i got a real good deal on a 21 qt. ceramic coated stock pot. some people have told me that this is a great way to start. others have told me that i should have gone stainless steel. i was looking for a well priced stainless steel stock pot, but they were all to expensive for me right now. can anyone tell me what i should be careful for when brewing with this pot? any help is appreciated. thank you.
Nick Miranda
California Castaway
www.californiacastaway.com
The ceramic coated will work fine. The main thing you need to be careful about is to make sure that you don’t chip the ceramic. Once the ceramic gets chipped, it exposes the metal underneath which is gonna start causing problems.
Don’t bang it around and chip the enamel or use harsh cleansers on the pot.
That’s a decent entry-level size kettle for extract or small AG brews. Enjoy…
That 21 qt is what I started with… and I am still using it 4 years later.
If you follow the “typical” progression, the next thing you will find is that the wife or significant other may start complaining about the kitchen time, and smell.
What I did was invest in a turkey fryer setup. The aluminum pot works great for all grain and full wort boils with extract, and the burner allows me to brew outside.
Enjoy the pot, and if you think of it… cover the oven top in foil (leaving a hole for the burner) that way if you have a boil over the cleanup is easy.
Good luck!
More to the point, you need to make sure that the INSIDE doesn’t get chipped, since that can create rust spots which will give your beer a nasty metallic taste.
If your ceramic pot is chipped, you can still use it for boiling water and such, just don’t use it for anything acidic (i.e., boiling wort) and make sure that the chipped area is thoroughly dry before you put the pot away.
The ceramic pot is great. Its what I started on. I keep it around as a reminder of where all this madness started!!!