Moving to Brew in a Basket, in a Keggle

Thanks Sneezles. Yes that is the plan, to do trial runs. I have some grain that I unfortunately did not use (over two years old now), and I’ll use that to do a test brew, after I do one or more test runs with just water. I have yet to mount the plate chiller, pump, valves, etc. I’ll put (clamp?) them on and see if the setup meets my plumbing “requirements”. The only thing that I anticipate adding is a cover for the pump to protect the windings - I want to be able to spray the entire rig down after use with fresh water. This is my tentative plumbing plan…which may change depending on my trial runs. (The “RIMS” is a hop rocket, which I still need a controller for. That is a future phase of my overall build.) I realize physical location, especially the pump, it critical. If I have to weld anything extra I can grind off the paint, do the welding, and repaint. Speaking of paint, if anyone reading this has a suggested color I am open to ideas. I have been thinking of painting the frame low gloss black (hi temp paint). I have a red Studebaker truck with lots of chrome trim, and I may also paint my brew rig with red paint to match my truck. The keg would serve as the “chrome” element. What do you guys think?

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Man that’s a beauty! The brew rig is nice too.

As to the plumbing of your rig, I initially mounted my pump vertically like that with the intake down due to advice from other brewers. It was miserable trying to prime it even with an air bleed valve on the output side. I changed it to horizontal and that solved the problem.

The frame is painted. Now on to reassembly and mounting components. It is upside down in this picture.

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This is the basic painted frame with the hoist/yardarm and winch installed. I found a dog tie cable with swivel hook to use for the cable, versus buying the parts and making one. Next I have to make, install, and paint another upper level expanded metal work surface. Then mount the pump, chiller, and other components. Not bad so far, all according to plan. Still scratching my head on the final keg/grain basket configuration. I’m pretty sure I’m going to order a custom grain basket when I know for sure what size it will be. I’m in the process of figuring out how to optimize the basket size, without modifying the keg any further.

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Love the truck!

Looking for suggestions on how to solve this problem for a dip tube that does not extend so far out into the keg horizontally. Referring to the images, on the inside of the keggle I need to come out of either the male (nipple) or female (coupler) at a 90 degree angle with 1/2" stainless steel tubing and hug the keg wall and bend around and down to the center of the keg bottom. I could use copper tubing also, or a copper elbow (low lead food grade of course). The elbow in the picture is a stainless steel 1/2" NPT female to male. If I could find a one that occupies a shorter length as shown, by about 3/4", that would do the trick. Current spacing is 1.5", needs to be reduced by half (3/4").

Check out some of the hardware suppliers for brew kettles to see their options on pick up tubes…
And another example option is to make a false bottom that sits just above the pick up port… That is how mine is set up. Brewhardware has options
Sneezles61

Maybe you can see this clear enough… The pick up port there does sit under that screen on the kettle…
Sneezles61

Does anyone know of a stainless steel coupler (1/2" Elbow, NPT Female to Male) that is smaller in length, in the 1.5" dimension, of this one? I need one that is half that length, if possible.

Just an update on my ongoing design/build of my single vessel Brew in a Basket rig.

I have two solutions to the dip tube hardware interference with my grain basket, not 100% sure which way I will go yet, but leaning towards option 2.

Option 1: Silver solder a stainless steel tube inside the existing 1/2" NPT connector as shown in the below diagram. This will hug the wall close enough to allow the 12" OD grain basket I want made for my rig.

Option 2: Make a dip tube that runs from the top of the Keggle, and add it (quick-connector) when I need it at the end of the brewing session to pump the beer through the chiller to the fermentation vessel. As shown in the second image. the challenge with this approach might be priming the tall dip tube.

Any comments are welcome, what do you guys (and gals) think?

The last 2 look to be PITA whilst brewing… The third picture looks like your best bet…
The basket, being ever so important, is only temporary in your brew day… And if your doing 5 gallon batches, a 5 gallon bucket sized basket will make a very strong brew… should you want make a big ABV brew…
Now let me ask… You gonna use a hop spider too? More fun with brewing baskets!!
Sneezles61

Thanks Sneezles.
Yes I need a hop filter/spider of some kind. What do you recommend? I want maximum hop utilization…I’ve had a problem with that in the past. Not sure if it is water chemistry, or the cheesecloth bag I’m using to hold my hop pellets, but I am hopeful a larger hop basket/spider will improve that.

I use a basket… So my thought, if I can keep say… 90% of the trub out of the runnings through my chiller… Life is good!!
I do free range dry hop though.
Sneezles61

Thanks Sneezles. A few questions if you don’t mind sharing.

  1. What is your hop basket height and diameter, and mesh size? I am all for trapping trub.
  2. What do you use to contain the hops when dry hopping (container size and mesh size)?
  3. Hop Pellets or hop leaves?

Thanks,
Mike

Z


The basket on the wall is about the size of a 5 gallon bucket… The bigger one is my mash basket… About 15 gallon size… Both from Utahbiodiesel… 400 mesh?
Sneezles61
EDIT: the hop basket is 600 mesh… I like cones best… Pellets do get messy… But you can’t get all the varieties in cones.

Today is brew day/slush shoveling… I’ll post some pictures of my setup…


Yeast I started yesterday
Sneezles61

So you use the hop basket? I have one that I bought almost a year ago and haven’t used because after I got it I heard people on here saying they discontinued using theirs because they felt the wort didn’t boil inside it and may affect hop utilization…It’s not like I see “boiling action” in my current hop/paint strainer bags either…

Every time I brew… Just setting up now…
Sneezles61

This is the recirc set up. I’ll keep it going throughout the mashing process


That’s how my plumbing business looks…
Sneezles61

There is my hop basket
Sneezles61