting 15mm 16mm Hose Boat Marine Bulkhead Drain: this one from eBay (£9.39)
• 1/2m of 13mm inner diameter silicone hose
• three 8mm small (e.g. M2) stainless nuts and bolts

 

[Cheshire Cat]

I thought I'd share how I made a new false bottom for my Burco (30L Burco Cygnet MFCT1030 to be precise) to strain the wort from the hops after the boil.
In the past I've used a mesh filter fitted to the inside of the tap, a bit like a 'bazooka' style one, but I got a bit fed up with (a) the amount of wort it leaves in the boiler; and (b) the inconvenience of cleaning it out.

Here's a pic of what I made, and of it installed in the boiler:
View attachment 35314 View attachment 35313 View attachment 35318 View attachment 35316

So basically it's just a 30cm one-piece stainless steel tamis (drum) sieve, with a skin fitting ('SKF') marine tank drain fitted through the middle. I clipped out a neat hole for it with wire cutters.

You can see I also cut a bit out of the side to make room for the tap, but other than that the only tweak was to put three small (M2 x 8mm) stainless bolts through to stop the weight of wet hops pushing the drain down against the floor of the boiler.

The 30cm diameter fits nice and snugly into the 'outer' tapered recess in the floor of the boiler and the drain fitting sits nicely above the inner recess in the centre. The bend on the silicone hose pushes it towards the back though so I stuck a little offcut of hose in there to keep it centred (top left of first photo).

The only thing I'd change would be to use a coarser mesh sieve. This one is 20 mesh (0.9mm hole) but 10 mesh (2mm hole) would be better because the 20mesh stuff traps bubbles of steam under which makes boiling a bit too 'bumpy'. That's easily fixed by putting a few 2mm holes through here and there.

Just for reference, the parts I used were:

• 30cm 1 Piece Stainless Steel Sieve: I used this one from Amazon (£16.67) but I suspect this one from eBay (£5.84) would be the same if you don't mind waiting for delivery
• Stainless Steel Skin Fitting 15mm 16mm Hose Boat Marine Bulkhead Drain: this one from eBay (£9.39)
• 1/2m of 13mm inner diameter silicone hose
• three 8mm small (e.g. M2) stainless nuts and bolts

Really impressive well done.

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

Really impressive well done.

Thank-you, kind sir! :hat:

 

[Gerryjo]

I thought I'd share how I made a new false bottom for my Burco (30L Burco Cygnet MFCT1030 to be precise) to strain the wort from the hops after the boil.
In the past I've used a mesh filter fitted to the inside of the tap, a bit like a 'bazooka' style one, but I got a bit fed up with (a) the amount of wort it leaves in the boiler; and (b) the inconvenience of cleaning it out.

Here's a pic of what I made, and of it installed in the boiler:
View attachment 35314 View attachment 35313 View attachment 35318 View attachment 35316

So basically it's just a 30cm one-piece stainless steel tamis (drum) sieve, with a skin fitting ('SKF') marine tank drain fitted through the middle. I clipped out a neat hole for it with wire cutters.

You can see I also cut a bit out of the side to make room for the tap, but other than that the only tweak was to put three small (M2 x 8mm) stainless bolts through to stop the weight of wet hops pushing the drain down against the floor of the boiler.

The 30cm diameter fits nice and snugly into the 'outer' tapered recess in the floor of the boiler and the drain fitting sits nicely above the inner recess in the centre. The bend on the silicone hose pushes it towards the back though so I stuck a little offcut of hose in there to keep it centred (top left of first photo).

The only thing I'd change another time would be to use a coarser mesh sieve. This one is 20 mesh (0.9mm hole) but 10 mesh (2mm hole) would be better because the 20mesh stuff traps bubbles of steam under which makes boiling a bit too 'bumpy'. That's easily fixed by putting a few 2mm holes through here and there.

Just for reference, the parts I used were:

• 30cm 1 Piece Stainless Steel Sieve: I used this one from Amazon (£16.67) but I suspect this one from eBay (£5.84) would be the same if you don't mind waiting for delivery
• Stainless Steel Skin Fitting 15mm 16mm Hose Boat Marine Bulkhead Drain: this one from eBay (£9.39)
• 1/2m of 13mm inner diameter silicone hose
• three 8mm small (e.g. M2) stainless nuts and bolts

Excellent quality and very professional, and certainly looks the part.
I made one from a pizza tray and 1/2 copper but the use of the silicone is great

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

Excellent quality and very professional, and certainly looks the part.
I made one from a pizza tray and 1/2 copper but the use of the silicone is great

Ta - I'm hoping that the deep sides will mean that after the battle I can lift it out and just tip the hop debris onto the compost... we'll see if that works out in practice eh :-)

 

[Gerryjo]

Ta - I'm hoping that the deep sides will mean that after the battle I can lift it out and just tip the hop debris onto the compost... we'll see if that works out in practice eh :-)

TBH I removed mine as the dish was really shallow and was causing issue with the boil and in the end I found whirlpooling a more effective method with my drain tap ext diverted to the side wall and raised about an 1" of the base as this tends to cone the hops and trub to the centre though still use a sieve when transferring to the fermenter.Keep os updated as this may be worth a revisit and I may also check out the false bottom I have for the BrewZilla.

