Keggle Build

[Garry]

Over the last few months I've been buying/stealing/hoarding plumbing fittings, pipe and anything else I thought looked like it could be made into something useful for brewing. My plan is to build my AG gear over the next few months.

This weekend I finished off my keggle. I wasn't going to put this up here so I don't have many photos at the start of the build.

I acquired a builder's keg which was covered in concrete and paint so it needed a good going over with a wire brush first.

I had a 300mm stock pot lid so I drew a ø300mm circle on the top of the keg using a marker and some cable ties as a "compass".



With a 4" grinder and wafer disk, I cut out this circle a little shy and then used a flap wheel to grind back to the line until I had a ø300 opening. I cut down the top skirt too, leaving the handles, because I think it looks cooool!





I got 2 4ft long elements from ebay. 1 no. 2kw and 1 no. 3kw.



I bent the element ends around a ø48 steel tube at 90°. I then bent the elements around the keg and then bent them around the ø48 tube again.





I drilled 4 holes at the bottom of the keg to take the elements and fixed them to the keg with ø8 compression fittings which came with the elements. The compression fittings came with fibre washers but the these leaked on me (I might have tightened the shite of them?!). I replaced the fibre washers with silicone o-rings. I tried making my own washers out of silicone bun cases but these leaked too!

I glued an electrical box to the back of the keg using Tec7 to keep the wires out of harm's way. I have 2 power cords and earthed both to the base of the keg.





Next was the ball valve/hop strainer. For the hop strainer I got a stainless steel flexy tube and cut the ends off, then pulled out the rubber tube. I folded back one end to seal it and the other end is fixed to a hose barb. The pictures show a zinc plated hose clamp, I must get a stainless one before using the keggle properly.









I wasn't planning on putting a sight glass on the keggle but I accidently stood on my auto-syphon and broke the inner tube. A light bulb appeared over my head and said, "sight glass"! I used a ½" tank connecter, FxF elbow and a ½" to 10mm reducer to fix the bottom of the sight tube. The top is fixed with a M6x40 eye bolt. I could only find a zinc plated eye bolt in Woodies but I want to replace this with stainless when I find one.





Next job was to test if it works and doesn't leak. Yes and yes although this is my second attempt. First time out I had homemade silicone washers and I reckon I tightened everything too much. This time out I'm using lots of PTFE tape, silicone o-rings and just tightened the nuts until the o-rings were a little compressed.





When I drained out the water I was a little disappointed by amount of water left at the bottom so I added a piece of ½" pipe (it was a piece of the spear) to get the hop strainer closer to the bottom. This worked much better.





I calibrated the sight tube using a graduated jug. (My camera went to black and white by mistake, I couldn't see the screen in the sun)!



Happy that there were no leaks, I wrapped it all with a few layers of foil insulation.






Next job is a wort chiller, then finish the mash tun and I should be good to do my first AG brew 

[DEMPSEY]

I do love dem builders kegs so I do . Looks great,with 2Kw and 3Kw elements running together how are you feeding the Lecci to them.

[Garry]

I tried the 2 elements together for about an hour and nothing tripped  I need to get my sparky to wire up two dedicated sockets in the garage though. He's busy with wedding crap at the moment so I'll let him alone for a few weeks

[Dr Jacoby]

I have one of those 3Kw bendy elements in my keggle. It melted through two 13amp plugs so I asked a friend to install 16amp sockets in my house. They're brilliant elements, especially for big syrupy beers.

I achieve a really strong rolling boil with just the 3kW so I can only imagine what your boil would be like with the two elements on at the same time. I tend to lose about 4.8 litres / hour to evaporation.

Nice job on the keggle by the way! I like the way you shaped the elements. Much better than my butchered figure 8  :

[JimmyM]

Fair play Garry - haha love the last pic... I see the young lad was solving some transit issues for ya

[Garry]

Thanks Dr Jacoby, that's all good to know.

I was only planning on using both elements to get me up to a boil and then switch one off to maintain the boil? I was reading somewhere (I think on boards) that you only need a 500w element to maintain a boil? I'll be playing by ear for a while!

[Garry]

Fair play Garry - haha love the last pic... I see the young lad was solving some transit issues for ya

A spanner (and probably a few other tools) are still missing in transit 

[Dr Jacoby]

That's probably the best way to do it all right. I'd say the 2kW element would be fine for maintaining the boil. A 10% evaporation rate is considered ideal over the course of an hour, but more than that is ok as long as you plan for it in advance. A vigorous boil leads to better hop utilisation apparently.

Another thing you could do is to turn on the second element when you put the chiller in to sanitise it. I find that my chiller weakens the boil for a couple of minutes. In fact, the boil never recovers to the same level while the chiller is in there.

[Garry]

Another thing you could do is to turn on the second element when you put the chiller in to sanitise it. I find that my chiller weakens the boil for a couple of minutes. In fact, the boil never recovers to the same level while the chiller is in there.

Good thinking Batman  Although I'm considering having a go at making a counterflow chiller, not sure yet.

[Dr Jacoby]

These guys have some good ideas if you're willing to spend the time and money on it.

[Garry]

These guys have some good ideas if you're willing to spend the time and money on it.

Nice link, you could waste a day exploring that site!

That chiller seems to be very tidy compared to others I've seen on the outernet. He's only using 12 feet while most of the others I've seen are around 20 feet? The convoluted inner tube looks the business too but it would probably cost a fortune? I've seen a few youtubers wrapping a cooper wire around the inner tube to get a similar effect.

If I do make one I think I'll use compression fittings to keep it simple.

[Shanna]

Hi guys

Was wondering if either I of you considered installing voltage rethat v would allow you to dial back the hearing elements like you would a cooker ring. That way you could bring the worry too the boil and then adjust the power down to maintain the boil. No sense in having a 3kw element either on or off.  I installed two of these (or rather my sparks of a brother wired them up). Search eBay for the following (a nod to tube who recommended them in b the first place).

"3800W AC 220V SCR Voltage Regulator Dimmer Lamp"

In a word they are the dogs bollocks. They give me full flexibility during the boil from 5ltrs up to 40 ltrs.

Shanna

I

Thanks Dr Jacoby, that's all good to know.

I was only planning on using both elements to get me up to a boil and then switch one off to maintain the boil? I was reading somewhere (I think on boards) that you only need a 500w element to maintain a boil? I'll be playing by ear for a while!

[johnrm]

Great build Garry.
Where are you getting your nipples etc?

[Garry]

Where are you getting your nipples etc?

I got the nipples in Woodies. I've been collecting fittings over the last few months, I've quite a collection now! Most came from Woodies, bes.co.uk, amazon, ebay and my friends van 

[Garry]

[size=78%]Was wondering if either I of you considered installing voltage rethat v would allow you to dial back the hearing elements like you would a cooker ring. That way you could bring the worry too the boil and then adjust the power down to maintain the boil. No sense in having a 3kw element either on or off.  I installed two of these (or rather my sparks of a brother wired them up). Search eBay for the following (a nod to tube who recommended them in b the first place).[/size]

"3800W AC 220V SCR Voltage Regulator Dimmer Lamp"

In a word they are the dogs bollocks. They give me full flexibility during the boil from 5ltrs up to 40 ltrs.
[/size]

Thanks Shanna, I'll look into this