Bottom Draining Kettle Options

[poptarts]

Like I said earlier, I've bottom drained several kettles for customers over the past couple years. The limitation is the triclad bottoms. It's not impossible to do it as I've tried several tests and I can get it welded about 1/3rd of the time without trouble. That's not a high enough success rate for me to risk expensive kettles on.

I've done it on the Brewmaster brand kettles which come in several sizes. The 25G is shown below but they come in 18.5 and 14 gallon as well. BrewHardware.com - High end, practical homebrewing hardware, accessories and ingredients for making beer, wine, mead, and cider.

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I've done it on the Blichmann Boilermakers though they have cut retailers off from purchasing them for the past few months.

Concord kettles weld up nicely also.

Well of you are willing to weld up some pots I'll reach out then when I'm ready. I see that labor cost on your site now, that's awesome!

 

[Jaybird]

Keep it simple. Keg cut bottom off, use tc fitting to make it bottom drain and put the kettle on a harbor freight moving dolly for 7 bucks. No legs, moves with ease, and easy 2 min clean up. I've used weldless bulkheads for my electric elements for almost 4 years and they still work great. I run 2 1650 watt elements. Total cost is probably less than $150.

This works well. My automated system at the house is all inverted Sanke and using 2" TC fitting and all electric. It's a great option IMHO. Super cheap, Sturdy as hell and simple to manipulate to whatever you want.
Cheers
Jay

 

[superiorsat]

Ok so reading through this again you shop vac out because carrying/tipping is out of the question. How are you cleaning what sticky mess the shop vac leaves behind? Are you spray scrub shop vac repeat multiple times to get things clean?

 

[superiorsat]

I guess where I was going with that is maybe take your mash tun ( should be easy enough to lift and move if your in the clean up the kettle part of your brew day) and set it on the floor or whatever freeing up room to where you could tilt your kettle as I do or

. I don't think it's particularly arduous to tilt my kettle to get the last of the water/cleaning solution out through the ball valve, though.

or try marc1's route.
How are you dealing with the spent grain from MT as a secondary question? Buckets then shop vac scenario?

 

[madscientist451]

Would love a bottom drain kettle to not only quickly rinse it out, but also for potential CIP to make life easier. I only brew 5 gallon, but i'd be willing to go to a 15 gallon kettle for 10 batch sizes if it meant i can get the bottom drains.

The expense and extra time it will take to rig up a CIP system and obtain a bottom draining kettle just seems like overkill for a 5 gallon batch. If you have unlimited cash, go for it, otherwise, perhaps it would be better to downsize to an 8.5 gallon kettle you can easily clean out in a regular sink.

 

[Staticsouls]

^Not really I just rinse them with hot water after a brew and wipe off the elements, leave the valves open. They air dry where they sit. All 3 of my vessels are all bottom drain.

 

[poptarts]

^Not really I just rinse them with hot water after a brew and wipe off the elements, leave the valves open. They air dry where they sit. All 3 of my vessels are all bottom drain.

This is the way, once you try brewing this way you will never not want non bottom drain pots again. I'm building a new brew space and will have drain plumbing into my stand. I want cleaning my kettles to be as easy as rinsing out a sink. Ive been searching so much for proper kettles, its mind blowing more brewers would rather have triclad bottom kettles for their electric brew systems over bottom drains.

 

[FunkedOut]

I think the aversion to bottom drain kettles is the trub.
But it would make cleaning a breeze.

Stout makes some mash tuns with bottom drains.
They even makes some insulated tuns on legs with bottom drains.
Check them out if you haven’t.

Seems they might be the closest to what you’re looking for and could easily customize what you need.
They worked with the lodo guys a lot for their needs.
Not sure if Spike would add a bottom drain or not.

 

[poptarts]

BrewersHardware got back with me, they can place bottom drains on their kettles, they appear to have pretty much identical kettles to stout so that makes some good options for bottom drains in the $300s probably going to go that route. I really like their 20g kettles since you could do 5 gal batches in them as well as 10 since they are not wide

 

[Bobby_M]

I think the aversion to bottom drain kettles is the trub.
But it would make cleaning a breeze.

Stout makes some mash tuns with bottom drains.
They even makes some insulated tuns on legs with bottom drains.
Check them out if you haven’t.

Seems they might be the closest to what you’re looking for and could easily customize what you need.
They worked with the lodo guys a lot for their needs.
Not sure if Spike would add a bottom drain or not.

If the bottom drain is placed near the wall of the kettle, trub stays in the center pretty well.

Spike would definitely not weld into the triclad bottoms of their kettles.

 

[Staticsouls]

If this is a concern add a side pick up and use the bottom drain for cleaning only. I had a kettle with the bottom drain a side pick up and whirlpool return. It's one extra bulkhead valve and elbow.

 

[Bryce Brewer]

@sicktght311 - there is a good chance you have this resolved by now but I just saw this morning that Spike is planning on bottom drain vessels:

https://spikebrewing.com/products/new-spike-tank?mc_cid=d4458efde4&mc_eid=03dc82330c
I'm definitely interested but I imagine they will cost more than I'm able to justify.

 

[Surfmase]

Craft Hardware in Germany is selling them too.