Kettle size & to Full Boil or Not
 

hello everyone.
ive been vigorously reading up on home brewing and shopping around for beginner kits and think I found the right one (Northern Brewers Deluxe kit).

But i'm not sure what size kettle I should start out with..

I'll be starting with extract kits and specialty grains. Is it worth it to buy a big 30+ quart for a full boil or should I just boil around 2.5 gallons and add cold water to get 5 gallons?

IMO, I would go with a full boil if you can, the guys that got me into brewing do partials, they make good beer, but we agree the full boil makes a difference.

thanks for the reply. I'm thinking I'll just go ahead and buy a bigger kettle (36 quarts). I can always experiment with both but atleast I won't need to upgrade to bigger equipment if I decide to full boil.

I second camus' opinion; get as big a pot as you can afford and try to do full-wort boils.

Full boil would be better, but only if you have a way to get that much wort boiling. A stove might not be strong enough. Also, you'll need to consider that cooling a larger volume of boiling wort will be much more difficult, so you will most likely want a wort chiller as well.

@Dreg

Wasn't really thinking how hard it'd be to boil 5 gallons, shoot. And I'm on an electric stove :mad:

Maybe I should purchase a propane burner as well and brew outside? Either way, glad I'm considering all of these things before getting off to a bad start. Thanks

I would get a 10 gallon kettle for 5 gallon batches. Better to have a pot large enough (now) for when you go all grain. That way, you don't need to get another kettle later that is larger.

I picked up the 10 gallon Blichmann over the weekend. I have a 32qt kettle that I've been using so far. But so many of my batches had me nervous, even when using fermcap, that I'd have boil-over. Or I had boil-over due to too hard a boil going on (quickly caught since I never stray from my cooking wort). Now, I shouldn't have an issue with my normal 5 gallon batch boil volumes. I should even be good for larger pre-boil volumes with this kettle... I'm keeping my old 32qt kettle, since that will be perfect for heating the mash-out and sparge water in. Especially with the ball valve (fitted with a male QD)... :rockin:

I am picking up a turkey fryer from home depot for 60 bucks. It kills a lot of birds at once. Even the aluminum is easier to cool. Then I have my eyes on a keggle down the road.

Go bigger! I got a 5 gallon when I was allowed to brew in the kitchen, now that I have been sent outdoors I just got a 10 gallon. I should have just gotten the 10 gallon and a propane cooker in the first place.

+1 for full boil capable kettle. You will want it by batch #3 if you don't have it.