When I started out, I didn't want to put up lots of cash without being sure that I would follow through so I kept stuff to a minimum. I had a 30l beer keg with the spear removed, that I filled through the factory 2" port before clamping down the bends to the condenser. When I finished a run, I would gingerly remove the clamp from the top of the keg, stick a blanking plate on and in the morning (once cooled) I'd empty it by tipping it up into the sink. The still was powered by our largest gas ring on the hob.
For various reasons this was not a great situation. We have really good ventilation in the kitchen so that wasn't a concern, but the keg sat too high over the burner and a lot of the heat was lost up the sides of the keg. Also we have renewable-sourced electricty and burning vast amounts of butane in order to mostly heat the kitchen didn't seem like the best of solutions. I wanted an electric element, and a large filling port on the top (it will possibly serve double use as a beer kettle and being able to access the wort directly and clean up properly afterwards seem important). I would also like a drain, but that could wait a while if necessary.
I had ordered the ferrules for adding an element (2") and a filling port (4") and when they arrived, I took my keg and ferrules to the local forge to see about welding them on. A week later I got a quote for 240EUR! Time to break out the gas torch and learn to silver solder stainless steel. I have brazed steel before (mild and chromoly) but never touched stainless so I had a little play and then started drilling holes and filing furiously in order to get a reasonable match. I decided to add a side drain port at the same time. All three ferrules required a touch up after the first soak test left them weeping. They aren't the prettiest soldered joints in the world, but I'm getting a much better feel for the temperature now.
The element is a 4500W 3-part element which I've wired as 3 elements. Each element can be individually switched on / off and one of the three has an SCR dimmer to give fine control. At the minute it's wired to a 16A socket so I can't exceed 3600W, but later I'll have a 32A socket to power it with and will be able to use all 4.5kW (just for heating up, there's no way my condenser can handle that sort of power.
I was all set for a test then covid hit and left me mostly sleeping for a week. So tonight, feeling alive enough to go for it I assembled it all, filled it with vinegar and water, fired up the elements and then wandered around the house looking for the one remaining tri-clamp I needed to attach the condenser. A final count showed that I'd forgotten to order an extra clamp when I decided to add the drain. Since the liebig hasn't had any modifications to the vapour path, I decided to run the vinegar run with just the boiler and I'll do my sac run in a week when the extra clamp turns up.
Enough blabbering, here she is:
