SS Drum Mash Tun

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BluePants

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Okay, so I've been searching around for a while to see if anyone has addressed this topic to no avail. I recently got my hands on some 55 Gallon SS Drums from a closed down winery and would like to build a very large system for doing club brews. Unfortunately, these are somewhat on loan so I dont want to destroy them too much. Basically I wanted to convert one to a mash tun and run my pickup tube through the side bung hole, but Im not sure what kind of fittings are appropriate for the situation.

Has anyone worked through this before and found fittings that work through the hole? I might have found one approach already, but would like some confirmation from someone with more expertise too.

Thanks

Bluepants
 
We are currently using 55 gallon SS drums for our club system but we ended up welding on 1.5" tri clamps towards the bottom for pickup tubes.

Using a Bazooka-T inside one of these would work just fine, but you'll more than likely have to do some welding to get your fitting inside.

Can you show us some pics to help you figure this out?
 
I think its just a standard drum, but here is a pic I found on the internet thats equivalent.

Im pretty sure that the hole is 2" diameter

I was thinking about having a T come off whatever I get to seal the hole so that I could run a temp probe in there. The tee would probably have a 1/2" on the bottom so I could output to normal 1/2" tubing with a QD

SS%20Drum.jpg
 
Okay, so I've been searching around for a while to see if anyone has addressed this topic to no avail. I recently got my hands on some 55 Gallon SS Drums from a closed down winery and would like to build a very large system for doing club brews. Unfortunately, these are somewhat on loan so I dont want to destroy them too much. Basically I wanted to convert one to a mash tun and run my pickup tube through the side bung hole, but Im not sure what kind of fittings are appropriate for the situation.

Has anyone worked through this before and found fittings that work through the hole? I might have found one approach already, but would like some confirmation from someone with more expertise too.

Thanks

Bluepants


Why don't you just drop the pick up tube right down from the top? If it's going to be a temporary system, might as well make it as easy as possible. It'll work either way.
 
Looks like a tri-clamp sanitary fitting. If you want to pass through you can use a tri-clamp to 2" NPT fitting adapter (McMaster), a 2" to 1/2" reducing bushing (McMaster) and a bored-through NPT to 1/2" compression fitting (Swagelok). Run you 1/2" stainless tube down to your manifold, voila, you're done.

I'd still just drop it in from the top. The temperature probe, too.
 
Guess thats a good suggestion. I dont really know why I was attached to going through the side. In fact, now I kinda feel like an idiot :eek:
 
Guess thats a good suggestion. I dont really know why I was attached to going through the side. In fact, now I kinda feel like an idiot :eek:


You're a man (I'm assuming). You saw a hole, you wanted to use it. Nothing wrong with that. It's instinct. ;)
 
You're a man (I'm assuming). You saw a hole, you wanted to use it. Nothing wrong with that. It's instinct. ;)


Well at any rate thanks for showing me which parts would work. Just in case I decide that there was another good reason to do it. I think avoiding my male instincts in this case is probably a good way of avoiding spending a ton of money.
 
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