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AleForce1 said:
next thing to do is trim one of the holes on the stand so that the dip tube will fit thru and the TC fitting can be locked down.
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any progress with this? I just received my 20 gallon kettles and am trying to figure out the dip tubes now. Especially regarding the FB.
 
Just got my 15 gallon. Waiting on BrewGear to get an ETA on their pickup tube. If not soon, I'm ordering the pickup from Brewers Hardware. Theirs looks really close to being right. I want it as close to the kettle wall as possible.
 
brian4508 said:
any progress with this? I just received my 20 gallon kettles and am trying to figure out the dip tubes now. Especially regarding the FB.
Click to expand...

Yeah I modified it with a Dremel tool. You need to modify one of the openings about 1/2" to get a diptube/racking arm thru it. Also tested it with some 3/4" TC tubing that I purchased from Still Dragon and Chugger pump and the flow is great.

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IMG_2408b.jpg
 
tomCT said:
I had followed brugear with the intention of purchasing a 15 gallon kettle, but waited until they had a complete package with pickup and possibly a whirpool solution. They emailed me two months ago that their pickup tube was a couple of weeks away.

You might check this out - they do not list any specs:
http://www.cobrewingsystems.com/collections/hardware-fittings-8/products/1-5-pick-up-tube
Click to expand...

Thanks for the link. They look very similar. I wonder if the kettles are induction ready. Great price too.
 
tomCT said:
I had followed brugear with the intention of purchasing a 15 gallon kettle, but waited until they had a complete package with pickup and possibly a whirpool solution. They emailed me two months ago that their pickup tube was a couple of weeks away.

You might check this out - they do not list any specs:
http://www.cobrewingsystems.com/collections/hardware-fittings-8/products/1-5-pick-up-tube
Click to expand...

Specs on the cobrewingsystems pickup sent from Tim...

From the tri-clamp connection to the start of the 90 degree tube is 3 3/4" (4 1/4" to center of tube). From the bottom of the tube to center of the horizontal tube is 2". Its designed to be 4" overall length into a kettle when connected to the tank ferrule. The tube OD is 1" and will fit through a 1 1/2" tri-clamp ferrule. I believe the thickness is .065.

Waiting on Derrin to reply with the specs of the pickup from Brewers Hardware.
 
[Originally posted by msjulian
I am about to pull the trigger on the 1" pickup tube from Brewers Hardware. Does anyone have the dimensions on that pickup? I was also wondering how far up the center of the hole is from the bottom of the Bru Gear kettles? Reading what AleForce1 has been testing it sounds like it should be apron 2" -2.25" from the bottom. ]

I saw the pickup tube you're talking about as well. The Brewers Hardware SKU is TC10PICKUP. It looks like it might work well. I'm waiting for an answer from Brewers Hardware about how far down the drop reaches.

The center of the valve hole on my 20 gallon Bru Gear kettles are 1 3/4" to 2" from the inside bottom of the kettles.
Click to expand...
 
Measuring to scale (a little tough to be exact with a pic on the web) it looks like the Brewers hardwear pickup will sit at around 2" from the inside wall of the kettle. It also looks like it might be a bit long and need a small amount cut off the bottom. I think it will be perfect. I can cut the bottom to get it exactly the way I want from the floor of the kettle.

I did get an email from BruGear today stating theirs will be about 1-2 weeks out. I emailed back to see if they could provide dimentions.
 
msjulian, Stainless cuts easily with a grinder and a cut off wheel. Also, the tri clamp connectors on the kettles are 1 1/8" from the inside kettle wall to the outside connector, so you'll lose some of the length of the tube there.
 
MtnHiBrewin said:
msjulian, Stainless cuts easily with a grinder and a cut off wheel. Also, the tri clamp connectors on the kettles are 1 1/8" from the inside kettle wall to the outside connector, so you'll lose some of the length of the tube there.
Click to expand...

The 2" inside the kettle was calculating from the Tri-clamp flange as well as the ferrel length welded to my kettle. I have had very good luck making pickup tubes in the past just using my pipe cutter I use on copper pipe. Takes a little longer but makes a very clean cut.
 
