Brewing pot....

Hi all, what is the smallest size brewing pot I can get away with for doing a partial extract? I currently have a 2gallon pot? Would this do?

If you're making 3 gallon batches I'd say that's just barely gonna work. You could get creative for a standard five gallon batch and boil your syrup in about a gallon and a half of water but then your IBU would have to be adjusted because of the density of the wort. You could get a relatively inexpensive aluminum pot somewhere in the 5 gal range too and make your life easier.

I've made a 5 gallon batch in a 2 gallon pot. Turned out great but it definitely isn't an ideal situation.

Yeah, I think my first batch was in a two or three gallon pasta pot with a partial boil.

I haven't really got the money to buy a bigger pot so was hoping I could do it in the one I got. It would be a partial. I might give it a go and see how it turns out, then maybe get a bigger pot. Cheers people

I got a 5 gallon stock pot at the thrift store in my town for $10 bucks. Stainless steel too.

Check flea markets, swap meets, and thrift stores for pots.

Gary

Target has good prices on Stainless pots in 2-3-4-5 gallon sizes.

I've been doing partial boil extract batches since I started. This is the pot that I've been using. For a cheap little pot it's worked out great!

http://www.homebrewing.org/5-Gallon-Stainless-Stock-Pot_p_272.html

Stepping up to an 8-gallon pot soon so I can do full boil 5 gallon batches.

Thanks for the help people but I'm from England and they seem to be a bit more expensive here. I'll keep on looking

I started with a 5 gallon ss pot i found on Amazon on sale. I would boil my extra water the night before brew day and then keep it in my sanitized bottling bucket. So brew day was 3ish gallon extract and specialty grains. I did that with good sucess for over a year.

I started with a 5 gallon pot I got at walmart on sale. Worked great (although the handles leaked when you put more than 4 gallons in it).

Just throwing this out there for all of you. I started partial boil, and wanted to go full. When I did I just got a turkey fryer with an 8 gallon aluminum pot. I was always approaching boil over, and did have boil over some times after adding large amounts of ingredients or even just an ounce or two of hops. I just got a 9 gallon stainless to replace the aluminum since it was wearing, and that extra gallon makes a huge difference. This weekend I was actually able to sit down and enjoy some homebrew without worry instead of being right by the pot with spoon in one hand, and the other hand on the gas regulator.

You can get 35 qt stainless steel pots from Walmart for $80 shipped to store.

http://mobile.walmart.com/m/ip/Cook-Pro-35-Quart-Stainless-Steel-Stockpot/14262127

It's an investment well spent and about half of what you'll normally see SS pots that size go for.

What's the OP going to boil on. If the home stove then he might not be able to boil 6+ gallons so he may need an outside burner also. He could do 2.5 gallon batches in a 3 gal. pot and ferment in 3 gal better bottle.

If you're using a 2 gallon pot, I think late extract addition would be a good idea. You could add 1/4 of the extract at the beginning and the other 3/4 15 minutes before the end of the boil. Any changes in boil gravity will affect hop utilization, so be sure to adjust as needed. The brewing software will help with this.

I have found that a 6 gal or 5 gal canning pot works good to start off with. Thin metal but has enamal coating and as long as you don't chip it they work great. And usually can get really cheap. Until you can move up to stainless or something

unionrdr said:

It must be remembered here that this is a partial boil,not a full boil of smaller volume. Top off water will be added in the FV to final volume. So getting a good boil of as much volume as possible in the BK works quite well. 3 gallon boils are best in the right size BK for a partial.

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Hence why I recommended a 5 gallon pot for 3 gallon boils and topping off to 5 gallons in the fermentation vessel. It's really worked out great for me thus far!

Cheers people. It seems that a 4 or 5 gal is best suited. I have a gas stove. Having a burner and doing it in the garden is not an option as in England it rains a lot lol.

Also as I'm researching as much about partial boiling before I go ahead, I see u need 1 quart per 1 lb of grains so if I'm only using 3lbs all tgather then a assume a 2 gallon pot is suitable?

lewishowardm3 said:

Cheers people. It seems that a 4 or 5 gal is best suited. I have a gas stove. Having a burner and doing it in the garden is not an option as in England it rains a lot lol.

Also as I'm researching as much about partial boiling before I go ahead, I see u need 1 quart per 1 lb of grains so if I'm only using 3lbs all tgather then a assume a 2 gallon pot is suitable?

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Negative. The grains are going to soak up approimately 1 quart per pound. That's how much water you'll lose after steeping. I have that 5 gallon pot that I linked. I generally fill it with 3 gallons, start my fire, get to steeping temp and hold while steeping for 20-30 minutes. Then I remove steeping grains and often have around 2.5 gallons left. From there I continue with my boil.

You need to keep in mind that hop additions can be a bit screwy when you use partial boils. To counteract this, I've started doing late malt additions. I just move my DME or LME additions to the end of the boil instead of the beginning. This improves hop utilization instead of destroying it.

In case you didn't know, utilization decreases as gravity increases. This is more pronounced in partial boils because you're going to dilute DOWN to the correct OG at the end of the boil so your boil gravity will be way high (typically double what your intended OG is, say 1.100 for a beer with OG 1.050. If you do your hop additions in plain water then your utilization is much better. This still needs to be accounted for as you don't want to "over-hop".

Cheers!

Thanks for the advise. Like I said it will be my first partial so I want to make it as easy as possible so I'll prob wait and then get a bigger pot.

Thanks