anyone converted steel/alum keg

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beer today
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anyone converted steel/alum keg

Post by beer today » Thu Dec 31, 2009 12:21 pm

I am interested if anyone has converted a commercial keg into a boiler/tun and wanted to weigh up the pros and cons, tools required, must it be gas-could I use electric, the aim is to keep the costs down to provide me with something more sturdy than my plastic setup.
any advice be great, cheers

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flytact
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Re: anyone converted steel/alum keg

Post by flytact » Thu Dec 31, 2009 2:18 pm

I've got two converted kegs. The conversion is rather simple: cut a hole in the top using either a jigsaw or a grinder or a welder. That's it for bare bones boiling. If you'd like to put a on a spigot then drill a 7/8th inch hole in the lower side side.
This is extremely oversimplified and you should do a web search for the full conversion.
I use gas, but am considering converting one of them to electric.
As for the usability, I love them.
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beer today
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Re: anyone converted steel/alum keg

Post by beer today » Thu Dec 31, 2009 2:30 pm

seems common in the US, when I searched, just wondered about anyone in UK, just need to price up dremmels,grinders etc
cheers

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jubby
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Re: anyone converted steel/alum keg

Post by jubby » Thu Dec 31, 2009 5:11 pm

beer today wrote:seems common in the US, when I searched, just wondered about anyone in UK, just need to price up dremmels,grinders etc
cheers
They use gas in the US because the electricity supply voltage is 110v and it is impracticable to use a 3kw immersion heater. (it would draw almost 30 amps)

I wouldn't bother with the dremmel thing, just a 4" angle grinder with a thin metal cutting disc was ok for me. Search youtube, there are a few good clips.
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pokerswazi

Re: anyone converted steel/alum keg

Post by pokerswazi » Thu Dec 31, 2009 6:33 pm

I have been offered some kegs too by a pub landlord friend of mine. I was a bit worried about the legality of it though after reading through the kegwatch web site. I asked him about it and he said that the guys who deliver his beers refuse to take the extra kegs away and have been leaving him with kegs that they don't seem to want anymore. I told him to go on the kegwatch site to find out what he can do about the kegs because they have been a bit of a headache for him and he is slowly building up a pile of useless ones that they won't take back.
I've decided to give them a miss though, just to much trouble doing all the cutting and drilling at the moment for me. I have other projects on the go which will be taking up all of my spare time. good luck with them though...

dhalse001
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Re: anyone converted steel/alum keg

Post by dhalse001 » Thu Dec 31, 2009 11:44 pm

I sourced 3 in the UK - hard to get I found - so take them.

I found someone to 'plasma cut' out the lids: quick, easy, gave him 20 quid for doing 3. If you know them, they'd do it for free. Don't let them point the cutter inwards, as they did on one of mine - steel splatter sitcks to the walls.

Get the middle out. This can be tough and works differently for different types of kegs. There are postings on u-tube as how to remove them. It can be dangerous if under pressure, so release the pressure first! 1 of mine I just couldn't get out no matter what - but with the pressure released, the plasma man cut it for me anyway.

I bought gas rings and heat mine with propane gas.

Stainless is not a good conductor of heat (unlike copper), but that's also good as it holds a good steady mash temp and, for the kettle, once boiling, easy to keep a rolling boil.

I bought a 7/8 holesaw (go 'cobalt') to drill for the taps and weldless kit. All that sort of stuff I sourced from MoreBeer. It's expensive, but that's because of the post and tax. If you know someone visiting the US and can bring it back for you, then it can be very cheap!

I insulated mine with thermawrap - from Tesco. I have picks on Jim's Beer Flickr site.

Regards,
Dave.

beer today
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Re: anyone converted steel/alum keg

Post by beer today » Sun Jan 03, 2010 1:42 pm

whats the difference between stainless and aluminium kegs, am i right in thinking they are mostly aluminium because of the weight factor ?
cheers

dhalse001
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Re: anyone converted steel/alum keg

Post by dhalse001 » Wed Jan 06, 2010 1:36 am

Sorry mate - I don't know how many are Alum out there.

I think few will disagree - if you can get stainless then go stainless - no flavour imparts, which we used to get at the bottom of an alum beer can a few years ago - perhaps we still do, although I'm not a can-man anymore. Also stainless is hard, won't scratch as easily, and have a look around Morebeer.com, Blichmann, and Northernbrewer.com and I believe all you see is stainless stainless stainless...

Dave.

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Re: anyone converted steel/alum keg

Post by beer today » Wed Jan 06, 2010 2:41 pm

that's what i thought, the shinier the better.
cheers

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Andy
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Re: anyone converted steel/alum keg

Post by Andy » Wed Jan 06, 2010 2:49 pm

>If you know them, they'd do it for free. Don't let them point the cutter inwards, as they did on one of mine - steel splatter sitcks to the walls.

Filling the keg with water before cutting can stop this.
Dan!

dhalse001
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Re: anyone converted steel/alum keg

Post by dhalse001 » Wed Jan 06, 2010 6:37 pm

Yeah - ok. A bit more info in case anyone is going to so this:

I filled mine with about 4 inches of water. I had 3, and varied the diameters for the hole in the top for the HLT, Mashtun and Kettle, so that the top cut from the mashtun was large enough to be a lid for the HLT, and the top from the kettle was large enough for the mashtun.

Trouble is that for the kettle hole, the diameter was large and close to the rim, so the guy tilted the plasma cutter handle slightly pointing at the wall as he went around. So either fill your keg to the very top with water (or almost), or just tell the guy to point his torch-handpiece inwards, and yes, always have at least a couple of inches of water in the bottom.

(Fwiw, the kettle wasn't ruined, but I spent a couple of hours with a drill-sander combination grinding off what was like large sand beads all on the inner walls. PITA (bread)).

Dave.

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Re: anyone converted steel/alum keg

Post by beer today » Wed Jan 06, 2010 9:19 pm

thanks guys, good info.
am still trying to source cheap ss kegs, will post as progress.

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