New Keg Made for my Brother

[ER70S-2]

I haven't been on much lately with work but have been happily pursuing making alcohol and things are going well. I made a keg set up for my brother and will make another for myself this fall. I'll attach some pics and short description.
I made it so that I can leave it set up on the burner. The condenser (not shown) has it's own stand and is attached by a union so that it comes off easily it's a 36" (Leibig). It's drained via the 1" ball valve on the bottom. The ball valve is stainless and shouldn't affect the mash, I can't think of the material used inside off the top of my head now but it is for a harsh chemical environments. I made a seperate filler neck so that I can add more mash as i go without having to take the column off. I just fill the keg with water and drain it clean it out at the end of the run.
I welded a half coupling onto the original center , used a nipple in-between (saw that on here)and welded another half coupling directly to the 2.5" copper tube. All my couplings are fused welded inside the couplings to prevent bacteria getting into any crevices, then the keg is purged with argon and the couplings are welded from the outside. The purging prevents the stainless from oxidizing. If it does oxidize it creates a black "sugar" on the drop thru side of the weld which can allow bacteria to grow.
The keg works well and i'll start on mine in October, just thought I's share a few picks of it in process while building.
Regards
Er70S-2

[ER70S-2]

here's the last pics
Regards
ER70S-2

[Hawke]

Very nice work.
Not sure I'd give it to your brother, unless you have improvements for the next one.

[StabbyJoe]

Excellent stuff. I'd love to join the queue after your brother

Seriously, though... great work. Sounds like you know what you're doing a hell of a lot better than I do in regards to metal work... Good idea on the argon purge, too... it would have sterilised the keg for you pretty well, too. Not many greeblies that can stand an environment like that, I'd imagine.

When you say drained by a ball valve... That rings a few alarm bells in my head... most pot stills have a condenser with the output end permanently open so air can go in and distillate can come out... avoids backpressure a bit. I could be misunderstanding your rig but you shouldn't close the takeoff in a pot still. That's acceptable in a reflux because air can come and go through the top of a reflux column so there's no pressure risk.

For once I hope I misunderstood something...
Very high quality on the joins there, and good work all around, except for that one thing...

[Rudi]

Beautiful metal work! I'm pretty sure you mean the keg is drained by the ball valve? Thats a noice three peice stainless valve too! Something like that boiler will last lifetimes.

[StabbyJoe]

My bad. Keg draining through the valve makes way more sense. In that case I'd say your work is flawless. Great build.

[HookLine]

Bewdiful!

Wish I had put a refill port on the top of my boiler. Very useful.

[dan_pilbara]

How did you weld the copper pipe to the stainless? Is it TIG welded??

[ER70S-2]

Yes, the copper is welded to the stainless with tig. I use a 316ss filler wire and it welds fine for this type of application (no pressure). Just be sure to purge the inside with argon and concentrate your heat on the copper when welding. If you're an experienced tig welder you will see that it welds just fine.

[Jocko1960]

Wished I had paid more attention and tried harder in welding class. I was damn good at getting the rod stuck to what I was trying to weld

[Ugly]

It's pretty easy for me to compare my tig welds to these and decide which one of us does it for a living. No contest. My stainless barrel boiler looks like two chimpunks were fighting over peanuts and left pieces all over the place. It holds vapour but I'm glad I don't have to use it for food grade.

I'd rather have ER70S-2 do a keg for me than do it myself, the workmanship is that much better. I'll stick to building stuff I can cover up

[stillvodka]

Great Workmanship that is spot on! There is no way I would have you build one for me, I would be absolutely gutted if I got caught stilling and had it confiscated by the law.