by stilllearning » Sat Oct 03, 2015 4:49 pm
Hi again everyone,
I joined up a couple of years ago and was going to start a reflux build back then but never really got around to it. I made a couple of small posts back in the day looking for some basic advice and have been just lurking around off and on ever since. I've been a bit sidetracked getting married and having a baby and all that other stuff which has been awesome but now that things are settling down a little I'd like to get back to business and get a still up and running. My wife and I enjoy a scotch or two pretty much every evening so we go through a fair bit each week, and it costs way more than I'd like it to. Time to get my own gear up and running!
I was given a really nice 50L keg a few weeks ago from a buddy at work who got it directly from the owner of a microbrewery who couldn't be bothered shipping it back interstate after a holiday/party. There are no markings or stamps on it at all, just a plain ol' stainless keg so its a totally blank canvas. I've already removed the spear and cleaned it up a little bit, but first things first I'm going to give it a proper polish and get it all nice and shiny.
I'm probably going to build a couple of different heads for it maybe in this order - pot still - VM/LM (or combo VM + LM) reflux - and maybe way down the track - a bubbler :-D . I want to make it a fairly modular boiler that can be adapted to any of these uses in the future. So, to start with I'm thinking stainless legs, a bottom drain, a 4" sight glass in the top, and a side dial thermo, as well as 2 x 2400w 5SD elements. I'll cut part of the top ring away between the handles as well (stealing a few of everyone's ideas on here!) . Any thoughts about the column ferrule though? I was thinking a 3" reflux column down the track, should I do a 3" ferrule on the keg now, or go with a different size on the keg to allow for a bubbler later on, and just use adapters/reducers to fit the other columns in the meantime?
As always, thanks in advance for the input :handgestures-thumbupleft:
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