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- Опубліковано 22 лют 2018
- Taking a 50L stainless steel beer keg and converting it into the obligatory 50L still kettle.
A "Keggle".
S'cuse one of the clips in this video is fuzzy as hell - is summer out here and humid as hell with bright sunshine.
Cameras lense must have been condensed up with the humidity and I didn't realize until I came to edit, ... doh.
You did a fantastic job. Looks great. And you gave us some helpful tips on how to do it.
Thanks fella, glad you enjoyed it. 😊
I chanced upon your UA-cam channel while trying to find someone in Ireland that could help me build a beer keg still, and I'm very glad I did!
You're welcome fella!
Happy Distilling!
Amazing work!
Great work and thanks for the extra tips like drill speed!
You're welcome fella.
Happy Distilling!
Beautiful build. Jealous of the polishing.
Had my keg/boiler wrapped in reflectix insulation for 5 years. Couple months back I added legs and a 1/2 inch drain to the bottom. The keg looks horrible after I removed the reflectix. You inspired me give it a scrub, sand and polish next weekend before the next run.
They come up real pretty when you give them some love for sure! :)
I took the insulation off my larger HWC kettle, ran some comparrisons with/without the jacket and it made virtually no perceivable difference.
That was during summer tho' ... that milage may change on a winters day in a cold workshop, jacket may be worth it then.
Bonus without the jacket was it was easier to clean up any wash I spilt down the side of it when charging the kettle.
Had an ant-fest going on with sticky wash between the jacket and kettle at one stage. lol
Boy-howdy, that is a fabulous clean-up, cut-up and assembly! I would have recommended taking the cut off upper section and using the two pieces for the legs you mentioned. Then put some plumbing insulation around the column to maintain the temperature. But that is what I want to do with my two kegs.
Heya Patman,
Cheers, yep thats a good suggestion.
What I ended up doing was cutting and curve fitting some 2" stainless tube for legs - theres a second video of that on my channel.
That way the keggle can be run on gas or electric.
I've subsequently made quite a few of these for people and I no longer cut the back of the top apron out of the keg as it is very handy to be able to grab it for pouring/tipping.
Column insulation is always a good idea.
Happy Distilling!
Love your videos mate.
Thanks fella!
More coming soon.
Happy Distilling!
Beautiful work!
Thank you!
Happy Distilling!
Very neat , done a awesome job polishing it up
Thanks fella! :)
Sold a few of them over the last few years, been slowly honing my methods.
Happy Distilling!
Brilliant! It looks very nice and will last a life time.
Cheers Louwrens,
Yep … built like a brick- proverbial. :o)
Happy Distilling fella!
I have a 1983 German keg and it is dang TANK! I also have a newer one and yes, the older keg is much more substantial.
I am building a hybrid still myself. I use a 30 liter keg and with 2 nozzles for the electrical elements and a drain. I will also silver-braze
(with "castolin eutectic" ) nozzles since I have no tig to divice for safely welding the relatively thin wall keg. I refrain on "baking" them together with a stickwelder + stainless rods since it will not be of good result. (crappy weld and may be even burning holes in the keg wall is not what I want)
The copper column (54* 51 mm) will be silver brazed where appropriate, some parts will be (lead free) soldered. This way a will make advantage of the different melting temps, high for the brazing, low for the soldering.
The reflux column will be of the liquid management bokakob type, a (blanked off ) tee will be provided for the pott still connection.
Connections will be ferrules, gaskets and clamps by "tri-clamp".
Further features :
2" looking glass
3" gin basket
2x thermo well
Best regards
Bert in 🇪🇦
Hey Bert,
Sounds like you got a beast all planned out there! 👍
You definitely want to braze if you aren't able to weld parts - the softer solder won't hold up to fixing ferrules onto the kettle.
Good luck fella,
Happy Distilling!
A thing of beauty!
Thank you sir! :)
I second this notion! Shines like a gem.
Great work !!! Where you got the clamp set on the keg please give the site
Looks awesome mate!!
