Help with my keggle system plans

[Orrin1988]

Okay, so I have a bunch of questions regarding the use of keggles for brewing 10 gallon batches (or big 5 gallon batches).

After looking in Craigslist in an area within reasonable driving's distance for kegs I am figuring out it may be almost the same price (if not cheaper) to buy 3 kegs, convert them to keggle, mash/lauter tun, and hot liquor tanks as opposed to buying a 15 gallon aluminum pot with a couple of converted coolers. I mean the aluminum pots with fittings on them cost 120+ it seems, and the coolers are practically the same price. My question is what would be the best combination for me?

I plan on using a 3 tier gravity system for a good while, so would it be a good idea to do 3 keggles for my system, or should I do a combo? Maybe 1 cooler converted for hot liquor tank (sparging) and 2 keggles for brewing/mashing?

If I do 3 keggles, would I need 3 burners? If I am doing a 3 tier gravity system what is the best/easiest/cheapest equiptment options for me?

Final question, when converting kegs into keggles, are people in large part doing weld-less fittings or are they finding someone (or doing it themselves) to weld fittings on there or whatever? What is the best in that situation for keggles, and why?

 

[audger]

>>so would it be a good idea to do 3 keggles for my system, or should I do a combo? Maybe 1 cooler converted for hot liquor tank (sparging) and 2 keggles for brewing/mashing?
>>If I do 3 keggles, would I need 3 burners?

it depends if you want electric or gas, or a mixture. it depends if you want to do infusion mashes, or if you want to automatically heat the mash (and by electric or gas)?


"best" "easiest" and "cheapest" are at opposite ends of the spectrum usually. "easiest" and probably "cheapest" would be a plastic cooler mash tun, and a turkey fryer burner. "best" is up for debate, but i like my HERMS system that automatically steps thru mash temperature profiles, mashes out, and does everything without me paying attention to it. if you DIY it doesnt have to be much less "cheap", but it can be much more expensive depending a lot on your skills and how much you have to buy vs how much you can fabricate yourself.

>>What is the best in that situation for keggles, and why?
welded is obviously more robust and secure. but you obviously need a welder, or someone to do it. weldless can even be preferable in some cases, but the downfalls are; they can leak, they arent perminant, they can break, they need to be disassembled and cleaned.

most of those questions can only be answered by yourself...