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Nemasket River Brewing
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Boil KettleMy first challenge was to try and get ahold of a keg or two. I had just gotten a keg for a party and contemplated keeping it for the deposit. I decided against that option for obvious moral and legal reasons, not to mention that this is the only liquor store in my immediate area with readily available kegs of something other than Bud and Miller. So on my next trip to the liquor store, I spoke with the manager and asked him if it would be possible to purchase an empty keg from him. Much to my delight he said yes and we went out back. He had a collection of off-brand kegs that he couldn't return. So, I picked out a fairly clean looking one and $8.00 later I was heading to the hardware store to figure out how I'd get a hole in this thing. Well, a couple of hours and countless heavy-duty Dremel cutting disks later I had a nice hole cut in the top. This is NOT the recommended way of doing this, but it worked. An angle grinder, reciprocating saw or a plasma cutter would be better choices.I fashioned a circular slotted copper pipe strainer for the keg and attached a ½" ball valve and I soon had a new boil kettle. After the first batch using the new kettle, I decided that I could make some improvements. Since I'd already gone this far, I figured I might as well go all the way. So back to the liquor store I went. I got two more kegs again $8.00 each. This time I had to find a better way to cut the hole in the top. I ended up using a grinding disk for my electric drill. Although, I know an angle grinder would work much better, I didn't have one at the time. Each keg took about a half hour to cut. I cleaned the kegs up and turned one of the kegs into the new boil kettle. I decided to incorporate my immersion chiller right into the keg, resulting in the updated kettle. The chiller is connected using cheaper gate valves. (Update: Since I never needed to turn either of the valves off, I replaced the gate valves that were connected to the chiller with 1/2" female NPT by 3/4" male hose thread couplings and female garden hose quick-disconnects. One of the valves was leaking anyway.) Questions or comments, feel free to email me. |
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