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15 Gallon Keggle
I ran across a 15 gallon keggle with a 1/2 in ss ball valve and a thermometer installed, and with handles welded on on Craigslist for $140. All sanitary welds. Does this sound like a reasonable price?
Its probably a good deal. I wonder why there are handles welded on, because a keg has handles on it already.
But I think its fine to me. I have a few kegs I plan to cut out and resell for $70-80ish, no thermo or valve, so its sounds good to me.
The newer, straight sided kegs have handles built it. But back when I was a youngster we didn't have such modern conveniences. 
ruralbrew wrote:
The newer, straight sided kegs have handles built it. But back when I was a youngster we didn't have such modern conveniences.
Haha, wow! You're older than handles? I kid, I'm sorry.
Sounds like a fair deal. Maybe not if every thing was weldless. But welding certainly ups the value.
You are looking new $70 just for the thermo and ball valve for quality. I say grab it.
Check the work on the cutaway however, I have seen some that are ragged and can tear you open. I cut my own top off, and ground the inner flange flush with the keg wall, so it is like a true straight sided pot. Love it. Also check the bevel of the bottom of the keg. Make sure it will work in conjunction with your burner setup. You may have to make modification so the burner is the proper distance of where the bottom of the keg comes to rest over it.
Yea, e_mott, I'm older than handles. On beer kegs anyway. But not older than stainless kegs.
Probably a pretty good deal, but I think I will wait and put together my own system with a straight sided keg. I would like to insulate it and put a cover around the insulation, and that would be a lot easier with a straight sided keg. I'm thinking an inch of ceramic fiber soaked in colloidal silica to stiffen it up. That should cut down on heat loss significantly, especially when I brew in the winter.
Eventually I would like to end up with a one vessel brewing system. Have an insert a little smaller than the keg with an agitator that I could put the grain in and mash right in the keg. Either go electric or use steam for temp control and propane for the boil. After the mash is done pull out the insert, maybe do a small sparge if necessary(depending on the amount of grain) and then crank up the heat and boil. Have another insert with a fine mesh to throw the hops in. Cool, transfer to a fermenter and pitch the yeast. Something space efficient where everything would nest together for storage.
At least that is my plan for today, tomorrow I might have a different plan 
ruralbrew wrote:
Eventually I would like to end up with a one vessel brewing system. Have an insert a little smaller than the keg with an agitator that I could put the grain in and mash right in the keg.
If you eventually plan on building a mashtun, then you will still need a boilkettle, this would be the perfect vessel. It does not matter straight sided or not, as long as it holds 15.5 gallons. Insulation is unnecessary as well, seeing it will always have a heat source applied.
I use my keggle to heat my strike and sparge water, then to collect my wort for boil. The mashtun is completely seperate. Regardless of the beer I brew, I always collect 15 gallons, so I have 13 gallons postboil, and 12 gallons of finished product in the fermenters after loss. With the future system it sounds like you are looking to build, 2 to 3 vessels of this capacity will probably be needed or desired.
Good luck, keep us posted as/when the build progresses.
Actually, thirsty, what I am thinking of is kind of like a brew-in-a-bag system, without the bag. A one vessel system with an insert to hold the grain for mashing. If it were electric or had an external heat source (boiler) it wouldn't even have to be metal, food grade plastic would work. Whatever the material is it will be insulated. A lot of heat radiates from the side of the pot, and this is just wasted heat. Whatever it costs to insulate will be saved over time in reduced energy costs.
The compact nature of a system like this appeals to me. It is on my project list. Of course SWMBO has a list for me too, and it is very different from mine. I'll let you guess who's list takes precedence.............
I used to Manage a bagel place, and I know exactly what your talking about. They had a 30 gallon kettle, that was electric, but it heated water in the jacket so the steam would heat the water. We had a lage basket that could be fitted on top on the large kettle, and would go into the heated water, I always thought this would be fantastic for a mash tun/ boil kettle. Unfortunately, this was a solid stainless steel mega kettle fully encased, top of the line Bagel boil kettle. Cost about 15k.
I'm sure they have some on Ebay, google bagel boil kettle, and see what you get.
Yea, they have some on E-Bay. Cheapest one is a thousand bucks. Think I'll pass. What fun would it be to buy something already built and ready to go? What I need to do is start stopping at every dairy equipment dealer around here. Lots of stainless odds and ends sitting around. I kind of have an idea of what I am looking for. Of course the problem is I only run across this sort of stuff if I'm not looking for it. Once I start looking it all seems to disappear. I think its one of Murphy's Laws.
All I know is that you could get 30 gallons of water to a rolling boil in an hour and a half, the kettle was a thing of beauty. there has to be some around for cheap money. A grand is very very cheap. Gotta put that on my list of cool friggin things to get.
Thirsty always has luck getting this kind of stuff, he gets stainless steel fridges for free. full blown 17ft drop in freezers for free. He's got a shamrock up his ass for sure when it comes to this stuff. He always shares though, so gotta thank him for that.
bruguru wrote:
. He's got a shamrock up his ass for sure when it comes to this stuff. He always shares though, so gotta thank him for that.
I do?
Ironically I have that red 3 tier display stand thing in my garage taking up space. I was thinking about posting pictures and seeing if anyone wanted it. Of course if anyone wanted it, that means they would need to drive to my house and drink a couple of wits with me, (all I have on tap now!!)
What are you using for a brewing rig now if the stand is not in use?
I am still using the same brewstand, however I got another 3 tier table display thingy that was in my garage when you guys all came over. I never ended up doing anything with it. It is pretty sturdy. I should probably shoot a pic of it if anyone wants it.
So this is what it looks like:
and the tiers are all adjustable for height and can swing at any direction 360 degrees.
these are the tighteners for each tier. 
I should probably post it in brewing stuff as well.
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