Set Up For Biab Keg Tun.

[milob40]

so i have a 50 ltr keg in the shed (bought one) i want to cut up for a mash tun.
"no dear it's not a crab boiler " gotta love swmbo.
i know i'll nead a ball valve but at what height do i install this and
how do i use this without getting all the break material in my fv?
i suppose your limited to 'no chill' methods unless you like lifting 50kg
into a laundry tub? di need 1 of these
or one of these
and how do they work? any other bits i might need or are these not suitable for biab?

 

[beerdrinkingbob]

most keggle owners have the dome false bottom, give you more surface area and less channeling, wins hands down IMO.

 

[Simon Gellie]

Hi Milob40,

You won't need either of these if you are doing BIAB. A false bottom and mesh tube are for filtering the grain in a 3V system i.e. allowing the wort to drain through the grain without channeling and not geting into your tap. The bag will do this for you and channeling isn't an issue for BIAB.

I'm actually looking to do the same thing with a keg and I have read that the taps on an electric urn leave about 2L of trub in the bottom so I would think that positioning the tap so that you leave about 2L of trub in the bottom should be alright. I usually get around 2L of trub left in the bottom of my current set up using a 19L pot.

Cheers
Simon

 

[hopcycle]

I have a keggle for BIAB. I use a copper pick up tube attached via a compression fitting from CB. The way I have it set up leaves about 1 litre of wort in the keg.

Of course it depends on where the end of the pick up tube is. You can arrange it so that the pick up tube drains from the bottom of the keg, the side or wherever suits you.

If you have your pick up tube draining from the side of the bottom of the keg and whirlpool you will end up with clear wort and very little hop material...that's what you want!

I would suggest getting a section of copper from Bunnings/ Reece and then you can fashion your own tube. Get a pipe cutter so that the end of the tube is round so that it fits into the compression fitting well.


I'd also suggest cutting out almost all of the domed top of the keg to allow you to easily, and cleanly, hoist the bag from the keg.

Hope this helps

 

[beerdrinkingbob]

sorry mate didn't see the biab reference at the bottom. As the other posters have pointed out no need for a dome, although it would make a hell of a hop blocker <_<

 

[Bribie G]

Whatever tap you put in, I'd leave 3 or 4 cm gap between the bottom of the tap outlet and the base of the keg, to allow the break material to settle. That will give you some dead space to ensure that, after a 20 min settling period, or whirlpool, you should get clear wort out into your cube / chiller. It won't be wasted beer - after cubing, run as much trub off as possible into sterilised glass (e.g. V8 glass veg jar) to settle overnight and you'll be able to recover quite a lot of clear wort to do a late hop boil or use in a starter whatever.

 

[Charst]

+1 for bribies post. I put the tap as low as i thought i could comfortably get a flush surface and when i measured it there ended up being 7 Litres below the tap. Initially i thought this was huge and it kinda is but after doing a few brews with it and seeing how much trub i get im reasonably happy with it. I'll probably put in a pickup tube eventually but for now a bit of tilting the near empty keg is cool.

 

[milob40]

I have a keggle for BIAB. I use a copper pick up tube attached via a compression fitting from CB. The way I have it set up leaves about 1 litre of wort in the keg.

Of course it depends on where the end of the pick up tube is. You can arrange it so that the pick up tube drains from the bottom of the keg, the side or wherever suits you.

If you have your pick up tube draining from the side of the bottom of the keg and whirlpool you will end up with clear wort and very little hop material...that's what you want!

I would suggest getting a section of copper from Bunnings/ Reece and then you can fashion your own tube. Get a pipe cutter so that the end of the tube is round so that it fits into the compression fitting well.


I'd also suggest cutting out almost all of the domed top of the keg to allow you to easily, and cleanly, hoist the bag from the keg.

Hope this helps

thanks,
easy as (i'm a plumber) h34r:
:beer:
i love this site!!!!!
thanks everyone for the quick replies

 

[Big E]

Could some one please upload some pics of there keg setups/conversions for biab or point me in the right direction. Have been thinking about doing biab for a while and have an old keg waiting to be converted.

Cheers.

 

[Malted]

Could some one please upload some pics of there keg setups/conversions for biab or point me in the right direction. Have been thinking about doing biab for a while and have an old keg waiting to be converted.

Cheers.

This is a keggle that I made but it's the same deal.



If using a wedless fitting, if you go too low with the tap you start getting into the area of the keg that is curved and the inside part of you fitting will thus point slightly upwards. Most folks go as low as possible but high enough so that it is in the part of the kettle that is straight. That seems to be a good height to be able to leave a pool of trub in the vessel.

Here's a picture of a pickup tube as has been mentioned:

Some folks don't bother with a pickup tube, they just tilt the pot when draining.

 

[Big E]

Cheers Malted, great pics just needed a visual to get my head around how things are supposed to look. The slippery slope to all grain has begun!

Thanks.

 

[OzBeer_MD]

Could some one please upload some pics of there keg setups/conversions

MD

 

[Malted]

Cheers Malted, great pics just needed a visual to get my head around how things are supposed to look. The slippery slope to all grain has begun!

Thanks.

No wuckas! There isn't really a 'supposed to look' category, everyone has slightly different ways of doing things. For example, my pot was fine with the handles left on the top but later on cut them off and welded them to the sides. If you didn't want to weld anything, you could leave the handles on top. The handles were formed by how I cut the keg.




You'll note that my pickup tube seen in the previous post has nothing to stop hops getting sucked up whilst MD has posted a picture of a very neat hop blocker. There are seemingly endless ways that hop screens can be made (often not as good looking as MD's).

 

[OzBeer_MD]

Thanks for the compliment. Here it is after having done its job. (Not BIAB)

MD

EDIT: Add the attachment