Bottom Draining Kettle Options

[sicktght311]

Anyone have any insight into anything in the 10-15 gallon Electric kettle size range with a bottom drain? I'm getting sick of having to shop vac out my leftover crap in my kettle after brew day, and the mess that cleaning the shop vac then makes. Would love a bottom drain kettle to not only quickly rinse it out, but also for potential CIP to make life easier. I only brew 5 gallon, but i'd be willing to go to a 15 gallon kettle for 10 batch sizes if it meant i can get the bottom drains.

SS brewtech used to make Kombucha tanks that i considered converting, but they're discontinued, and Stout tanks look like they're mostly 20 gallons and up when it comes to a bottom drain if i want to also incorporate an electric element and whirlpool fitting. Plus they're crazy expensive.

Just seems like a bottom draining kettle is a luxury only for those brewing half barrel or more

 

[marc1]

You can get a weldless bulkhead and spigot and put a drain in whatever kettle you want. My kettle came with a bottom drain, and I used a bulkhead to add the electric element.

 

[sicktght311]

You can get a weldless bulkhead and spigot and put a drain in whatever kettle you want. My kettle came with a bottom drain, and I used a bulkhead to add the electric element.

The element port, or fittings, isnt the problem, its finding a 10-15 gallon kettle with a true bottom drain. That is mostly what i'm searching for

 

[marc1]

The element port, or fittings, isnt the problem, its finding a 10-15 gallon kettle with a true bottom drain. That is mostly what i'm searching for

Ah! OK, I misunderstood. You are looking for a drain NOT on the side at the bottom, but in the actual bottom of the kettle?

 

[sicktght311]

Ah! OK, I misunderstood. You are looking for a drain NOT on the side at the bottom, but in the actual bottom of the kettle?

Hah yes. A true bottom center or offset drain port to aid in draining and cleaning without moving the kettles

 

[marc1]

Hah yes. A true bottom center or offset drain port to aid in draining and cleaning without moving the kettles

You might still be able to drill the bottom and put in a bulkhead. There'd be a raised lip on the inside for the nut, though.

 

[sicktght311]

You might still be able to drill the bottom and put in a bulkhead. There'd be a raised lip on the inside for the nut, though.

you would then also have to put legs on the kettle, and to make it worthwhile, the bulkhead would have to be a 1.5" Triclamp sized port, with elbow, etc. Just starts getting into completely custom territory with welding, etc. Hence why i'm more curious if theres any off the shelf kettles i'm missing, or if this just doesnt exist outside of custom design

 

[marc1]

you would then also have to put legs on the kettle, and to make it worthwhile, the bulkhead would have to be a 1.5" Triclamp sized port, with elbow, etc. Just starts getting into completely custom territory with welding, etc. Hence why i'm more curious if theres any off the shelf kettles i'm missing, or if this just doesnt exist outside of custom design

Good points.

Or you have to cut a hole in your brew table for it. The weldless Triclamp bulkheads work well (if you're OK with the lip). If everything's TC, it would be easy to assemble/disassemble for cleaning, without welding.

But yes, I see your desire for premade!

 

[NTBeer]

Most available option I know of would be a keggle, cutting out the bottom instead of the top.

 

[Golddiggie]

Most available option I know of would be a keggle, cutting out the bottom instead of the top.

I was going to post about using a keg (making a keggle) for this. Since it's been done often enough and you can get the hardware needed to put the drain in position easily enough. If you have a brew stand, or make one, you won't need to put legs onto the keggle.

I have a 1/2 bbl keg looking for a new home now.

 

[Bobby_M]

I agree it's a major oversight in the industry. SSbrewtech and Spike have doubled down on the customer perception that triclad bottom pots are "premium". Of course they ARE premium if you're putting a flame under them but with the swift movement toward electric brewing, there should be an alternative. I've welded TC bottom drains to Blichmann Boilermakers and other random kettles such as Concord. Here's a Concord 20 gallon I just finished for a local customer.

 

[odie]

use an old beer keg...inverted. You will need to put an electric element in the side since I don't think propane is gonna work with that configuration.

 

[dbayub]

It wasn't very hard to silver solder a tri-clamp fitting on to the bottom of a stainless kettle (I wanted a 20 gallon kettle, or I probably would have used an inverted keg.) Just drilled the appropriate sized hole with a step bit, cleaned up the hole, and soldered on the fitting. From there you can connect whatever you want, and it's easy to take off the fittings. Of course, as was stated, you need to either cut a hole for it in the brew stand AND have enough space to connect the tri-clamp (which I did), or build up something to support the kettle.

