keggle dip tube/false bottom

[crsext01]

So I'm finally making the jump to all grain. Purchased a keg to convert to a brew kettle and put together a 10-gal mash tun/cooler. Many thanks to the DIY'ers that have posted their setups. It helped a lot.

Ive been looking around fairly extensively at different keggle setups, dip tubes and false bottoms specifically. If I make a false bottom, I plan to use the cutout from the top of the keg, and some stainless screen to fill the holes I will cut. I have an angle grinder and a dremel to help with that action, and I have access to a welder to tack the screen onto the top. My question is whether the fals bottom/dip tube in the center is a better setup than the diptube on the side/whirlpool? Anyone prefer one over the other?

I will be welding in a 1/2 full coupler, to attach the 1/2 in ball valve. I also have a 1/2 in nipple that I was thinking about welding to the stainless pickup tube that came in the keg, after bending the tube of course. Has anyone done this? I don't have a tubing bender, but with a little heat and a vice I think I should be able to bend it without kinking it. Too badly anyway. Any thoughts on this? Has anyone used that stock Sankey pickup tube as a dip tube for the drain?

A little feedback would be much appreciated. I will update with pics as it goes.

 

[Garyr2973]

If save myself a bunch of headaches and just buy one from Jaybird.

 

[Quadrupled]

If save myself a bunch of headaches and just buy one from Jaybird.

View attachment 135393

Agreed, I bought two and have no regrets, only good things to say. I've actually got to buy another dip tube since one was lost somehow over the winter.

Here's Jaybird's website (NorCal) - he was great to work with.
http://www.norcalbrewingsolutions.com/

 

[crsext01]

Well I'm pretty confident I can use this bit of stainless as a tube with minimal problems. The false bottom might be a bit of a pain, but if it were easy everyone would do it right?

With your setup, it looks like the dip tube rests on top of the false bottom, I guess that leaves a minimal amount of wort in the bottom?

 

[Garyr2973]

The dip tube extends down through the false bottom and leaves maybe a 1/16" between the end of the dip tube and bottom of the keg

 

[crsext01]

Gotcha. I'm thinking with my planned setup, that the only problem will be removing everything might be a bit of a pain, but we will see.

 

[Garyr2973]

That's why with the jaybird false bottom they have a reverse hinge. I built my entire system (including fabricating my own box for the control panel) but sometimes you just have to buy what's there and focus your attention on other things. Use the Sanke spears for mash paddle handles but the last thing you want is to build everything and then start a brew day only to find out you have a stuck sparge and have to dump all your grain. I am in no way affiliated with Jaybird but he's done his research and the product works flawlessly. Does it cost money? Yes but so do grains you'll have to dump if the false bottom isn't working flawlessly.

 

[crsext01]

Well I am actually going to be mashing in a 10 gal igloo cooler, with a converted valve bank and a stainless mesh pick up tube to act as the strainer. So the false bottom I will be make for the brew kettle would only function to capture hops and such at the end of the boil/chill

 

[crsext01]

And whereabouts in Louisville are you? That's where I am from, but do not currently reside.

 

[Garyr2973]

Actually from southern Indiana (Jeffersonville) but nobody knows where that is so its just easier to say Louisville.

 

[crsext01]

Nice, I am actually from the knobs, as it happens. Went to school at UofL, and as you mentioned its much easier to say Louisville, than Floyds Knobs or the like.

On topic, Ive decided to ditch the stainless braid combo, in favor of a copper manifold. It will be easy enough for me to fab up with a little tubing and some solder, a tee and a union and I should be good to go.

With that being said I will make sure to purchase a little extra copper in order to build a siphon tube for my BK. Now about the false bottom, looks like I have to buy one regardless, I am assuming people place one on top of the manifold anyway in the mash tun, so i might just buy 2.....

 

[Garyr2973]

Save yourself some money and buy a hop spider for the boil kettle. They aren't as expensive and will control all the hop gunk you can throw at it. Check out NorCal brewing.

 

[Garyr2973]

My wife is from the Knobs. Went to Floyd Central. My daughter is at UofL now. Small world

 

[crsext01]

Indeed it is. What year did she graduate?

 

[Garyr2973]

1999. She's a young one. Where down you live now?

 

[crsext01]

Im in New Mexico currently, moved out to the desert for work. She's only a couple years older than I am, **** I probably know her

So you suggest just using a hop spider/hop bag of some sort from the BK, but buying a false bottom for the MLT? Thats sort of my thoughts at this point

 

[Garyr2973]

You probably know her brothers, Matt, Brent and Andrew. Yes, I'd go with the hop spider. It's your best bet. Bags tend to cause problems and getting all that hop junk out when (not if) they do is a pain in the A**

 

[crsext01]

Sweet I'll check it out. Working in the bk today

 

[crsext01]

Well thanks for the advice. I ended up making a circular copper manifold with one cross brazed together which worked great. I used a dremel to cut slots on the bottom and I had no issues when draining. I used the extra bits of copper and a 90 elbow to make the siphon tube for the kettle, and brazed on a half threaded nipple that threads directly into the coupler my buddy welded up for me. Worked great.

I did have one slight hiccup when the siphon tube got clogged with a couple whole hops I had thrown in as FWH that I had harvested from my hop vines, but I should have put them in a small nylon, just forgot.

Brewed a 10 gallon batch of a hoppy saison, 1# of agave nectar at the end of the boil, pitched about a 3(ish) liter starter of 3711. Its rocking and rolling now. Pretty excited. I will post some pics of the kettle and manifold later.

Thanks for the help.