After a party this weekend with some of my neighbors, it was brought to my attention that there are in fact two meanings of the word “keggle.”  Ignorant to the intricacy’s of female anatomy exercises, I have been known to talk about my “Keggles” and how I’ve been working on them for years.  So to clarify the differences, I decided I would outline both and how they are different.

Whats a Keggle and a kegel?

First off, a keggle is an informal word for a keg that has been converted into a kettle.  The kegs used are traditionally 15 gallon beer kegs with a hole cut in the top by a torch, plasma cutter or a saw.  In most cases, a hole is cut in the side for a spigot using stepped drill-bit to ensure proper sizing.  There is generally a welded or weldless ball-lock, silcock or other spigot affixed to the hole.  In some cases a hop strainer is also attached to spigot (inside the keggle) to keep hops out of the finished wort.  Keggles can be found as both home-made and store bought. 

When looking at a keggle compared to a kegel, there are several major differences between the two.  For example, a kegel is defined as:

The aim of Kegel exercises is to fortify muscle tone by strengthening the pubococcygeus muscles of the pelvic floor. Kegelis a popular prescribed exercise for pregnant women to prepare the pelvic floor for physiological stresses of the later stages of pregnancy and vaginal childbirth. Kegel exercises are said to be good for treating vaginal prolapse and preventing uterine prolapse in women and for treating prostate pain and swelling resulting from benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) and prostatitis in men. Kegel exercises may be beneficial in treating urinary incontinence in both men and women.  Kegel exercises may also increase sexual gratification.

Note that while a keggle is used for brewing beer, a kegel is generally used to exercises pelvic muscles, treat “vaginal prolapse” and possibly increase sexual gratification in women.  A kegel consists of contracting and relaxing the muscles that make up the pelvic floor, whereas a keggle consists of a keg with a hole in the top and a spigot on the side.  Finally, in the case of a kegel, a “kegel  exerciser”can be used to work these muscles.  In the case of a keggle, if anything besides a keg were used, it would not be a keggle, just a kettle or brew pot.

Use of the word

While it appears that there are many physical differences between a keggle and a kegel, the two words are both spelled similarly and pronounced the same.  With that said, generally there are very different uses of the words.  For example:

“I built a new keggle this weekend, I can’t wait to try it out” 

This compared to the use of the word kegel:

“It hurts every time I do a kegel.”

Now when used in the plural, the possibility of confusing the two words increases, both because of the context and because it is less common to meet someone with multiple keggles:

“I was cranking out on all keggles this weekend, it was awesome”

Note that this can sound very similar to:

“All my kegels are starting to pay off, I was cranking this weekend, it was awesome”

Finally, to further confuse the issue, if you are talking about things that improve a keggle, a statement can easily be misconstrued:

“I picked up a metal bar so that I can hang a bag of hops in my keggle”

Compared to:

“I picked up a device to increase the effectiveness of my kegels”

Now hopefully we, as brewers, can move forward to ensure that there is no further confusion about the difference between a keggle and a kegel.  This newly equip knowledge will keep us from party Faux pas like “My keggles are awesome, they really help things down there (pointing to the basement)” or “Did I hear the word keggle?  Whats up? You ladies brew?”  or “it’s a keggle, it really helps make the whole process easier and increased my volume ten-fold.” 

Cheers.

After I drilled the hole in the side that was big enough for the 1/2 brass connector piece to fit through, I used the Teflon tape (yea it’s pink, so what?) to seal the threads. *I did not use the connector pictured because the non-threaded area in the middle made this too long. The one I used was the same thing only with out the non-threaded area in the middle.

From here I attached the 1/2in brass ball valve I got at home depot with a 3/4in brass washer and a #14 rubber gasket. On the inside of the keg, I used an old 1/2 to 3/4 in piece I had from a cold plate setup I took apart. I used this because with the washer, it was the only thing I had that was going to make the connection tight enough to keep the water from leaking. I used another 3/4 in brass washer and another #14 rubber gasket as well.

After a couple of tries with the sealing and re-tightening, I had it with no leaks so I left water in it over night. I also dealt with the sharp edges left from the cutting process with some coarse sandpaper I had left over. This was wood sand paper, but it really did a job on the keg and its all dull around the sides now.

From here is was just a matter of attaching the 1/2″ hose barb adapter.

As you can see, this is a huge upgrade in the size of my brewing operation.

I am waiting on the delivery of a thermometer for the keg that I ordered off of eBay. I will be sure to review the product and the seller as well as the installation.

I am brewing with the new setup next weekend so we will have to see how it’s going to go.

Cheers.

]]> http://cnybrew.com/2007/03/04/new-brew-kettle-step-2/feed/ 2 http://cnybrew.com/2007/03/01/new-brew-kettle-step-1/ http://cnybrew.com/2007/03/01/new-brew-kettle-step-1/#comments Thu, 01 Mar 2007 01:42:00 +0000 travis http://cnybrew.wordpress.com/2007/03/01/new-brew-kettle-step-1/ Okay, this is for everyone that ever did anything with the thought “this is going to go great because I am going to do it right!” and after a few beers and a little impatience looked at what he created and said “it’ll work.”

This is my first few steps on creating my brew kettle, if you looked at the previous post on my search for a new brew kettle and saw the link to this cool “how to” on turning a keg into a kettle, you would see that the steps seem easy. Drill three holes, cut the top off, drill another hole and you are done. Well this is my side of the story:

First off I thought I could get away without buying the step drill bit because those things are expensive and I ended up making some funky cuts in the top of the keg and getting no where.

So I went ahead and bought the step drill bit ($27), but things could be worse because it does seem pretty useful.

Once I had this new bit I could drill the three holes in the top of the keg and start to cut the top of the keg off. However, cutting between two holes cost me three blades. Now I had this coming because I am a very tight individual and I decided to go bargain on the blades. But nonetheless, there is a lesson, kegs are TOUGH stuff, be prepared if you are going to try and do this kid of cutting.

Now after two nights of going at this thing in my PJ’s (because I am a strange person) in my basement with my wife and dog both hating me, I made it though!

I am going to do somethings this weekend to get this into better shape, but in the end, I made good progress on a project that is much harder than I would have EVER anticipated. The next steps are going to be to drill the holes for the ball valve and for the thermometer and to grind down the edges on the cut off top and the holes.

I am happy where this is going because this is one hell of a brew kettle and its going to be rough, but it’s going to be capable of easily brewing 10 gallon batches when all is said and done.

More to come…

Cheers.