 

[superiorsat]

I'm getting sick of having to shop vac out my leftover crap in my kettle after brew day, and the mess that cleaning the shop vac then makes.

This seems super odd that this would be your procedure.

I only brew 5 gallon, but i'd be willing to go to a 15 gallon kettle for 10 batch sizes if it meant i can get the bottom drains.

My small setup is 20 gallon Concord kettles that my sanitary stainless dairy welder buddy customized but it never crossed my mine to have bottom drains put on kettles this small. I just tip sideways in to a bucket and spray out, scrub repeat. My 100 gallon kettles are different story. I can't handle those as well so it was CIP required for me and the bottom drain was a must. My 50 gallon kettle is still light enough that I can carry to the 3 compartment sink to spray and wash all though I think I will eventually weld it up with tri-clamps and a bottom drain.

 

[Golddiggie]

I've never used a shop vac to clean out any of my kettles, for any of the batches I've brewed. Not even for the MT. The kettles I see in 1bbl, and above, are bottom draining. Above 1bbl, CIP is pretty common as well. More needed due to the weight of the kettles compared with smaller ones.

 

[sicktght311]

I'm assuming all of you tipping your kettles are either not using electric, or you're completely disconnecting your elements, and disconnecting all of your fittings? Between valves sticking out of the bottom from front of my kettles, the gangbox on the side housing the element and wiring, and general tight fit of all of my kettles on my brew table, its WAY easier to just shopvac out the stuff from the bottom, clean that in the sink, and then run a cleaning cycle through my pumps, chillers, and kettle, than it is to try to angle a bucket, tip a kettle with everything attached to it, etc.

But still, ultimately the easiest method of all would just be a bottom drain. Dump right to bucket. Clean, rinse, drain, and you're done. I'm all about shortening my brew day, and thats including cleaning. CIP would be even better.

 

[marc1]

I'm assuming all of you tipping your kettles are either not using electric, or you're completely disconnecting your elements, and disconnecting all of your fittings? Between valves sticking out of the bottom from front of my kettles, the gangbox on the side housing the element and wiring, and general tight fit of all of my kettles on my brew table, its WAY easier to just shopvac out the stuff from the bottom, clean that in the sink, and then run a cleaning cycle through my pumps, chillers, and kettle, than it is to try to angle a bucket, tip a kettle with everything attached to it, etc.

But still, ultimately the easiest method of all would just be a bottom drain. Dump right to bucket. Clean, rinse, drain, and you're done. I'm all about shortening my brew day, and thats including cleaning. CIP would be even better.

I tip my 15 gallon kettle to drain out the low front ball valve into a bucket. No issues. I then do some rinses with condenser water, and fill over the element height. Add some homemade PBW, then fire up the element to give it a hot soak. Scrub, drain, and rinse.

 

[Golddiggie]

@sicktght311 Sounds like you made your setup overly complicated. My kettles are all with TC fittings, which makes removing things like the sensor and valve (with dip tube) very easy. Twist lock cord to the element is also easy to remove. Using the brew stand (single tier) also makes things easy. My current brew stand, working area, is about 5' long. The one I'm designing will be a little longer, more so that it's ready in case I want to increase the HLT and MT from 15 to 20 gallon sizes.

For cleaning, it IS easy. Since I simply carry either the MT or BK maybe 10 feet into the driveway to rinse out what's needed before placing back on the brew stand (in the garage). I don't have a sink anywhere near my brewing setup. I plan to in my next place. Which would make cleanup even easier.

I make a PBW solution in the BK, using the leftover water from the HLT more to clean the element off. But also to run through the plate chiller and the conical that's going to be emptied before the next brew day.

Work smart, not hard.

 

[Bobby_M]

Bottom draining is one of those things that you think is crazy and unnecessary until you have it. Then you wonder why that wasn't the first priority in your brewing life. CIP is painless and bottom draining is a requirement of CIP.

 

[superiorsat]

Can can tip and dump with or without all hoses, temp probe wires and element hooked up no problem. To each his own. I have the room and don't mind a little splashing going on around the back garage. Only each person knows there situation I guess. If I had bottom drains on my 20 gallon pots they would all have to sit over the front edge of my table closing down my walking space considerably.

