Greetings fellow homebrewers. I’m planning on building a new brew stand. I plan on buying 3 new kettles with ball valves. Is it possible to use a stainless braid with the kettle mash tun? Or, would it be best to get a false bottom? I’m afraid if I put a braid in it I won’t get all the wort out of it if it doesn’t sit in the bottom. Any suggestions?
A Braid can pull as much wort out as a false bottom depending on the FB design and if it uses a pickup tube. I use boilermakers and the pickup tube is a superb addition, but it can be rather hard to swallow the additional cost just for the added perk of not leaving 1-2G in a vessel.
What Brand will you be using? It will determine how effective the FB available to use in it will be.
I’m planning on getting a polarware 15 gallon kettle. The diameter of the kettle is 15.625". It is their economy kettle with a ball valve and bulkhead.
if you are planning on doing direct fire mashes the false bottom might be a nice thing to have since it would keep the grain off the bottom of the kettle.
While I am a huge fan of the restaurant-grade made in America BP-series Polar Ware kettles with factory welded fittings (see page #2 of this PDF: http://polarware.com/Vollrath-Files/Polar-Ware-Files/CAT_PW-Homebrew_En_NP_2013-08-22.pdf), I am not a fan of the economy line. You can do much better for the money. Bru-Gear offers a nice kettle at that price point.
Bru-Gear has great looking products, but I have yet to see mine. The kickstarter production delivery times have been delayed 2 months, hopefully coming next month. The supporter price was nice, with ball valve, thermometer, npt-TC adaptor, steps for false bottom support and all shiny stainless. From looking at their website, price has only gone up about $50 for a 15 gallon kettle. The main concern is how long it would take to take delivery, as production has not even been completed for the project supporters
YOu get what you pay for. In the PW economy live i have seen a lot of thin bottomed pots that oilcan like a sonofagun. Id prefer to not have a drum for a pot personally.
I don’t have experience with them, but I would wager the NB tall boy kettles are of good quality.
They sound a lot like the Megapot 1.2s but without the volume markers and the silicone covering on the handles. I have two megapots (old versions, not the 1.2s), and they are built like tanks.
I take it you are planning to drill the holes yourself?
If you can do the drilling, you can save money by getting a tall boy kettle and purchasing the ball valve, bulkhead and barb from either www.bargainfittings.com or www.weldlessfittings.com.
If you don’t mind spending the extra cash, you can buy a Megapot 1.2 pre-drilled with a ball valve from NB.
You pay a premium though.
There are a bunch of newer kettles on the market that I’m not familiar with (stout tanks, spike brewing, blichman, etc.). They are probably worth looking into as well.