Beer Forum

Hey guys,
I've been using my keggle for about a year now, and I need to make some mods.
I attached a 1/2" weldless ball valve on it, and some copper pipe on the inside as a dip tube.
The problem is, once the level of wort gets below the point where the diptube is attached to
the keg, I can't get it siphon the rest of the wort out of the kettle and I'm forced to use a racking cane.
Any advice on how to rebuild a dip tube that will drain my kettle would be great.

I've tried both configurations shown in the pic with no luck....
http://picasaweb.google.com/robertdeanh ... 4575908754
The picture is on the link....I couldn't figure out how to attach it....

My guess is you have a leak in your pick up tube. It is letting air in, so you are losing your prime when it is siphoning. You might try making one out of a solid piece of tubing and using a flare connection or buy one from B3.

http://morebeer.com/view_product/9531// ... r_Options_

In my boil keggle, I don't even try to get all the wort our. I intentionally leave about a gallon behind with all the trub. I just plan for this loss so I still get 10 gallons into the fermenter. Here is a pic of my boil keggle pickup assembly.


In my HLT, it do want to get as much water out as possible, so I fashioned a pickup assembly that goes down to the very bottom of the keg. It sucks it dry every time.


Hope this helps.

Yeah, I have the same setup as Brad. The diptube in my kettle is not soldered in - so I can remove it for cleaning. Initially it was a little loose and in addition to loosing prime, I was worried that I was going to knock it off when stirring. I took a screwdriver and ran it around the lip of the connection several times to flare it out. It now takes a little force to get in there, keeps the air from getting in, and I don't have to worry about knocking it off.


Mylo

When you say ran it around the lip of the connection, do you mean you bent it slightly or just scratched it up a bit?

Jason

I have a 1/2" MPT to 1/2" copper pipe fitting installed permanently on my weldless stainless fitting. The removeable part of the dip tube consists of a 4" bent section of pipe, and elbow, and a tiny piece of tubing that sticks inside the fitting that is permanently affixed. I stuck the phillips head screwdriver into the small section of pipe until it hit the elbow. Then I forced the screwdriver against the edge while I ran it around - effectively flaring it out (copper pipe is pretty soft).


Hope that helps.


Mylo

I'll bring this over here rather than in the other thread about the chiller.

My kettle has welded 1/2" fittings. Since I won't be able to install a soldered arm like Mylo has because I won't be able to tighten it down as it'd be too tall and would hit the bottom of the keg, I'm thinking that I can still make a 2 piece dip tube I can take a 1/2" female threaded piece (FPT?) and solder that to a 90 elbow with a MPT on the end of that 90 elbow.

I could then take the 4" piece of copper and solder a female thread piece to the end of that so I can screw the elbow with the 2 threaded pieces to it onto the kettle fitting and then can screw the extension pipe to to the elbow and, hopefully, get the same results.

Does this make sense?

MexicanMafia wrote:I'll bring this over here rather than in the other thread about the chiller.

My kettle has welded 1/2" fittings. Since I won't be able to install a soldered arm like Mylo has because I won't be able to tighten it down as it'd be too tall and would hit the bottom of the keg, I'm thinking that I can still make a 2 piece dip tube I can take a 1/2" female threaded piece (FPT?) and solder that to a 90 elbow with a MPT on the end of that 90 elbow.

I could then take the 4" piece of copper and solder a female thread piece to the end of that so I can screw the elbow with the 2 threaded pieces to it onto the kettle fitting and then can screw the extension pipe to to the elbow and, hopefully, get the same results.

Does this make sense?

That sounds like it will work. It will even allow you to take the whole thing apart to clean it if necessary. I actually soldered mine inside the keggle. You have to have long arms, but it worked for me.