Good to know a welder

[NateBrews]

One of my buddies just welded a 1.5" triclover port onto the bottom of my brew kettle. I'm excited to give it a maiden voyage. Funny thing is the welding materials and the bung probably cost as much as the cheapie AIH brew pot.

[brewinhard]

What do you plan on using it for?

[NateBrews]

I am going to use that as the pickup for the pump. I disliked how I couldn't get all the strike water, or whatever, out of the kettle when I was using the bung on the side, so this seemed like a good solution. I don't know if I'll have to make a little damn or something to keep the hot/cold break cone from getting into the hole but I think it should be fine.

[brewinhard]

I would think you may have to create something like that to keep the trub/cold break out when transferring. I like how it's like a conical though on the underside of the kettle. Maybe some sort of screen or filter there?

Great for transferring strike water into your mash tun though.

[NateBrews]

Well, I'm just finishing up chilling some Helles right now, so we'll see how bad the pickup is. I tried tilting the kettle ever so slightly to see if I could get the trub and stuff to stay over there more. We'll see how it works out.

[NateBrews]

Looks like most of the trub pile got left behind. Not really that much material because there are almost no hops in this (20g Ultra). A little blocker might still be in order.

The main pile is the center of the immersion chiller, and the little satellite pile to the left is where the first turn of the chiller sits on the bottom of the kettle.

[brewinhard]

Not too shabby, Nate. How was the clarity of the wort coming out of the kettle from that?

[MalcomV1982]

Laughing pretty hard at the term "bung", sorry I'm a 12 year old.

I have a friend from northern Michigan who welds professionally, he and a friend of his who brews once managed to weld a drain valve onto a hot liquor tank using some old plumbing fixtures. It looks...sorta ghetto but allegedly it works really well.