Brew kettle/mash tun idea

[matt5445]

I have a crazy idea to use and old 15 gallon keg I have kicking around to build a PID dual element brew kettle with modified mash abilities. Basically I would find a stainless lid that is about 14" in diameter and cut a 12" hole in one end of the keg, mount 2 1500W 115V water heater elements weldless style near the bottom about 45 degrees apart, install a weldless 1/2" ball valve with a bazooka screen and use a threaded water tight temp probe. I would run 2 40A SSR out to 2 GFCI outlets and supply each SSR off separate 20A outlets. I would of course wrap the keg in insulation or a heavy blanket, but my really crazy idea is to take a 5 gallon brew bucket, drill a 1/2" hole in the center of the bottom, take 2 aluminum 10" pizza screens, lay them out with the grid intersecting each other and use some 3/8" silicone tubing slit down the middle to hold them together and act as a gasket and insert that into the brew bucket making sure it is tight into the bottom. I could then make a set of cables using 3/16" stainless steel cable and S hooks to hang the bucket into the keg deep enough to keep it a couple inches away from the elements and build some sort of rig to hold the bucket over the opening in the keg. I would use a small 12 volt pump to recirculate the kettle water over the top of the grain bed and use the same pump to feed a copper sparging manifold for lautering, I would also make a measuring stick to go in the pail marked at every .25 gallon so I can calculate my mash thickness correctly and subtract it from my kettle volume. I know this seems like a lot of work but it would save me equipment storage space/cost, a chugger pump/heating coil/extra PID setup for precise mash temps or multistage mashing and I have the convenience of not having to transfer from kettle - cooler - bucket - kettle I could even put a barbed fitting into the pail and stick a hose onto it and dump it into the kettle for sparging as to not introduce oxygen into the wort. What are your views on a setup like this?

 

[plazola86]

I think you basically want a brew boss with COFI filter or Colorado brewing type system?

 

[matt5445]

I've never actually even known about that system till now and I suppose my setup would work similar to that other then a traditional top to bottom grain bed with lautering at the end, the only difference would be that I could build my setup for less then just the cofi basket, I suppose if I wanted to I could also stick my grain bucket into another bucket with a valve for the lautering step.