brewing pot/keg question

howdy, i have just moved up from 5 gallon batches to 10 gallon batches and i am using a 16 gallon stainless steel keg for my brew pot. i used it last week for a batch of O'Dells 5 barrel and found out that it is a real pain in the butt to lift it up off my stove ( stove is on the concrete floor) and onto a pedestal for cooling and fluid transfer to the carboy.

i would like to install a spigot onto the side of the stainless keg and i will then raise the stove and keg so that it no longer needs to be lifted after the boil, just simply open the spigot and transfer.

i do not have access to a stainless welder, so i am looking at drilling a hole and using a brass spigot for on and off.

#1. is there a spigot with threads that i can put through the hole i will drill in the bottom of the keg that does not use a fiber gasket that would burn?

#2. how far off the bottom of the keg should i drill the spigot hole so that i do not suck all the trub out the spigot?

i do have some plumbing shops in town as well as a home depot and ace store, but i have also found that they lack in customer service-seems no one has knowledge/ or is willing to help at these stores....thanks for any assistance you can give me....scotty

not sure why this posted twice-sorry

You can buy weldless attachments from some of the online brew stores. Drill a hole and attach. I think it is as easy as that. They use high-temp silicon O-rings to make the seal.

what type of drain spigots is/are the brewing public using to create a drain for the 16 gallon stainless brewing kegs? i just cannot justify spending $80.00 to $100.00 for a drain spigot from the factory!

I use half inch ball valves from lowes there like 7 bucks

If you want one-stop shopping at considerably less than the online brewshops, check out Bargain Fittings. You can get a complete kit (coupler, nipple, washer, o-rings, nut, valve and barbed fitting) for $23, ready to install.

thanks for the response's....cheers, scotty