Or, as I wanted to name the this post, "How to Put a Hole in a Perfectly Good Pot."  I feel like the current title is more constructive.  So, that will be the topic for today: drilling a hole in your stainless steel pot for a ball valve. I have to admit that I was a bit nervous going into this project.  I read enough to know that I could royally screw up something, namely, the pot.   That is what I would have cared about.  A drill bit?  So what.  A 32-quart stainless steel pot?  That's another story. Equipment for drilling a hole. After reading up on this, Eric came over this past Saturday afternoon and we headed into the project.  After discussing our process, we decided the mantra for the day would be "patience."  And patience did pay off. To the right you will see the equipment I used.  Some of the more normal things I hope you recognize: a pot, a tape measure, a drill, safety glasses, a sharpie.  Also I have a met...

So, while Eric and I are figuring out our mash tun and boil kettle situation, I decided it would be good to go ahead and purchase/create some things I know we want.  One benefit of this is I can use it now for extract batches until we get up and running with the all-grain setup. The first thing I invested in was the quick disconnects (QDs from here on out) and high-temp tubing.  The QDs are sold in 2 pieces, male and female connections.  They are simple enough to install, assuming that all your sizes are compatible.  Since everything was 1/2", I was golden.  Funny how things like that work when you plan ahead.  Anyways, I just slipped the barb from the female QD into the hose and clamped it on with a screw clamp.  Simple as that. I got three hoses, so six female connections.  All it took was a screw driver.  I got a few male connections which will be attached to mash tun, boil kettle, and the pump.  There are a couple of them...