How low should the hole for a spigot on a kettle be drilled?

I am trying to determine how low I can drill a hole in my kettle for a spigot. I've read as few as 1.5 to as much as 3.0 inches. What's a good point that will clear the kettle trub for most if not all beers, taking into account higher OG beers/hops beers, without clearing it too much?

If it matters, I'll be brewing on an induction cooktop, so I won't have to worry about the heat from a propane flame on the spigot. Does this change the equation?

Edit -- Obviously this would depend on the size of the kettle and the typical size of a batch. I have a 10 gallon kettle and will be brewing 5 gallon batches.

Topic kettle all-grain homebrew

Category Mac

1
answered at

I would say 1.5" is plenty high. I have a 7.5 gal kettle that came with a spigot positioned about 2.5" above the bottom and I almost always found that I had to tip the kettle to get all the wort out. Depending on your chilling method, if you can manage to allow the trub to settle out while chilling, or don't 'mind waiting 30 minutes or so after your done chilling, most of the big chunks are going to settle to the bottom anyways and you shouldn't have to worry about getting too much trub in your fermenter.

If you're really worried about the amount of trub, you can always run off into your fermenter through some kind of screen / filter. I ferment in glass carboys, so when I run of out of my kettle I place a funnel in the neck of the carboy with a steel mesh strainer sitting in the funnel. I used to put a mesh hop bag in the strainer too, but I found that to be a little overkill.

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