Help with designing a brew kettle

[onkeltuka]

Hi all

I'm just in the planning stage with brewing, but I happened upon a great opportunity as I mentioned my home brewing ambitions to a friend who's a welder by profession. He welds kettles and other containers for large industries, and he said he can make me a brew kettle for free (or for a few beers later on...).

Now I would be in need of advice about which kind of design would be most usable? I've been thinking about a 50 liter (about 13 gallon) volume, I was thinking that that way I'll have flexibility to move to bigger batches should I ever want to do so. The material is 2mm thick stainless steel. My friend asked if I would want one with a little bit bigger outer shell around the inner kettle, so that there would be a small empty space between the two (only a millimeter or two). I'm not sure what that would do for the design? Would it make heating easier or harder?

Also, it's possible to have a hole for a tap drilled, but I'm not sure what would be the best height for the hole? And what kind of a tap would be suitable?

Thanks in advance!

Looking forward to getting to know you all.

 

[blackonblack]

A custom hand welded stainless 13 gallon kettle seems cool but likely more hassle than you'll gain. In his time alone I don't see much value here. For that volume look up or build a keggle a kettle made from a stainless keg.

Stainless is strong so you'd be surprised how thin you can go and still be strong. Mind you the thicker he would make your kettle the heavier and it will take longer to heat up and boil your wort as more mass is there to absorb heat.

Many brewers add stainless soldered on ball valves or even non soldered on varieties to aid in draining accompanied with a dip tube and a screen called a bazooka screen to strain out hop debris. I'm curious to see how this custom kettle turns out however they can be bought reasonably. If price is a concern consider aluminum

 

[FuzzeWuzze]

Many brewers add stainless soldered on ball valves or even non soldered on varieties to aid in draining accompanied with a dip tube and a screen called a bazooka screen to strain out hop debris. I'm curious to see how this custom kettle turns out however they can be bought reasonably. If price is a concern consider aluminum

Everything you said is right, except i'd like to correct one thing. You weld stainless, you dont solder it Soldering is something anyone can do..proper welding of fittings on stainless requires proper training and equipment.

 

[pigroaster]

You may want to go to 10 gallon finished batches so you may want 12 -13 gallons of wort preboil and then some head space for hot break to do it's thing. I would go to at least 16 gallons.

 

[srice]

Everything you said is right, except i'd like to correct one thing. You weld stainless, you dont solder it Soldering is something anyone can do..proper welding of fittings on stainless requires proper training and equipment.

Soldering can be made to work quite well on stainless. I soldered a 2" TC fitting on my converted keg for my heating element and I couldn't be happier. Take a look here for more stainless soldering : [ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_NkHlDql8EU[/ame]

 

[Stealthcruiser]

Scratch the "double wall" ( inner and outer pot),deal, as you definitely don't need it for a boil kettle, though something of that "design" could be used as a mash tun, albeit with a good bit of space in between for insulation.

Now, if he is just itching to make you something out of stainless, why not a nice, conical fermenter?

 

[worxman02]

I concor with Stealthcruiser. It would be more worth it for your friend to build you a conical fermenter since those are much more expensive to purchase than a brewpot. You can buy a nice tri-ply 15gal brewpot for around $150, but conicals are closer to $500 to $1000.

 

[onkeltuka]

OK, thanks for all your help! Any good threads here or elsewhere about how one of those fermenters should be designed?

 

[Stealthcruiser]

Hmmm.......

Look at pictures of conical fermenters, and the fittings / ports / thermowells , etc, that are installed on them.

THEN, have him / her design one that will fit YOUR space, preferably your "temp control" space.


You can do some reading about them, (though I don't know where to direct you!), to find the optimum angle for the sloping sides, how much room to leave beneath it for draining, yeast harvesting, attachments, etc......

And keep us posted on your progress!.........

 

[nosnhojm20]

Need to look at angles and dimensions of conicals as each contribute to fermentation characteristics.


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