Pot size for extract full boil / all grain

I currently do 6 GAL batch with a 15L pot. Since my pot isn't big enough I must do partial boil.

I'm highly interested in doing full batch so I'm looking for a new pot. I would like to know what size of pot should I be looking for to make full boil with extract?

And I know in a near future when I will be comfortable with the brewing process using extract that I will want to move to a all grain process. I was wondering if I would require the same pot size than when doing full boil with extract.

I will always (Or so I think) do 6 GAL batch because it makes a good amount of bottle, not too much and not too less. I prefer brewing many times and drinking new stuff than drinking the same thing for too long .

And does anyone know how heavy (how many L to make thing easy) can I put on those glassy stove-top (I don't know the english term sorry) before it break. I was wondering if I could do 6 GAL full boil on these or should I really need a propane burner or some electric one.

The pot size would be the same for doing a full boil for both extract and all-grain.

If you're looking to bottle 6 gallons, I'd probably look at an 8 gallon kettle minimum, probably even 10. You might be able to squeak by with a smaller kettle, but doing 5 gallons, I'd usually start a boil with 6.5 - 7 gallons to have enough with evaporation and fermenter losses.

I wouldn't go smaller than a 10 gallon kettle personally.

-Ben

4 gallons is difficult for my stove to hold at a boil with the top off. I can't imagine 6 or 8 on a stove top working very well. It sounds like you should be looking into a turkey frier.

6 gallon batches are pretty big, and if you are looking to make beer that is above 7%ABV you're going to need a big pot.

Something like this:
Backyard Classic Professional 36 Qt. Turkey Fryer

8 gallons minimum. 10 gallons would be preferred.

it's possible that you can boil on a stove top but it will take a looong time to get it going. I'd highly recomend a propane burner and brewing outdoors. Also, an immersion chiller will be a must have item so you can cool things down at the end of the boil.

maida7 said:

it's possible that you can boil on a stove top but it will take a looong time to get it going. I'd highly recomend a propane burner and brewing outdoors. Also, an immersion chiller will be a must have item so you can cool things down at the end of the boil.

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I already have a IC. My partial boil gets cold very fast lol.

Outdoor brewing is not much of an option for me, specially during winter.
So a full boil for a 6 GAL batch might be too long to do on a stovetop? Damn.

I was already thinking getting an electric heater (I heard some people use hot water tank heater elements). Propane is also not much of an option if I really plan to always brew inside.

I've done it on a stove top so it can be done. It just takes a super long time to get things boiling. A heat stick (one of those homemade water heater element things) would be perfect for helping the stove. Go for it.

All the propane burners I know of are for outdoors.

If you plan on possible going all grain down the road, one easy/cheaper option is BIAB. You can do 6 gallon BIAB batch with a 40qt (10g) kettle. I would recommend a 60qt (15g) however.

I now wish I would have a purchased a 60+ qt kettle. This will allow for a very high gravity 5.5-6 gallon batch, or a 10g regular gravity batch.

I never thought I would go to 10g, but for no more time or effort I can get a nice pipeline going.
Good luck

Chris

Yeah a heat stick + the stove might be a good idea.

I'm planing to build myself a mash tun with a cooler, so I won't be doing BIAB.

But why do very high gravity batch would need a bigger pot?

10 vs 20# of grain

kontrol said:

But why do very high gravity batch would need a bigger pot?

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Efficiency can suffer to the point were adding more grain adds less sugar. See here for details:
http://woodlandbrew.blogspot.com/2012/12/when-more-grain-doesnt-add-more-sugar.html

In all honesty, if you are stuck doing the boils inside your best bet is to get 2 kettles and divide the wort into two vessels to boil and then combine in the primary after chilling. I do 6.25 gallon batches and my 10 kettle is barely large enough to handle the pre boil volume-I use Ferm cap to help limit boil overs big time! I wish I had gone to a 15G kettle so its on my list

There are countless threads here of people that try to get 7-9 gallons of wort boiling on stoves and they just can't get a vigorous boil going without the addition of a heat stick type element as well to help out the burner

