Keggle SS braid rebuilt

I'm particularly proud of this cheap fix.

I've had some trouble with the SS brain inside my keggle. If it's too short, it tends to clog with hops. But if it's too long, it tends to flop around, get tangled up in the wort chiller and or hops bags (if I use them), and more importantly, if it floats up while I'm siphoning, I lose the siphon.



I put a length of 14-guage solid copper wire (stripped, obviously) inside the SS braid, extending it about an inch up the siphon tube. It's rigid enough to hold it in place (no flopping or floating). The extra surface area of SS braid should pay off straingin out large amounts of hops without clogging.

The wire might interfere with the flow ever so slightly, but I don't think that will be significant.

While everything was apart, I took some barkeeper's friend to the keggle--that is really great stuff for cleaning SS.

i had problems with my ss braid floating as well.
i put a piece of drilled 3/8" copper tubing inside it.-just extended the non-drilled part out throught the rubber stopper in my cooler - now it stays on the bottom of the cooler where it belongs

Fellas,How does that braid work as a hop stopper ? I know "how" it works...I mean does it work with hop pellets (thick trub) or does it only work with leafy hops ?
I just bought one of those cheap $4.00 steamer baskets to modify as a hop stopper for use with leaf hops. Shane

I want a keggle.

Certainly if the braid works, it's the cheapest solution going. I'm anxious to hear how it performs with something hop heavy like an IPA.

Here's mine:



This pic is only 1oz of leaf and 1oz pellet though. I'd like to try something with like 3oz of pellet but most of the hops I have on hand are high alpha so it would be undrinkable.

The flow was really good though, leaving only 1/2 cup of wort in the keg. Build it with Mcmaster stainless mesh.

I have been thinking of making something similiar to that homemade hopstopper only I want to make it as a racking cane that way I don't have to take apart my keggle after every batch to clean it.

Bobby, what size mesh is that?

60x40 mesh (wires per inch). I too am thinking that removing it to clean it up is a pain. It's not all that bad when you use a compression fitting.

You've shown me yours so I'll show you mine.

Orfy, did you solder your copper or just leave it pushed together for easy cleaning?

It has to be soldered so you don't get a siphon-breaking air leak.

Is there any way to do the copper tubing siphons with a weldless bulkhead?

Yeah sure, why not. You'll need a 1/2" male pipe to compression fitting. My kettle has a 1/2" coupling welded in. Your weldless has a coupling inside also. Same type of fitting.

Bobby_M said:

Yeah sure, why not. You'll need a 1/2" male pipe to compression fitting. My kettle has a 1/2" coupling welded in. Your weldless has a coupling inside also. Same type of fitting.

Click to expand...

Don't have one yet, just gotta figure out how I am going to set up some sort of hop filter cheaply...

ColoradoXJ13 said:

Don't have one yet, just gotta figure out how I am going to set up some sort of hop filter cheaply...

Click to expand...

Well, my solution and Orfy's are both pretty durn cheap and simple.

cweston said:

Well, my solution and Orfy's are both pretty durn cheap and simple.

Click to expand...

Do either of you have a parts list? Problem is that a weldless fitting is going to cost me around $30, plus another $10 or so for misc. tubing and ss braid, whereas I can go spend $60 on a false bottom setup with everything I need for $60...

it's soldered but still easy to clean. I may get round to using a braid but to tell you truth unless I find a reason not to use the scrubber I don't think I'll put too much effort into it.


Parts list.

1 x pan scrubber. $0.30
1 x 15mm end feed elbow $0.40
1 x 15mm olive $0.10
1 x 15mm compression nut $0.80

So $1.60 for the full lot

As for the bulkhead fitting it cost me 3x HB or 1x bottle of wine to get done.

Or if you want to go weldless I use this.

I tried using stainless braid and no matter what I did it would clog. I gave up and built this...