kettle design ?
Moderator: slothrob
kettle design ?
OK, OK, OK, can't afford the 10 gallon system just yet. Baby steps...I got a 7.5 gallon kettle and have a thermometer and spigot ready for installation. Can anyone tell me if there is an ideal height of installation above the bottom of the kettle for the spigot and thermometer? What about a weldless installation versus a welded tap? Anyone, anyone...
Racking arm
hello Again,
The kettle that we are using has a unique feature that can duplicated easily;
Inside the pot, attached to the valve pipe is a racking arm that you can adjust from the bottom of the pot, to about 5 inches up. The way that they built it is as follows;
A brass compression elbow is attached to the end of the valve inside the pot. A piece of bent semi-ridged copper pipe is attached to the fitting. The compression connection is loose enough that the pipe can be rotated in the connection, allowing the depth of the fluid draw to be adjusted.
Sound difficult, it's not and it works great. I can send you a pic.
The kettle that we are using has a unique feature that can duplicated easily;
Inside the pot, attached to the valve pipe is a racking arm that you can adjust from the bottom of the pot, to about 5 inches up. The way that they built it is as follows;
A brass compression elbow is attached to the end of the valve inside the pot. A piece of bent semi-ridged copper pipe is attached to the fitting. The compression connection is loose enough that the pipe can be rotated in the connection, allowing the depth of the fluid draw to be adjusted.
Sound difficult, it's not and it works great. I can send you a pic.
Here's what we got
We use a home made 13 gallon stainless that was graciously made and constructed by a brewing friend of ours that works in the food industry. The side handles measure exactly 10 gallons of wort to their point. The thermometer is low enough that it can also be used for 5 gallon batches as well. The spigot is about 1.5" from the bottom of the brewpot. In conclusion, just make sure the thermometer is mounted to where it will be in the wort for the smallest batch you plan on using it with. Weldless is usually the easiest type to use, if using a welded fitting, make sure all components are "food grade"