keggle v. heavy duty kettle for BK

I have read many posts on this but most are talking about mash tuns. I need a new BK capable of 10 gal batches. I can get this heavy duty BK for about $250: http://brewstock.enstore.com/item/heavy-duty-brew-kettle---with-ball-valve-60-quart15-gallon or I can get this keggle for about $190 with shipping. The only thing i do not really like about the kettle is how wide it is and that I have read it has a very big boil off amount and leaves a lot of wort at the bottom with the position of the spigot. I was wondering if anyone has experience with one or both of these as a BK and can give your two cents. thanks.

here is the keggle http://www.homebrewing.org/product....m=ProductAds&gclid=CP6W4amksLoCFejm7AodHRkAVQ

I'm moving from a 25 gallon kettle to a 15.5 gallon keggle. My kettle had a 20" wide mouth and boil off was in the range of 2.5 gallons an hour. A common boil of for a keggle is 1 - 1.4 gallons an hour and a keggle has a 16" opening (I think). Your gonna figure a 2 gallon boil off if we're meeting in the middle. Of course these are just figures and not based on experience. I'd go with the keggle because of less boil off and the cone shape at the bottom makes good for whirl pooling and leaving trub behind. My $.02.

Edit: BTW, Go Saints! New Orleans is my hometown and miss it everyday!

rgauthier20420 said:

I'm moving from a 25 gallon kettle to a 15.5 gallon keggle. My kettle had a 20" wide mouth and boil off was in the range of 2.5 gallons an hour. A common boil of for a keggle is 1 - 1.4 gallons an hour and a keggle has a 16" opening (I think). Your gonna figure a 2 gallon boil off if we're meeting in the middle. Of course these are just figures and not based on experience. I'd go with the keggle because of less boil off and the cone shape at the bottom makes good for whirl pooling and leaving trub behind. My $.02.

Edit: BTW, Go Saints! New Orleans is my hometown and miss it everyday!

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Thanks! and WHO DAT! I like what you are saying about the coneshape bottom and the lack of boil off. Just seems like a pain to heat up all that extra water to just evaporate. I just wish the local LHBS sold keggles ready to go, instead of ordering online and paying shipping from Adventures in homebrewing.

nolabrew85 said:

Thanks! and WHO DAT! I like what you are saying about the coneshape bottom and the lack of boil off. Just seems like a pain to heat up all that extra water to just evaporate. I just wish the local LHBS sold keggles ready to go, instead of ordering online and paying shipping from Adventures in homebrewing.

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Cutting the top off a keg, and adding a stainless ball valve, false bottom, dip tube, sight glass, and blichmann thermometer was so much easier than I expected.

You also may be able to find a welder who will do it for a reasonable price. I know there are a couple guys around me who do it.

Search Craigslist. Get a keg for $30-40 and spend $80-$100 with bargain fittings and BOOM kustom keggle just like you want it.

Mongrel said:

Cutting the top off a keg, and adding a stainless ball valve, false bottom, dip tube, sight glass, and blichmann thermometer was so much easier than I expected.

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This may sound incredibly ignorant, which it is..... but why would one want those extras on their keggle? Besides the thermometer, the others seem so unnecessary. I've only used a small kettle before, and we drop in the immersion chiller then use an autosiphon to rack the wort to the fermenter.

What in the hell do you need a sight glass for? And what does a dip tube even do?

grndslm said:

This may sound incredibly ignorant, which it is..... but why would one want those extras on their keggle? Besides the thermometer, the others seem so unnecessary. I've only used a small kettle before, and we drop in the immersion chiller then use an autosiphon to rack the wort to the fermenter.

What in the hell do you need a sight glass for? And what does a dip tube even do?

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A couple of those components are more for a mash tun then a brew kettle. For instance, you won't really need a false bottom for the brew kettle (unless it's used for hop trub). I find a site glass useful in my brew kettle because I drain right into it after mashing so I can monitor my volumes perfectly this way. A thermometer wouldn't be very useful in the brew kettle unless this is also where your heating strike and sparge water which I currently do also.

If you run a CFC or plate chiller or some other type of chiller, you'll absolutely need a ball valve. There are plenty out there that use an IC and still use the ball valve for drainage. The dip tube is attached to the ball valve on the inside of the brew kettle and allows for pick from the kettle beginning at a lower point that the ball valve itself. It's usually a piece of hardware that extends from the inside of the valve and makes an L shape towards the bottom of the kettle. With it, you'd be leaving behind a lot of delicious wort.