Nice new to me Cygnet.

[BridgeBrew]

Just got hold of a mint 30L cygnet. Replaced the tap for a 15mm gate valve total cost £7.78. Done two test boils today, superb. Can't wait to use it.

 

[BridgeBrew]

That should have said ball valve. Boiler was £35 so for £42.78 I've hopefully got a good bit of kit. I had an old electrim bin wobbled like f**k when at full tilt. Gonna do a SMASH next week.

 

[Rodcx500z]

Job done wow 35 quid bargin get brewing

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

I have the same bit of kit, used it at least once a week for over 2 years.

 

[marshbrewer]

Yep, I've got two; the only downside I can find is that I struggle to get much more than 21L in the FV due to the usable capacity being around 28L. But other than that, they really are great. Well built and reliable.

 

[oldpathwhiteclouds]

Bargain. I have one and have started topping up to counter boil off and get larger batches. Haven’t quite perfected it to maximise final volume. Think it’s 27lt to the max line.

 

[Wynne]

Yep, I've got two; the only downside I can find is that I struggle to get much more than 21L in the FV due to the usable capacity being around 28L. But other than that, they really are great. Well built and reliable.

I brew batches at higher gravity and dilute down to get 35L in fermenter. Hop utilisation is reduced for bittering hops so I increase hop dosage to compensate.

 

[marshbrewer]

To be fair, I'm always brewing for a 20L brew length (19L cornie plus trub) so it doesn't bother me.

 

[KGB]

bargain. i paid full price for mine six years ago, £75!
it's only recently been relegated to the role of hlt. the usable capacity is still a bit of an issue for me, i'm pondering how best to install a pick-up tube.

 

[muppix]

Replaced the tap for a 15mm gate valve total cost £7.78

That looks like it screws straight into the side of the water heater, which is said to have a 1" hole. I too have just taken delivery of a Burco Cygnet, but stupidly ordered a ½" tap with a 13mm barb when I probably needed a 1" tap with a 19mm barb.

Where d'you get the tap, @BridgeBrew?

 

[BridgeBrew]

That looks like it screws straight into the side of the water heater, which is said to have a 1" hole. I too have just taken delivery of a Burco Cygnet, but stupidly ordered a ½" tap with a 13mm barb when I probably needed a 1" tap with a 19mm barb.

Where d'you get the tap, @BridgeBrew?

Hi muppix, All you need is a 15mm compression ball valve, and 2 x 1/2" brass flange nuts. Got them from Toolstation. I'm not using the compression fitting on the valve, so remove the olives, and nuts off the valve. The brass 1/2" flange nuts screw straight onto the valve. You have to remove the nut head off the one of the nuts (so its like a big washer) this fits on the outside of the boiler, then you simply wrap some heavy PTFE tape onto the valve thread push it through the tap hole, put the other flange nut onto the valve, and tighten it up. You dont even need a washer because the flange nuts are a perfect fit. I have a lathe, so removing the nut head was a 2 minute job. I suppose you could use a Hacksaw, and a file. Hope this is helpful. If you post me the bits i'll do it for you, for the price of postage. Good luck

 

[BridgeBrew]

Here you go Muppix. A few pics to make it a bit clearer. Any problems just ask

 

[muppix]

Thanks very much for the offer of help with this, I really appreciate it. Since I already have a ball valve (below) I'm going to try and make it work using a 1 x ½" bush to reduce the Cygnet's one inch hole down to the half inch that my ball valve needs.

I'm sure that once my local ironmonger is allowed to open again I'll be able to have a good rummage and find the bits that I need, right now I'm hampered by a lack of plumbing experience though I do have a bit of mechanical engineering under my belt. (hmmmm .... lathe! )

The only concern I have then is whether or not the above tap will give me the level of flow that I need. The Cygnet will be my sparge water heater and is being connected to my B40 all-in-one system where I'm hoping to leave the valve open all the way and use the speed of the pump to moderate the flow.

In a fit of impatience I squeezed a piece of silicone tubing onto the standard Cygnet tap to see if it'll give me enough flow to get one brew out of the way before the shops reopen, but the results were unsatisfactory on many levels (including bodge-factor overload) and at the back of my mind I'm wondering if that piddly little ball valve will be any better once I've gone to the trouble of fitting it.

 

[BridgeBrew]

The flow on the ball valve I fitted is quite a lot better than the factory fitted tap.

 

[muppix]

I had another play around with this last night because I was curious whether or not the rate of flow from the standard tap, pathetic as it is, would be enough for sparging. Thankfully I was able to reposition my tank so that the Cygnet's tap is immediately above where it needs to be, which goes a little way towards eliminating some of the bodge factor until I can get myself a more solid solution.

With this arrangement I was able to sparge into my empty grain pipe at a fair old lick of knots, certainly much faster than I was ever likely to need in practice, emptying the 20 litre tank in around 90 seconds. If anything it looks as though I'll have more of a challenge trying to control the rate of flow so that it doesn't all dribble down the centre pipe or flood the grain bed, but that's another story.

Getting back to my earlier idea of using what I have, it looks as though all I really need are two washers in order to make the ½" tap that I bought fit into the Cygnet's elongated hole, but again with the shops being closed right now I'd have to order a bag of 50 washers from Screwfix in the hope that the quoted dimensions are correct. Not sure I'm up for that, but I do feel almost comfortable doing a brew day with my bodged hose.

 

[Wynne]

I fitted a 1/2” bsp s/s tap to my Cygnet with a 1/2”s/s running nipple and washers inside and out sealed with food-safe silicone and secured by nut on the inside.

 

[marshbrewer]

Same here, I used stainless steel parallel threaded nipple, washers and nut.

 

[BridgeBrew]

Many ways to skin this cat me thinks..

 

[marshbrewer]

These are the washers;
M20 Stainless Steel Washers FmC (21mm i.d x 38.5mm o.d x 3mm Thick) x10 | eBay

These are the seals;
5 x Bespoke Silicone Washer 2mm thk Pick own inside & outside Dia upto 60mm dia | eBay

And the nut;
MARINE * STAINLESS STEEL 316 PIPE FITTINGS BSP 1/8" To 4" S/S ADAPTORS SS | eBay

 

[marshbrewer]

The parallel nipple I got from pipe dream fittings, I believe.