Dan

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Hey Msal,

Sorry took so long to get back, my son called me and I had to talk to him. He's a young Marine and I'm a retired Navy man. He was looking to blow off some steam and seek advice.

A 5.5 gallon pot is good for making partial boil extract batches. And there is nohting wrong with extract, don't let anybody tell you there is. The problem claimed with doing 2-3 gallon boils is (I have no experience in this, have always done full boils) from what I have read, a brewer using 2-3 gallons for the boil and then adds enough water to top to 5 gallons in the fermenter; the hops are not fully utilized, something about more water available in the boil produces better hop utilization.

Usually, from what I've read (a worthy) brew supply stores add a few more hops to make up the difference in utilization for extract beers.

Turkey fryer kits. I bought a Bayou Classic propane (they have electric kits too). 30 quart or 7.5 gallon gallon aluminum pot, also included the hose that connects the burner to the propane tank. Propane tank sold separately.


Many new brewers hear aluminum is bad.

Here is a thread from HBT that explains why aluminum is not a health risk. http://http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f11/faq-aluminum-pots-boil-kettles-49449/

Why do you need a bigger pot for all grain. Ok, when an extract beer is brewed the extract to water amount is pretty much set because the dry or syrup extract has already been made, add the recommend amount of water and it all works out.

All grain is different. All grain means a brewer starts out with whole grains of barley that have been ground up by way of some sort of mill. The "ground" grain is steeped (mashed) in hot water in a temperature determined by what the brewer wants to achieve for his extraction of sugars. Higher mash temps near the 158-160F range will produce an extract (mash) that will not ferment to a low final gravity but give a nice body to the beer. Grain mashed nearer the low 150F will produce an extract(again Mash) that will be able to ferment to a lower gravity, cleaner or drier beer.

Why a bigger boil pot is required. If you extract brew and want to boil all your wort at one time a 7.5 gallon pot is helpful so you'll be capable of brewing all the wort in one pot.

In all grain brewing. During the mashing process a brewer extracts the sugar with a lot of water.The water needs to be boiled away and sugars left. All grain brewers start out with a larger volume of wort and reduce the wort volume by evaporating the water in their mash; they might start out with 8 gallons from (these numbers are not exact, just an example) and boil until only 6.5 gallons are left, this boils off water and increase specific gravity. (sugars left)

The sugar (which is what make the yeast happy) will stay in the brew kettle. An 8 gallon initial volume with a 1.035 (sugar solution) starting gravity before it boils for and hour will more than likely evaporate the water and bring the wort down to 5.5 gallons of 1.040 gravity wort.

I'm not a good teacher. Check out John Palmers' "How to Brew" free on the internet. He'll explain this a hell of a lot better than I can.

__________________

ODaniel

Recipes 

I've been using the SP10 burner, and aluminum pots, for 3 years. I would get a nicer burner than what's in fryer kits. You need a big pot because you need 6.4 gallons to boil down to 5gal after 60 minutes. You don't top off, you boil down to your volume. I would suggest a 10gal pot for 5gal brews. I have 8gal and reallly have to watch hot break. I got my aluminum pots off www.instawares.com years ago for around $55 shipped free (8gal and 6gal pot). I use the 6gal for heating up the water. So you could use your pot for that, and get a bigger pot for your kettle.

msal

Recipes 

Dan, thanks for the response! I had come across that same thread as well regarding stainless vs aluminum, after posting originally. My 5.5 gallon stainless is really nice, too bad it's too small.

Also, thanks for the quick overview of all-grain brewing. I've got Papazian's "The Complete Joy of Homebrewing", which I'm about halfway through. Haven't quite made it to the all-grain section yet but I'll get there .

I'm still not sure if I'm going to go with the fryer kit (I found a similar bayou kit for ~$70), or if I'll just pick up an sp10 burner for now, and upgrade my pot at a later date. I don't know how soon I'll be doing full 5 gallon boils, and really like the stainless pots. The sp10 burner seems to be better quality than the ones that come with the kits as well. Either way, I think I know the differences and just need to pick one .

msal

Recipes 

That's good to know, I think I'm leaning toward the SP10. Just the burner will get me by for now, then I can pick up a new 10 gallon pot at a later date for full boils. I'm not necessarily in a hurry to move away from concentrated boils, although I'm sure I'll make the jump at some point.

Thanks for the advice guys!!

dutchoven

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Here's what I currently use: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0000ASCU9?ie=UTF8&force-full-site=1. It's equivalent to a BG10 burner ... Works well for 5-gallon batches ...

stokems

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Just bought the bayou 22 in. Sp-40 double jet burner. Going for 160$, got it for 91$. Doing 10-12 gal. boils. Anyone have experience with this burner?