Building Homebrew Equipment (4 page)
Read Building Homebrew Equipment Online
Authors: Karl F. Lutzen
1. Without a blade in the saw, set the saber saw against the inside top of the keg. You are finding out how close you can cut to the handles, as the saw body will be the limiting factor.
2. Mark a point where the blade will be cutting. Draw a circle around the top inside of this mark. In our case, we were able to make an opening 12” in diameter in our keg.
3. With a center punch (or nail and hammer), mark a point
⅛
″ from the line inside this circle.
4. Drill a ¼” hole at that point. (It is easier if you drill a smaller hole first and then enlarge it.)
5. Install a blade in the saw, oil it, and at a slow speed carefully cut out the top of the keg. Plan on spending at least 45 minutes on this phase.
6. With the grinding wheel in the drill, grind off all sharp edges.
7. Mark a point
⅜
″ above the bottom weld line.
8. Drill a ½″-diameter hole. (Again, start small, then enlarge the hole.)
Note:
You are done cutting and about to start assembling your mashing vessel. This is a good time to scrub the interior of the keg. It will save time later. Also, clean all parts before final assembly. That, too, will help.
9. Place the stainless-steel washer and then a nylon washer on the pipe-thread end (the large end) of a
⅜
″ MPT ×
⅜
″ compression adapter.
10. Insert this into the ½″-diameter hole. It will fit tightly, and you will have to use a wrench to finish the job. You may have to enlarge the hole slightly beyond ½″.
11. Place the other nylon washer over the pipe threads.
12. Wrap Teflon tape around the threads.
13. Thread on a
⅜
″ ball valve and tighten. Be sure to use a wrench on the inside to hold the adapter in place.
14. Drill a
⅜
″-diameter hole in the center of the perforated metal (false bottom).
15. Bend the end of the
⅜
″-diameter copper tubing to 90 degrees. This bent end goes through the false bottom.
16. Set the false bottom and tube assembly in the bottom of the keg.
17. Measure and cut the copper tubing so that it fits into the inside
⅜
″ compression fitting.
18. Attach the tubing to the
⅜
″ compression fitting with a compression nut and ferrule.
19. Add a
⅜
″ MPT ×
⅜
″ compression fitting to the ball valve output. By using a
⅜
″ compression nut, you can either connect this to your counterflow chiller or add a small piece of
⅜
″ copper tubing for a spigot and attach a vinyl hose.
Note:
Instead of using the adapters, washers, and all, you could just take the keg and have two
⅜
″ female nipples welded to the hole. A welded nipple will also be easier to clean and sanitize. You would need a
⅜
″ male nipple to attach the ball valve and a
⅜
″ MPT to
⅜
″ compression adapter to attach the copper tube. Wrap the male threads with Teflon tape before installing.
Before you start brewing for the first time, fill the keg with 12 gallons of water and add 1 gallon of white vinegar. Bring the mixture to a full boil and boil it for about 15 minutes. Drain. Now everything should be ready for your first batch in your new mash tun.
To introduce sparge water to the grain bed in your picnic cooler, water cooler, or modified keg mash tun, you can construct a simple sparge sprayer out of CPVC pipe. Simply obtain two lengths of thin CPVC supply line (
⅜
″ will be fine) and cut one to the length of your cooler or to the diameter of your modified keg (the other length will be slighter longer than the width of your cooler or the diameter of your keg). Next, cap one end of this pipe and drill very small holes in the pipe (see illustration below).
To do this, we acquired a couple of
1
/
32
″ drill bits from a hobby shop (they break easily!) and drilled holes about ½” apart on one side only along the entire length of the pipe. Glue the second length of CPVC, which is cut a bit longer than the cooler’s width or keg’s diameter, to the long tube and at a right angle to it. The second pipe simply supports the sprayer and provides stability when it’s positioned over the top of the cooler.
Now push the vinyl tube over the end of the CPVC tube. Depending on the size of your hose, you may have to add a hose barb adapter to hook the CPVC to the vinyl hose. If you use ½″-diameter CPVC pipe, a
⅝
″-diameter I.D. (inside diameter) poly hose will fit tightly over the end. Then siphon the sparge water into the sprayer.
This is a bottom view of the sprayer: The holes need to point down to spray onto the grain bed.
If there’s one gadget that marks the transition from the casual home-brewer to the die-hard hobbyist, it’s the keg system. Bottles are fine when you’re starting out and not sure how dedicated you are to the hobby; but once you’re hooked, the advantages of kegs over bottles are just too obvious to be ignored.
When you bottle, you’ve got 50-some bottles to wash and sanitize for every batch, and it takes a lot of time to fill and cap each one. Whereas beginning homebrewers worry about the cost of kegging setups, experienced homebrewers willingly spend the money. It’s a trade-off between time and money.