Hey Jess! Cheers! Finally did the obligatory still-Keggle build lol.
Starting work on converting my "farm-find" in the near future.
How did your trip to the horsepital go? All your bit intact - you ok?
Angry Parrot Distillery. Awesome man! Looks great!!
Feel like we need to do a few videos together some time man!
haha, yeah all groovy man. Most a check up
Haha that could be dangerous, ... two bearded guys sitting around drinking a butt-load of moonshine and talking shit. In parts of the Wairarapa that's just called "Monday morning" :o)
If you are down this way (Wellington/Kapiti) give me a yell for sure!
I’ve watched this about ten times. Learn something every time. Your work is magnificent. You’ve inspired my build, except I will flip the keg over and have a new dome for the top, giving me a fresh area to construct. I’ll use the 2” keg ferrel as a bottom drain.
I know it’s been a while since you posted this, yet I still want to ask you two questions. Maybe you’ll see them and answer.
How did you get the skirt off, the rolled ban with handle holes?
And…
Well, uh, hum, I can’t remember the second question. You know, I do that thing where you walk into a room for something and then you stand there for 15 minutes trying to remember what you needed. Damn.
G'day Michael,
Thanks for the kind words.
I took the skirt of the top with a slitting disc on an angle grinder and then a powerfile with a reasonably coarse belt to start with, finer one once I got down further and the polishing buffs to remove the remnants.
This was the first one I made for myself, subsequent versions for others I left the back of the skirt on, a) its less work, but b) functionally it is MUCH better having that skirt on the back to facilitate slinging it about and emptying it - especially when it has 50-70 lb of hot backset in there.
Understand what your saying about the bottom 2" dump port.
Most of the kettles I've made I leave as dual power - can be used gas or electric hence the side mounted drain port.
I also ended putting 6" top ports on alot of them - makes it much easier to get your arm in there to clean out.
Happy Distilling fella!
Has anyone else thought ... Portable hot water . Pressurised . I mean yea . Great for a distillery boiler but bug out , bug in or camp shower ... 15 gallons , hot & pressurised off grid , just needs a pressure relief valve . Biggest camper heater I can find is 10 gallons and requires a water pump ... Which fills it with cold water as it discharges , more like 5 gallons of hot water when said and done . Use a keggle pressurised with air, full 15 gallons hot water . 12 volt, 120 volt, no reason you coulden't fit a inch and a half diameter horseshoe pipe thru it and heat it by propane . We've used 3 gallon garden sprayers in a pinch ( modified a small pipe as a showerhead ) heat water with a coffee pot and gotten by just fine . 3 gallons each was plenty for a 15 minute shower each cause we jet that make shift shower head just right . Just a thought .
why u need relief valve ?? it's open all the way .plus no pressaure in it
Very nicely done
Thanks Joe!
Happy Distilling!
Did you use a tig welder? Any idea what wire to use with a mig for stainless?
Great job👍😎
Thanks very much fella! 😊
Happy Distilling!
Awesome looking keg!!
Please tell me where you got that tri clamp fittings
What watt heating element and controller did you use?
Pretty boy!👍
That's what the ladies tell me 🤣😂🤣.
Happy Distilling fella!
great video,just started on my keg, how and what did you use to make the 4 inch h0le? Keep up the the great information widows.
Heya Walter,
Used a number of tools to cut those holes;
I mark out where the ferrule is going, then cut the bulk of the hole out roughly with an angle grinder fitted with a very thin inox slitting disk.
I do the fine clean up with a die-grinder (oversized overpowered dremel) and several round/curved files.
I polish it after welding with a flapper drum on a powerdrill followed by a buff on the same powerdrill.
Hope that helps.
Happy Distilling!
Great job ….. please tell me where you got that clamp set on top of the keg
G'day,
They're a "tri-clover" or "tri-clamp" fitting - you can usually find all those parts at a stainless steel hardware suppliers that sell either dairy industry or brewing supplies.
very nice build mate,,, i'm about to start making my still, hopefully it might turn out like yours ,, is that a shotgun condensor?? as thats what i'm of doing as well
G'day Nigel,
Yeah the 2" condenser I build in one of my other vids is a shotgun/gatling style condenser with 5x 1/2" internal tubes shoehorned into the jacket.
