all grain pots

looking at different pots for all grain, i like the mega pot or the 5 mill bottom pot from midwest but i've heard that the taller skinny pots are better for all grain.

Nick

I'm not sure what you're asking here. Are you talking about a boil kettle or a mash lauter tun?

The only difference between a pot for extract and one for all grain would be that you have to have a pot big enough to do a full volume boil when doing all grain.

This difference in the pots you mentioned will be the rate of evaporation during the boil. The wider the pot, the more evaporation that will take place. My 7.5 gallon turkey cooker pot will boil off about 1 gallon per hour while my 10 gallon stock pot will boil off about 1.5 gallons per hour. The difference is the surface area. If you go with a wider pot, you will have to adjust your recipe accordingly to make up for the extra evaporation.

Thin bottom pots won't heat as evenly as the thicker bottomed pots and may have a tendency to scorch extract brews more than the heavier bottomed pots.

Another thing to consider is the construction of your burner. I have two burners. One can only be used with my 7.5 gallon pot due to a raised ring around the top of the burner. The other has a flat top and can be used with any pot.

The choice of pot all depends on your particular system, how you plan to deal with evaporation rates, and, of course, the size of your pocketbook.

Wayne
Bugeater Brewing Company

As long as you figure out your evaporation rates, I don't think it matters much. I've found I need to run off 8 gallons of wort for a 90 minute boil to get the correct volume, but now that its dialed in its no big deal.

(I use a fairly wide kettle)

-D

I highly recommend a 10 gallon Polar Ware kettle - expensive, but heirloom quality - your great-grandchildren will be brewing with them one day !

I've gottin into brewing with my bother-in-law and the first pot we bought was a 10 gallon polar ware. then we bought a 10 gallon mega pot (it has the sandwich of different metals) 5 mil thick. what is the better pot for boiling or for mashing

its a big investment and i don't mind spending the money, i just dont want to buy and then not happy with what i bought.

nicksteck said:

I've gottin into brewing with my bother-in-law and the first pot we bought was a 10 gallon polar ware. then we bought a 10 gallon mega pot (it has the sandwich of different metals) 5 mil thick. what is the better pot for boiling or for mashing

its a big investment and i don't mind spending the money, i just dont want to buy and then not happy with what i bought.

Click to expand...

So which pot do you think is better quality? By the way a mil is .001 inches, a millimeter is .03937 inches.

Shape doesn't matter much unless your pot is HUGE...like 20gal. Doing a 5 gal batch in those will make for a shallow grain bed in a MLT and some serious evaporation in a BK. Also, skinnier pots are MUCH better when designing a rig, as your footprint will be smaller. Seriously, if you don't have any qualms about aluminum, go with 2 60 qt pots, and you'll probably spend less than 1 ss pot. They'll also heat and cool faster than SS, and are more easily drilled/machined.

I'm sorry WBC, drunk mistake it is 5mm thick not 5 mill thick. thanks for the correction notice.

Nick

Ok but which pot is better Nick? I am going to go to a 28 gallon size if I can.

WBC,

I really have a mixed opinion on the polar ware and the mega pot. i have a mega pot and my bro-in-law has a polar ware. i like the false bottom that is avaliable for the polar ware, but i like the bottom of the mega pot. what do you think

Nick

I have a 10gal Megapot from Nothern Brewer that I'm fairly happy with. It was a huge step up from the stainless 8gal canner pot I used to use. With the Megapot, I've never once had issues with scorching. However, boil loss is a problem for me. To deal with the losses I have to collect about 8.5gal of wort which doesn't leave much headspace in the pot for the start of the boil. I've been thinking about getting the 15gal but it is 2 inches wider, which would mean still more loss during the boil.

I have the 10 gallon Polarware and like it quite a bit as a brewkettle. I've considered using it as a mashtun, but can't get away from my Rubbermaid cooler. Accordingly, the false bottom does me little good. It is high quality, though, with a tight fit. The only thing I would improve about the kettle is to mark half gallons on the side.


TL

nicksteck said:

WBC,

I really have a mixed opinion on the polar ware and the mega pot. i have a mega pot and my bro-in-law has a polar ware. i like the false bottom that is avaliable for the polar ware, but i like the bottom of the mega pot. what do you think

Nick

Click to expand...

The thick bottom is way better for not burning or cracking. That is what I now need because I want to go to 28 to 30 gallons. More beer and less work.

I have the ebay brew4less 9 gallon pot that is really only about 8.5 gallon. It is tall and skinny relative to a lot of other pots. My evaporation still runs about 1 gallon per hour. It is already showing wear and tear (dings) from handling. I want to upgrade, but I havent found anything with a similar aspect ratio. Like EeryBug, with a short wide pot, I'm a bit concerned about having to start with a larger initial boil volume to account for evaporation, thereby needing possibly a larger than 10 gallon pot, as well as sparging to the point of tannin extraction in order to collect that volume.
Anybody out there using a quality 10 gallon (or larger) pot that is relatively tall and skinny?

The brew4less guy seems to be gone now. I was interested in one of those pots awhile back, but they were out of stock. I bookmarked the site, but when I checked it today the link doesn't work any more.

WBC said:

The thick bottom is way better for not burning or cracking. That is what I now need because I want to go to 28 to 30 gallons. More beer and less work.

Click to expand...

midwest sells the same pot as the mega pot, but its not called the mega pot

Nick

WBC said:

The thick bottom is way better for not burning or cracking. That is what I now need because I want to go to 28 to 30 gallons. More beer and less work.

Click to expand...

for the 30 gallon batch I would go with the 162qt SS pot