There are, of course, benefits to bottles too. They’re easy to carry and hand out to friends. They’re easy to store for long periods of time. They’re easy to send to competitions. As we’ve said, it’s a trade-off. You can still fill bottles with a keg system setup, and we’ve included the counter-pressure bottle filler project just for you.
The kegs used by homebrewers are usually used soda kegs. These are available at many homebrew supply shops. Many homebrewers get their kegs by buying excess kegs from local soda-bottling companies, from restaurants, or from junk dealers. When you buy from these sources, you’ll need to refurbish the keg (turn to page 23 for those instructions). Homebrewers often refer to these kegs as Cornelius kegs, after one of the companies that makes them. Yours may or may not be a Cornelius keg; it could be a Firestone or John Wood.
If you’ve ever thought about getting into kegging and want to use refurbished soda kegs, now may be your last chance. Soda companies are increasingly abandoning kegs for plastic bags. Now easy to come by cheaply, the supply of kegs will dry up once the soda companies switch.
A complete kegging setup includes: a stainless-steel keg, a CO
2
tank, a regulator with pressure gauge, and various taps, hoses, and connectors.
There are two important things to know about any keg you’re buying: size and lock type. Most homebrewers use 5-gallon kegs, the most commonly available size. You can also find 3-gallon and 10-gallon kegs. Foxx Equipment sells new kegs in both 3-gallon and 5-gallon sizes. The locks can be either the pin type or the ball type. You can tell which is which by looking at the hose connectors (fittings) on your keg. If there are two knobs (pins) sticking out from the base of one fitting and three knobs sticking out from the base of the other, it’s a pin lock. You slide steel hose connectors over these pins and then twist to lock the hoses onto the keg. Ball-lock valves, which are smooth all the way around, use a locking ring to attach the hoses. Whichever type of lock you prefer, get several kegs, and make sure they all have the same type of lock (or get two CO
2
supply lines).
The CO
2
tanks are large steel cylinders containing pressurized carbon dioxide. They are available in different sizes — the smallest used by homebrewers is referred to as a 5-pound tank, the largest, a 20-pound tank. A 10-pound tank is also available. The 20-pound tank is preferred by many of the more serious homebrewers because it means fewer trips to a gas supplier to get it filled. At the top of the CO
2
tank is a valve handle for turning the flow on and off. The regulator and gauges attach to a threaded nut on the side of the tank.
The regulator reduces the high pressure of gas coming out of the cylinder to the pressure you want going into your keg. This is accomplished simply by turning a screw on the regulator. Attached to the regulator is a gauge that shows the pressure of gas leaving the regulator. If you’ve got a second gauge, it shows the pressure of gas coming into the regulator (the pressure of the CO
2
tank). Many regulators also come with a check valve, or there is one attached to the gas-out line.
Stainless-steel keg
CO
2
tank
Regulator with pressure gauge
Connectors
Tap
Hoses
Typical pin and ball locks commonly found on kegs used by home-brewers. A pin lock has knobs or pins that fit into each other. A ball lock has a locking ring.
You’ll also need a keg connector on each valve: one for the gas line to the CO
2
tank, the other to your tap. The two connectors are different, and you’ll need one of each. Further, the connectors are not interchangeable, making it impossible (well, in theory it’s supposed to be impossible) to connect a line to the wrong valve (assuming you put the right connector on the right line). You may also need a barbed connector to attach to your regulator.
Most homebrewers use a plastic tap faucet attached to a length of plastic hose as their tap. The plastic taps, which are inexpensive and can be taken apart for easy cleaning, are often listed in supply catalogs as “picnic faucets.” If you happen to get your hands on an extra refrigerator, you can modify the fridge and put a tap in the door (see directions on page 25).
2
Sources
Very small portable CO
2
tanks, which you can fill from your larger supply tank, are also available to homebrewers who want to take a keg to a party without bringing along a big pressure tank. You can find portable tanks in sizes as small as 3½ ounces. West Creek Home Brewing also has some nifty gadgets for handling CO
2
, such as a cap for charging a PET (polyethylene terephthalate) bottle to 30 psi as a portable CO
2
source.
Another source of tanks and gas is your local compressed-gas dealer. This could be a welding shop or a business dealing exclusively with compressed gas. Check your phone book for more information. These places sometimes offer what is called a “lifetime lease” on a tank. Effectively you buy a tank and every time you need a refill you bring in the tank, pay the refill charge (for a 20-pound tank, it’s usually less than $20), leave the empty tank, and walk out with another filled and certified tank. You never have to worry about a bad tank — a rare event in any case. The vendor takes the empties and recertifies them (if necessary), then fills and “sells” them to someone else. A lifetime lease may cost about $75.
Note:
Tanks are required to have certificates showing that they have been pressure-tested. This is done (if needed) when you fill the tank. If a tank fails a pressure test, the certifier will drill a hole in it, preventing it from being used again.