Sensational find, now how best to use it...

[mosto]

Doing a garbage run to the local rubbish tip on the weekend and I spy an old keg sitting over by the scrap metal pile. I asked the tip guy if I could have a look at it, and he said "It's yours if you want it, but the top's been cut out". Sweet!

On inspection it was in fact the bottom that had been cut out and the spear was still in the keg. I've brought it home and removed the spear. It has a couple of minor dents and a family of Redbacks living under the rim, but should come up sweet with a bit of a clean. The cut is pretty rough (looks like the sort of job I'd do actually lol) and there's been a small (5mm maybe) hole drilled in the top (which will be the bottom for my purpose). I spoken to our maintenance manager at work and he'll clean the cut up and patch the hole for a couple of bottles of my finest.

I currently use a 38L crab cooker to BIAB and can squeeze 21-22L out of it max, so I can increase batch size with this new find of mine. Long term, I'm thinking I'll grab a cooler and go 3V, using my crab pot as a HLT, the cooler as a mash tun, and this keg as a kettle. Short term, I think I'll just do increased BIAB batches in this keg.

Here's where I'm after some AHB opinions. Given there's a drainage point in the bottom of the Keggle, from where I took the spear out, I'm probably limited to electric, but I would have gone that way anyway. Here's the two options I'm thinking of:

Option 1 - plumb pipe into the bottom of the Keggle to drain from, and drill a hole in the side for an element. Obviously the trub will settle over the drainage point, but I'm thinking if I plumb a T-piece in there, I can drop the first few litres containing the trub out the bottom, then when it runs clear, close the bottom valve and open the side valve to drain the clear wort. I could then let the trub settle right out of the first few litres I drain off and pour the clear wort off the top for a starter.

Option 2 - install the element through the bottom opening and plumb a drainage point in the side with a pickup tube. A little less messing around then option 1.

I'm leaning towards option 1 at this stage but would like to hear your opinions or any other setup options I haven't considered.

 

[MHB]

Option 1/ wont work as well as you expect/hope. the cone (dome) of the keg isn't steep enough to make the trub flow to the outlet - some will, the stuff on and around the outlet, the rest will just lurk until you drain down the wort, then it will start to ooze out with the wort, pretty much undoing all your ambitions to keep the trub out of the fermenter (something I would encourage).

I think having an inner/outer drain could work, but you would need to drain from the centre, if you extended the centre pipe up so it ran dry with 1-2 litres left in the kettle the trub would be effectively excluded. NB it is smart to make the centre pipe a bit taller (leaving 3-4L) and trim it down once you have a better idea of how much waste you need to cover the trub. then open the tap for the outer and run the wort and trub either to waste or to some form of enhanced recovery if you are so inclined.

Mark

 

[wynnum1]

There should be laws about doing that to a keg just vandalism. Good that it found a good home.

 

[Coodgee]

for anyone looking for one of these kegs I have a new business where you deposit $50 in my bank account and you can go and pick up one of these kegs from one of my depots. I have literally thousands of depots all around the country so it will be really convenient for you. Most depots are located at the back of pubs. you'll need to do your own modifications such as cutting a hole out of the top and adding tap, element etc and there is likely to be some beer residue in most kegs, but for $50 bucks it's a bargain!

 

[wynnum1]

for anyone looking for one of these kegs I have a new business where you deposit $50 in my bank account and you can go and pick up one of these kegs from one of my depots. I have literally thousands of depots all around the country so it will be really convenient for you. Most depots are located at the back of pubs. you'll need to do your own modifications such as cutting a hole out of the top and adding tap, element etc and there is likely to be some beer residue in most kegs, but for $50 bucks it's a bargain!

Do you have photo of keg would not want to get scammed.

 

[mtb]

Do you have photo of keg would not want to get scammed.

Easy wynnum, shoot down to your local and pick one out.

 

[mtb]

(don't actually do that)

 

[Coodgee]

Do you have photo of keg would not want to get scammed.

We have various brands. Mostly with Xs in Queensland.

 

[mosto]

Option 1/ wont work as well as you expect/hope. the cone (dome) of the keg isn't steep enough to make the trub flow to the outlet - some will, the stuff on and around the outlet, the rest will just lurk until you drain down the wort, then it will start to ooze out with the wort, pretty much undoing all your ambitions to keep the trub out of the fermenter (something I would encourage).

I think having an inner/outer drain could work, but you would need to drain from the centre, if you extended the centre pipe up so it ran dry with 1-2 litres left in the kettle the trub would be effectively excluded. NB it is smart to make the centre pipe a bit taller (leaving 3-4L) and trim it down once you have a better idea of how much waste you need to cover the trub. then open the tap for the outer and run the wort and trub either to waste or to some form of enhanced recovery if you are so inclined.

Mark

Cheers Mark,

Extending the pipe into the keggle above the trub is a great idea, which I hadn't thought of.

Cheers,