Good luck with the build fella, let us know how it goes.
Happy Distilling!
Beau set up. Do you remember how long your 4" ferrule was before you welded it in your keg? The ones I see online are only around 1" long and unsure if they would work
G'day Allan.
It's a "long" ferrule which is about 1" long.
"Short" ferrules are approx half inch long.
One inch is plenty of room to run a weld bead around and to fit a tri-clamp too.
Happy distilling fella!
@@AngryParrotDistillery thank you, and keep sharing. It's appreciated by all
Hope everything going your way. Haven't seen a new video. Just checking in. 👍🏻
Heya Milkman!
How yah be? 😊
Yeah all good, hunkered down in lockdown with the family at the moment, all good.
Haven't made many vids lately - have a number unedited in camera and on computer - need to compile and post them.
Spending most of my time building stills for other people and building my own commercial still, about 700L kettle, approx 150-200 gal with 6" column. Thats another video in itself!
Hows your hooch making going there?
Happy Distilling!
@@AngryParrotDistillery Yea, sold my still. My buddy gave me a ice machine/more like this would look better setting on your property. lol little did he know. Got my stainless still plate cut to size. Wish my stainless welding was better. Got to use electric heating on this one, since this still well be insulated. My son and I made two buckets full off banana wine last night, around 14 gallons. Starting bubbling good about hour ago. Push the old oil heater up next to them. Thinking on buy a real copper still. 80 gallons. Saving for that now. Much rather have 120 gal. That way I'd have more than enough head space for 85gal. My two barrels usually totals around that much wash.
Been fishing a lot, you can only do so much gardening. Started my own thornless black berry patch. Got my fingers cross. Hopfully they take off. I guess it takes two years to get any real fruit. Had the grandbaby for acouple weeks, but they got worried that there state would close down so they came and got him. It was fun while it lasted. Grandma was really enjoying this little fellow. Are rightly than. I guess, I'm done blabbing. Hope everyone's safe and happy. I think this virus is a plan to unite one world government crap, acouple more sip, I'm sure the aliens had something to do with it. Alright Alright. Peace MILKM@N(oYo) My Milk is Delicious. Best served Cold & Ruthless
Will like to purchase one
Do you still make and sell keggle stills? That looks so good
G'day Tynan,
Yes, I make all sorts of distilling gear, home hobby and commercial as well as essential oil stills of all sorts of sizes.
I have a facebook page "Angry Parrot Distillery" if you want to see some of the stuff I've made previously.
Happy Distilling!
Do you have more information regarding the heating element. Specifically the box that houses it.
G'day Rene,
Sure ... the box is a standard hi-impact electrical box, I make a custom stainless fitting by welding a 1.25" bsp socket (element socket) into a 2" triclamp ferrule and then welding that into a 3mm stainless plate with a hole in it for the triclamp ferrule.
The plate and ferrule assembly is then attached to the box with hi-temp gasket cement and s/s machine screws.
End result is a completely waterproof element box that can be de-coupled from the still easily with a triclamp for cleaning and is completely earthed all the way thru to the kettle when running.
Maybe it should be another video ...
Happy Distilling!
It's a shame you are on the other side of the world.... It's going to take me forever to try to do this on my own... Very cool!
Hey Robert, how did you get on?
Welcome to give me an email if you need some help over there.
Happy Distilling!
Mean polish job!
Cheers fella!
You're a man that's spent a lot of time on the end of a polishing buff - you know what's involved! :o)
How to silver solder or
braze 4” ferrule on a keg
Nice shine. Is there another video adding the ferrules. Also, are you on any distilling forums?
Heya Bama',
Haven't shown the ferrules being welded on, just on account of my old camera not being up to it. I've tried videoing me TIG welding stainless with it before but it just gets blown out and the video comes out with bright white pulsating lines across the screen.
