Pick up tube or not??

Heloo, just finished my kegg conversion and picked up a valve at the LHBS. I was going to make a pick up tube out of copper but the owner said to just tilt the keg...less trub that way. I am trying a kit full boil tonight as a trial run for 1st all grain on Friday. Just want to know if this is a mistake and need to make a run to Lowes in the morning.

BTW my 1st AG will be Yoopers Gream Ale. LHBS said that the hops were all wrong, I said I will trust the maker....just give me the hops

Im no expert but I think the pickup tubes are cool, you definitely don't need one, but it seems to me most of the trub settles in the middle of the keggle because of the curved bottom, so I think a "Side" pickup tube works well, and if you get a good syphon going it will almost completely drain the wort out.

mattmuir said:

BTW my 1st AG will be Yoopers Gream Ale. LHBS said that the hops were all wrong, I said I will trust the maker....just give me the hops

Click to expand...

Hahaha- all wrong, huh? Well, I don't know how he'd know about the hops anyway- it's MY recipe!

Thanks all. Yooper, I was getting the grain and hops at the time when he made the comment.

I recently made my keggle and have used it for 3 batches so far. I actually agree with the guy at your homebrew store. I have found that by just tilting the keg I can drain it very easily, and it leaves all the crud behind really well.

I was planning on putting a pickup tube on mine also, but after using it a few times i'm not going to mess with it. just make sure that where it sits on your burner is high enough to fit your fermenter under while tipping it and you're good to go.

mattmuir said:

BTW my 1st AG will be Yoopers Gream Ale. LHBS said that the hops were all wrong, I said I will trust the maker....just give me the hops

Click to expand...

Ah, wise decision grasshopper! I don't have a pickup tube in my kettle (but I do in my bottling bucket) but like others have already said, (if I need to) I just tip it while keeping an eye on the trub. But if you have the ability to cold crash, no worries if trub makes it in to the fermenter as it'll all fall out of suspension.

MMMMM full boil smells good. Next I will try the IM Chiller and Fri AM the grains hit the cooler . SWMBO has helped me with this brew foR the first time,she thinks it's cool and cant wait for the first AG.