First-time Keggle Project

[Hellosluggo]

A coworker had a 15-gallon keg sitting in his garage for the last year that he wanted to get rid of. I asked what he wanted for it, and to my surprise he said, "Oh, I dunno... Twenty bucks?"

Snag. :rockin:

Here's video of the disassembly and top-cutting... [ame]http://youtu.be/ULJvCbk0xL8[/ame] [ame]http://youtu.be/xPgasVWYpAk[/ame]

...Plus photos showing how my 30-quart aluminum pot's lid fits perfectly in the 12" top opening.

 

[passedpawn]

Nice job. That cut looks great.

 

[Hellosluggo]

Had some minor jaggies, but nothing the Dremel grinding wheel couldn't handle. Finished it up with some sandpaper and a fine sanding sponge to round the edges down.

 

[ron,ar]

Man that looks great, I wish I could find a lid to fit mine that good. Be careful that the keg police don't get after you.

 

[krazydave]

Had some minor jaggies, but nothing the Dremel grinding wheel couldn't handle. Finished it up with some sandpaper and a fine sanding sponge to round the edges down.

Next time just get a flap wheel for your grinder. You'll be able to de-burr it and create an arm friendly edge in just a couple of minutes.

Looks good!

 

[BeerguyNC61]

Awesome videos! The three minutes later banner cracked me up! Nice job!

 

[kellzey]

Good job. I pretty much did the same process last year when I build my 3 keggles. And yes, a flap grinder can make short work of deburring and smoothing the cut!

 

[Hellosluggo]

So, I've read that your propane burner should be as close as possible to the bottom of the keg. The inside diameter of the keg bottom ring is just under 14", I believe. Do the cheapo round-top burners usually fit up in there? I guess I need to make a trip to Academy or Walmart and check the sizes... Sorry, just thinking aloud.

 

[beermanpimp]

What size is the pvc tee?

 

[HDIr0n]

So, I've read that your propane burner should be as close as possible to the bottom of the keg. The inside diameter of the keg bottom ring is just under 14", I believe. Do the cheapo round-top burners usually fit up in there? I guess I need to make a trip to Academy or Walmart and check the sizes... Sorry, just thinking aloud.

My burners are about 6" away from the bottom of my keggles. It also depends on the burner, and your stand. Are you going to build a rig, or just buy a stand? Almost all burners will fit under a keggle, I don't know of any that do. I run a BG-12 which I think is one of the biggest burners available and it fits under my keggle just fine. If you go to Academy, they have the 6" round burners that have 2 rows of jets that work pretty well, that is what I used before I upgraded to the BG-12.

-G

 

[Hellosluggo]

I don't remember what the cross member size is on the PVC tee, but the part that fits into the keg valve is 2". I knocked off some molded numbers and whatnot on the exterior that made it fit a little better, too.

For the burner, I was hoping to buy a cheap one with a stand. I don't have a welder, unfortunately, or I would just buy the burner ring and fabricate the stand myself. If I were able to do that, I'd possibly look at the local Asian market for the burner, as I seem to remember seeing them there for mega cheap once.

I picked up a weldless bulkhead, stainless ball valve, thermometer and some parts to make a dip tube earlier today. I was planning on moving forward with the rest of the build, but our house AC died this morning so all bets are off until that gets taken care of. A fat guy living in Texas in August don't do nuthin' 'til the AC is fixed.

 

[Hellosluggo]

Oh, re: the dip/pickup tube, I'm planning on doing almost exactly what this gentleman has done below (shown at about 5:30), except I want to use a 45 degree elbow instead of 90 degrees to place the end of the tube not in the dead center of the keg bottom, but a little more past center to hopefully avoid trubbage. I've bought a .5" male copper fitting to connect to the bulkhead, the 45 degree elbow and a length of .5" copper tubing... I seem to have read some debate about using copper in the kettle with stainless fittings—any metallurgists out there care to touch on this? [ame]http://youtu.be/2MSJ3EFjaxU[/ame]

 

[Hellosluggo]

Did some drilling and mounting today... Ta-dah, as they say.

 

[kellzey]

Very nice!

 

[Hellosluggo]

Thanks!

Oh, and my AC was repaired on Thursday. All hail the home warranty!

 

[Hellosluggo]

Finally got some time to put a pickup tube together... The first couple of joints soldered fine, but for the life of me, I couldn't get the last joint coming out of the 45˚elbow to stick for nuthin'. I went thru two elbows trying to get it to work until my patience ran out and I used JB Weld on it. Everything I've read says JBW is safe to use, so I'm not particularly worried about it.

Here's a couple of photos showing how the angled end of the tube sits about 5/8" from the very bottom of the keg. Hopefully I'll only be leaving a small amount of wort and junk at the bottom when it drains.

Next up, modifying my $23 propane stand http://goo.gl/mz8wT to allow the keg to sit without wobbling as the v-shaped supports don't allow the convex bottom of the keg to sit evenly. Then, a counterflow chiller and ice water pump, and I'll be in business!

 

[Hellosluggo]

Cut out the center of the propane stand supports today. It now fits perfectly under the bottom skirt of the keg which places the burner about ~5"–6" from the bottom of the vessel. Got about 5.5 gallons of water to a full boil in about 23 minutes! I would never boil wort with the gas flow that high for fear of burning it, but I'd say this setup works pretty well. Final drain with the pickup tube left maybe about .75 cup of water in the keg.

[ame]http://youtu.be/LwVgXqivrw4[/ame]