If your kettle has no ports in it at all, you will definitely have to install one in order to use the Hop Stopper. You can do this in one of two ways:
- You can have a full coupling welded to your kettle. This is the suggested and preferred way to put a port on your kettle and is not as daunting as it may sound. Just find a reputable welding shop in your town that can weld stainless steel. Purchase a full stainless steel coupling (Innovative Homebrew Solutions sells them here), mark and drill a hole slightly smaller than the OD of the coupling (yes, smaller) where you want the port located, and have the coupling welded to the exterior of your kettle only. Doing this will do two things, first, it will assure that the coupling is level - it will sit flat on the kettle wall, second, there will be no protrusions into the interior of the kettle. If you tell the welding shop what you are doing (making beer), they might get a kick out of it and do the job in trade for some homebrew. It doesn't hurt to ask.
Also, since you are going to the trouble of welding ports to your kettle, think about any other accessories you might want, such as a Sight Tube. The best configuration for a kettle would be to have two full stainless steel couplings welded 90 degrees apart (or any convenient angle apart). The cost for welding two ports will not be appreciably more than welding one.
By the way, if your kettle is aluminum, welding is NOT an option. You will have to try the suggestion below...
- There are weldless options such as the Zymico Weld-B-Gone weldless fittings. These fittings come with lock nuts and O-rings to seal the connection and only require a hole to be drilled into the kettle. The only drawback to these is that the full coupling is put into the interior of the kettle which can take up room to install the Hop Stopper. For kettles with a diameter of less than 13 inches, the addition of a weldless fitting leaves too little room on the interior to install the Hop Stopper and the welding option above should be used.
|