Keggle

Hi everyone
Due to a rather large expense, new transmission for my car, I will be unable to brew anything anytime soon.
However this doesn't have to be bad news, over past couple of years I have collected a few kegs that I have been meaning to convert to electric keggles.
Now I have time to do so.

So here is my question.
Most of the Keggles that I see here have a port on a side to collect the wort, is there a reason why I shouldn't move the port to the bottom of the Keggle and let the gravity do its work and not have anything that would get in the way of my mash paddle?

You can do this, just keep in mind whatever rig you build to hold it will need a hole in the table to allow for the valve sticking through.
With the Port of the side and pickup tube, Gravity still does the work. A siphon is a natural occurrence and allows a keggle to be drained with MAYBE a cup or wort/water left behind if setup right.
Please also consider, (personal experience going through this myself currently) if you' currently can't afford ingredients, you probably can't afford to build an electric Boil Kettle. I'd price everything before drilling holes.

I love the bottom drain on my keggle. To raise up the bottom of the keggle I attached two dip tubes as sort of "runners" though any future one I'll just tap 3 holes into the skirt and use screw on feet (like on a table, or furniture) so I can level it easily.

The bottom drain really helps with clean in place, as I don't have to try and keep a siphon going, the last 1/4" of water always gets left in my HLT (with standard dip tube)

conpewter said:

I love the bottom drain on my keggle. To raise up the bottom of the keggle I attached two dip tubes as sort of "runners" though any future one I'll just tap 3 holes into the skirt and use screw on feet (like on a table, or furniture) so I can level it easily.

The bottom drain really helps with clean in place, as I don't have to try and keep a siphon going, the last 1/4" of water always gets left in my HLT (with standard dip tube)

Click to expand...

Good idea with the feet attached directly to the keg. Only water I have left in my keg with diptube is the small puddle in the center dimple in the keg.

Hey Conpewter, you have any pics of how you plumbed that bottom drain keggle?

flip your keg over and cut a 12 inch hole in the botom. utilize the 2" tri clover you already have. you could then either put a thermocouple on the side fairly low or you could tee of the bottom and run your thermo couple to that. i belive that this is best way to setup an electric bottom drain keggle but its all up to you. if you cut off the top you will need to weld a half coupler to the bottom. if you have access to a sanitary welder then go for it. you can get adapters for that 2" tri clamp to npt for around 10$ from klg stainless.

heres some bottom drain electric keggles....

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f85/my-first-all-grain-brewtroller-maiden-voyage-106435/

that is pretty impressive, first all grain on temp. controlled keggles system...
Thanks for the pictures, it gave me a few good ideas.

Sure, made a thread for it instead of posting it all here.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/bottom-drain-keggle-158043