Using a half barrel keg as a brew kettle

thrstyunderwater · 10-18-2009, 10:36 PM

I'm pretty interested in giving this a go. Here are my questions:

1. Is there an honest way to get an empty keg, or do you just go put down a deposit and then never go back and get it?

2. Who does this, what are the ups and downs? It seems that a keg is a bit taller than a kettle bought to boil with.

3. What types of alterations does it take? How hard are they to do?

4. What's it going to cost in the end to have a functioning kettle from a keg. Pretend it was 50 bucks for a deposit.

eriktlupus · 10-18-2009, 10:46 PM

looking where your at it might be easier to talk to a local brewer and see if they have a leaker that they are willing to sell you.

after aquisition your looking at getting the top cut off either by a plasma cutter at a metal shop or by using a die grinder/cut-off tool at home.

then most drill a hole in the side about 2" above the bottom to install a draining spigot since 10g of fresh wort is very heavy(80Lbs or so) and would be pain to tippy into a fermenter. these are sold at most online shops as weldless fittings

thrstyunderwater · 10-18-2009, 10:50 PM

Don't some folks also purge and spathe with them?