Using a turkey fryer for cooking and brewing

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Brutus Brewer

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A buddy of mine wants to borrow my pot for frying a turkey. Would the oil create an unfriendly environment for brewing beer?
 
I'd actually like to know the same thing... I'm thinking of getting my brother in law a turkey fryer for xmas so that he can brew beer, but I know he'll want to fry in it as well...
 
When I was first starting out, I was going to use an old turkey fryer pot. I just could not get the oil smell out of the pot and so I never used it. I was worried about the combination of the smell of oil and wort would just be nauseating.

I think there may be a couple of old threads posted from last year.
 
I've been using a fryer kit and have been told that the pots they come with are aluminum abnd shouldn't be used for brewing.

Has anyone else heard this??

My first brew is finishing up but in my taste-tests I havn't found any aluminum taste.
 
A buddy of mine wants to borrow my pot for frying a turkey. Would the oil create an unfriendly environment for brewing beer?

The issue here is that you have to scrub the oil out of the pot before you can brew again, and that will damage/remove your passive oxide layer from the inside of the pot. That oxide layer protects both your pot and the brew, so you don't really want to remove it. The good news is that you can restore it by boiling the pot full of water for 30 - 60 mins.

I've been using a fryer kit and have been told that the pots they come with are aluminum abnd shouldn't be used for brewing.

Has anyone else heard this??
Yes, I have heard this and it is confirmed nonsense. The person who gave you that advice didn't have their facts straight. Aluminum pots make EXCELLENT brew kettles. See my Aluminum Pot FAQ (link in my signature) for more info.
 
My main brew pot is a stainless turkey fryer kit that I bought used. It had alot of old oil on it and it took alot of scrubbing to get to the point I would use it to brew. It was worth the effort to get a stainless pot for the price but I wouldnt go back and use it to fry in at this point. However, it is possible to do both if you are willing to put in the elbow grease to clean it thoroughly. After I got my initial clean done, I boiled a full pot of water to try to get any leftover oil off the metal and then pitched the boiling water when I was done.
 
Wow....A buddy was going to give me one of his old turkey fryer pots and we quickly realized that it would be nearly impossible to get the smell/accumulated oil off the surface...

I wouldn't use one...I could just picture the oil slick on my next few dozen beers...
 
I've been using a fryer kit and have been told that the pots they come with are aluminum abnd shouldn't be used for brewing.

Has anyone else heard this??

My first brew is finishing up but in my taste-tests I havn't found any aluminum taste.

There's a lot of old brewer's still stuck in that mindset..I know an entire brew club that still believes it..Despite the fact that all the issues (alzheimers, aluminum taste, acidity of beer causing leeching) have been disproven, as been mentioned in the stickies...

Something to know...John Palmer is a Metalurgist and he talks about turkey fryers all the time....If he had issues he would have said something about it in how to brew.
 
I converted my stainless turkey fryer to homebrew boil kettle. Probably fried chickens & wings in it about 15 times. It was a pain to clean the old grease off. Used SOS pads and a lot of elbow grease. Made sure it was very clean. I've done 6 home brew batch with it and no off flavors from the previous frying use. I won't used the kettle for frying (as long as its my boil kettle) because I don't want to go through that cleaning again.
 
My 8 gallon SS kettle is from a turkey fryer kit. I use it still for frying turkeys. When finished, I give it a good soak with hot water and PBW, then follow it with a cleaning with Bar Keepers Friend. This works like a champ for me.
 
I fry turkeys, seafood/crawfish boils and brew beer in mine. I do a quick scrub and let it soak for a day. Do a quick boil to reafirm the oxide layer and brew away.
 
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