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That will do it for you. I have a 55K BTU burner and it gets the job done for 5-gallon batches. I'll get a bigger burner or upgrade the regulator when I jump to 10-gallon batches.

You might be able to find a better deal out there somewhere, though. I've seen Bayou Classic outdoor cooker kits with burner and 30-qt pot for $48 at a Home Depot near me. With that kit you are paying for the perforated inner basket, which you don't need for brewing.
 
Beerthoven said:
That will do it for you. I have a 55K BTU burner and it gets the job done for 5-gallon batches. I'll get a bigger burner or upgrade the regulator when I jump to 10-gallon batches.

You might be able to find a better deal out there somewhere, though. I've seen Bayou Classic outdoor cooker kits with burner and 30-qt pot for $48 at a Home Depot near me. With that kit you are paying for the perforated inner basket, which you don't need for brewing.

thanks to both of you. the costco one is "free" because of the gift card I won. It does seem a bit expensive for me - and I can see that I couldn't do a 10 gal batch...oh well...

what would be my maximum grain bill with a 30 qt pot?

let's see: 10 lb of grain =

@1.2 qts mash = 12 qt mash = 6 qts runnings
@2 qt sparge = 24 qts sparge water

= 30 qts.

looks like my max grain bill is probably 9 lbs?
 
tranceamerica said:
thanks to both of you. the costco one is "free" because of the gift card I won. It does seem a bit expensive for me - and I can see that I couldn't do a 10 gal batch...oh well...

what would be my maximum grain bill with a 30 qt pot?

let's see: 10 lb of grain =

@1.2 qts mash = 12 qt mash = 6 qts runnings
@2 qt sparge = 24 qts sparge water

= 30 qts.

looks like my max grain bill is probably 9 lbs?

Your mash tun is a bigger constraint on the grain bill than the size of your boil pot. For a 30-qt pot, you can figure on a maximum wort collection of 24-26 quarts or so. With your boil volume fixed, you can figure out how much grain you need to use to hit your target gravity. Software, like BeerSmith or ProMash makes this task simple. If your mash tun isn't big enough to fit all that grain and water, then you are screwed. I highly recommend including a software package of some kind in your all grain plan (BeerSmith is only $20).

Your mash efficiency will make a big difference as well. The higher your efficiency the less grain you need to use to hit a target gravity. You can always supplement with a few pounds of DME if you have to.

FWIW, I used a 32-qt pot for several full boil batches. I would usually collect around 26 qts of wort and I never had a problem hitting my target gravities. I get a high efficiency from my rig, though.
 
Beerthoven said:
Your mash tun is a bigger constraint on the grain bill than the size of your boil pot. For a 30-qt pot, you can figure on a maximum wort collection of 24-26 quarts or so. With your boil volume fixed, you can figure out how much grain you need to use to hit your target gravity. Software, like BeerSmith or ProMash makes this task simple. If your mash tun isn't big enough to fit all that grain and water, then you are screwed. I highly recommend including a software package of some kind in your all grain plan (BeerSmith is only $20).

Your mash efficiency will make a big difference as well. The higher your efficiency the less grain you need to use to hit a target gravity. You can always supplement with a few pounds of DME if you have to.

FWIW, I used a 32-qt pot for several full boil batches. I would usually collect around 26 qts of wort and I never had a problem hitting my target gravities. I get a high efficiency from my rig, though.

I"ve got a 5 gallon round cooler as a mash tun. I think that maxes out around 14 lb or so?
 
tranceamerica said:
I"ve got a 5 gallon round cooler as a mash tun. I think that maxes out around 14 lb or so?

14# might be too much for that cooler. I have a 7-gallon round cooler MLT and I try not go over 15#, but I also want room for a mashout.

Here is a set of online calculators that might help you. Scroll down for the Can I Mash It? calculator to see what will fit in your tun. I entered 14# and 1 qt water / pound of grain and it tells me that will take up 4.62 gallons of space.
 
looks like my MLT maxes out about 12lb or so. the 30 qt pot would probably max out about 10 lb anyway:

10 lb grain = 10 qt (min) for mash = 5 qts runnings
.5 gal sparge x 10 = 20 qts

25 qt total.

maybe could go to 12 lb:

12 lb grain = 12 qt mash = 6 qt runnings

.5 gal sparge x 12 = 24 qt sparge

= 30 qts.

yeah, I'd max out about 11 lb either way.
 
I got my turkey fryer at Home Depot for $38.

If I were you, I would buy the turkey fryer at HD and spend the giftcard on any other homebrew related things you could get at costco....or just anything else you need in general. It might be a wiser way to spend that gift card. ;)
 
Benny Blanco said:
I got my turkey fryer at Home Depot for $38.

If I were you, I would buy the turkey fryer at HD and spend the giftcard on any other homebrew related things you could get at costco....or just anything else you need in general. It might be a wiser way to spend that gift card. ;)

looks like it's about $50 at HD - but a much larger burner = good. man, they've got some huge pots over there too - 132 qt??? that's 33 gallons...
 
tranceamerica said:
looks like it's about $50 at HD - but a much larger burner = good. man, they've got some huge pots over there too - 132 qt??? that's 33 gallons...

If you can spare the cash, get yourself a 15-gallon pot (60 qt). You can get an aluminum one for about $70. I just got one and I really like it. It makes brewday so much easier compared to my old 32-qt pot.
 
I would also suggest looking elswhere for a turkey fryer if you can spend that gift card on other supplies and get SWMBO $99 credit at some other store. I got my 2nd turkey fryer at Target on sale for 19.99 with a 30 qt aluminum pot, seems to do full boils just fine (Though next batch is in a keggle:rockin: )
 
conpewter said:
I would also suggest looking elswhere for a turkey fryer if you can spend that gift card on other supplies and get SWMBO $99 credit at some other store. I got my 2nd turkey fryer at Target on sale for 19.99 with a 30 qt aluminum pot, seems to do full boils just fine (Though next batch is in a keggle:rockin: )

yeah, i screwed up and told SWMBO about the card. now she's thinking of something for herself.

I'm good though, I immediately started talking about stocking up on toilet paper and paper towels. that took the wind out of her sails :mug:
 
There's no reason to limit yourself to 11lb in a 5 gallon mash tun - my most recent beer was 13.5lb in a 5gal igloo, and I hit over 87% efficiency! I collected about 6.5 gallons of wort and boiled in a 7 gallon pot. The hot break did froth over the side a bit (maybe 1/2 cup) but it worked out in the end.

btw: the beer ended up at 1.077 / 5.75 gallons.
 
That seems high, bought an all stainless turkey frier (stainless stand also) from sams about 2 years ago for $50-$60. To me costco always seemed higher than sams or bj's. Just my opinion.
 
well, today was my first ever trip to costco. couldn't even find the boiler, so wifey and I bought a bunch of supplies for the house and a microwave.

slid in 18 lb of honey though, for a 6.5 gallon batch of high-test mead...he he he...

man, that costco place is crazy. give me my mellow LHBS store any time.

but props to the honey prices, $8.50 for 6lb. upon further reflection, I suspect it will be some time before I make the jump to all grain. Since I'm new to PM brew, and only had one successful batch so far, I think I'd better figure out one technology at a time...
 
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