MtnHiBrewin said:
[Originally posted by msjulian
I am about to pull the trigger on the 1" pickup tube from Brewers Hardware. Does anyone have the dimensions on that pickup? I was also wondering how far up the center of the hole is from the bottom of the Bru Gear kettles? Reading what AleForce1 has been testing it sounds like it should be apron 2" -2.25" from the bottom. ]

I saw the pickup tube you're talking about as well. The Brewers Hardware SKU is TC10PICKUP. It looks like it might work well. I'm waiting for an answer from Brewers Hardware about how far down the drop reaches.

The center of the valve hole on my 20 gallon Bru Gear kettles are 1 3/4" to 2" from the inside bottom of the kettles.
Click to expand...

A BruGear backer/friend has a Brewerr's Hardware Pickup tube and he indicated that it would require some trimming to work correctly with the BG kettle. If you DO NOT want to do any modifications then get the Stout's pick tube.
Click to expand...
 
Did a first brewsession today using the BruGear Kettle as a mashtun. I had an induction plate to heat the mashtun + a RIMS's assist since it's Freakn' cold in the flyover state of Illinois right now... Anyway we doughed in @ 159 with 22 lbs of grain. The false bottom worked great with my BG modified BG Racking Arm and Chugger pump for recirculation.

One issue - The Falsebottom is a pain in the keester to clean!
 
AF1HomeBrew, I wondered about the false bottoms when I got mine. What makes it a pain to clean? I'd assume it's getting the grain husks out of it? During the mash/sparge, did much get through around the outside edge of the false bottom?
 
MtnHiBrewin said:
AF1HomeBrew, I wondered about the false bottoms when I got mine. What makes it a pain to clean? I'd assume it's getting the grain husks out of it? During the mash/sparge, did much get through around the outside edge of the false bottom?
Click to expand...

I should have mentioned that I was comparing it to a Blichmann Falsebottom. Yes grain gets caught up in the holes more - also on the falsebottom stand portion. Sorry I didn't take a picture of it as I was too busy trying to clean up everything. For recirculation & sparging purposes I rigged up a pizza pan & colander that was held up by Copper wire that was suspended 2-3" from the grain bed. The copper wire was secured to the kettle handles. This allowed me to keep the kettle lid on during recirculation. You can see the grain that made it thru during recirculation. Not in the picture was a tube that was connected to the displayed racking arm... it was placed in the colander also just like the tube coming out of the HLT which is displayed.

pizzapan_colander.jpg
 
I got a 15g as a kickstarter backer, and received the kettle quickly once he finally got them in stock.. condition was great. Unforutnately I haven't had any success in contacting them regarding the dip-tube since I let me know about the reddit site. (http://www.reddit.com/r/Homebrewing/comments/2h8ugg/got_my_bru_gear/)

I emailed a couple weeks ago about the dip-tube status, no response.
 
Wanted to add that I've been thinking of yet another use for my HLT lid.

With the price of a conical fermenter as high as it is, I haven't thought the benefits would outweigh the price after having success with glass and plastic for so long.

I'm planning to buy a dip tube for the lower TC port on my HLT and ferment in it, using the ports on the lid for an airlock and/or blowoff. This will make for a very large fermenter that will have all the same benefits of a conical (SS, collection valve, dip tube, thermowell, etc.) with exception of a lower dump valve and lower yeast cake surface area in contact with beer ratio.

I'm not concerned with that ratio or dumping the yeast, and when I collect yeast I like to top crop making the large lid advantageous.

If this works well, I see myself buying more kettles for fermentation with modified lids and dip tubes. I'll post the results.
 
I had my cart full with three kettles about a month ago and came across a couple reviews like yours. I did not pull the trigger. The logos alone are ridiculous and self promoting beyond reason, but I could forgive that if not for all the other issues reported.

My current setup has a herms coil dropping down from the lid (of a 10g round cooler) and it is something I want to get away from.

Thanks for the review, boganll. You have validated my decision to buy three 20g Concord pots and convert them to my needs.
 
