hot water cylinder to HLT or Boil Kettle or mash tun

[paul m]

Hi All,

I had to pull out this low pressure hot water cylinder. i think its 180L. The 2000w element and thermostat works. I pulled it out because it has a weeping leak. Could that be fixed easy? welding copper?

To split it open... I have a small grinder. would that make a pigs ear of it? I couldn't imagine being able to cut it straight with a hack saw. 

It has a vent outlet on the top. water supply outlet and 2 others for solar hotwater supply and return.

I'm thinking to convert the bottom to a Hot Liquor Tun and the top convert to a Mash Tun. I already have a 51L boil kettle with an element. I'm wondering if thats big enough though-

my optimum setup would be to make around 50L of wort and then split to 2 x 25 L fermenters to test different yeast strains / pitching rate etc.

Any thought / opinions gratefully received!

[vdog]

The donut thing was something I was only able to do on the most recent conversion, because I didn't need the part I was cutting off, so might not work for you. The idea is just that you want something over the insulation, so you don't soak it with wort and have it end up all manky. Pic attached to show you what I mean - it's the very top cap from the cylinder, which then has screws holding it in place (note this was before sealing the remaining gap with silicone, and before the cylinder had done it's starsan bath).

 

Doing the half and half conversion, just leave a 'lip' of bare copper above the insulated edge, dig out half an inch of insulation all round, and you can cover with silicon sealer to keep things all nice. It never contacts the wort, so doesn't need to be foodsafe just waterproof.