Stainless steel pot

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brewinmt

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Hi I brewed my first batch of beer 5 days ago and my stainless steel pot formed a white chalky like substance on the bottom where the burner covers where touching the pot. It can be scraped off and I'm sure it's from my water, I'm not really sure what in the water causes it, but I guess wondering if it will affect the taste of my beer and do you think I should start using bottled water from now on. Thanks a lot in advance for your help

Brewinmt
 
Happens with my water too in my SS pot - but only with the big 170K BTU burner. My water is not excessively hard. I suppose it's some kind of calcium deposit. Anyway it does not seem to adversely affect the taste of the beer in any way. If it is water hardness calcium, switching to ordinary bottled water probably would not help anyway.
 
Sorry to be a little :off: but I don't want to make a whole new thread for my little question.

I purchased a 4 gallon (16 quart) stainless steel pot the other day and I just wanted some clarification as to if that is a good size to be broiling wort for a 5 gallon batch? Sorry and thanks!
 
Sorry to be a little :off: but I don't want to make a whole new thread for my little question.

I purchased a 4 gallon (16 quart) stainless steel pot the other day and I just wanted some clarification as to if that is a good size to be broiling wort for a 5 gallon batch? Sorry and thanks!

Will work fine. You just won't be able to do full boils. You'll have to boil less than 5 gallons (prob 2-3), then top-off with clean water.
 
Sorry to be a little :off: but I don't want to make a whole new thread for my little question.

I purchased a 4 gallon (16 quart) stainless steel pot the other day and I just wanted some clarification as to if that is a good size to be broiling wort for a 5 gallon batch? Sorry and thanks!

When and if you go to full boil you will need a pot that will hold at least 6.5 gallons unless you still top off. In an hour of boiling you will evaporate over a gallon. I have been boiling off about 1.25 gallons.
 
When and if you go to full boil you will need a pot that will hold at least 6.5 gallons unless you still top off. In an hour of boiling you will evaporate over a gallon. I have been boiling off about 1.25 gallons.

what are the benefits of doing a full boil compared to boiling just a 2-3 gallon wort?
 
what are the benefits of doing a full boil compared to boiling just a 2-3 gallon wort?

Good question, I'm subscribing to this one in hopes you get a response. I think hop utilization goes up, but that can't be the only benefit.
 
Ain't nothin' but mineral deposits from the water. If you were to never scrub it off you'd eventually have a layer thick enough to chip off.
 
what are the benefits of doing a full boil compared to boiling just a 2-3 gallon wort?

I won't get into all the details, because there are tons of threads on here about the benefits of a full boil. The basic consensus is that a full boil will result in a better tasting beer - less "extract twang". This is possibly due to reduction in Maillard reactions that are more predominant in a more concentrated boil. The other side benefits are 1) don't have to risk contamination by adding top-off water 2) you can use less hops because lower concentration wort is more efficient at utilizing hops.

Full boils are a given in an all-grain scenario.

Also I would recommend that if you are interested in doing full boils, get a pot with reasonable headroom (a 6.5 gallon pot would make it almost impossible to avoid a boil-over). Once you start to make 6 gallons of wort to account for trub loss, etc, and do any 90 min boils, you are going to want at least 10 gallons if not 12. Also, make sure to get a pot that would fit a wort chiller nicely. I have a 15 gallon pot and when I do 6 gal batches, about 1/3 of the chiller is above the wort level.
 
I think the full boil vs. partial boil debate is kind of moot with late extract addition. That's how I make extract beers anyway. I used to do full boil for extracts but when I heard of late additions I was like: "Why waster all that time/energy boiling and cooling all that water. Not to mention the water usage for the chiller."
 
"Why waster all that time/energy boiling and cooling all that water. Not to mention the water usage for the chiller."

This is a good point. If you do decide to do full boils, remember you'll almost certainly need a large propane burner. My inside stove takes at least an hour to bring 5 gallons to a boil.
 
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