I recently bought a 15g kettle from them and am pretty happy with it so far. By looking at it and picking it up, you can tell it's definitely a high quality kettle, at the level of Stout, Blichman, etc. Unlike your experience, I knew exactly what I was getting because of the pictures and emails back and forth. Yes, it does come with NPT valves but they are the 3-piece ones and you can always change over to TC ones later. Realistically, for $275 for the kettle + valve + thermometer, it's a great deal. I'm about to pull the trigger on another one with a sight glass. The logo doesn't bother me (i.e. Blichman). It did arrive with a small dent on the bottom but every kettle I've ever mailed order came with a dent also (must be my bad luck) so it's not a big deal.
 
ndinh said:
I recently bought a 15g kettle from them and am pretty happy with it so far. By looking at it and picking it up, you can tell it's definitely a high quality kettle, at the level of Stout, Blichman, etc. Unlike your experience, I knew exactly what I was getting because of the pictures and emails back and forth. Yes, it does come with NPT valves but they are the 3-piece ones and you can always change over to TC ones later. Realistically, for $275 for the kettle + valve + thermometer, it's a great deal. I'm about to pull the trigger on another one with a sight glass. The logo doesn't bother me (i.e. Blichman). It did arrive with a small dent on the bottom but every kettle I've ever mailed order came with a dent also (must be my bad luck) so it's not a big deal.
Click to expand...

I think you've missed my point.

I'm not unhappy with my kettles and the quality of the product I recieved isn't necessarily what's in question. My experience as a customer was not pleasant. Keep in mind that I placed my order nearly a year ago before Bru Gear's product had evolved into what it is today.

My order was for three 20g kettles, one false bottom, and one HERMS coil, which for me (and I'm sure the vast majority of the HBT community) accounted for a substantial investment. For that reason I am at liberty to scrutinize a company for sending a different product than what I saw originally, for failing to communicate those changes to me, for failing to communicate the numerous push-backs in production, for not addressing specific points in my attempts to communicate with them, and for failing to provide hardware that is compatible with their own product without adaptors.

Granted, Bru Gear did provide adaptors, but the explicit purpose of investing in equipment with TC fittings is to avoid threads and adaptors. After the communicative hassle and the immense wait, it was pretty disappointing to find that purpose defeated and realize the necessity for further investment that I shouldn't nor was expecting to have to make.

Everything considered, I was then (and still am) in support of a more competitive market for advanced home brewing equipment, which is why I put the money up in the first place. Bru Gear was already manufacturing professional scale equipment when it decided to expand into the home brewing market, so this is only the beginning for them and for the benefit of the home brewing community they should keep it up. Obviously their early stages were high pressure because of time, money, production errors and a highly scrutinous customer base, but now that they have successfully launched their line of home brewing equipment I hope and expect they will get better.

The Blichmann logo's size pales in comparison to the giant, bold Bru Gear logo and was well put by brrman:
brrman said:
ridiculous and self promoting beyond reason
Click to expand...
 
ndinh said:
I recently bought a 15g kettle from them and am pretty happy with it so far. By looking at it and picking it up, you can tell it's definitely a high quality kettle, at the level of Stout, Blichman, etc. Unlike your experience, I knew exactly what I was getting because of the pictures and emails back and forth. Yes, it does come with NPT valves but they are the 3-piece ones and you can always change over to TC ones later. Realistically, for $275 for the kettle + valve + thermometer, it's a great deal. I'm about to pull the trigger on another one with a sight glass. The logo doesn't bother me (i.e. Blichman). It did arrive with a small dent on the bottom but every kettle I've ever mailed order came with a dent also (must be my bad luck) so it's not a big deal.
Click to expand...


I don't see a sight glass on their website. Also does the kettle come with a dip tube?
 
Is there a third tc port on the back of these kettles? The bru website only shows 2.
 
Scriv said:
I don't see a sight glass on their website. Also does the kettle come with a dip tube?
Click to expand...

Yeah, they removed the sight glass from their website so I inquired about it. They said that it's being updated to be an add-on to existing kettles (they were originally attached by separate TC ports when ordering a kettle). Not a big deal because the kettles have gallon markings (down to 5g). I now have 2 of their 15g kettles and am very happy with them. They come with only a ball valve and thermometer, no dip tube, although they said that they're currently working on a dip tube and possibly a whirlpool arm. Brewers hardware has a TC dip tube for $25 that I may be getting. I think for the price, it's a pretty good deal for a heavy duty kettle. I know SS brewing also has kettles in that price range so you may want to check those out as well. Here's some pics of the new kettle.

01c40fd1843796fbddc74e7d8d7e89213b6d7c3b7b.jpg


01fb8dc8ae205b067515b6c2d07844f599be98f129.jpg


01f0fd3fc8468d7495b366bc6bcd5910fc08bc1ca9.jpg


01c19823df6f25ce08e0a16035085b51f8b683dc35.jpg


0135b1721022d371483912c6914d7b65add4f91592.jpg
 
Thanks! I'm thinking of ordering the electric version of the 15 gallon Bru and using the Brewers Hardware tc dip tube as a whirlpool arm.
 