 

[sicktght311]

Keep in mind, my issue as well, is that my brewing table space is limited to 48" which means my 10 gallon kettles are fairly close together, and enclosed from the sides with a wall on one side, and fermenters on the other, so a CIP setup or at least something that requires minimal movement of the kettles is most ideal. Also i'm in a basement, since winters are brutally cold here and a garage is out of the question, so theres no "take it to the driveway and dump" option either. Thats why i'm searching for bottom drain

 

[sicktght311]

Bottom draining is one of those things that you think is crazy and unnecessary until you have it. Then you wonder why that wasn't the first priority in your brewing life. CIP is painless and bottom draining is a requirement of CIP.

Exactly. I get it that theres other options, but all of them require moving the kettles. The less i have to move, the better, and its pretty much standard on any brewing system above a certain size, so why is it not an option on anything below. Blows my mind

 

[superiorsat]

The less i have to move, the better, and its pretty much standard on any brewing system above a certain size, so why is it not an option on anything below. Blows my mind

CIP in your case sounds like a good solution to your space confinement issue( which was described better in post #21 as compared to " general tight fit of all of my kettles on my brew table " in post #16) . I would think anything would be better than having to clean a shop vac after each brew session, but I guess it makes a little more sense now why you do it. Bobby has good DIY videos on sliver soldering in tri-clamp ports or if your lucky one of your best buddies is a sanitary stainless steel dairy tig welder by trade , or upside down keggle.

 

[Bassman2003]

Here is a video I made of making a bottom drain keggle setup. It works great and the dedicated hose clamp instead of a ball valve is the best ever.

 

[Bobby_M]

Exactly. I get it that theres other options, but all of them require moving the kettles. The less i have to move, the better, and its pretty much standard on any brewing system above a certain size, so why is it not an option on anything below. Blows my mind

I'm amazed at how many people insist on every port and accessory on a 10 gallon brewing system being triclamp, adding 20 pounds to each kettle and arms of gear protruding, and then dragging them to a sink or laying them over is the acceptable cleaning method.

 

[marc1]

I'm amazed at how many people insist on every port and accessory on a 10 gallon brewing system being triclamp, adding 20 pounds to each kettle and arms of gear protruding, and then dragging them to a sink or laying them over is the acceptable cleaning method.

This is a cool idea that looks like it could make cleaning a bit easier. I don't think it's particularly arduous to tilt my kettle to get the last of the water/cleaning solution out through the ball valve, though.

However, I don't have that many accessory ports. Ball valve at the bottom side, TC for the element, and a TC for the steam slayer in the lid, which I take off for cleaning. With the element cord unplugged from the kettle, nothing really gets in the way.

But I see the appeal of a flush bottom drain! I'd be interested in one if it didn't seem like a PITA to put in myself. Your weldless bulkhead would have that nut on the inside, preventing complete drainage. If I was buying a kettle again and it had the option, I'd probably get it

 

[sicktght311]

If spike or SS came out with a bottom drain option with legs, i'd be all over it. Pure and simple. And i feel like at the right price point, a significant portion of homebrewers would too. It doesnt change the actual brew day, but certainly makes cleanup way easier.

That, and a little stainless hat over the cooling coils in the Chronical BME so hops dont get stuck in between the coils when you drop a dryhop in through the 3" triclamp at the top.

Cmon SS Brewtech, get a move on

 

[poptarts]

I've been searching hard for this. The only options I've found is stout tanks has some mash tuns in the 20gal range that bottom drain. Or a keg upside down. Spike won't custom weld bottom ports, I have not found a vendor that is willing to weld custom ports on the bottom.

 

[Bobby_M]

I've been searching hard for this. The only options I've found is stout tanks has some mash tuns in the 20gal range that bottom drain. Or a keg upside down. Spike won't custom weld bottom ports, I have not found a vendor that is willing to weld custom ports on the bottom.

Like I said earlier, I've bottom drained several kettles for customers over the past couple years. The limitation is the triclad bottoms. It's not impossible to do it as I've tried several tests and I can get it welded about 1/3rd of the time without trouble. That's not a high enough success rate for me to risk expensive kettles on.

I've done it on the Brewmaster brand kettles which come in several sizes. The 25G is shown below but they come in 18.5 and 14 gallon as well. BrewHardware.com - High end, practical homebrewing hardware, accessories and ingredients for making beer, wine, mead, and cider.

I've done it on the Blichmann Boilermakers though they have cut retailers off from purchasing them for the past few months.

Concord kettles weld up nicely also.

 

[Staticsouls]

Keep it simple. Keg cut bottom off, use tc fitting to make it bottom drain and put the kettle on a harbor freight moving dolly for 7 bucks. No legs, moves with ease, and easy 2 min clean up. I've used weldless bulkheads for my electric elements for almost 4 years and they still work great. I run 2 1650 watt elements. Total cost is probably less than $150.

