Moving to Full Boil... Kettle Help

The wife is having a hard time holiday shopping for me. Last night, I think she gave up. She told me to order up a few things and we'll pretend that she picked them out. Of course, my mind went straight to equipment!

Have been enjoying brewing up a few extract kits (all partial boil) in your basic 5-gallon kettle. I didn't order Fermcap, so I've been relegated to sitting at the stove for an hour while it boils away. I did try to walk away once to use the bathroom, and as Murphy's Law easily predicted, I had a small boilover.

Looking to invest in a bigger kettle so that I can go full boil and so I don't have to watch it every second. An 8- or 10-gallon seems to fit the bill. I don't plan to ever go above 5 gallon batches. A ball valve, thermometer and screen sure would be nice.

Prices feel crazy high to me everywhere I look. Is there a good place to find quality kettles a little cheaper than what NB and the like sell them for, or should I just bite the bullet on this one?

You have quite a few options. When I started out I bought a turkey fryer kit. Yes its aluminum but will allow you to do a full boil and the burner will bring the water to a boil much quicker than a stove top. Then later you can make a keggle or purchase a bigger ss kettle if you desire. I think getting the propane burner was a great addition for me as I would hate trying to brew in my kitchen. If you do go with a fryer kit make sure you boil water first at the level you will be brewing at to treat it, and never use oxyclean on it

Here are my thoughts..... The pot will pretty much last you forever. If you only do 5 gal batches get a 15 gal pot. You can do big beers with it, boil overs are easily controlled and you can still do small - med 10 gal batches with it if you ever wanted to. Spend a little extra money on the pot and get something decent. Don't have to go all out (Blichmann), just get an alumn one that has a valve & sight glass at least.....

While you can sneak by with a 10 gallon for session brews a 15 gallon will serve you well for many years and bigger beers.

One important note you very seriously need to consider-unless you have some amazing high octane stove you will have almost no chance of getting a full volume boil going on a kitchen stove and will have to consider going with an outdoor propane burner or invest in an electric immersion heater to help the stove out and even that may not do it.

WhiteEagle1 said:

Here are my thoughts..... The pot will pretty much last you forever. If you only do 5 gal batches get a 15 gal pot. You can do big beers with it, boil overs are easily controlled and you can still do small - med 10 gal batches with it if you ever wanted to. Spend a little extra money on the pot and get something decent. Don't have to go all out (Blichmann), just get an alumn one that has a valve & sight glass at least.....

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Yeah. I understand. Seems like I'm going to get pushed outdoors. See post below shortly.

duboman said:

While you can sneak by with a 10 gallon for session brews a 15 gallon will serve you well for many years and bigger beers.

One important note you very seriously need to consider-unless you have some amazing high octane stove you will have almost no chance of getting a full volume boil going on a kitchen stove and will have to consider going with an outdoor propane burner or invest in an electric immersion heater to help the stove out and even that may not do it.

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Funny you should mention that. I thought of it right after I posted. Can the range put out enough heat to boil 5 gallons?

Only having a 5 gallon pot, I put 4 gallons in it, lit the biggest boil burner, and cranked it up to 'Hi'.



Took a picture of the clock so I could figure out how long it took.



I put a lid on it and walked away for a bit. Came back to find it just starting to steam up. 2 minutes later, it was a very full roiling boil.



32 minutes. Not too bad. From the boil it looks like I could handle 5 gallons. Anything more, who knows. This is on a 17k BTU burner. Moved it to the back 14k BTU burner. It barely maintained a boil. Looks like too much over 5 gallons of water and the big one would probably be unable to boil too. The good news is that I determined I can run all 4 circular burners (17k, 10k, 8k, 5k) and the oval griddle burner (10k) simultaneously on full without maxing out the gas line (total 49k BTU). Had to crank the hood up to 740 CFM to handle the heat though.

I don't want to put tons of wear on the wife's new stove. Think I'll have to move outside. I just put a Bayou Classic SQ14 burner in my cart. Will be getting in touch with a guy who welds keggles and planning a stopover during a roadtrip next weekend.

I use a 13 gallon tamale pot I got at the Mexican supermarket for $40. It's aluminum, and it works very well for 5 gallon batches. I do wish I had a couple more gallons capacity so I could boil for a 10 gal batch.

It's all personal preference as to material. I would get at least 10 gal pot though, it gives plenty of headspace for a full boil. Remember, you will be boiling around 7 gallons for a 5 gal batch. 8 gal pot doesn't leave much wiggle room, although I'm sure others do it with success. For me, I don't like worrying about boilovers.

That's pretty good but keep in mind you cannot boil wort with a lid on and wort is a lot denser than water so what worked with water may not necessarily work with wort. Besides, for a full boil you will be using at least 6-6.5 gallons of water to account for boil off on a 5 gallon batch, BTW, nice stove

Also, check amazon.com. I have seen restaurant quality pots for reasonable prices.

And as others have said, turkey fryers are wonderful, as long as the pot is big enough.

wickman6 said:

I use a 13 gallon tamale pot I got at the Mexican supermarket for $40. It's aluminum, and it works very well for 5 gallon batches. I do wish I had a couple more gallons capacity so I could boil for a 10 gal batch.

It's all personal preference as to material. I would get at least 10 gal pot though, it gives plenty of headspace for a full boil. Remember, you will be boiling around 7 gallons for a 5 gal batch. 8 gal pot doesn't leave much wiggle room, although I'm sure others do it with success. For me, I don't like worrying about boilovers.

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Yeah, boilovers. No thanks. Another reason pointing me towards a Keggle.

duboman said:

That's pretty good but keep in mind you cannot boil wort with a lid on and wort is a lot denser than water so what worked with water may not necessarily work with wort. Besides, for a full boil you will be using at least 6-6.5 gallons of water to account for boil off on a 5 gallon batch, BTW, nice stove

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Ah. Right. I think I'd be able to maintain a 5 gal rolling boil without lid and with extractor hood running. Maybe not with 6 or 6.5 gal. I'd rather not buy the pot just to find out it's not possible.

Thanks on the stove. My wife's not as happy with it. She wanted this $1600 model, but we ended up snagging this $900 model for about $670 on the pre-Black Friday sale.

I have this kettle, and it's great:

http://www.amazon.com/Bayou-Classic-1044-44-Quart-Stainless-Steel/dp/B000VXHKMC/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1356110071&sr=8-1&keywords=bayou+classic+stainless+steel+pot

It doesn't come with the valve, but you can add it if you can weld.

JordanThomas said:

I have this kettle, and it's great:

http://www.amazon.com/Bayou-Classic-1044-44-Quart-Stainless-Steel/dp/B000VXHKMC/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1356110071&sr=8-1&keywords=bayou+classic+stainless+steel+pot

It doesn't come with the valve, but you can add it if you can weld.

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That's a very nice pot. Would make a fairly nice kettle. Not nearly as fat as the Mega Pots over at NB are.

Only problem with big pots is that I have to hang them off the edge of the stove, where they're less stable and don't sit under the extractor hood. With my 5 gallon (12" dia), I'm already slightly off center on the front burner. Why don't stove manufacturers put the biggest burner in the back?! Ugh.

Are you totally against brewing outside? It's awesome! Even here in Michigan where it drops into the 20's regularly. Any day with sun and 30+ with little wind... is a brew day!

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/s/ref=is_s_ss_i_4_6?k=60+qt+aluminum+stock+pot&sprefix=60+qt+

I'm looking at these as a possibility to go 10 gal full boils.

JordanThomas said:

Are you totally against brewing outside? It's awesome! Even here in Michigan where it drops into the 20's regularly. Any day with sun and 30+ with little wind... is a brew day!

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Only because I thought keeping bugs and germs out would be difficult. Seems much more common than I thought, so it must not be a huge deal.

Living in the central valley of Northern California, so... a cold day for us is when we wake up with light frost on the windshield. The grass never gets "crunchy", as it were. An average day is high 52F, low 38F in the winter; high 92, low 58 ion the summer; 58 days of rain a year. Brewing outside would almost never be in unbearable weather.

15 gallon well made aluminum kettle w/strong rivets & durable handles

Dont think of it as being kicked out of the kitchen. Think of it as being given the entire outdoors!

Following up, I picked up my new Keggle last night. Haven't gotten any good daytime pictures yet. Sorry.





Will certainly polish this one up when I get the chance. Ordering the fittings from Bobby tonight.

Only disappointed in that I didn't recognize the brewery name stamped on the keg. Figured I'd get a big name brewery keg. Googled a few hours after picking it up, and discovered that the keg is from a local micro. I can only hope he bought it lawfully.

Also, my Bayou Classic SQ-14 arrived, and I picked up my new propane tank for $44 filled.

Good deal..ill just throw out there anyways for others that may read this that Adventures in Homebrewing still has one of the best deals for a ported pot to do 5 gallon batches...

9 gallon single port pot for 70 before shipping
http://www.homebrewing.org/One-Weld-9-Gallon-Stainless-Steel-Pot_p_1683.html

I got the ball valve and bazooka tube & 3/8 barb from Bargainfittings for cheaper than AIHB. Picked up a tiny fully threaded nipple from the HBS because i wasnt thinking and assumed it came like the picture, but it states its a female weld...
Total cost was probably about 100 after shipping and everything.