1/4 keg keggle ?

[twizztedangel]

i am tending to agree with brew engineer and henway, it would probably be better to do a full keg. i am just trying to put together as much equip. as i can as cheap as i can. like everyone else. all i have so far is my mr. beer kit so i need more. and i have access to a vast quantity of kegs. and a neighbor i might be able to bribe with beer for the work.

[fatfudd]

Actually there are many advantages to a 1/4 keg keggle. In particular, I don't want to brew 10 gallons of one type of beer. I like having 5 gallons of one type and then brewing another. I haven't had any more boil over problems with my 1/4 keggle than I did with a 30qt pot. I did get an old enameled lid and I turn the boil down and leave the lid on on when I get the keggle going.
I don't really have any problem with evaporation unless I want to, then I just turn up the heat and take off the lid until I get a hard boil going. The nice thing about a 1/4 keggle is that its far easier to manage than a 1/2 keg. I use a brass wire with marks for measuring the volume of wort and when I have 5.5 gallons I run it out thru a counter flow cooler. I have a bulkhead fitting with a tube that goes to the bottom center of the keggle and I get all but about a 1/4 cup of the wort out. With the counter flow cooler I get a fast enough break that the precipitate is easy to separate when I move the wort to the secondary fermenter. You won't have any problem with a 1/4 keg keggle unless you can't regulate your heat real well.

[Mylo]

Tee hee hee.... Kegglette....

See, I told you!


Mylo

[Petedadink]

Fatfudd ,you can always brew 10 gal and use two different yeasts or adjust gravity with sugars to make a stronger beer.

[fatfudd]

Sure I could brew 10 gallons of one type with a slight variation, but if I have 4 or 5 ales, like I have right now; a porter, a brown, a scotch red and pale ale, I have about 10 cases ready to use. It would be hard for me to justify the cost to brew twice that amount and have variations based only on hops and yeast. Besides, you get a bad batch(although I've never had one, only some mediocre batches) and you have twice as much bad beer. My son and his friends brew in 10 gallon increments at college, but they've got plenty of friends to help drink it too.

Bottom line- All I'm saying is using a 5 gallon keggle works really well for some of us that like to brew smaller quantities, but lots of different kinds.