Charlottesville Area Masters of Real Ale

I have been mashing with highly improvised equipment and boiling on a kitchen stove, and I decided that since I have kegs, and since friends and family keep requesting my beer at their events, that perhaps I should upgrade my brew day equipment.  So, after lots of research on the internet, I settled on the idea of gradually building a three tier system.  I also decided that I wanted to be as cheap as possible about this without sacrificing any quality in the equipment.

For kettles, I settled on converted kegs.  It is rather cheap to obtain broken kegs from Starr Hill.  I bought 3 for $75 in October 2007.

Converting kegs to kettles can be as simple as cutting a hole in the top and adding a nipple or as extravagant as fitting a lid to the hole, adding several ports for sight glass, thermometers, liquid in/out, adding insulation, etc, etc, etc.  I'm going to go with simple for starters, so my first step is to take the top out.  I haven't settled on whether I'll pay someone to weld nipples and ports on or whether I'll drill them myself and use some of those weldless fittings.  I'm suspicious of the latter.

After much reading and calling some welders and realizing that they had no idea what I was talking about and finding their price estimates steep, I read around on the internet to determine the best method for converting the kegs.  There are three major methods for tearing the roof off a keg and making it a giant kettle :

(1) plasma torch
(2) reciprocating saw
(3) angle grinder

From the reports on the internet, (1) and (2) eventually require an angle grinder anyway since the edges of the cut must be ground smooth and safe anyway.  Besides which, (1) is rather hard to find for cheap and (2) is said to be extremely loud and extremely dangerous, and further requires stainless steel drill bits to make starter holes.  It turns out that Black and Decker makes a decent, basic angle grinder for $40 at Lowe's.  So, I settled on the angle grinder method.

Using an angle grinder to cut a circular hole in a keg is, in my opinion, rather easy and pretty entertaining.  I went and found the largest lid I have in my kitchen, and then found the second largest lid.  I used the second largest lid to draw a circle on the top of the keg that would serve as a guide for my cutting.  Then I fired up the angle grinder, was impressed with its torque, and made a test cut near the center of the keg top.  Overall, it probably took me 20 minutes to cut through the keg.  It's not that hard to cut in a circle, contrary to reports on the internet.  As long as you don't press down on the tool (which it says not to do anyway), and just guide it around, it will cut in a circle with a moderate amount of patience.  I haven't done the grinding yet, as I need to obtain some better gloves and I'm going to grind everything in a batch.

For equipment, I would recommend an angle grinder, a cutting disc for stainless steel, a grinding disc for stainless steel, a sharpie, a lid, work gloves, hearing protection, long sleeves, long pants and safety goggles.

Anyway, here are some pictures :

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2193274&l=e12e5&id=1518533

Questions?

Nice pictures and thanks for the how-to guide.

What are you planning on doing with the dip tube?  Could I get it for parts?

I haven't thought about the destiny of the dip tube.  My first thought was to take it apart and look at how it works and ponder for a bit.  After that, I may see some purpose for it, but if I don't, you can have it.

They can be a little tricky to take apart the first time, especially since you've cut it from the rest of the keg. Here's a website that might help you:
http://home.insightbb.com/~benschoep/keg/sankey.htm
I use a narrow screwdriver and a rubber mallet to open the spring ring.  If you want I can show you at the next meeting.  The parts I was most interested in are the spring ring and the O-ring gasket that seals the tube and to the keg (it's a purple one in the website I forwarded, look at the last picture). So please hang on to these even if you decide to do something with the rest of it.  Thanks!

Thanks for posting that guide.  I know that Jamey was going to buy one of the kegs to convert into a kettle and I was thinking about it, but likely later in the year.  I am glad to see that it worked out well for you and was relatively straight-forward.  If your guide sparks interest (get it, "sparks"    ), you may be able to loan your grinder out in return for homebrew . . .

I updated the pictures.  Now there's a picture of a shower of tiny burning chunks of metal flying off the wheel.

It was getting dark when I started trying to smooth the sharp edges, so I can't speak to that process yet.  It's a bit awkward to use the circular disk for that process, and the in side could be a real bear.  I think that a Dremel tool with an appropriate metal grinding wheel might work better.  I'll probably end up trying it both ways.

I could be persuaded to lend out the angle grinder for homebrew.  And if I remember correctly, you fellas grow hops too, so ah... if that works out, I'd take some of those and/or homebrew.  In fact, I'll even cut the keg if I can get some hops.  Stupid hop crisis.

Anybody want to make hubcaps out of the circular top bits?

This is pretty awesome, man. 

I scored a keg from Starr Hill, also, and I'm looking to turn it into a brew kettle in the near future.  (I have another project ahead of it to make a new mash tun, with Christopher's help.)  Probably in the next 3 or 4 weeks want to chop off the top and add the valve and thermometer, and I will need to drain your head of your learnings since I've mystified several welders, too, with my request.

Good stuff and thanks for sharing.

Ideally, those three will become a hot liquor tank, a mash tun and a boil kettle in some kind of gravity system.  Unfortunately, I think the artist & welder I know is moving out, so I'll have to tap some other Cville talent to build the stands.  As for mash tuns, I've heard good things about bazooka tubes by Zymico Inc (http://www.zymico.com/).

