20g Boilermaker

4 of 5 | October 16, 2012 at 08:00 AM Good beginner mash/kettle

Price: $500.00

Pros: Quality materials used

Cons: Dis-assembly could be much easier, thermometer could be lower to allow for use in a range of batch sizes

Recommended? Yes

Great for beginners. Will have to modify for more advanced brewing.

April 24, 2012 at 02:16 PM

Price: $410.00

Pros: very smooth stainless steel finish. Good sight glass. It looks good.

Cons: The bottom is thin for a cooking pot with direct heat. I have 3 dents on the bottom from the false bottom support pegs.

Recommended? Yes

For this price point, they should reinforce the bottom with thicker gauge stainless steel. It actually seems thinner than the sides, but it could be the same. A copper or aluminum layer at the bottom or in-between layers of stainless steel would be even better, but I'd settle for just a thicker bottom. I'm happy with their performance, but if I were doing it over again, I'd probably go with a Stout Tank or one of the brew pots from Brewers Hardware with a tangential input. I had to drill my own holes and add inputs into these pots, which upped the price and tools required.

March 7, 2011 at 10:34 PM

Price: $450.00

Pros: It does all the things you want it to do right out of the box.

Cons: silly heat shield needed to keep sight glass wort from boiling

Recommended? Yes

I have brewed numerous times with this kettle. Evey feature it has is used every time I brew. Why have a thermometer on a boil kettle? A: So I know how long I got until I boil! It may seem like an expensive feature, but its useful for sure! The sight gauge is always needed during the whole process.

5 of 5 | January 1, 2011 at 10:44 AM

Price: $399.00

Pros: Brilliantly engineered & well constructed Excellent user's manual Excellent customer service

Cons: None

Recommended? Yes

I recently switched my boil kettle and mash tun from B3 15 gallon HD pots to Blichmann 20 gallon Boilermakers. The 20 gallon pots are sized PERFECTLY for a 12-gallon batch (the #1 reason I upgraded) and the Hopblocker works great once you get the hang of of when to pull the blocker up. The pot is solid and easy to clean and the included adjustable Brewmometer, site glass (the #2 reason I upgraded), and 3-piece ball make it a good value once you add up all the accesories.

Yesterday I used the Boilermaker with false bottom for my mash tun for the first time. I cannot imagine using anything else. The stepped bottom and dip tube minimize dead space under the false bottom and (again) the included site glass & adjustable Brewmometer work like a charm. The slotted false bottom had no issues with run-off or sparging.

If you are thinking about upgrading, take a hard look at this line of equipment. I cannot overemphasize how impressed I am by the detail and thought that has been put into the design of this equipment.