Found a deal on a couple 20-gallon Bayou Classic kettles (plus other stuff). I have only brewed 5-gallon batches with my 10-gal Spike kettle, but I wanted the ability to do 10-gallon batches as well.
The kettles came w/ weldless ball valves, but they're pieces of....not good. So I ordered a bulkhead/pickup tube as well as a normal bulkhead fitting from Bobby_M at BrewHardware.
Only problem is this: the holes are...a little weird. One kettle's bulkhead hole is 1 3/4" above the bottom, the other 3". The pickup tube has a 2" drop, leaving it too short for the 3" hole, and too long for the 1 3/4" hole. I can trim the tube for the 1 3/4" hole, and I can add a piece of tubing to extend it for the 3" hole.
I plan to do this: use the kettle with the shorter hole for my mash tun and it should connect just fine to the false bottom I got along w/ the kettle.
I then intend to add the silicone tubing to the pickup tube assembly and use that for the 3" hole.
Is that reasonable? Any reason to think something might not work this way? I expect to use a pump to move wort around, and expect to do recirculation in the mash tun. Seems like there's no reason why it shouldn't work.
The kettles came w/ weldless ball valves, but they're pieces of....not good. So I ordered a bulkhead/pickup tube as well as a normal bulkhead fitting from Bobby_M at BrewHardware.
Only problem is this: the holes are...a little weird. One kettle's bulkhead hole is 1 3/4" above the bottom, the other 3". The pickup tube has a 2" drop, leaving it too short for the 3" hole, and too long for the 1 3/4" hole. I can trim the tube for the 1 3/4" hole, and I can add a piece of tubing to extend it for the 3" hole.
I plan to do this: use the kettle with the shorter hole for my mash tun and it should connect just fine to the false bottom I got along w/ the kettle.
I then intend to add the silicone tubing to the pickup tube assembly and use that for the 3" hole.
Is that reasonable? Any reason to think something might not work this way? I expect to use a pump to move wort around, and expect to do recirculation in the mash tun. Seems like there's no reason why it shouldn't work.
