Bottom drain on a kettle?

Been debating putting a bottom drain on my kettle and was wondering if anyone has had good success with this?

here's my bk setup now
1. electric so no burning issues
2. have a side pickup already so I'll still be able to whirlpool
3. my kettle is flat bottomed and is thin so mounting will be same as side of kettle

All I want it for is is to push all trub and hop debris into during cleanup. Probably be put near the center of bottom to avoid collecting trub where my whirlpool stream will be. Also will be dimpling and ss soldering a 1/2 fitting.

Went ahead and did this. Definitely some pros and cons to it.

Pros:
1. Drains more of my strike water then my diptube does.
2. Creates a whirlpool when you drain so I recirculate my strike water through it to prevent stratification of water temps
3. When cleaning I can pump water through my side pick up to create a whilrpool which pushes most kettle debris towards my bottom drain

Cons:
1. I have a flat bottomed BK so not all debris gets to it
2. It clogs, but I just pumped some of my cleaning water up it gently to clear
3. Had to drill a hole in my brewstand to fit it

Would go with 3/4" fittings if you had the money. I have all the equipment to punch and dimple a hole for a 1/2" fitting, so that's the way I went

I have a bottom drain in my keg HLT, but not in my BK. I was thinking about it. It would work exceptionally well if I had a false bottom in my BK, but I don't have one that fits.

JayBird was supposed to let me know if he could do a "tri-fold" hinged false bottom, to fit under my element. Then I think a bottom drain would really be awesome for me!

false bottom would work nicely. I had a thought that If you could calculate all break material in a given batch you could have a tube/hose connected to a bottom drain that would carry that given amount and whirlpool everything to the center and letting all of it collect in the tube. A valve would have to be at the end of the tube instead of right after the coupler and it might effect hop utility, but would be interesting

I have a bottom drain in the kettle. The obvious issue is that if you whirlpool, it will tend to clog. I made a copper arm with bazooka screens to give my bottom drain a tangential outlet, which helps. I use 100% pellets in a hop basket and also am electric.

I have a time with it cause I do a recirculating plate chill and have several pre-chiller filtering mechanisms (like the bazooka screen). But, I don't think I'd want a side one only. Just look at professional brew kettles. Those usually have both. One for a final full drain at the end, and the other as a tangential for whirlpooling.

I also just push water back up thru everything (the chiller, pump, etc.) into the kettle to clean. Remove the filtering, fill the kettle in reverse to the top. Let it sit, then, flush it down and out. It's the easiest kettle cleaning regime. I'll even save 15 gallons of chill water in the recently cleaned mash tun to use- the first 15 gals being about 135*.

Here's mine, recently done.


It has a 1" dump valve for the gunk and a separate line for the pump. I was going to go 2" but it got kind of pricey for those valves. It also has a 1" valve right under the keg. This is a tri-clamp on an upside down keg with the bottom cut out. I love the bottom drains. Pump priming is much easier. I basically bag hops now, though.

I was considering a hop taco style thing with my bottom drain keggle, but not sure how to get that going. Be nice, though. Once you were done pumping out your wort you could just spray everything out through the dump valve.

I have a bottom drain HLT as well with just a 1/2" coupling welded on it. Also a great way to go.

Unfortunately, I just put a bunch of work and $$ into this new BK only to realize that it's European and therefore only 13 gallons. Makes full boils on 10 gallon batches a bit dicey, but I can always pump it to my HLT, which is 15.5. But then I lose my nifty 1" dump valve for the BK.

Yooper said:

I have a bottom drain in my keg HLT, but not in my BK. I was thinking about it. It would work exceptionally well if I had a false bottom in my BK, but I don't have one that fits.

JayBird was supposed to let me know if he could do a "tri-fold" hinged false bottom, to fit under my element. Then I think a bottom drain would really be awesome for me!

Click to expand...

I thought you were going to make a small template for me Yooper out of cardboard.

Jaybird said:

I thought you were going to make a small template for me Yooper out of cardboard.

Click to expand...

Well, I certainly can do that! Could you PM me the address I should send it to?

Thread resurrection! Hopefully ya'll have email notification turned on

I am planning on putting bottom drain ports in all three of my kettles. I planning to use 1.5"tri clover just to keep all the parts the same on my setup (I'm already using some 1.5" fittings on my conicals etc).

What are your thoughts on welding in a small curved piece of flat stainless steel to the bottom of the kettle that would act as a trub damn on the boil kettle? My plan is to put the drain as close to the kettle wall as possible so that I can whirlpool.

The small piece would curve around the drain so that the majority of your wort would go over the top but once you reach like that last half inch or so it would be blocked from all but the very ends where there would be a gap between the wall and the dam.

Funny this comes up, I just saw an ad in the new BYO where SSBrewtech claim they invented the trub dam and that no one's thought of it before.

Your idea is fine and a common feature in commercial boil kettles. I would make it fairly long and tall though.

The old Morebeer/B3 Kettles had diverter plates/trub dams.

http://morebeer.com/view_product/15162/



Also I would go for 1" triclover tubing and parts. 1" on a homebrew sized system is way too big as it is.

orangehero said:

Your idea is fine and a common feature in commercial boil kettles. I would make it fairly long and tall though.

The old Morebeer/B3 Kettles had diverter plates/trub dams.

http://morebeer.com/view_product/15162/

Also I would go for 1" triclover tubing and parts. 1" on a homebrew sized system is way too big as it is.

Click to expand...

Does anyone know of anyone offering something that could be added into a kettle? I'm going to be putting a bottom drain in my 20 gallon concord kettle and am intrigued by this idea. Figured I'd ask before seeing about getting something fabricated.