Higher gravity beers do not require a bigger pot but a bigger tun, like 10 gallons that will accommodate about 23# of grain. You would still be collecting the same pre boil volume to boil.

duboman said:

In all honesty, if you are stuck doing the boils inside your best bet is to get 2 kettles and divide the wort into two vessels to boil and then combine in the primary after chilling. I do 6.25 gallon batches and my 10 kettle is barely large enough to handle the pre boil volume-I use Ferm cap to help limit boil overs big time! I wish I had gone to a 15G kettle so its on my list

There are countless threads here of people that try to get 7-9 gallons of wort boiling on stoves and they just can't get a vigorous boil going without the addition of a heat stick type element as well to help out the burner

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As I said a heat stick might be a good idea. I would need to borrow a big pot and see how fast it can boil water with just my stove. (Apparently some are better than other so I'd have to see). I'm also highly concerned that I put too much weight on my glass stove top.

duboman said:

Higher gravity beers do not require a bigger pot but a bigger tun, like 10 gallons that will accommodate about 23# of grain. You would still be collecting the same pre boil volume to boil.

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Ah yeah a bigger tun. But I guess if you need a bigger tun you would need more water still so if your pot isn't big enough, you will still have a big problem with water needs.

kontrol said:

As I said a heat stick might be a good idea. I would need to borrow a big pot and see how fast it can boil water with just my stove. (Apparently some are better than other so I'd have to see). I'm also highly concerned that I put too much weight on my glass stove top.

Definitely a worthwhile concern to have as it will be quite heavy!



Ah yeah a bigger tun. But I guess if you need a bigger tun you would need more water still so if your pot isn't big enough, you will still have a big problem with water needs.

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Yes, water management can be tricky. I use one pot to heat my strike water for the mash. Once that water is used up I heat up my sparge water while the mash is going. Then I collect my runnings in my boil kettle so yes, ideally you have two large pots plus the mash tun. This means you essentially are placing two heavy pots on your stove top!

Like I said earlier, you may be better off splitting your boil into 2 5 gallon pots and the weight is then distributed over 2 separate burners.

duboman said:

Yes, water management can be tricky. I use one pot to heat my strike water for the mash. Once that water is used up I heat up my sparge water while the mash is going. Then I collect my runnings in my boil kettle so yes, ideally you have two large pots plus the mash tun. This means you essentially are placing two heavy pots on your stove top!

Like I said earlier, you may be better off splitting your boil into 2 5 gallon pots and the weight is then distributed over 2 separate burners.

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I would need another IC for that, and even that, I cannot plug two on my sink. Would need to make some modifications :S And cooling one after the other might be taking too long isn't it?

kontrol said:

I would need another IC for that, and even that, I cannot plug two on my sink. Would need to make some modifications :S And cooling one after the other might be taking too long isn't it?

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Not really, yes in a perfect world you chill as quick as possible but if you only have 2.5g in each pot finished wort it won't take that long to chill

duboman said:

Not really, yes in a perfect world you chill as quick as possible but if you only have 2.5g in each pot finished wort it won't take that long to chill

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Should end with 3g in each for 6g batch But yeah. Cooling 1 worth, remove and immerse the IC in the hot wort is not too dangerous for infection? (I know the IC was "sanitized" during the boil of the first, but I was wondering if the process of moving from a cool wort to a hot wort was bad).

Do people easily succesfully do full boil in two pot at the same time? You need to divide your recipe in two I guess and do the same thing at the same moment in each.

Before I moved, I used the glass top stove in my apartment to boil 5-6 gal. batches. I have a 60 qt pot that I put on two burners. I would cover the tip of the pot with foil (don't have a lid big enough) just until it started boiling. I was planning on building a heat stick to speed up getting to boil, but the new home has a really good gas stove and a garage.

Euphist said:

Before I moved, I used the glass top stove in my apartment to boil 5-6 gal. batches. I have a 60 qt pot that I put on two burners. I would cover the tip of the pot with foil (don't have a lid big enough) just until it started boiling. I was planning on building a heat stick to speed up getting to boil, but the new home has a really good gas stove and a garage.