While people are reading this thread, has anyone ever noticed the GIANT brew kettle that exists in the Kegler's Lanes bowling alley on the north side of Cville?  Apparently. the owner of Keglers likes to brew beer.  One of the 'house brews' was $1.75 / pint a couple years ago.  Anyway, someone, me?, should find out about that guy and see if we can befriend him, tour his rig or use the equipment somehow (there's umm a reason the beer was only $1.75 a pint...)

Update : I finally finished removing the tops to the kettles.  I'll summarize the whole process below.

(1) cut through keg with angle grinder (~10 min/keg)
(2) rough grind edges with angle grinder (~10 min/keg)
(3) de-bur and smooth with Dremel tool (~10 min/keg)
(4) finalize with fine-grain sanding sponge (~5min/keg)

kegs -- $25/keg
angle grinder + grinding wheel -- $45
cutting wheel -- $2
Dremel grinding wheel -- $3
sanding sponge -- $4

So, I now have three 15.5 gallon basic stainless kettles and a nice power tool for ~$140 + ~2 hrs work time.  not bad!  It took several misfires to figure out the best way to smooth out the rough edges and some miscellaneous destroyed sanding equipment, but I think I have the process of opening up the kegs down.

Now, I'll add bulkheads, spigots, valves and mash equipment.  I'll report on how that goes whenever I finish with it.  The first plan is to install a weld-b-gone fitting and bazooka-t screen and test that out.  If it fails, a welder should be able to use the port, and if it goes well, I can avoid paying a welder for the rest of the work.

Bulkhead 1 : The Mash Tun

Most of my motivation for converting the kegs stems from a dire need for an actual mash tun, and not the super cheap setup I used for mashing experimentation.  So I started installing my bulkheads there.

Tools :

7/8" step drill bit ($15 ish)
14.4V Craftsman Cordless Drill
Dremel rotary tool & metal sanding drum
laser pointer
permanent marker
tape measure

Mash Tun Hardware :

Zymico Weld-B-Gone Stainless Bulkhead/Valve/Spigot kit
Zymico Bazooka-T screen
Zymico Bazooka-T to Ball Valve plumbing

total = ~$80 shipped


Why Zymico Weld-B-Gone?

(1) I can do it myself when I have time.
(2) Easier to repair it if I install it.
(3) I don't have to pay a welder.
(4) Dissasembly of the kettle's spigot is possible for safer transport.
(5) If the bulkhead doesn't work, I can still find a welder later.


Notes / Advice :

* placed spigot under a handle, to make moving the kettle without kicking the spigot easier

* welding seams appear to exist in line with handles on one side. DON'T DRILL INTO A WELDING SEAM.

* step drill bits require a significant amount of pressure to initially bite into the metal.

* Zymico bulkheads reccomend a 7/8" hole.  They are wrong.  Make a 13/16" hole and smooth the edges of the hole with a rotary tool.  Magically, it will be about 7/8" after sanding and the fit to the bulkhead shank will be very snug.

* step drilling stainless makes it hot.  take a 3 minute break every couple hole sizes and let it cool down to a comfortable temerature.  I figure, if welding and cutting can damage the stainless with heat, I should be able to touch the metal around the hole without burning my fingers and that will keep my stainless ... stainless.

* my particular drill finds step drilling a bit trying.  it seems best to get it up to full speed outside of the hole, bore a couple steps and then remove the drill and get it back up to speed.  otherwise the drill slowed down and bucked like a crazed bronco.

* to locate the hole, I strapped a laser pointer to my bazooka-t / plumbing assembly, placed it in the kettle with a sharpie sticking out the bulkhead end of the plumbing and made a mark on the laser point.  Then, I estimated the height on the outside of the keg.  dissatisfied with my estimate, I used a measuring tape from the seam of the keg top and keg wall to measure the distance down.  the plumbing has some upward play in it, so err on the side of higher rather than lower.  Also, my specific keg has a bottom seam rather close to where the plumbing should exit, which is yet another motivation to aim high.  It's impractical to be super precise because the drill bit walks a bit initially and later on, jumps around a bit.  Unfortunately, I managed to drill the hole high enough that the plumbing doesn't quite make it to the Bazooka T screen.  I plan to gently bend the soft copper tubing down into place.

* until I see how the bulkhead performs in action, I plan to simply siphon my mash water and finished wort around.  This shouldn't cause any serious problems.

I added pictures of the bulkhead installed to the photo album.

http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2193274&l=e12e5&id=1518533

Also, Spidey, do you still have an interest in the dip tube/valve assemblies?  I doubt that I'll do anything with them (ooh! hubcaps!) and I would be very happy to trade them for hops, or otherwise prevent them from sitting around as waste.  I think one of the valves might even work still.

Definitely interested. I just want the rubber gasket o-ring that seals the dip tube in the keg and the spring-ring that holds the dip tube in place.  If you haven't taken it that far apart, I'll take the whole contraption and take it apart myself.  What kind of hops do you want? I have some pellets in my freezer, or I have sources and I could try to get you something that you're having difficulty finding.  Let me know.

Ha!  That sounds shifty.

I love it.

I know people who know people... 
Black market hops. What has homebrewing come to
Notice that I'm not slacking off from doing any IPAs. I've got an Arrogant Bastard clone on tap now and a Centennial IPA in primary.