There is another video showing me adding 4x legs to this keggle - it was bugging me so I went back and did it. :o)
I just use a small 200amp TIG welder (running argon shielding gas) I have access to for all my distilling fabrication work - is more than enough for the thickness of material I'm dealing with.
Forum wise, I'm frequent the "NZHomedistiller" forums off and on - lots of old guys tinkering about in sheds there making booze. :o)
Happy Distilling!
where do you buy the ferrel,s nothing on amazon ( im in the uk )
G'day fella, try anywhere that supplies the dairy or brewing industries - stainless steel sanitary fittings.
The fittings are called "Tri-clover" or "Tri-clamp" depending on who's selling them.
Happy Distilling!
How did you cut the hole for the 4" triclover fitting ?
What welding process did you use ? TIG ?
G'day fella,
Hole was cut using an angle grinder with a ultra thin slitting disk and then cleaned up using a die-grinder with a stainless steel cutting bit.
Yes it was TIG welded on using stainless filler rod and 100% argon shielding gas.
@@AngryParrotDistillery You did a great job of that hole. I cut a hole in a keg using an angle grinder and it isn't that nice. What rpm doea your die grinder run at and what bit did you use to clean it up ?
I'm thinking of TIG soldering mine silicone bronze. Any thoughts ?
Im also wondering if there is a way to pull a dimple for the triclover fitting and silver solder it ?
Hey fella - sorry for the slow reply.
Yep I silicon bronze a fair bit of stuff nowdays for copper to stainless.
Stainless-to-stainless I just TIG with stainless filler rod.
I find it's more temperamental when making water-tight sealed joins tho' - give sili-bronze an excuse and it can leak. Silver solder is easier to achieve a water-tight result copper-to-copper.
Haven't messed around with punches to dimple holes/fittings yet ... but it's on my list - makes a professional looking finish doing it that way, ... just not something thats readily avaliable down here.
Electric die-grinder runs hella fast - I turn it down to slowest speed to avoid work-hardening the stainless and burning out the bit it's still bloody fast. I use a fairly large diameter tungsten carbide bit thats compatible with stainless work.
Happy Distilling ! :o)
What did you use to cut the skirt of smooth like that?
G'day Thomas,
You mean the skirt around the top?
Angle grinder with a very thin (1mm thick) "slitting disc" I then very carefully sand back the remaining rim and welding bead from the original skirt with a flapper disc on the angle grinder (being very careful not to rip into the skin of the keg) and then a polishing or buffing wheel to clean it all up. :o)
Happy Distilling!
Wow nice
Thanks Adam!
Happy Distilling.
Where can I pick up one of them ferrules for the top
G'day Prom' - you mean the 4" ferrule, clamp and stainless blank?
Any industrial scale dairy or brewing supplier, the kind that will retail stainless steel tubes should also retail the triclamp fastening systems.
Happy Distilling!
Where is best site to buy accessories such as ferrules & no weld parts? Thanks..
Heya Coyote,
Best place for all those fittings is a dairy or brewery wholesale suppier.
Brewshops will be a ripoff - check out large hardware outfitters.
What tool did you use to cut the 4-inch ferrule hole in the keg?
G'day McBastard - used a 125mm angle grinder with an inox slitting disc (good for stainless steel) and then ground it back with a 25mm wide power file and a die-grinder.
Try not to heat stainless steel up when you are cutting/drilling it if you can - it will work harden on you with the heat.
Happy Distilling.
Sweet, thanks for the info!
hi mate, i would like to know what you sold that still for ?
Hey Seasider,
I sell the finished keggles (without elements or power controllers) for around 800-900 NZD (about $600 USD).
Had a few people baulk at the price but there is not a huge margin in those with all the labor that goes into one - polishing them up is a HUGE timesink.
Happy Distilling!
Hi Angry Parrot, can you give a few tips on polishing the keg?
Hey fella, sure, what did you want to know?
My basic process is;
Removing tape/sticker residue and paint markings (thinners or pickling paste are good) and water blasting.