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Yeah, in a near future I'd like to move and get a garage too. This would make my life a lot easier.

So 6 GAL batch on the glass stove top was fine? So you'd start with 7-8-9 GAL and the glass didn't break?

kontrol said:

Should end with 3g in each for 6g batch But yeah. Cooling 1 worth, remove and immerse the IC in the hot wort is not too dangerous for infection? (I know the IC was "sanitized" during the boil of the first, but I was wondering if the process of moving from a cool wort to a hot wort was bad).

Do people easily succesfully do full boil in two pot at the same time? You need to divide your recipe in two I guess and do the same thing at the same moment in each.

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sounds like a pain in the ass if you ask me. If your really gonna go this route, start one boil 30 mins before the second one. Then you will have 30 mins to chill the first one and get it in the fermenter before you have to chill the second one. Still sounds like a pain.

maida7 said:

sounds like a pain in the ass if you ask me. If your really gonna go this route, start one boil 30 mins before the second one. Then you will have 30 mins to chill the first one and get it in the fermenter before you have to chill the second one. Still sounds like a pain.

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Yeah, which is why I don't wana go this route lol

kontrol said:

Yeah, in a near future I'd like to move and get a garage too. This would make my life a lot easier.

So 6 GAL batch on the glass stove top was fine? So you'd start with 7-8-9 GAL and the glass didn't break?

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Yep, no problems at all other than it was kind of slow to start boiling. I typically started with 8 to 8 1/2 gallons plus the grain bill (full volume BIAB). Now obviously I can't guarantee you would have the same results...FWIW the stove was a GE glass top...not induction or quartz.

Euphist said:

Yep, no problems at all other than it was kind of slow to start boiling. I typically started with 8 to 8 1/2 gallons plus the grain bill (full volume BIAB). Now obviously I can't guarantee you would have the same results...FWIW the stove was a GE glass top...not induction or quartz.

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And it did not crack? If only I knew my stove top would support this weight it would be easier to decide

When doing BIAB do you need more water and bigger pot? or do you top off with water when it's done mashing?

kontrol said:

And it did not crack? If only I knew my stove top would support this weight it would be easier to decide

When doing BIAB do you need more water and bigger pot? or do you top off with water when it's done mashing?

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Personally I would call the manufacturer and ask before attempting.

Typically you would use the full volume of water. There is nothing wrong with using a little less water and dunk "sparge" or tea-bagging the grain bag to end up with the correct pre-boil volume.

Chris

duboman said:

Personally I would call the manufacturer and ask before attempting.

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Yeah by what I could read on the net I think the answer will be "Tested to 50lb, over that it's not under warrenty" but problem is a 6 GAL batch with 7-8-9 GAL on the stove top will weight over that

kontrol said:

Yeah by what I could read on the net I think the answer will be "Tested to 50lb, over that it's not under warrenty" but problem is a 6 GAL batch with 7-8-9 GAL on the stove top will weight over that

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True. 50 lbs of water is 6.25 gallons. With the weight of the pot even 6 gallons would probably be over the test limit.

WoodlandBrew said:

True. 50 lbs of water is 6.25 gallons. With the weight of the pot even 6 gallons would probably be over the test limit.

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and if your doing BIAB there's potentially another 10-20 lbs of grain in the pot during the mash.

I wasn't going for BIAB. But yeah Anyhow I'm pretty much ****ed What I'd hope is to move in a new house and get a garage so I can either do it with propane burner or get another stove but without glass stove top and then use a heat stick.

But for the moment since we don't plan moving in the next 2 years I'd have to find a way to do it indoor, without propane and without burning my house

Go all electric. I don't know much about brewing electric but there are plenty of people who strictly use those heatsticks and similar elements to boil. There is even a forum on here devoted to it. Check it out. No need to use a stove.

maida7 said:

Go all electric. I don't know much about brewing electric but there are plenty of people who strictly use those heatsticks and similar elements to boil. There is even a forum on here devoted to it. Check it out. No need to use a stove.

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Only heat sticks?

or mount an element in the pot. Check out this website for ideas http://www.theelectricbrewery.com/heating-elements