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

TBH I removed mine as the dish was really shallow and was causing issue with the boil and in the end I found whirlpooling a more effective method with my drain tap ext diverted to the side wall and raised about an 1" of the base as this tends to cone the hops and trub to the centre though still use a sieve when transferring to the fermenter.Keep os updated as this may be worth a revisit and I may also check out the false bottom I have for the BrewZilla.View attachment 35338

Sure - I will.

I'd be interested to know what your issues were with the boil. I did a trial run with mine last night and I was amazed how hard it is for the bubbles of water vapour to get through the 1mm mesh - I guess it's surface tension. I saw the bubbles just pooling together under the mesh, and impeding the circulation so that the water trapped underneath got super hot and then did a big BLOOP like a mini geyser. I'm hoping making a few larger holes here and there will improve that, but your holes look pretty big... hmm...

 

[Gerryjo]

Sure - I will.

I'd be interested to know what your issues were with the boil. I did a trial run with mine last night and I was amazed how hard it is for the bubbles of water vapour to get through the 1mm mesh - I guess it's surface tension. I saw the bubbles just pooling together under the mesh, and impeding the circulation so that the water trapped underneath got super hot and then did a big BLOOP like a mini geyser. I'm hoping making a few larger holes here and there will improve that, but your holes look pretty big... hmm...

It happened when grain hops got under the dish and at times would get a surge of a heat bubble where it got super hot blowing out. Even though the holes seemed big enough the dish covered the element area and seems like it was acting as an insulator. I'm sure if I had tried it with a wider and deeper dish it would probably have solved the problem.

 

[Ashman]

Funny I have been looking at Pizza trays, splatter guards, pressure cookers stands, steamer racks. Steamer racks looked ok but not many size matches and the holes aren’t right.

google also led me to those trays that are used in restaurants.Whether they can have holes punched out in them who knows.

 

[Gerryjo]

Funny I have been looking at Pizza trays, splatter guards, pressure cookers stands, steamer racks. Steamer racks looked ok but not many size matches and the holes aren’t right.

google also led me to those trays that are used in restaurants.Whether they can have holes punched out in them who knows.

The steamer rack looks good if the dimensions were good especially for BIAB.

 

[foxy]

Helix (stainless steel extension spring)

All hops and break material left in the kettle.

What goes into the fermenter?

Some cold break and that's all.

It is worth mentioning, reducing the tap outlet to about 8 mm or less will also get good results. Just some patience to let the trub settle, draw off about 200 ml to remove the trub from around the out let and clear wort will flow.

Looking inside my Snubnose after a 40 litre brew so a shed load of hops went in no spiders, helix or bags just the reducer and a couple of hours settling time.

 

[uDicko]

Helix (stainless steel extension spring)

So I bought one but don't know the additional parts to get hooked up to grainfather without making any bigger/more holes in the body. Any hints? For the lazy?

 

[foxy]

So I bought one but don't know the additional parts to get hooked up to grainfather without making any bigger/more holes in the body. Any hints? For the lazy?

A female 1/2 inch BSP elbow, with only one helix, empty into fermenter at between 30 and 40 C while the viscosity is low.

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

V1.1: same number of holes in the sieve, but some of them are bigger than before

Also works as a steamer in the kitchen! (the Missus just rolled her eyes despairingly...)

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

Helix (stainless steel extension spring)

Really like that helix design - very nice. Thinking I could do something similar with a length of silicone hose with lotsa holes drilled in it, with some stainless nuts in there to weight it down...?

 

[aamcle]

Nice, very nice I don't know that I have ever seen a better one.

You may find that pellet hop sludge goes through, it certainly would through a 2mm opening.


Aamcle

 

[Scrattajack]

Does this stuff not have to be 304 grade SS or whatever to prevent metallic tastes?

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

First use for the V1.1 today and everything went well.
No problems with the boil, I’m relieved to say; and after the runoff there was very little wort left in the boiler.
Aaaand all the hop debris retained within the sieve and very easy to lift out.
Chalk this one up as a success I think

 

[foxy]

This is my last brew, purposely used nothing bar the dip tube, patience and a slow fill.

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

Nice, very nice I don't know that I have ever seen a better one.

You may find that pellet hop sludge goes through, it certainly would through a 2mm opening.

Thanks! Yes, in fact I haven’t tried hop pellets yet, but I have heard that they do produce some sludge. I don’t mind a small amount bit of debris getting through really; the main objective is just to drain down the boiler without the tap blocking up... even so, it seems to come out pretty clean: I think the hops form a kind of bed and filter some of the smaller stuff out...