I then buff the kegs with a large felt buffer wheel and smaller composite scotchbrite buff.
Both of these I fix to the cord-drill (don't have no fancy dedicated lectrickerit polishing machine.)
That is about it.
You can go apeshit with cloth wheel buffs and different grades of buffing compound if you want to get a mirror finish, but that is ALOT of work for minimal improvement.
Happy Distilling!
@@AngryParrotDistillery - Thanks for getting back to me. I am gonna try that this evening, might take me a couple of days though.
looks very good , does it work ? are you (di)still alive after the first run ?
Heya fella, yeah worked great - have since sold the whole unit (keggle and combo still) to fund my larger commercial stills I'm building - will have to put up some vids of those sometime soon, …
Basically I stopped brewing and distilling in 50L or less about 6months ago - took a similar amount of time to distill 160-180L in my medium still as it did to distill 50L in the smaller one. (Bigger volume still just has more heating in it).
In the words of the great Popcorn Sutton "ain't worth no while messin' around with no pisspot."
Happy Distilling!
Hi there, Is your "product condenser" just a straight through condenser unlike your "shotgun" condenser, which I watched you make. If it is, what is the advantage of each of those two condensers. Thanks again!
G'day Peter, all my condenser are shotgun or "liebig" style condensers.
Not sure what you are asking.
Do you mean the difference between product condenser and reflux condenser?
Happy Distilling.
Just asking if the long condenser on your keggle that your parrot is attached to, is it a Liebig or shotgun condenser. If it is a Liebig, what is the advantage over a shotgun? Do you have a video showing how to make a Liebig and does it have to be longer than a shotgun. Also how do you calculate the proportions of column, dephlag and condenser and parrot as well?
@@petermcfarlane6911
G'day Peter, the 2" product condenser is a 5-tube gatling/shotgun condenser just like the reflux/dephleg' condenser.
Liebig is just a shotgun/gatling condenser that has only one "barrel".
I've made simple liebigs before and they can work great off the top of a keggle for spirit passes.
I don't have any vids on building a liebig sorry but my video link below shows a simple potstill run using a 50L keggle and a liebig.
Liebigs are real easy to make from plumbing shop copper fittings, they may not stand up to a full on stripping run but are fine for slower cooler runs.
Proportion wise I just build to what intuitively feels like it will work from experience and what is economically feasible for me at the time.
"Simple pot-still run."
ua-cam.com/video/6NNEaspUj8s/v-deo.html
Happy Distilling!
@@AngryParrotDistillery Thanks for your time Angry! I watched your vid and yes the Liebig looks a lot easier to make. Unfortunately I'm making a reflux combo still (3 inch) and I'm guessing with the 36 inch column, sight glass and dephlag, I'll need to make a shotgun condenser instead of the Liebig. How long would you make the shotgun condenser with that configuration? Thanks again!
@@petermcfarlane6911
Most of my 2" shotguns have a 600 or 650mm core. If I have clients that are big fans of crazy racehorse speed stripping runs I might make the product condenser core out too 800mm to be safe.
If you've got enough internal tubes in your 3" version and if you're running a 50L kettle the above should be ample.
Happy Distilling fella!
How much did you end up selling the still for?
G'day fella, been selling a few of them over the last few years.
Kinda ranges from 2.5K to just over 3K depending what additions, no. of elements, controllers, reflux condensers, gin-heads etc people want added into their builds.
Not making a lot of money on those either, chinese stuff that's being parallel imported is hard to compete with pricewise - however theres no copper used in their rigs - just an abundance of CMM (Chinese Mystery Metal).
Happy Distilling!
That kind of soldering did you use?
Stainless steel TIG welding.
did you ever passivate it? the whole thing i mean.
Just the welds are passivated, then neutralized, then the whole thing is polished.
How much are you selling the keg convert?
G'day fella, I make them up for folks relative to what they want - ie; gas power vs electrical, one element/two elements, legs/no legs whether they want elements/controllers etc so price wise it's "how long is a piece of string" :o)
If you were wanting one give me an email; grant@angryparrot.co.nz and we can work out a price based on exactly what you need.
