Charlottesville Area Masters of Real Ale

Has anyone heard anything about this store?  They provide drilled and welded kegs that are outfitted a thermometer and ball valve.  The prices seem to be some of the best I have seen. 

http://stores.ebay.com/Keggle-Brewing

I know I could buy a keg and follow Hoptical's instructions and save a bunch of money here.  However, I want to make sure that I do things right and get sanitary and properly welded surfaces.  Plus, I know myself well enough to guarantee that the process of converting the keg, finding someone to weld it, getting it all set up, and brewing with it would take me at least 6 months, being the sloth that I am.  So, I think my better bet would be to purchase something.

I welcome your comments, both on Keggle Brewing and the pursuit of purchasing something that I could/should make myself.

given a keg, and some sort of barter terms, I'd gladly tear apart a keg for you and/or teach you.  My neighbors already think I'm insane and it is fun to cut stainless steel like butter.  I can't weld at all.  I can cut big holes and small holes in kegs, make them not sharp and install weldless fittings.  Any pro-welding part after this should be really cheap.


for the record on my how-to :

(1)  if you boil in the vessel, the weld will be sanitized, even if it is not a weld at all, and is in fact a friction fit silicone ring sealed bulkhead (if you do it yourself, watch the temp of the metal around the hole during the hole-boring process since that's part of the problem with welding)

(2) I don't provide instructions on welding.  I didn't weld anything in fact.  I don't know how.

(3) I motivated myself by not brewing until I finished the conversion.

(4) just to be more obnoxious, a keggle is an exercise for women.

for advice about improv kettles :

get insulation. mine loses temp like the dickens.  I'm afraid to try it in the freezing outdoors.  (I'll do it anyway, probably next week, and report...)

be overly curious about mash tun bits.  my interior plumbing isn't welded, and it took a lot of custom fitting to get it to work OK.

don't draw out of the mash too heavily.  my mash retained a significant amount of liquid after I drained it too fast on the first shot.

the starr hill surplus kegs fit on the bayou classic banjo burner squat, square style stand.  I bought mine from amazon for about $50.  I can retrieve the model # if properly motivated.  the bottom of kegs is NOT flat and may not work with any heat application setup which assumes something shaped like cookware.  the starr hill kegs happen to fit on top of my gas stove (don't ask)

Thanks for the reply, Hoptical.  After doing some further research, I am going to order a 15 gallon brew pot through Fermentation Trap.  They are giving me a really nice deal on it, and it comes with a bunch of nice features.  It also helps that I got a gift certificate to the FT for Christmas, so my actual "out-of-pocket" costs are much lower

Here is the product info.


Heavy Duty Brew Kettle - With Ball Valve (60 Quart/15 Gallon)
BE315

Fermentap's Heavy Duty kettle line is made from stainless steel, these kettles are thick, hearty, and ready to stand up to years of abuse. Each kettle has two handles, a lid, and a re-enforced bottom that provides for an even heat distribution which can reduce the amount of scorching you may encounter.

Also, features a 1/2" female pipe thread on the inside of the kettle for the addition of any 1/2" kettle accessory. The bottom Coupler is 1/2" Male Pipe Thread on outside of the kettle. The top half coupler is 1/2" FPT that has a plug in it, so you can also add a thermometer or thermowell to it at a later date. Our very nice H602 1/2" Full Port Ball Valve is included with these kettles, as well.

Wall thickness is 1.2 mm and the bottom is 5 mm. This kettle is 14" H x 18" D.

Its a great kettle. I've been using over the past couple of months and am "getting to know it" and can highly recommend it.

A few things to take note of before you brew:

Firstly, since the surface area of the boil is large due to the kettle diameter, you'll have to play with the evaporation rate to get the right pre-boil volume. I've made the mistake of ending up with too little wort at the end of the boil. I quickly decided to overshoot the pre-boil volume in favor of boiling down to my 60 minute hop addition. It just takes a little bit of trial and error to calculate the evaporation rate right on the money.

Secondly, If you decide to install a ported thermometer and are brewing up a 5 gallon batch, the finishing wort volume won't cover the thermometer probe so you can't monitor the chilling process. I wish I had requested that Fermentap (via More Beer) had welded the thermo-port lower in the kettle. In lieu, I had the kettle lid notched to accommodate the copper chiller inlet/outlet tubes and use a long dial face thermometer to monitor chilling.

Other than those two caveats I really enjoy the beast of a kettle it is!