Of taps and vessels

[Beardy]

Having gone through the process once of transferring from FV to Barrel with the use of a syphon tube it strikes me that there's a better way of doing it. Do people have taps at the bottom of there FVs or is there a reason not to do this. Obviously there is the issue of sediment, but that seemed to be rather stable in the bottom of my FV. If it's a good idea, is there a specific tap to use.

While I'm asking about taps, I noticed on some how to clips that the preferred tap is a ball tap. What about on Barrels? My King Keg has a rather nasty plastic affair. Can I, should I upgrade this?

As ever thanks for all the input.

 

[richc]

Yup, some of my fermenting vessels have taps at the bottom, others don't. Personally I don't find siphoning from one vessel to another than much harder than using a tap (so long as I've got a clip to hold the siphon in place).
You will mostly see plastic taps on fermenting vessels and metal ball taps on boilers and mash tuns. Yjis isn't a hard and fast rule but is mainly because the metal taps attach easily to the pipework inside used to strain off solids (grain or hops).

 

[graysalchemy]

Yes I made mine out of brass tank connectors copper pipe and lever ball valves.

All my tanks and FV's have them.