Keggle Boil Kettle drain location

[Lambo3]

I've ended up with a few kegs from friends that tried to return them and they wouldn't take them back for whatever reason (not sure why). Some of them have had them for years and just near returned them. All I know is that they were free

So, I'm making a brew system with them. I'm starting with the boil kettle. It seems many folks use a drain tube that will draw from the bottom center. To me it seems that you'd be sucking up all of your protien and hop sediment.

I have a chugger pump, and plan to use it to create a whirlpool. I'll pump through a counter flow chiller so it can chill simultaneously.

It seems I'd want to draw my wort from the outside edge of the kettle so I can leave that trub cone behind after the whirlpool.

Thoughts anyone? I know I'd have some dead space, but that's kind of the point, right?

 

[bob352]

Yes draw from the outside edge on the boil kettle when whirlpooling.
When you convert one of those kegs to a mlt, then you will want
to drain from the center.

 

[Bobby_M]

It really depends on whether you plan to bag the hops or not. Frankly, I'd never run wort through a plate chiller without bagging the hops anyway unless you whirlpool at flameout, let stand 10 minutes and then run through the chiller. Give that longer hop stand, you'll have to modify your bittering/flavoring hop schedules.

Look around here for "bottom drain" before you cut those kegs!

 

[Lambo3]

A hop basket is going to be part of the project. I do plan to bottom drain for the MLT and HLT using the tri clamp kit (from your store i think), but i thought i would leave the solid bottom on the boil kettle so i could still use it on a burner sometimes. Perhaps i should reconsider.

I was thinking a home made copper tube/hose chiller.

 

[Bobby_M]

For the BK, there's nothing wrong with a side drain either. You can also save a few bucks there as well. If you use the weldless bulkhead with the elbow on the inside, you can just thread in a 5/8" hose barb to point it down/sideways about 2/3rds of the way up the keg dish.

It's the middle one in this picture:

Then you whirlpool in the opposite direction and you won't pick up too much gunk. Tube in tube CFCs are not as prone to clogging, but I'd still use bags for hops as it makes cleanup infinitely easier.