I’ve been brewing my own beer on and off for a while now and I’ve decided it’s time to hack my brew boiler.  I brew my beer from a full mash rather than using kits which makes things a little more involved.  I could explain it but I’d never do as good as job as the Drunk Rhino video series, I’d recommend you give them a watch if you are interested in the specifics.

I have an Electrim homebrew boiler, it’s basically a big plastic bucket with a heating element and thermostat.  The plastic is quite thick as is has to withstand the high temperatures of the boil but it leaks heat making it less efficient.  To that end, a hacking I did go!

I bought a cheap camping mat and wrapped it around the boiler attached with good old duct tape.  A few weeks back I was visiting the Home Brew Shop in Farnborough and was lucky enough to find they had a hop strainer and sparging arm in stock, the latter rarer that rocking horse crap.  The strainer means that I no longer have to use a hop bag while boiling and after boiling the hops will drop to the bottom and act as a filter.  Which is nice.

Not shown is the bottom of the boiler, I added a layer of insulation underneath as well.  Hopefully this will mean that I can get my boiler to mashing temperature and it should (hopefully) stay there for long enough for a decent mash.

Results in a future post.

Keegan