[Moved to the appropriate "Kettles, Mash Tuns & Hot Liquor Tanks" DIY subforum --Mod]
After using a 30 liter (8ish gallon) aluminum kettle for many years i just got a bigger one to make life easier (50 liter, 13ish gallon).
now i'm thinking about turning the small one into the malt pipe. most designs i've seen have a detachable bottom mesh screen but i've heard there are permanent ones too.
from what i've gathered the most efficient design is to only have holes on the bottom and keeping the sides untouched which makes sense. but is there any flaws with this design? maybe higher risk of getting a stuck mash?
in terms of hole sizes i think BrewZilla for instance has 1.5 mm holes. is this a good size? my next question is how far apart should the holes be?
a concern that i have is there are solder joints outside of the kettle, in normal usage your wort is not in contact with them, but if i were to use it as malt pipe i have to submerge it in the bigger kettle and there's gonna be contact between wort and the joints. based on my research the solder material should be an aluminum/zinc/silicon based alloy therefore not harmful or toxic. should i be worried though?
and last thing is i think i have to remove the handles, otherwise i end up with a huge gap between the bottom of small kettle and the bottom of large kettle. using a torch that gets hot enough should suffice, right?
by the way i'm gonna use a bag inside of the pipe at least for now, but i want to be able to use the malt pipe without the bag too.
After using a 30 liter (8ish gallon) aluminum kettle for many years i just got a bigger one to make life easier (50 liter, 13ish gallon).
now i'm thinking about turning the small one into the malt pipe. most designs i've seen have a detachable bottom mesh screen but i've heard there are permanent ones too.
from what i've gathered the most efficient design is to only have holes on the bottom and keeping the sides untouched which makes sense. but is there any flaws with this design? maybe higher risk of getting a stuck mash?
in terms of hole sizes i think BrewZilla for instance has 1.5 mm holes. is this a good size? my next question is how far apart should the holes be?
a concern that i have is there are solder joints outside of the kettle, in normal usage your wort is not in contact with them, but if i were to use it as malt pipe i have to submerge it in the bigger kettle and there's gonna be contact between wort and the joints. based on my research the solder material should be an aluminum/zinc/silicon based alloy therefore not harmful or toxic. should i be worried though?
and last thing is i think i have to remove the handles, otherwise i end up with a huge gap between the bottom of small kettle and the bottom of large kettle. using a torch that gets hot enough should suffice, right?
by the way i'm gonna use a bag inside of the pipe at least for now, but i want to be able to use the malt pipe without the bag too.
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