 

[poptarts]

Like I said earlier, I've bottom drained several kettles for customers over the past couple years. The limitation is the triclad bottoms. It's not impossible to do it as I've tried several tests and I can get it welded about 1/3rd of the time without trouble. That's not a high enough success rate for me to risk expensive kettles on.

I've done it on the Brewmaster brand kettles which come in several sizes. The 25G is shown below but they come in 18.5 and 14 gallon as well. BrewHardware.com - High end, practical homebrewing hardware, accessories and ingredients for making beer, wine, mead, and cider.

View attachment 745033


I've done it on the Blichmann Boilermakers though they have cut retailers off from purchasing them for the past few months.

Concord kettles weld up nicely also.

Well of you are willing to weld up some pots I'll reach out then when I'm ready. I see that labor cost on your site now, that's awesome!

 

[Jaybird]

Keep it simple. Keg cut bottom off, use tc fitting to make it bottom drain and put the kettle on a harbor freight moving dolly for 7 bucks. No legs, moves with ease, and easy 2 min clean up. I've used weldless bulkheads for my electric elements for almost 4 years and they still work great. I run 2 1650 watt elements. Total cost is probably less than $150.

This works well. My automated system at the house is all inverted Sanke and using 2" TC fitting and all electric. It's a great option IMHO. Super cheap, Sturdy as hell and simple to manipulate to whatever you want.
Cheers
Jay

 

[superiorsat]

Ok so reading through this again you shop vac out because carrying/tipping is out of the question. How are you cleaning what sticky mess the shop vac leaves behind? Are you spray scrub shop vac repeat multiple times to get things clean?

 

[superiorsat]

I guess where I was going with that is maybe take your mash tun ( should be easy enough to lift and move if your in the clean up the kettle part of your brew day) and set it on the floor or whatever freeing up room to where you could tilt your kettle as I do or

. I don't think it's particularly arduous to tilt my kettle to get the last of the water/cleaning solution out through the ball valve, though.

or try marc1's route.
How are you dealing with the spent grain from MT as a secondary question? Buckets then shop vac scenario?

 

[madscientist451]

Would love a bottom drain kettle to not only quickly rinse it out, but also for potential CIP to make life easier. I only brew 5 gallon, but i'd be willing to go to a 15 gallon kettle for 10 batch sizes if it meant i can get the bottom drains.

The expense and extra time it will take to rig up a CIP system and obtain a bottom draining kettle just seems like overkill for a 5 gallon batch. If you have unlimited cash, go for it, otherwise, perhaps it would be better to downsize to an 8.5 gallon kettle you can easily clean out in a regular sink.

 

[Staticsouls]

^Not really I just rinse them with hot water after a brew and wipe off the elements, leave the valves open. They air dry where they sit. All 3 of my vessels are all bottom drain.

 

[poptarts]

^Not really I just rinse them with hot water after a brew and wipe off the elements, leave the valves open. They air dry where they sit. All 3 of my vessels are all bottom drain.

This is the way, once you try brewing this way you will never not want non bottom drain pots again. I'm building a new brew space and will have drain plumbing into my stand. I want cleaning my kettles to be as easy as rinsing out a sink. Ive been searching so much for proper kettles, its mind blowing more brewers would rather have triclad bottom kettles for their electric brew systems over bottom drains.

 

[FunkedOut]

I think the aversion to bottom drain kettles is the trub.
But it would make cleaning a breeze.

Stout makes some mash tuns with bottom drains.
They even makes some insulated tuns on legs with bottom drains.
Check them out if you haven’t.

Seems they might be the closest to what you’re looking for and could easily customize what you need.
They worked with the lodo guys a lot for their needs.
Not sure if Spike would add a bottom drain or not.

 

[poptarts]

BrewersHardware got back with me, they can place bottom drains on their kettles, they appear to have pretty much identical kettles to stout so that makes some good options for bottom drains in the $300s probably going to go that route. I really like their 20g kettles since you could do 5 gal batches in them as well as 10 since they are not wide

 

[Bobby_M]

I think the aversion to bottom drain kettles is the trub.
But it would make cleaning a breeze.

Stout makes some mash tuns with bottom drains.
They even makes some insulated tuns on legs with bottom drains.
Check them out if you haven’t.

Seems they might be the closest to what you’re looking for and could easily customize what you need.
They worked with the lodo guys a lot for their needs.
Not sure if Spike would add a bottom drain or not.

If the bottom drain is placed near the wall of the kettle, trub stays in the center pretty well.

Spike would definitely not weld into the triclad bottoms of their kettles.