Liquid left behind in keggle

Just did my final leak test, hoping to do my first all grain next weekend.
I put 10 gallons of water in the keggle, waited, made sure nothing leaked. When I was draining, a bunch of water was left behind. I measured it with a bucket, it was2 gallons. I have a pick up tube made from copper, and put the ball valve in as low as I was able. Without a pump, how do I get this out? Icant imagine leaving 2 gallons of wort behind.

Thanks!

When the liquid level in your keggle gets below your valve you have to have a siphon to get any further fluid out. Basically, you need a shipon tube inside the keggle to draw the fluid near the bottom AND the output has to be lower then the level of the fluid in the keggle.

Real simply, you have to have a hose or tubing connected to the output of the valve and have it draining lower than the bottom of your keggle.

Ed

Ohio-Ed said:

Real simply, you have to have a hose or tubing connected to the output of the valve and have it draining lower than the bottom of your keggle.

Ed

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I tried that. The keggle was on my work bench and had about 2 feet of 1/2" silicone tubing on it hanging down into a bucket. Still wouldn't drain.

Dave258 said:

I tried that. The keggle was on my work bench and had about 2 feet of 1/2" silicone tubing on it hanging down into a bucket. Still wouldn't drain.

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You have to start with enough liquid to cover the valve.

The output should be restricted to the smallest diameter of the valve/siphon couplings (as an exaggeration, you cant have 2" hose hanging on the outside of the valve or the liquid will just "fall" out and not keep the siphon). So you might have to pinch the end of the silicone hose until the end is covered by the liquid in your output bucket.

The siphon path has to be air tight... you might have a leak where the siphon tube connects to the coupling?

Gottcha!
Thanks, I didn't put the tube on until the level was down. What you said now makes absolute sense!
Thank you for clarifying that for me!

No Problem...

Once the liquid level drops below the valve, it starts a siphon.
After that point, if you close the valve, you will loose the siphon. So if you want to stop the flow, you need to pinch the tubing closed near the end so the siphon will re-start once the tube is released.

My HLT leaves about a cup of liquid in the bottom when completely drained.

Thanks again Ed! I just put 5 Gallons of water in the keggle to see what would happen, and just like you said, it all drained out.

Dave258 said:

Thanks again Ed! I just put 5 Gallons of water in the keggle to see what would happen, and just like you said, it all drained out.

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Outstanding!!! (Good to know gravity still works )

That means you have air tight seals on all your connections.

Just remember you will loose your siphon if you close the valve when the liquid level in the kettle gets below the top of your valve/coupling/siphon tube (been there done that).

that last bit on the bottom will be sluge from the hops and cold break when you brew so you wont mind leaving some behind .

I still need to add a drain to my keggle.

If I use a SS pot scubber type filter on the pickup tube, will it have an effect on the siphon?

Cpt_Kirks said:

I still need to add a drain to my keggle.

If I use a SS pot scubber type filter on the pickup tube, will it have an effect on the siphon?

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It can. Depends on how clogged it gets with trub. I used one for a while with pretty good success.

I later changed my pickup tube to be off centered to allow whirl-pooling and leave a bit of the trub behind. Now in my BK, I leave about 1.5 quarts of liquid when I drain completely.

Cpt_Kirks said:

I still need to add a drain to my keggle.

If I use a SS pot scubber type filter on the pickup tube, will it have an effect on the siphon?

Click to expand...

I use a portion of a foam aquarium filter.