Brewpots

Systems, Gear, & DIY
1

I was originally going to just use modified kegs for brewpots but my living situation has changed and I will need something smaller that i can use indoors. I was curious if anyone had advice on a place to find them for relatively cheap (already looking on craigslist, shopgoodwill, etc.) I’m looking for something that is at least 30 quarts and stainless. The one from bass pro shops seems to be the best deal so far.

ALSO:

To avoid spending the money on a second brew pot to use as a hot liquor tank I was wondering if i would be able to heat water in the boil kettle, pour it into a bottling bucket and use it for the sparge. Will the bucket be okay for water at that temperature? Any advice on how to make this efficient and inexpensive would be appreciated.

2

You’ll drop a lot of temp while the water sits in the bucket.

3

If you have a drink cooler for your sparge water, that will hold temp better.  I have a 40 qt kettle with a valve and thermometer for sale.  If you’re interested, shoot me an email at dnortonames (at) yahoo (dot) com.

4

This might be a good kettle for you:

5

Except for the fact he said “I’m looking for something that is at least 30 quarts and stainless.”

6

Your situation sound perfect for Brew in a Bag:

http://www.beersmith.com/blog/2009/04/14/brew-in-a-bag-biab-all-grain-beer-brewing/

Basically, it is just no-sparge brewing in the brew pot.

One time, in a pinch, I used a corny keg as my hot liquor tank.  I heated the water up to boiling, put it in the keg, and then used CO2 and a cobra tap to sparge.  It seemed to work just fine and even though there was some heat loss, my efficiency didn’t suffer noticeably.

7

Would it be better to use the water in the pot for sparge water, drain off into the bucket, then siphon the wort back into the kettle for boil?

I’ve seen the brew in a bag but I already have most of the materials for the cooler mashtun and would rather utilize it.

8

This is how I do it also.

9

Oops, guess I did that too quickly.  The size was right anyway  ::slight_smile:

10

I bought my 60 qt pot, here…

I added a spigot with fittings similar to the Weld-B-Gone spigots.
I build my water in 10 gallon batches & usually only use a roughly 9 gallons.
It may not seem cheap, but it was cheaper than many alternatives.

11

Rereading this I’m thinking a 40qt kettle is probably the better choice. Primarily not to brew to the limits of the kettle, but to have plenty of kettle left over for when the wort foams. Hard to have a boil-over when the wort can’t climb out of the pot.

I just used my old 40qt on the stove yesterday and it heated up a couple concentrated gallons just fine. Tried to boil-over but never even reached half-way. Takes quite a bit longer for six gallons but it’d still work with 4 gallons head-room for expansion and foaming.