Hey fellas (and fellettes?), I dropped in briefly last year, and have lurked around your fine establishment since. I'm Richard, I'm mostly a distiller (not of the carbon filter and essence variety) but I'm getting into some AG beer (skipped the partial / extract stuff and got straight to the point. The moment of clarity came when I was drinking an Emerson's Dunkelweizen, and I thought, hell, I could probably make something like this. I've got a few batches of various persuausions in the pipeline now, but the makeshift equipment is getting to me.
I'm getting serious about tooling up for AG. I'm trying to find some kegs for the HLT and kettle - I've got a good chillybin which will be sacrificed for the mash / lauter tun.
The reason I want to use kegs over pots is that then they can be a modular part of my distilling setup, which is all based on kegs, and I seriously don't need more than 50l. No, really, I don't, even without brewing beer there is just way too much alcohol lying around in my garage :).
You guys that are based in Auckland, any tips and tricks for finding kegs? Cooperative bars, scrappies, liquor stores, that sort of thing? Trademe seems crazy expensive, they rarely ever go for under $100. Maybe I'm just spoiled? I got my three kegs for distilling for about $20 each in Chirstchurch, and toted them up with me when I moved.
Thanks for any and all help,
Richard