Building new brew kettle, need advice!

[stockwes]

So, i just bought a 55gal stainless barrel that is seamless and contained soda pop syrup so it will make a perfect all around brew kettle. It has a top on it so my first step is to carefully remove the top so i have a lid, the second step will be to put holes and have fittings welded onto it.

At this point i have triclovers on the front of all my other kettles (i have 4 keggles). They all just thread into 1/2 fpt couplers making them not really sanitary. With this kettle i am doing all the work from the ground up so i want to do it right. So far i am planning on using 1.5" couplers.

The thing i am trying to figure out is how to set up the kettle on the inside. Somehow i need to be able to attach some sort of a dip tube to go under the false bottom so i can collect liquid from the bottom. I am curious what you all use as a coupler on the inside. I am trying to go as sanitary as possible so i would like to avoid threaded stuff if at all possible.

thanks

 

[HopLife]

55 gallons is pretty mega. How much do you brew a year?

 

[stockwes]

me and some friends have been playing around with some oak barrels. The addition of this means we can mash in several of our current mash tuns and have one big boil, thus simplifying filling a 50-60 gal barrel. The other thing i can do is one big mash and do different hops and such in several different boils giving me multiple beers in the same brew day.