The stack makes sense -- I honestly haven't given a whole lot of thought to the kettle stack as most of what I've seen in the smaller brew systems don't use one and I'm a bit in the 'smaller brewery' mindset. Probably something I need to get away from a bit....
I did happen upon a Peter Austin brewhouse on
www.soundbrew.com that they have for sale. The kettle was fitted with, what looks to be, an inverted hopper on the brew kettle, and I'm thinking I could cobble something together like that if a stack is truly necessary. Any thoughts on the necessity of one? I suppose the current flat top could pose some DMS issues with residual condensation.
The real reason for thinking of this tank as a brew kettle was a combination of economics and availability. I've been looking for a kettle for a while when I came upon this tank, but maybe I wasn't looking in the right spots for brew kettles. The tank is jacketed and insulated so fitting it for steam seemed pretty straight-forward. Also, some of the comments I've seen on BK design say you should have a relatively tight H:W ratio, especially if you're planning on a combination BK/WP.
As an additional point, I've got access to a nice sized dairy bulk tank that I was going to fit as the MT with a manifold (as opposed to a false bottom). The bulk tank would give me the ability to go up to a 1.100 wort on one mash -- that being said, I have yet to see the tank in person (it's my father-in-law's), and I don't know if the geometry of the tank would be best for a mash tun sized for typical 1.060 brews.
All that being said, here's a few more pics to get the creative minds in the forum churning