Stainless Steel Keg For Boiler?

[Gough]

Fellas,

I've managed to talk my local into giving me an empty stainless 50l keg so I can start doing full wort boils rather than half and then topping up. My local HBS is going to knock the top off for me and I'm buying a separate burner. What has just occurred to me (hey, I'm not he most practical bloke!!) is that 23litres of boiling liquid in a heavy stainless keg with no handles is going to be very tough to move to my laundry sink to cool down on ice. Any suggestions on how to overcome this? My understanding (and practice so far) has been that it is essential to rapidly cool to achieve cold break and to stop any infections getting in. Any tips on using these big heavy boilers very welcome.

Thanks in advance,

Shawn - (one more step towards the all grain system! )

 

[therook]

Have a look at DOCs chiller on this forum.

Rook

 

[GSRman]

if you can cut out the top and leave the handles on, thats the prefered way of doing it..

you will want a wort chiller of some sort and not try to have to carry the boiling litres of wort..

 

[PostModern]

Copper pipe wort chillers are easy to use and relatively inexpensive. Just coils of copper that you run the garden hose thru. Counter-flow chillers are quicker to cool the wort but more expensive.

You should get a stainless steel welder to whack in a nipple for you, then you can attach a tap (outside) and break filter (inside) to filter the wort as you rack to the fermenter. There are tons of pics around the web on how this should look. kook of these forums did a relatively inexpensive keg-boiler conversion and posted pics...

 

[Batz]

Were I live in the summer the water can be too hot to shower with !
So I have made two copper coils , one will go in to the boiler as usual , the other will be in a old esky , full of ice slurry.
Will pump it around with a washing machine pump
gunna be flash!

 

[kook]

You should get a stainless steel welder to whack in a nipple for you, then you can attach a tap (outside) and break filter (inside) to filter the wort as you rack to the fermenter. There are tons of pics around the web on how this should look. kook of these forums did a relatively inexpensive keg-boiler conversion and posted pics...

Linz did the conversion, I just bought it all pre-made.

He should have details on how to do it.

I made my own copper chiller using the technique described by Doc here.

 

[Gough]

Thanks heaps fellas. The copper idea sounds like a goodun. Will give it a go.

Shawn.

 

[Wozza]

Gough,

Just did 3 of the 50L kegs myself on Saturday. Pretty simple - a lot easier than I was expecting. Used a 100mm metal cutting disc on the old grinder and I did the 3 of them in about 45 minutes. Used 2 discs in total.

I didn't take the whole top off - just cut a 300mm dia hole in the top. Made a template, marked it onto the stainless and cut along the dotted line. It was pretty easy following the line by bracing the back of the grinder against the rim/handle.

Couple of important notes:
Make sure the pressure inside has been released. Lay a towel or something over the inlet and push it into the keg with a screwdriver. You'll end up stinking of stale beer...
Use ear and eye protection. Lots of sparks and, boy - is it ever noisy! Empty vessels make the most noise, so I 1/2 filled them with water before starting. Get a much more solid base with which to work.
Get some heavy duty gloves - especially important when filing away the rough edges later.

Next step - some s/s valves. I'm going to try and fit them onto 1/2" s/s nipples. Welding seems too much hassle if I can just screw the things together.

Made a copper chiller about a month back. Easy - all done within an hour.

Get some 1/2" soft copper piping (it comes in a roll) and wrap it around an old paint tin. One that has a slightly smaller diameter than your keg. If you start off with a hole knocked in the bottom of the tin and one in the lid, poke a straight length first through the bottom so that it protrudes about a metre out of the top, then start wrapping the other end around the tin, from bottom to top. Helps if there's a second pair hands here, although I managed on my ownsome. Keep going until you end up at the top with about another metre spare. I think I used about 12m in total.

You can then bend the 2 straight bits as you want - one for the inlet, the other to drain. Connect one end of a short bit of hosepipe to the inlet with a worm clip and fit a quick connect to the other end. You can snap this onto your hosepipe when you're ready to cool.

I drop the whole thing into the boiling wort for a few minutes to sanitise, then off with the heat and on with the water. A reasonably slow flow will drop 15L to 30C in about 30 minutes. I position the drain over a 20L fermenter and collect the hot water run-off to be used for cleaning the gear. Depending on ambient temp and the temp of your water, you'll probablu use about 20 - 30L.

Apart from working a treat, it looks great, too!

 

[Batz]

Well done Gough,
Another one to remember is use new cutting/grinding discs , otherwise if it was used on steel your keg will rust
I did another this morning