Built my first keggle & mash tun - Almost ready for my first AG brew!

Here it is. Nothing fancy, just a keggle with one weld and a 5 gallon rubbermaid mash tun. I didn't want to throw down too much cash on it, since my ultimate plan is to brew 1/2bbl batches, so I used what I had for the most part just to get my feet wet with AG. The keggle will be used for both the HLT & boil kettle for now.

Here they are.



On the keggle, I brazed on a 316 SS 1/2" coupling with some flux coated stay silv 45. It worked great, and I already had it from a repair on the steel refrigerant line I had to fix on my keezer after drilling into it.

Here's my brazing job. Not my best work, but it doesn't leak.



And here's the mash tun inside.



I used a 3/4" water heater supply line, and added a 3/4x1/2 brass bushing onto the nipple inside the tun. On one end, I cut the crimped fitting in the middle so it would retain the swivel nut but still allow me to remove the inner rubber tubing. The other end I cut completely off, folded the pokey ends inside, and stuck a 1/2" copper cap inside. I'm just waiting for a couple of oetiker clamps to crimp the ends now.

And just for sh!ts & grins, here's a shot of the mash tun valve. It's only 5 gallons, so pretty limited on batch size, but I already had it and the parts can be switched onto a larger one when I come across one at a decent price.




Now I just need a gas burner, which I'm hoping to get off of an old 100 gallon water heater at my work. If I can find one in usable condition that is. They're 100,000btu water heaters, so it should work well.

I do have one question. I was hoping to use the filter from the mash tun in the boil kettle to filter out hop particles after the boil. Any thoughts on how it will work? Will it clog up easily?

mesh braid won't work with loose pellet hops. it will clog. leaf hops will be fine.