old copper washer to Braumeister?

[dug]

I bought this old derby electric copper from a guy off gumtree a few months back, (His Italian mum used it to boil up her preserving jars). I wanted to use it in my brew setup some way.

well after a long wait a little research I think I will try to make a braumeister clone with a bonjuino and matho's controller. It holds 50l in its copper inside and is insulated, BUT and this is a big but it has 2 elements, (3000W i think), that draw 18amps!... the Italian mum had it hardwired into a 20amp circuit.

So I have to think I little more before going down this road questions I need to research include.

- how big a mash do I want to do?
- what to use as a mash tunnel?
- will stainless and copper react in the wort creating off flavors or potentially high, (unhealthy), levels of copper?
- do I replace the elements? what wattage?
- How to cool it down?
- what sort of pump?
- whirlpooling is it worth it?

This will be a slow build using as many reused, recycled, up-cycled parts as possible, think Kevin McCleod's man made.

 

[MastersBrewery]

Bit excited I see!! So ya bloody should be mate nice score!!!!

Firstly give the thing a good clean, simplest method throw 4 quartered lemons in it while its full and boiling.

You shouldn't have to switch out elements unless the draw on power is greater than you can supply, it may be that splitting each element to a separate cable and plug is cheaper and will also allow better heat control and prevent scorching/boil overs.

50l boiler with proper control could knock out 30L to the fermenter say 25L to be safe

Mash tunnel? I think you mean mash pipe but either way SS will be fine galvanic reactions take time, much longer than a brew takes. For the sake of argument I'd store separately. Mash pipe between 19- 25L.

Pump: some have used 12v "little brown pumps" or 12v solar hot water pumps, some have gone all out with March and others kaxian pumps, end of the day you get what you pay for, for me on a system such as this I might try the 12v solar pump(recently came up in gear and equipment thread).

Whirl pooling has advantages, and can be easily achieved with a mash paddle etc you can set up a pumped whirlpool once you've had a beer or two from the system.

cooling AKA chilling, the recent age old question of whether to chill or to No-chill.... this black duck aint going there!!!

 

[Edak]

I want to e it when it's clean! Bling!

 

[dug]

A few sheets of 600 and 800 wet and dry and a few hours soak in a dilute vinegar solution later.

 

[spog]

Fill her up with water and a dash or 2 of citric acid add some heat,drain,rinse and your good to go.
Cheers....spog...

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

Stainless + Copper = Good. You can even solder or braze stainless to copper

 

[dug]

I've been doing some reading into copper toxicity and I'm really don't think I'm going to use this copper for beer making. basically recommendations are that untreated copper is ok..ish for non acidic foods. but when you have acidic foods, ie wort, then the copper can be dissolved into solution. This can cause off flavours to sickness. Not good.

And then I unscrewed the base of the copper to have a look at the electrics, and I may have a slight problem..... asbestos The insulation is white fluffy and doesn't look like glass fiber. I've sprayed it with hairspray to hold it all in place, I really don't want the dust coming off. I'm getting a mate who works for a ohs environmental testing company come round and check it out. But until then the copper is going to be bagged up an untouched

 

[Blind Dog]

The possible asbestos is a problem. The copper isn't. Used for hundreds of years for boiling wort, whiskey distilleries etc and still used today

 

[dug]

Good news the insulation isn't asbestos. Didn't get away scott free though, the fabric covering the wiring is probably asbestos. But that is fairly stable form and I was planning on replacing the wiring anyway. So the build goes on.

After another soak in Vinegar solution I've removed the elements and sanded down the copper on the base with wet and dry. The element had a light coating of rust that came off easily with a scrubbing brush. This has exposed the copper underneath the chrome/tin coating so that will need to be re-coated. Speaking of re coating turns out that there is a guy who makes copper pots and pans in the north of the state so I'll have to talk to him about getting the copper tinned. I'm not going to have the copper exposed to the acidic wort. just one look at how the vinegar solution was stained blue/green from the dissolved copper has made up my mind.

Now to work out the plumbing and mash pipe setup.

 

[Mardoo]

Copper has been used for boiling wort for hundreds of years, and is used to this day. Hence the name "copper" for the boil kettle. You really have nothing to worry about. As said earlier in the thread. IIRC copper contacting the wort during the boil helps contribute to yeast health. (a brief moment of research) Yep, it's a micronutrient for the yeast and also helps contribute to sulfur compound binding, thereby contributing to reductions in development of DMS and it's precursors.

However, you will not be able to use caustic cleaners as they react badly with the copper.

 

[dug]

Well what an effort it was to take the piping off the bottom of the copper. The easy part was taking the brass "filter" off by melting the braising with a blow torch. Removing the tap on the other hand was very hard. It just would not budge, even with the biggest shifter. So I had to cut the metal collar it was threading into with a an angle grinder. Turns out that the collar was steel, very rusty steel. The piping was half full of hard rusty crud. Next was step to remove the collar and elbow from the copper pipe. Now both were braised onto the pipe and no matter how much I heated it up with the blow torch it just would melt the braising. So I fired up my little paint tin furnace and a few minutes in that soon melted all the braising, (and a little of the brass elbow).

So now it is almost ready for construction.

I bought an old keg off gumtree that will make a good malt pipe. Its an old style one that has a galvanised outer shell over a stainless inner cylinder. after playing around with lael's spread sheet I think I'll cut the malt pipe to hold about 25L. I only brew 20L batches and that should pretty much cover all my needs.