OK, I think I'm buying this pot to upgrade:
http://www.cookware.com/Bayou-Classic-10-xx-BAY1032.html
Semi ghetto, but here's why I am choosing this particular pot. I'm going to build one of Jamil Z's whirlpool immersion chillers:
http://www.mrmalty.com/chiller.php
I'm building the chiller itself out of 50 feet of 1/2 inch OD copper tubing. I started running the numbers on fitting that amount of tubing coiled into various pot sizes. I'm doing 5 gallon batches (I know, never say never....) so I have between 5.5 and 6 gallons in the pot, post boil. Most of the "higher end" pots are low aspect ratio. That is short and wide, not tall and skinny. That leaves a relatively shallow liquid level in the pot. It is just about impossible to fit 50 feet of tubing under the surface of the liquid and keep off the wall of the pot with the short, wide pots. With the tall and skinny BC pot, I can squeeze the 50 feet of tubing under the surface of the wort and keep it off the pot wall. I want to cool the wort, not the pot.
Does this make sense, or am I over thinking or missing something?
http://www.cookware.com/Bayou-Classic-10-xx-BAY1032.html
Semi ghetto, but here's why I am choosing this particular pot. I'm going to build one of Jamil Z's whirlpool immersion chillers:
http://www.mrmalty.com/chiller.php
I'm building the chiller itself out of 50 feet of 1/2 inch OD copper tubing. I started running the numbers on fitting that amount of tubing coiled into various pot sizes. I'm doing 5 gallon batches (I know, never say never....) so I have between 5.5 and 6 gallons in the pot, post boil. Most of the "higher end" pots are low aspect ratio. That is short and wide, not tall and skinny. That leaves a relatively shallow liquid level in the pot. It is just about impossible to fit 50 feet of tubing under the surface of the liquid and keep off the wall of the pot with the short, wide pots. With the tall and skinny BC pot, I can squeeze the 50 feet of tubing under the surface of the wort and keep it off the pot wall. I want to cool the wort, not the pot.
Does this make sense, or am I over thinking or missing something?