Ball valves on inlets of the keggle?

I have been looking at a bunch of the single tier brew stands as I am building my own. I notice some have ball valves at the top of the keggles on the inlet. What is the purpose of these? I would assume that you don't want to create pressure on the silicone hoses so you would control flow using ball valves on outlet of pumps instead. Am I missing something?

I'm assuming they are hooked up through the pump's outlet and are being used to whirlpool.

rbwduece said:

I'm assuming they are hooked up through the pump's outlet and are being used to whirlpool.

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This. The idea is to do fine tuning of flow control with that valve, not shut off flow the from pump for it. Unless it's hardplumbed or uses re-inforced high temp hosing, it wouldn't be designed as the sole pump shut off. Look closely...do those sytems ALSO have a valve on the pump outlet? I'd expect that to be the case.

Mine, and most others, have a return for the whirlpool. I have a valve up top to keep wort from boiling out, as I don't have a hose connected at all times. The throttling is done at the pump outlet, as others have mentioned. It's as high as I can get it on a keggle, but pre-boil would get a little close for comfort.

If you're seeing this a lot, I'm sure 99% of those are for the same reasons.

Ok. It is actually to prevent stuff from coming out of there when hoses arent connected....That makes sense. Thx.

A lot of folks with a single tier use a hose on top of the grain bed when recirculating mash or sparging, so having a ball valve on that inlet prevents a siphon that could send hot wort or hot cleaning water all over the place .... don't ask how I learned that lesson...


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ChocolateMaltyBalls said:

A lot of folks with a single tier use a hose on top of the grain bed when recirculating mash or sparging, so having a ball valve on that inlet prevents a siphon that could send hot wort or hot cleaning water all over the place .... don't ask how I learned that lesson...


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I have been there my friend. Done it with the boil kettle too. Walked out of the garage and back in a couple of minutes to find 1/2 my wort in a 5G bucket! Thank god I put the hose in a bucket at least!