Sanke, don't cut top off

[lutherslagers]

I have a Sanke keg with no stem. The 2" ferrule opening is intact. I can easily drill into the bottom and add an electric element, spigot, whatever. Has anyone successfully mounted a bulkhead or coupler, or screwed in a spigot that's watertight to a keg from only the outside without using a welder? If so, how? I'd rather not cut off the top of the keg.

 

[BBBF]

You can get TC bulkheads and have the element go through the side. Then use the bottom (former top) as a drain.

 

[JONNYROTTEN]

How are you going to clean it without cutting the top off? The opening on top is is like 2"

15 gallon sanke? what size batches are you brewing?

I ask because you can return the keg and most likely get $30 and put that towards a $100 20 gallon pot.

If your brewing 5 gallon brews the element will be near the top of the water line and not optimal. If your brewing 10 gallon batches a 15 gallon keg is going to be WAY tight for a boil over.

My suggestion would be get a real pot and scrap the whole idea... but that just me

 

[Transamguy77]

Why don’t you want to cut the top off? I have all weldless fittings on mine but I did cut the top off.

 

[passedpawn]

I highly doubt you could get the weldless ports on a sanke without cutting the top off. There's going to be a large nut and gasket on the inside. Far better to solder. And, even if you soldered, you'd want to clean up the inside of joint afterwards, and you can't do that without removing the top.

Of course, I have the "why" questions too.

 

[cyberbackpacker]

Maybe the OP is wanting to distill things with it too, and leaving the stock neck on makes it a lot easier?

 

[November]

Skipping the why portion...

I've never done it to a keg, but I've put bulkhead style fittings on plastic close top drums using a long metal rod with a bend in it, a socket, and some duct tape. It works on a plastic drum kept at room temperature, but I don't know about a steel keg you'd want to heat but it's an idea.

 

[RAIN5486]

A 1" npt nut for a heating element won't fit through the top of a sanke keg. You would be much better off getting a solder on fitting for a triclamp, and then using a triclamp heating element.

 

[jimmayhugh]

Bobby at Brew Hardware has radiused 1.5" tri-clamp flanges that can be silver-soldered to the keg, forming a sanitary, air-tight seal. I've used these to create a boiler with flanges for a tri-clamp heating element, tri-clamp butterfly valve, and thermowell. He also has flat and 2" flanges as well.

Silver-soldering is much easier than welding and just as strong.

 

[RAIN5486]

Yeah you can blame me, I bought the last 2" radius flanges, but in a pinch the flat ones will work. I like the 2" since it's the same size as the top.

 

[chickens4life]

I have not cheap stainless nuts in 1/2" and 1"and ground a radius in to one side with a dremel, then silver soldered them over a whole drilled in a keg. You don't need access to the inside to do that.