Yep, it’s a keg. Take the spear out and you effectively have a large stainless carboy.
You can hook up a fancy stainless apparatus for racking/thermowell/airlock on the top if you want since a 2" tri-clamp fits on a Sankey. Some places sell them pre-assembled, but it’s going to cost as much as the keg itself. I just use a carboy cap with a large hose clamp around it and it can hold enough pressure for racking.
I ferment in sankey kegs a lot. They are pretty handy. Cleaning can sometimes be an issue… but if you get one of those cleaners you hook to a drill it’s not too bad… also if you boil a gallon or so of water in it the steam will loosen up a bunch of the trub/hops stuck to the sides.
Typically I’m pretty lazy though… so they just get one of these (not the actual ones I use… couldn’t find them online for some reason… but close enough:
I ferment in 1/2 bbl sanke kegs, with spear removed, a lot, too. I soak them in caustic, replace the spear, and then put them on my keg cleaner. the downside is there is no way to know if they are really clean or not. You simply can’t see if the krausen ring is removed or not.
True enough but I have not had an issue yet… and for the like $2 one of the mirrors cost and the 10 seconds it takes to look around in there… worth it to me. Just be sure before you try looking in there that you give it a rinse with cold water first… If you use warm water it pretty much instantly fogs up when you stick it in there.
I think I have the same pump. Mine is built a bit smaller to fit in a five gallon bucket. I only drilled holes in the top cap. The pattern allows water to flow down the entire keg/carboy.
I also added quick disconnects to clean the dip tubes using the plumbing as the base for kegs to hold my carboy stand.
+2 on cutting the top for a corny lid – it’s easy if you have the smooth topped kegs like the OP. The lid gives easy access for cleaning, inspection and yeast harvesting, although for the OP this would negate his racking system. For mine I have my fermenters on a rack that’s elevated. I added weldless ball valves to them so I just gravity feed into kegs.