Freight might be a bit if you are outside NZ but there are ways around that.
Why not just run 4 inch pipes out of that thing? Two’s strip so slow. Is what I’m considering doing.
Edit: comment was made before I saw how giant that 2” was. But what about 4” for people with shorter ceilings? Want to know your input on this, I subbed and like your builds!
Thanks Marvin.
My very first still was a domed 50L kettle with a 4" column straight off the pot - I was trying to emulate the rough proportions of a Scottish whisky still kettle.
Theres a few reasons why I settled on 2" for 50L stills;
4" copper tube and 4" s/s triclamp fittings are expensive.
Can go higher for cheaper in 2".
I found a 50L kettle didn't really have enough to feed a 4" column - was a bit of overkill, ... and for pretty much all my 50L applications the column got necked down to 2" or 3/4" pretty quickly anyways (into thumpers or condensers.)
Happy Distilling!
Hi . Why 2 condensers?
G'day Fouad,
The short one is a reflux condenser, the longer one is a product condenser.
The reflux condenser is there to create/control total reflux in the packed column.
It's predominantly for making 96% vodka and helps to strip out everything but the alcohol by sending vapor back into the column until you have an equilibrium established in the packed column (lighter distillate at the top, heavier stuff at the bottom) at which point you alter the reflux cooling to very slowly start taking off product.
If you were running in potstill mode (making rum or whisky) you'd remove the reflux condenser from the system altogether.
The longer product condenser is there to condense the alcohol vapor back into a liquid for collection.
Happy Distilling fella!
thinking of purchasing 1 of these could you give me a price to make it...I'm in jamaica btw
Hey fella, give me an email on;
grant@angryparrot.co.nz
Varies by whats on it/attached to it.
Can have a chat and work out best solution and cheapest freight option.
Happy Distilling!
Hello mister angry parrot !! I have a 15.5 beer keg that I am Turning into a still I have everything for it I’m just not sure on the heating element that I need to use I’ve looked all over the Internet and I’m very confused so please please if you could be of some help
Hey fella, what was it about the element you wanted to know?
@@AngryParrotDistillery so I have an old beer keg it’s a 15.5 gallon keg .. what would be the best heating element to use because I don’t want it to be slow and take all day to heat up and what kind of pid control would be necessary to run it efficiently thank u
she sure is pretty
G'day Kev'! Thanks.
How're things going? Snow started thawing yet?
Yep - bought a keg to make a keggle for the 2" combo still, sad but need to sell it off to pay for biggering some other stuff that will turn up in videos soon. Cost of fastenings and fittings is starting to mount up quick. :)
Yep, just started this week on the thaw. Had to do some work on mine over the winter. Found a couple of cracks. Just got a new keg and two sixth barrels. Going to use the 2" tops as the drains. Killer part is the ferrules. They're not cheap
No they ain't cheap at all are they ... biggest wallet killer I've found for what they are is copper reducers.
2" to 3/4" copper reducer down here in NZ are downright extortionate prices!
Stainless elbows and 180 deg bends are also insane prices.
i have a 6" to 4" stainless reducer. cost me more than the two sixth barrels and the keg
lol course i got the barrels for free. but tht's not the point
bro you sound like a kiwi. Where do you get you 50 L kegs from in NZ?
Yep, Kiwi as! :o)
I collect them where I can as long as the price isn't too stupid.
TradeMe, Legit brewery sales, … scrapies - although scrap dealers don't keep/sell them that much since some of the large breweries started getting stroppy over stolen ones turning up at scrap merchants.
Happy Distilling fella!
YOU STEAL THEM AT NIGHT WHEN THE GUMMY BEARS ARE SLEEPING STUPID
… the Gummy Bears never sleep and …. they come at night … mostly.
👍
Thanks fella!
Happy Distilling.
Can you make a thumper out of a5 gallon bucket
You could make a thumper out of just about any stainless or copper vessel as long as its the right size for your kettle.
Куб клас,дешево і сердито.