Aussiedistiller, Home Distilling, Moonshine, Home Brew

Hey Guys
I pretty new around here but your going to see a lot more of me.
My new Keg boiler is going to need a drain point and I have looked an everyone's photos that they have put up.
I don't want to raise the keg up to clear the drain and I also don't want to have to tip the keg towards
the drain if its mounted higher. I want to leave the bottom ring intact.

My idea is pretty simple I want to weld a tube into the keg that drops right down into the very lowest point in the centre(on my keg anyway)
the drain point will be maybe 2 inches higher than this point once were all said and done so I plan to just put my air compressor hose into a point
on the top of the keg and force everything out the drain. it wont take much pressure maybe 2 - 5 psi and it will only be to drain the last 2 inches
I am thinking to weld in a 3/4 stainless socket/ threaded union and thread the inside dip tube into it and screw a tap in outside

Any ideas on how that will work would be great

pulsetech wrote:
My idea is pretty simple I want to weld a tube into the keg that drops right down into the very lowest point in the centre(on my keg anyway)
the drain point will be maybe 2 inches higher than this point once were all said and done so I plan to just put my air compressor hose into a point
on the top of the keg and force everything out the drain. it wont take much pressure maybe 2 - 5 psi and it will only be to drain the last 2 inches
I am thinking to weld in a 3/4 stainless socket/ threaded union and thread the inside dip tube into it and screw a tap in outside

Any ideas on how that will work would be great

If you can attach a hose to your tap and drain to a lower point somewhere you should have created a syphon which will drain the keg until it gets to a point where air can enter the dip tube. By then you are left with only a few mm depth of liquid at the bottom of the keg. If you then add a few litres of water and drain again any remnants should be close to plain water. Shouldn't need the compressed air at all. Even with the air you can only drain to the same point as liquid won't jump up into the drain tube.

pulsetech wrote:Hey Guys
I pretty new around here but your going to see a lot more of me.
My new Keg boiler is going to need a drain point and I have looked an everyone's photos that they have put up.
I don't want to raise the keg up to clear the drain and I also don't want to have to tip the keg towards
the drain if its mounted higher. I want to leave the bottom ring intact.

My idea is pretty simple I want to weld a tube into the keg that drops right down into the very lowest point in the centre(on my keg anyway)
the drain point will be maybe 2 inches higher than this point once were all said and done so I plan to just put my air compressor hose into a point
on the top of the keg and force everything out the drain. it wont take much pressure maybe 2 - 5 psi and it will only be to drain the last 2 inches
I am thinking to weld in a 3/4 stainless socket/ threaded union and thread the inside dip tube into it and screw a tap in outside

Any ideas on how that will work would be great

Hi pulse
Great idea, been thinking of a neat way to drain my keg/boiler can't put anything low being on gas. I'm assuming your in the same boat as me and have compressed air handy? I need to give this a bit of thought i could run the riser outlet up high out the side of the keg keeping the tap/cock away from the flames, I have air close, remove the still place a cap with air fitting in its place tighten the tri clamp, open the drain tap pressurise the boiler and empty contents into a bucket etc Brilliant.
Thanks Mick.

kickarum wrote:Hi pulse
Great idea, been thinking of a neat way to drain my keg/boiler can't put anything low being on gas. I'm assuming your in the same boat as me and have compressed air handy? I need to give this a bit of thought i could run the riser outlet up high out the side of the keg keeping the tap/cock away from the flames, I have air close, remove the still place a cap with air fitting in its place tighten the tri clamp, open the drain tap pressurise the boiler and empty contents into a bucket etc Brilliant.
Thanks Mick.

