Mash Tun Keggle - Beginner Build

First a quick introduction as I am new here. I love to build things, I have tinkered with restoring old vacuum tube radios, I currently have a small work shop in the garage that I use for building wooden long bows, and I have in the past built two small boats. For Christmas I got my wife two books on how to brew beer as she expressed some interest. She is the manager of a wine and spirits store which brings some cool fringe benefits. So after brewing our first batch of beer I started searching the internet and quickly found your wonderful forum and found myself a new hobby. You can’t go wrong when your hobby yields beer!
The first item up for construction is a mash tun for all grain brewing, with the plan to batch sparge. I started with cutting the top of the keg open with a dremel and some small cut off wheels. I probably used up 50 disks. The thought is to insulate the keggle very well by enclosing it with a wooden frame filled in with some kind of spray insulation, in a sense it will be a big can koozie. Not sure completely why but I thought I might be better without the top ring on the keggle. If anyone was curious it will take you about 4 hours with an angle grinder. I hope to silver solder tri clamps on, one on the bottom for the drain, and two on the sides for a thermometer and heating element. I will add some more pictures as I go. Any thoughts are welcome.

Looks good. But for the time you spent with the dremel, you could have bought a grinder. I have a feeling your going to miss the handles. As far as insulating. Just use some of the reflectix wrap. Works pretty well for most.

The first time you have a stuck sparge you are going to wish you had a way to lift that sucker.

tasq said:

The first time you have a stuck sparge you are going to wish you had a way to lift that sucker.

Click to expand...

Why would he need to lift the MT in the case of a stuck sparge? I've had more than a few over the years and never once had to lift the MT to fix the situation. Handles should be easy enough to add on if desired. I do agree that handles would be nice to have, but I don't get the stuck sparge connection. When I have a stuck sparge, I simply stir the grain bed and resume operations. Not a big deal really.

Catt22 said:

Why would he need to lift the MT in the case of a stuck sparge? I've had more than a few over the years and never once had to lift the MT to fix the situation. Handles should be easy enough to add on if desired. I do agree that handles would be nice to have, but I don't get the stuck sparge connection. When I have a stuck sparge, I simply stir the grain bed and resume operations. Not a big deal really.

Click to expand...

Last time I got stuck, I had to dump the entire tun out. No amount of stirring / blowing in the valves helped. I suppose one could try to scoop it out, but that takes too long for me.

Catt22 said:

When I have a stuck sparge, I simply stir the grain bed and resume operations. Not a big deal really.

Click to expand...

Not gonna work with a false bottom.

I've had a few (stuck sparges). Pumping a bit of hot (sparge) water into the valve fixes it every time. No problem.

Nice Work! I agree about the absence of handles. Though I have to say: That thing looks BADASS, especially if he really mirror'ed it up. Love the lid there too. Nice work.

Thanks for your comments, I went with the dremel as I thought the smaller cutting wheel diameter would leave a cleaner more accurate circle. For cutting of the top ring, the steel is much thicker and took some considerable time, but once you start there really is not turning back, you definitely want a heavy duty angle grinder. As for needing handles I could build them into the insulation shell enclosure. I am also thinking about a tippy dump for the mash tun, how do most people empty out their mash tun? My plan is to use a bottom drain along with a full false floor, will this help eliminate a stuck sparge?

The overall thought with the keggle started with looking at the coolers people where using for a mash tun. With the cooler you can add the strike water, grain, cover and the cooler will hold the temp. I like this idea as I want to keep the whole process simple, I plan on using gravity for a pump, but I also wanted to stay away from sparging in plastic. My answer is to turn a keg into a very well insulated cooler, I hope by cutting off the top ring I removed a large heat sink and I also thought clean up might be easier as there will be no crevice to get dirty. after insulating the keg I dont think spraying down the entire keg will be an option.

Also sorry for the double post, only after resubmitting my post did I notice the message stated my post needed to be approved by a moderator.

bheggeseth said:

Thanks for your comments, I went with the dremel as I thought the smaller cutting wheel diameter would leave a cleaner more accurate circle. For cutting of the top ring, the steel is much thicker and took some considerable time, but once you start there really is not turning back, you definitely want a heavy duty angle grinder. As for needing handles I could build them into the insulation shell enclosure. I am also thinking about a tippy dump for the mash tun, how do most people empty out their mash tun? My plan is to use a bottom drain along with a full false floor, will this help eliminate a stuck sparge?

The overall thought with the keggle started with looking at the coolers people where using for a mash tun. With the cooler you can add the strike water, grain, cover and the cooler will hold the temp. I like this idea as I want to keep the whole process simple, I plan on using gravity for a pump, but I also wanted to stay away from sparging in plastic. My answer is to turn a keg into a very well insulated cooler, I hope by cutting off the top ring I removed a large heat sink and I also thought clean up might be easier as there will be no crevice to get dirty. after insulating the keg I dont think spraying down the entire keg will be an option.

Also sorry for the double post, only after resubmitting my post did I notice the message stated my post needed to be approved by a moderator.

Click to expand...

Good post. You are right, the rings (top and bottom) are a large mass of metal and are big heat sinks. That is very clever to realize that.

False bottom will not eliminate stuck sparges. I've used plumbing supply hose braids, a bazooka screen, and now a false bottom. They all can get clog and get "stuck". I greatly prefer the false bottom because of it's industrial strength. I ruined the other two filters with my mash paddle. Look up Jaybird on this forum, he makes great false bottoms.

