I started out with a turkey fryer set-up that I picked up for $25 in an after Thanksgiving sale. It has a decent propane burner and a 30 qt. aluminum pot. Ten months into this hobby, it’s time to upgrade to a quality stainless pot, probably 10 gallons or so. I brew 5-6 gallon batches (mostly 6).
Tri-clad bottom seems like good idea. (Staying with propane for heat)
My back wants it to have a valve so I don’t have to pick it up to pour into the fermenter. Your thoughts on valves, pickup tubes, screens, etc. would be appreciated.
I use leaf hops in the boil.
I want to go to all grain (thinking maybe BIAB).
I have a copper coil immersion chiller that works well with my ground water temps.
My current pot has riveted handles. The rivets are a PITA to clean around. Do quality pots have better rivets or are welded handles the way to go? Some of the high end pots I’ve seen online appear to have riveted handles.
While cost is always a consideration, I also believe in quality and “cry once”.
Thank you all in advance for your thoughts, experience and suggestions.
FWIW I went with a 15 gal alum pot from amazon and i love it. Put a valve on it so i dont have to lift it when full. I also do BIAB & had a bag made to fit it. I love biab for what I brew. It also has riveted handles but i just deal with them when cleaning.
Kettles are like trucks, everybody has their preference.
I’ve been looking at Spikes new kettles that should be shipping in the next few weeks. They have features comparable to kettles at higher price points and include very pretty welded fittings.
I went with the 10 Gallon BrewBuilt Brewing Kettle. It is beefy stainless steel, has tri clad, volume graduation marks, a spigot, accessory port, and lid with a cut out for immersion cooler.
I use a 10 Gallon Blichman Boilermaker - I absolutely love it. Sight glass, thermometer, valve, easy to clean. They are a bit of a splurge though, I found mine on sale. Originally I used it for batch sparging but now BIAB in it.
Yeah, I’ve been looking hard online at Spike’s new V-3 as well as SS Brew Tech, Blichman, BrewBuilt and others.
The Spike and BrewBuilt have welded fittings. The SS Brew Tech and Blichman have weldless fittings. The weldless fittings would appear to be easy to disassemble and clean while welded fittings would be, for sure, no-leak. Anyone have experience/problems with weldless fittings?
You mention the possibility of biab. Most biab brewers are doing smaller batches and would likely get a 5 gallon kettle, where a batch sparge or other all grain set up would require a larger (I have 15 gal for 5+ gal sizes and a 5 gallon for 2.5-3 gal batches.
I have always gotten my kettles at restaurant supply stores rather than home brew shops.
I’m confused. Would a 10 gallon kettle be large enough to do BIAB for a 6 gallon batch (6 gal. in the fermenter)? I need to do some more research on BIAB.
Ahhh, so normally you would do BIAB with enough water to end up with the full boil volume when you pull the bag. But you could use less water for the mash step (1-1/2 to 2 qts./lb) then top up after you pull the bag. Is that correct?
What I was referring to is the fact that many people, myself included, feel that biab is great for batches smaller than 5 gallons but impractical for say 5 gallons and up. The reason is that the hot bag of wet grain becomes hard to work with when the amount of grain for those sized batches are used. So I biab inside on the stove mostly in the winter making 2.5-3 gal batches (fermenter) using a 5 gal kettle and when its OK to brew outside I make 5 gallon + batches outside batch sparging in a 10 gal cooler and boiling in a 15 gallon kettle. Some do 5gallon batches biab but at that point you IME ate better off batch sparging.
I wouldn’t run from biab for larger batches. Its really not that big a deal. Yes you need to handle the bag of grain but It can be done with a ladder set up or an eye bolt into a joist in the ceiling of your garage. Then use a truck strap to pull it high enough to clear your water by a few inches then hit the burner to get the boil going and by the time your boiling i grab the bag and dump it into a 5 gallon bucket and compost it from there. Once the boil is done straight into a no chill container and pitch the next day. I love this method and it works quite well for me. The real bonus for me is time savings i can turn a batch in 3 hours including clean up, otherwise i dont think I could brew because 5 to 6 hour brew days just aren’t in the cards for me. Just my opinion and im not saying this is for everyone but it lets me brew and thats what its really all about.
I ordered a custom Spike Kettle for an electric setup that I hope to get to over the winter. Spike’s current kettle is not made from a drawn stock pot. The base stock pot appears to be made from a rolled and welded cylinder with a press formed and welded bottom. I have zero problems with this type of construction because it results in a kettle that has a controlled thickness (it is also how larger kettles are manufactured). Drawn kettles are thinner in certain spots than others, which does not makes much of a difference until one wants to weld a fitting and discovers that his/her 16-gauge kettle is actually 0.034" at the point where the weld needs to be performed. The current kettle is heavy duty, so I expect the V3 kettles to be equally heavy duty. Ben’s welds are the cleanest that I have seen in the home home brewing market. The welds appear to be true back-purged sanitary welds. He is not grinding the back of the weld down to remove sugaring, as appears to be the case with other kettle manufacturers. The kettles are shipped in heavy duty boxes.