Build a flameshield ;)
I've got the tap on my BIAB pot down low with a dip tube going right to the bottom of the pot
A piece of angle iron the covers the gap between the edge of the pot and the 4WD rim that is my burner stand, this diverts any flames or hot air
I've never had any problems with the silicone gaskets or rubber sleeve on the tap handle melting/scorching

sp0rk wrote:

kickarum wrote:Hi pulse
Great idea, been thinking of a neat way to drain my keg/boiler can't put anything low being on gas. I'm assuming your in the same boat as me and have compressed air handy? I need to give this a bit of thought i could run the riser outlet up high out the side of the keg keeping the tap/cock away from the flames, I have air close, remove the still place a cap with air fitting in its place tighten the tri clamp, open the drain tap pressurise the boiler and empty contents into a bucket etc Brilliant.
Thanks Mick.

Build a flameshield ;)
I've got the tap on my BIAB pot down low with a dip tube going right to the bottom of the pot
A piece of angle iron the covers the gap between the edge of the pot and the 4WD rim that is my burner stand, this diverts any flames or hot air
I've never had any problems with the silicone gaskets or rubber sleeve on the tap handle melting/scorching

G'day mate
Yer gave shields a bit of thought and I'm sure yours works well. After reading pulses idea I've been giving it a bit of thought the real benefit is the simplicity. You see I need to catch some of the Dunder for next Generations so being able to push it out at a hight would be a definite advantage. You could even mount the riser on the same tri clamp cap as the air fitting when your finished you remove the cap just an attachment not even a fitting. Not necessarily a better layout than yours spork just an alternative that may suit me better. How big is the 4wd rim? BIAB pot? Got any pics? I'm new at this and have my 50L keg boiler on a 14" rim as a stand did my 1st real run today all went to plan but have plenty of room for improving my burner setup and venting etc etc
Cheers Mick.

Sorry I should have updated this thread . When building my boiler I had another idea. On my 4 inch fill port I made a separate cap that has a dip tube and an air fitting. I just put it in once my run it over. I drop my parrot off and cap the hole. It takes bugger all pressure to drain it real fast. Works well for me as my boiler sits flat on the floor. When I go to a bubbler I won't have any height concerns.

pulsetech wrote:Sorry I should have updated this thread . When building my boiler I had another idea. On my 4 inch fill port I made a separate cap that has a dip tube and an air fitting. I just put it in once my run it over. I drop my parrot off and cap the hole. It takes bugger all pressure to drain it real fast. Works well for me as my boiler sits flat on the floor. When I go to a bubbler I won't have any height concerns.

Nice. I can imagine this working well with larger fermenters also :-B

I had something similar ages ago, it was just a flat disc that clamped to the neck of the keg & had a tubeless car tyre valve & bit of half inch pipe through it to the bottom of the keg. The 1/2" was bent around in a 180 radius into my drain.

Hook the compressor up an she's empty with minimal human interaction in minutes :D

edit: oooh I might win an element :O)

MacStill wrote:I had something similar ages ago, it was just a flat disc that clamped to the neck of the keg & had a tubeless car tyre valve & bit of half inch pipe through it to the bottom of the keg. The 1/2" was bent around in a 180 radius into my drain.

Hook the compressor up an she's empty with minimal human interaction in minutes :D

edit: oooh I might win an element :O)

Does 1/2" fit through the same hole as an airlock? :think:

I've seen people use 3/8" ;-)

it's not my idea, think I got it off HD way back

MacStill wrote:I had something similar ages ago, it was just a flat disc that clamped to the neck of the keg & had a tubeless car tyre valve & bit of half inch pipe through it to the bottom of the keg. The 1/2" was bent around in a 180 radius into my drain.

Hook the compressor up an she's empty with minimal human interaction in minutes :D

edit: oooh I might win an element :O)

:laughing-rolling:

I will try and get a few pics in the next few days. Pretty flat out at the moment. I like the idea of doing something similar with my fermenters. The compressor is always on in my shed anyway.
On an unrelated idea I was thinking about a float for my syphon tube instead of using a racking cane. I was thinking it could stay in the fermenter all the time and be hooked up to the tap (I don't use the tap at the moment).
That way you could just turn on the tap and draw from the top of the Wash. Probably needs it's own thread.