WPStrassburg
Well-Known Member
Last year I was at the scrap yard and hopped into the stainless dumpster only to find about 20 tanks that were about 17" across by 23" high. They turned out to be honey extractor tanks from Orient Bee Supply that must not have passed qc and leaked out the seam at the base. they had an inverted cone bottom which came up about 3" into the base and a 1.5" threaded connection in the side at the bottom. I snagged 2 and this is what one of them looks like now 
I silver soldered the inside of the base to make it water tight, added a reducer bushing and 1/2" valve with polypropylene camlock, made a gasketed false bottom, added a 3/4" recirc port to use during my mash recirc, and added a 1/2" port for a float to sparge with. It's about 17 gallons and will serve nicely when my 10 gallon rummermaid can't handle the grain bill. I may even try a smaller grain bill just to see how it works since my smallest 10 gallon batch is about 16# and should max out around 45-50#. It's getting a test run on tuesday with a half barrel of kolsch for one of our wedding beers so wish me luck!
I silver soldered the inside of the base to make it water tight, added a reducer bushing and 1/2" valve with polypropylene camlock, made a gasketed false bottom, added a 3/4" recirc port to use during my mash recirc, and added a 1/2" port for a float to sparge with. It's about 17 gallons and will serve nicely when my 10 gallon rummermaid can't handle the grain bill. I may even try a smaller grain bill just to see how it works since my smallest 10 gallon batch is about 16# and should max out around 45-50#. It's getting a test run on tuesday with a half barrel of kolsch for one of our wedding beers so wish me luck!
