Aussiedistiller, Home Distilling, Moonshine, Home Brew

Hi all,
I would appreciate some feedback on an idea I've had regarding a keg boiler build, and as kegs seem to be pretty hard to get in Tassie I dont want to mess mine up.

Looking at the keg the best point for a fully functioning drain is the lowest point on the keg- this appears to be difficult in the base of the keg and many drains Ive seen go in the side as low as possible- this means the keg doesn't fully drain.

If the keg was inverted and a hole cut into the neck that holds the spear (and the neck capped off) you could have a drain that would be at the then lowest point (keg upside down).

The hole would go in where the black circle is shown in the following:


The completed build would go something like the following pic:


Ive also been considering a hi pressure LPG burner (to get it to temp- then electric for control) and upside down the keg body is already some way off the ground

Have I been ingesting to much of my own product or would upside down work?
Any suggestions or feedback would be great
AC3000

A lot of people invert the keg so all good, that that will now be on the bottom might be a 2”, which you could just clamp a 2” elbow on and a clamp a tap to it. Saves cutting the ferrule off

You will also need a fill port on top (the old bottom) unless your going to pull the column off to fill the keg

Or add a fill port to your column :D

Either way, go electric.

I was planning to weld a 4" to 3" tri clamp reducer on top for the column as it has plenty of surface area and is way thicker than a 3" weld on tri clamp fitting.

The 4" tri clamp (pictured on keg) will be moved to be a fill/ inspection point.

I have 3 phase on my shed so running a couple of elements off different circuits/ phases would be no problem, if this is preferable to gas? Same sort of control- flat out until its near to temp then switch to one element for fine control.

Thanks for the comments- (now to find some plans for a 3" Nixon Stone)

I’ve got my keg in at the local stainless fabricator getting the 2x 4” ferrules and 2x sockets for the elements welded to my keg. I’ve gone upside down to utilise the spear connection as my drain via a 2” 90 coupled to a 2”to1 1/2threaded adapter with a 1 1:4” tap. I’m going to use 2x 2400w elements due to only having 2x 10Acircuts. If you can run higher wattage elements I’m sure they will work much the same as lpg and with electric they can be turned down via power controller and you don’t have the issues of having an outlet on the bottom and a gas ring. Once I get my keg back I’ll show you. But this is before shot

Have any pics of the drain?

Go electric I recon, just seems safer to me. I run a 3600w and a 2400w. And use a power controller to help dial in the perfect input.

Upside down will work fine. If your going to use gas you'll probably need legs to get it higher for the burner unless the keg sits nicely on it. I have seen car rims used for a stand in some of the older boiler build threads.

Some blokes say that 4" isn't big enough for a fill port as they can't get their arm in to clean it but I've never scrubbed my boiler so it hasn't really affected me.

Its not a great phot, but it’s all I’ve got at the moment, once I get my keg home I’ll take some new photos for you and post them up. The only issue I had was making sure I had enough clearance to the floor. Hence my donated wheels.

Doubleuj wrote:A lot of people invert the keg so all good, that that will now be on the bottom might be a 2”, which you could just clamp a 2” elbow on and a clamp a tap to it. Saves cutting the ferrule off

:text-+1: Exactly as I have done with a 4" ferule on the "bottom" as you are suggesting. No need to cut a hole in the kegs ferule either. It's posted in my build thread.

Will you run a 50mm ball valve? I have a 90deg bend and some pipe. But I have been contemplating dropping it back to 25mm.. thanks for he pic. Have to love sponsorship wheels

I like your resourcefulness, but you may have to work out a way to make some individual height adjustment on the wheels or have a very good pad to sit it on. To a greater or lesser extent, most still types bar pots work best perfectly plumb/level

I haven’t got the keg but next best is the setup.



Mine is as follows (all 316 stainless)

2” 90
2” to threaded 1 1/4 reducer
1 1/4” to 1” threaded nipple
1” hp gas ball valve
1” male cam lock
1” can lock dust cap

My reason to dropping down to 1” is because it matches the 1” sullage hose I’ve already got.

I’ve used a gas ball valve as it does not have a plastic seat for the ball valve that a lot of the Chinese valves come with. Also on the Chinese ball valves, yo may well buy a 1” ball valve, well the connection is 1” but inside a lot of the cheapies have a 1/2” valve, not a 1” valve. This one isn’t 1” on the inside, it’s more like 7/8”. We got caught with that on the farm a few years back. Now with plumbing gear we only buy what we can hold so we know what we get, yes price may be double or more than eBay, as the old saying goes, you get what you pay for.

To follow what RC Al says, if its on wheels make sure you have a way to stop them rolling as well, no one wants to chase a still around the shed for the entire run.

A&O wrote:Its not a great phot, but it’s all I’ve got at the moment, once I get my keg home I’ll take some new photos for you and post them up. The only issue I had was making sure I had enough clearance to the floor. Hence my donated wheels.

Looks like somebody lost there shopping trolley :))

Ummm, yep. :laughing-rolling: :whistle:

Yeah the movement is sorted by kicking the wheels out. As they are casters, if they are all pointed in different directions it makes the rig pretty hard to move. I’m also lucky, my new shed has a fantastic floor, the builder really knew what he was doing. :handgestures-thumbupleft: