Newbie Kettle Question

I tried using the search option to find the answer to my question as you guys have probably got it a million or so times, but I want to know what a good kettle would be for a newb home brewer. I will be working on a flat top, electric stove and heard you got to have the right kettle or your wort will scorch to the bottom. 3-5 gallons, reasonable price, can anyone point me in the right direction? Thanks in advance!

Here is a good deal on 5gal stainless.

NSF Stainless Steel Stock Pot with Lid, 20 qt | Instawares Sale

if you have any intention to go to 5gal all grain brewing i would look at a 8-10 gal

I can't point you to a vendor or company for a great kettle but I'm sure someone will do this for you on here soon. What I can give you is recommendations on what to look for. For a stove application I wouldn't choose something with too much thermal mass (ie keggle or heavy heavy stainless pot). However, a normal stainless or aluminum pot should work well. I don't think stainless vs aluminum matters much unless you want to weld or solder a fitting in place instead of using weldless fittings. If that is the case then stainless is the better choice. My biggest consideration would be size (insert joke here). I think going to small with the first kettle is the biggest mistake people make when looking for them. I would purchase at LEAST a 7.5 gallon kettle which will allow you to do a full boil of 5 gallons. If you ever, ever have plans of doing a 10 gallon batch a 15 gallon pot would be better. Generally you can find a decent pot of 7.5 gallons in turkey fryer kits which also come with burners for outside brewing. This is the route I picked and was happy with it until I moved up to using keggles. Best of luck and welcome to HBT!

ryanmcl said:

Here is a good deal on 5gal stainless.

NSF Stainless Steel Stock Pot with Lid, 20 qt | Instawares Sale

if you have any intention to go to 5gal all grain brewing i would look at a 8-10 gal

Click to expand...

Good price and much better than an aluminum pot. And, no,, I won't go into why not buy an aluminum pot, I already did that on another thread tonight...

Hey Balls, Welcome to HBT!

Awesome. I hear ya on the smaller pot vs. bigger pot talk. Will be doing mostly extract brewing to begin with. Have a friend who is the "scientist" and the more experienced brewer, but I am just trying to learn the basics. We are going to try this whole thing out for a while together, see how we like it, then look at the possibility of opening up a small brew pub together. He has been doing it a few years now and loves it, I have the business background. Thanks for all your help, I'm sure this won't be the last you hear from me.... Speaking of that, any books you recommend right off the bat for how to?

Here is an on line version of John Palmer's How To Brew. His information is top notch. You might also consider buying his latest edition. It's worth every penny.

How to brew, which is available online, and Designing Great Beers. Both of these are super in-depth. How to Brew answers just about any question you could come up with.

Even if you are doing extract batches doing a full boil helps a great deal to make better beer. So if you plan on doing 5 gallon batches a 7.5 gallon pot would be the very minimum you would want to go. I honestly don't think it matters stainless vs aluminum unless you plan to add fittings and want them to be soldered or welded in. Also if you plan to use cleaning agents like Pbw or oxiclean stay away from aluminum. Otherwise it works fine.