Don't count on getting an answer if you don't keep messaging through the contact page on their website.

They opened a "case number" for the problems I have with my kettles and I still haven't got an answer.
It was opened on 12/9/2014. They have answered back with questions twice since then and I've responded the next day, only to wait weeks again for nothing. The last time they answered was 1/14. I've pretty much given up on them and will not use the messed up sight glass or the herms coil attached to the lid.
 
AleForce1 said:
How did you end up passivating the kettle?
Click to expand...

"a warm Star San solution for about 20 minutes. Not sure if I'll have to do that every time... supposedly only have to do that once a year according to BG."-AleForce1


My BG Kettle did the same thing. What concentration did you make the starsan solution? Did you fill the kettle to the top with said solution? Thanks!
 
Maddhadder said:
"a warm Star San solution for about 20 minutes. Not sure if I'll have to do that every time... supposedly only have to do that once a year according to BG."-AleForce1


My BG Kettle did the same thing. What concentration did you make the starsan solution? Did you fill the kettle to the top with said solution? Thanks!
Click to expand...

Same concentration that is on the star san bottle except using warm water.
 
Maddhadder said:
"a warm Star San solution for about 20 minutes. Not sure if I'll have to do that every time... supposedly only have to do that once a year according to BG."-AleForce1


My BG Kettle did the same thing. What concentration did you make the starsan solution? Did you fill the kettle to the top with said solution? Thanks!
Click to expand...

No need to completely fill it. You can even use a spray bottle but you need to make sure to spray it periodically so it stays wet through the passivation period.
 
ndinh said:
Yeah, they removed the sight glass from their website so I inquired about it. They said that it's being updated to be an add-on to existing kettles (they were originally attached by separate TC ports when ordering a kettle). Not a big deal because the kettles have gallon markings (down to 5g). I now have 2 of their 15g kettles and am very happy with them. They come with only a ball valve and thermometer, no dip tube, although they said that they're currently working on a dip tube and possibly a whirlpool arm. Brewers hardware has a TC dip tube for $25 that I may be getting. I think for the price, it's a pretty good deal for a heavy duty kettle. I know SS brewing also has kettles in that price range so you may want to check those out as well. Here's some pics of the new kettle.
Click to expand...

ndinh, do you have a link to the brewers hardware dip tube? My searches are failing. :)
 
jet70 said:
ndinh, do you have a link to the brewers hardware dip tube? My searches are failing. :)
Click to expand...

Yep, here ya go:

http://www.brewershardware.com/1-Tri-Clover-Tri-Clamp-Style-Pickup-Tube.html

I ended up buying it and used it for the first time a couple of weeks ago. It worked perfectly as a dip tube. I probably had about 1/4 gallon of wort left. Since it wasn't made for Bru Gear kettles, it just has to lay slanted instead of pointing straight down. I don't think it would work well as whirlpool arm though. For the whirlpool arm, I just bought this one:

http://www.cobrewingsystems.com/col...-90-degree-1-tc-fitting-with-clamp-and-gasket

It's in the mail so I can't say if it works or not. I plan on having that on the upper port since I really don't use my thermometer for my BK. Colorado brewing also has their version of a dip tube that looks pretty much identical to the Brewers Hardware one. Good luck.
 
Yes, they do. Tri clad and thick gauge SS. They're pretty heavy when you pick them up (heavier than my older polarware kettles). Before I made my purchases, I was told by Bru Gear that the upper port is under the 5 gallon mark. Well, it turns out the 15gal kettles have the upper port higher than 5 gallons (more like 6.5 gallons). It's really not an issue because most of the time my pre-boils are around 7- 7.5 gallons. Just something to consider.
 
Thanks. I'm having a hell of a time deciding on a boil kettle for some reason!
 
AleForce1 said:
Just received the Stout's Dip Tube. Below are some photo's. I'll test it with water shortly. The Stout dip tube comes in 2 pieces, the TC fitting and then the tube. The length from TC to tip is just a hair over 6". Again keep in mind the Bru Gear Racking arm was trimmed by 2".
Click to expand...


Quick question on the Stout pick up tube, is it NPT thread?

Thanks.
 

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