17 Nov
2003
17 Nov
'03
8:23 a.m.
As a followup to my own email :-(
If you can afford it go for a false bottom in your kettle. It is
fantastic at keeping the hot break and whole hops from plugging the
drain or the chiller. My setup uses gravity to drain the boiler
through the counterflow chiller and with whole hops and Whirlfloc I get
very little hot break in the fermenters. Since I leave the false
bottom in for the whole boil I don't have to worry about plastic wrap
plugging the plumbing :-)
Steve Piatz writes:
I agree with Steve on the stainless and the inconvienence of converted
kegs. I have a keg that is used as a turkey deep fryer these days and
15 gallon stainless kettles for brewing. The drain valves are
extremely valuable. The weldless fittings are a cheap option though
you will need a hole saw or punch to prepare the kettle.
Remember that with the aluminum kettles the heat transfer is very good
(a real plus) but some agressive cleaners are not a good idea (lye or
oven-clean after a boilover or scorching is a nono).
As for converted kegs try SABCO at http://www.kegs.com/
Note they also have a lot of other things like 2.5 gallon cornies.
--
Steve Piatz piatz(a)cray.com
Cray Inc. 651-605-9049
1340 Mendota Heights Road
Mendota Heights, MN 55120