Brew Kettles

I've been looking around at different types of brew kettles and I think I've settled on a 15gal spikebrewing.com kettle. Mostly because I really like the prices, but the one thing that I am having trouble with is, going with one, two or three ports. Any advice on which is better?

I don't think it is a matter of any of the ports making the pots "better" or "worse"... it is simply a matter what how exactly you are going to use the pot and therefore how many ports you require. You need to think through your set-up, figure out how many ports you need and simply pick one that best suits you.

Well right now I want to start with extracts and then move to all grain. I've brewed a couple of times now(not with my own equipment) and am not new to it, but since it's the start of my own stuff I really want to start off small and fast then move to an all grain once I feel better about not needing adult supervision. So whatever I get right now will need to grow with me. Hope that helps you help me help you help me.

If you know your going to go all grain in the near future decide how you what kind of set up your going for and try and plan for it so your not buying something you won't want in a few months.

Cape Brewing said:

I don't think it is a matter of any of the ports making the pots "better" or "worse"... it is simply a matter what how exactly you are going to use the pot and therefore how many ports you require. You need to think through your set-up, figure out how many ports you need and simply pick one that best suits you.

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This^
For the brew kettle, the extra ports are not so much all-grain vs. extract but what features you want - which could apply to both. You'll need at least the one port to drain the wort. A second port for a thermometer is nice if you have an immersion chiller so you know when to stop chilling - maybe less important if you're going to go with a plate or counterflow chiller. A third port could be for a sight glass. My current kettle has a sight glass and it is nice, but a plastic spoon with gallon marks worked just fine for a number of years.

IMO these features are actually less important than deciding on size. If you are sticking to 5-8 gallon all grain batches then a 15g kettle sounds good. I do 10g all grain and I am really glad I went with the 20g kettle. I know plenty of folks do fine with 10g batches and 15 gal kettles. I frequently do bigger beers that start with 14-14.5 gallon boils, seems really tough in a 15 gal pot.

hope that helps

Along these sames lines - if you are going with a 15G kettle, and ultimately plan on doing 5 or 10G batches, I would recommend at the very least 1 port for a ball valve. You don't want to have to lug around 5-10G of boiling hot wort, better to use a ball valve and optionally a pump.

I'm happy to see a high amount of enthusiasm and forethought going into your new hobby! I'm at the point now where I'm considering a new pot because I want to make the jump to all-grain and full-boils myself. I wish I had that level of commitment right from the get go! I think I can echo the above posters as far as how many ports you need depending on your use, but I think 2 would be fine for most applications.

Thanks guys for all the inputs. Yeah ultimately I want to go to a full grain and then eventually make it automated (that's for a whole different post all together). What is the point of the sight glass? I was thinking of going with a 15 gal so that I could do 10 gal comfortably and smaller if I wanted to do a quick brew. Trust me this enthusiasm has not all happened at once, I've owned at least one full brewing kit and my friend who brews full grain and has been brewing at least for a couple of years started our first together. I just wanted to make sure I really wanted to do this, and now I can't think of anything else I'd rather do.

What is the point of the sight glass?

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A sight glass will allow you to get a quick estimate of how much wort is in your BK. This is useful if you want to be able to calculate your mash and brewhouse efficiencies. Alternately you could use markings on your mash paddle or a large spoon as a dip stick to do the same thing. I think it's more of a "nice to have" on a BK and not really necessary. It makes more sense to have one on a HLT, but still not a necessity there either.

So I think right now I'm only going with one BK and two ports and not wanting to do a HLT( btw this took me a bit to figure out what this meant) just yet, I'm to nervous to do a mash tun just yet. I'm curious if anyone has a place to find propane burners?

Seanana said:

So I think right now I'm only going with one BK and two ports and not wanting to do a HLT( btw this took me a bit to figure out what this meant) just yet, I'm to nervous to do a mash tun just yet. I'm curious if anyone has a place to find propane burners?

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Home Depot and Amazon both carry a Brinkmann propane setup that puts out 100K BTUs for about $50, it's a great deal.