Follow along Electric kettle build

[Ryan de Raat]

Ok guys started to put this guy together just looking for a little input as to where to put the tap for emptying it. I will be boiling my mash in it so do I want the tap off the lowest under the keggle or should I lift it up a bit and put it on the side. 

Just waiting on some argon to weld a couple on stainless nuts on the side of it and the PID to turn up in the country. 

[Barry]

I'd definitely put it on the side, you want to avoid getting most of the break and hop trub into your fermenter. But you'll want it as low as possible – don't want to leave any precious wort in the kettle either.

Is it me or have you used the keg upside down?

[Ryan de Raat]

It is a keg but not upside down, I only had the top rubber bit and not the bottom so cut a hole in the top and moved the rubber bit to the bottom as a stand. I'm just wondering If i put the drain on the bottom i could get a short bit of stainless tube on the inside I could effectively had a adjustable drain height. What would be a general height to avoid the Break? 

[Barry]

Would be variable for every beer depending on how much hops you used.

My new kettle is on the side as low as I could possibly get the coupler/washers/nuts both inside and out, with a filter inside (see here: Kettle pic).

I haven't finished though so it hasn't been used! So I can't tell you how it performs, for all I know it doesn't work :)

[Peter Smith]

I am still getting my head around using a tap at the bottom of kettle,   at the moment I autosyphen the wort into my carboy, and I let stand for 60 mins before doing this to let trub settle etc.

I stop before picking up the trub,   I wouldnt be able to do this if I used a tap,   how well do the bazokaa screens work?   sure no hop but what about all the fine mushroom like clouds that the koppa floc create?

[Barry]

Are you chilling Peter and then leaving for 60? Is chilling part of the 60?

A little bit of protein break in the fermenter isn't a bad thing, unless it's a really light lager you're brewing.

[Peter Smith]

yeah I chill to about 35C then leave kettle with sanitised lid on to settle for between 30-60 mins (60 for some base malts...others take less),   you get crystal clear wort and a very defined layer of break at bottom of kettle.....as you get down to the last 5L you have the autosyphen just above the trub and its like the wort drains from the trub

I need to post a video      I have just always done it this way.

I also assume at the end of the day you are using the koppa flow to do this, make the crap drop out.

[Scott H]

I have a bazooka screen in my boil kettle clamped over the pickup tube. Normally end up with about 1L of trub in the primary. I also use koppafloc I run my immersion chiller for 30 storing it every 5 min till 10-15 min left then leave it to settle till the 30 min is up then drain into ferm. Haven't had it get blocked or huge amounts of trub. And not a lot of loss in the kettle either.