Reflectix can be used to insulate, then removed after brewing in order to clean the keg. Works a charm, I do this.

bheggeseth said:

[...]I am also thinking about a tippy dump for the mash tun, how do most people empty out their mash tun?

Click to expand...

Well, you pick the tun up by the handles, and dump it out...

Cheers!

Here's a great suggestion a fellow HBTer gave me (I have the same set up): Mash in a bag! If you make a voile bag to fit in your keggle, the gains can rest on your false bottom in the bag. After the mash, just remove the bag and dispose of the grain as you see fit. No need for a dumping system.

Has anyone ever put a large tri-clover on the bottom of their mash tun and used it as a dump for the spent grain? My thought would be to have an open brewing stand that would allow you could put a garbage can under the mash tun. Then when you are done you could open up the bottom dump and let the grain fall out. The big question is how hard would it be to pull out the false bottom covered with grain and what size of a hole would you need? Would a 4" tri-clover be large enough, I would like to use a tri-clover cap reducer so I could hook up the drain line the bottom dump as well.

bheggeseth said:

Has anyone ever put a large tri-clover on the bottom of their mash tun and used it as a dump for the spent grain? My thought would be to have an open brewing stand that would allow you could put a garbage can under the mash tun. Then when you are done you could open up the bottom dump and let the grain fall out. The big question is how hard would it be to pull out the false bottom covered with grain and what size of a hole would you need? Would a 4" tri-clover be large enough, I would like to use a tri-clover cap reducer so I could hook up the drain line the bottom dump as well.

Click to expand...

I have a 2" valve on the bottom of my MT that I use for a dump.
I don't dump the grain because it would make cleaning up the drain hose difficult and I use a false bottom, so I'd have to be able to get the bottom out first anyway. I have only used the valve one time so far... emptied most of the grain, folded the false bottom and flushed the rest of the grain through the valve... worked like a charm. I can drain 15 gallons in about 20 seconds. I also added a 2" valve to the bottom of my BK.

That is one sexy mash tun. I will look forward to reading about how practical it is in use. I am considering doing that kind of treatment to my keggle MLT, but have held off due to my concern about needing handles. Still, if one had a brew stand and a tippy dump, then handles become far less important, it seems. One can always cut things off, but putting them back on again may be problematical.

That MT looks CLEAN good job!! It doesnt seem like you would have any difficulty solving this handle "problem" if you even have one so more power to you for making it look nice.
Welcome to the community!

bheggeseth said:

You can’t go wrong when your hobby yields beer!

Click to expand...

very true...

JohnTheBrewist said:

Here's a great suggestion a fellow HBTer gave me (I have the same set up): Mash in a bag! If you make a voile bag to fit in your keggle, the gains can rest on your false bottom in the bag. After the mash, just remove the bag and dispose of the grain as you see fit. No need for a dumping system.

Click to expand...

This is what I do. It takes me about 30 seconds to get all the grain out.

After measuring out a mock three level brew stand I decided that it was just too tall for my use. So I am starting to draw up plans for the layout and plumbing of a single tier stand setup. The basic plan is to use three kegs consisting of a hot liquor tank, mash lauter tun, and boil kettle. My plan is to build some kind of an insulated enclosure around all three kegs with port-holes around the front and back for the various tri-clamp connections. One big goal is to use as few parts as possible (less to clean, less to deal with, ect). Some details I “think” I will incorporate:

• Tri-clamp connection dial thermometers for each tank
• Heating element for the HLT and BK using Tri-clamp adapters
• Thermostat probe on output of HERMS coil (once I build a controller)
• Bottom tri-clamp drain on the HLT and MLT
• Side dip tube using Tri-clamps for the BK
• 16” False bottom with handle for the MLT
• HERMS coil mounted with Tri-clamps in the HLT used for mashing
• Immersion chiller mounted in the BK using Tri-Clamps

I would like to plan on starting with one pump, this means that I will be doing batch sparging as I will have to switch back and forth with the pump. The thought will be to drain the BK with gravity. Now for some questions:

• How can I get a Tri-clamp soldered on both the inside and outside of the keg wall for connection such as the HERMS and Immersion chiller coils?
• To avoid disconnecting hoses (see below drawings) I plan to use three way valves, will they work as I have drawn them?
• Will I be able to throttle the flow with only using the two valves as I have drawn them?
• Am I missing out on something by not using a pump to drain the boil kettle?
• One though would be to fill the HLT with Ice water at the end of the boil and pump the immersion chiller water through the HLT to help cool the wort, (after running some tap water first), is this a good idea?
• I have a 20A 120v variac, my thought at first would be to use 120v heating elements and control the power with the variac. I am hoping with well insulated kegs the 120v heating element will provide enough heat. The final plan will be to use 240v heating elements with a proper controller.

Last up I have drawn up the plumbing flow charts. The big question is can I get by with just two 3 way valves?

1) As the HLT heats I thought I can circulate water through the HERMS coil and back into the HLT with plans to monitor the temp comming out of the HERMS coil.


2) Once the strike water is up to temp I can move the lid over to the MLT and begin filling.


3) Now I can change the valves and begin circulating the wort through the HERMS coil.


4) Next up I can fill the BK, and then repeat the above process to batch sparge.


5) Possible imersion chilling using HLT with ice.