Score! Now what????

Visiting the local microbrew, I've become fairly good friends with the manager. On Friday, she gave me a pretty cool tour of their operations. I was really suprized that they use LME and dry yeast. However, walking around the back I noticed a bunch of stainless steel full size kegs. She said they sell kegs of the microbrews and knows the kegs are expensive. I said if you have any that you can't use anymore, I'll take them. She had one that the top had cracked because it got frozen. She said she'd give it to me in a couple of weeks when she does something like spring cleaning.
So, now after reading how most of you would love to get your hands on a full keg, what should I do with it? I, in the foreseeable future, don't plan on going all grain. I'll be sticking with 5 gallon batches of extract for a long time to come. One member on here got one and cut a hole out of the top and used it for something, I forgot. Anybody got any ideas what all I could use it for? I know I'll think of something but I'd rather get the better part of ya'lls experience.

You could cut it in half and use one half for a kettle to do full boils with.

It is typical to cut a hole in the top with a plasma torch or a dremel and use it as a boil kettle. With 15 gallons, you have the option of a much larger boil, enough even for a 10G batch. Generally some sort of valve is put in the bottom as well, because it will be too hot & heavy to lift.

There was another fellow on here who converted one to a fermentor, that was a pretty neat project too. There's lots of info in the equipment forum.

The most obvious use is as a boil kettle (usually called a "keggle"). You cut the top off, install a ball valve (which is optional, but since it's much too big and heavey when full to lift and pour...)

It is the ideal container, IMHO, for full boils w/ a turkey fryer burner.

If you have no desire to have such a thing, you could make it and sell it on e-bay (or here) :rockin:

Hmmmm, there's an idea. Let's say I'm still using extract kits. Could I get two of the same kit and make 10 gallons instead of 5. Or, mix two together....ha ha ....yeah, right. If I made a keggle, I'm looking at getting a bigger wort chiller than I have now for partial boils? Or just take longer because there is no way in hell I'm picking that thing up.
For those that did extract partial, to extract full boils, is there really that much of a difference???

Just double your ingredients and you can do a 10 gallon batch. For a full boil, the hop utilization is different than in a partial, so you will need to factor that in. I do 10 gallon batches in a 15 gallon pot (not a keggle though) and use a 30 ft. immersion chiller, it works fine.

For those that built a keggle and from what I've seen and read from different posts, what purpose does the copper pipe have from the bottom of the keggle? Is it like a filtering device of some sort so that you can get the wort out of the keggle and into the primary?

It's because the bottom of the keg dips down much further than your drain valve would ever be mounted. If you didn't install a "dip tube", you'll leave about a gallon of wort in there. Honestly, you're going to eventually want to go all grain and when you do, you may want to do 10 gallon batches. This is a good enough reason to just hang on to the keg for now.

I do full boil, 5gallon extract batches right now but it's for practice for when I do go all grain. I think some folks who go from 2 gallon extract boils to 7 gallon all grain boils have too many NEW things to deal with at once.

If you absolutely want to make beer in the keg, you can start with full batch boiling, cool it in place with an IC, then rack it out after whirlpooling your trub. I just got a keg and cut the top off but I'm not waiting for my 1/2" stainless coupling and 1" hole saw to arrive. So many things to think about.

So with a dip tube, it's about getting all the wort out and no so much worrying about the trub. Correct?

It appears that way based on some of the dip tubes I've seen on here but I would imagine these folks also use whole hops and hop bags. A lot of guys will drop the money on a hopstopper, which is a fine mesh filter that goes over the dip tube, supposedly to allow wort to flow leaving hops behind. I'm going to be making my own hopstopper and if I have problems with clogging, I'll also use a hop bag.