ideas for improving the draining efficiency of brewpot

I just added a 1/2" stainless bulkhead to my brewpot. With the pot sitting level, it'll drain all but 1 1/2" worth of wort from the pot. I was thinking I could drain most of that last 1.5" by adding a 90 degree elbow that connected to the inflowing end of the bulkhead and bent down to nearly touch the bottom of the brewpot. However, only material I could find to attach the correct fitting size to the bulkhead was brass. Then I got to thinking the acidic nature of the wort would react with any brass material. Am I correct in this thinking? Any other ideas on what to use? I couldn't find any 90 degree elbows that were stainless at the hardware store.

Thanks.

why couldnt you just tilt your kettle over and pour it in. im shure your kettle isnt that heavy with only 1.5" of water in their. other then that, i think theirs a product out that you can screw onto the end of your valve and it creates some sort of vacume and pulls the wort out of the bottom. you would need a way to suck the wort from the bottom of the kettle though. how about some brass compression fittings and some bendable copper tube. problem solved

How about the doohicky in the middle of this page http://www.greatbargain.net/order/shop1.html

I just received my order today and couldn't be more pleased!!! Alternatively you could make your own with a 1/2 copper fitting and some copper tubing.

I just found out the same thing as I completed drilling by new 60 qt. aluminum kettle. Just shy of 1 1/2 gallons remains while the kettle is level. I think for now I'll just tip it to get the remainder out, but I too am looking for a more elegant solution. I think the dip tube should work fine unless someone has a better idea.

Edit: Bargainfittings.com has SS elbows as well as the copper dip tube.

Cool, the Sanke dip tube should work great, thanks for the tip. I should have elaborated a bit more in my original post. I could certainly tip the pot, but was hoping to avoid that so I can leave as much trub in the pot as possible. I still plan on putting some sort of screen or filter over the fitting, but figured by not tipping the liquid most of the trub would remain in the bottom of the pot and not go into the fermenter.

I just found a length of 1/2" copper tubing in my garage. Tomorrow I'll pickup a fitting and fab up a dip tube. I'm going to try to leave the connection un-soldered so that it's easily removable for cleaning, plus I can bend it to the outside of my kettle to steer clear of the trub pile after whirlpooling.

This is my setup, after the boil I let the whole wort set for about 45 minutes and let all the break material settle to the bottom. Open the valve and drain away very easy for me. Yes I do loose about a gallon of wort but it is all break and hop material that I do not care for anyways.

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My kettle dip tube leaves less than a quart on the bottom of my 18" wide pot. I use a hop bag + whirlpool, so I don't pick up much break material.





-Joe

I ended up using a 90 degree SS elbow like this.