I need a little help deciding what size of pots to buy...

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Elysium

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hey people

I am trying to brew all-grain beer and I need to decide the size of my future pots (it also depends on what's available here in Spain).

Id like to brew 8 gallons....so I have a nice big enough cooler to do the mashing. However....I wanna break down the 60-min boiling part into 2 parts and boil 4 gallons in 2 pots with the hops. The biggest pot I can get my hands on is of 4.5 gallons.

Problem: I guess..I'll have to add 10% extra wort (since about 10% will evaporate during the boil)....and this means that I'll have 4.4 gallons in a 4.5-gallon pot. That seems to be pretty stupid......I think it will overboil the moment I add the hops...what do you think? How much extra space do I need in my pot? 0.5 o 1 gallon at least?
 
Trying to brew a typical 5 gal. AG batch in a 4.5 gallon pot is going to be a good trick. Be sure to post back telling us how that comes out. I do full boils (@6.5 gal.) in a 7.5 gal. pot, which is no problem using Fermcap-S to prevent boilovers. But I regard it as pretty much the minimum (just as I regard full boils as a standard practice for AG).
 
Trying to brew a typical 5 gal. AG batch in a 4.5 gallon pot is going to be a good trick. Be sure to post back telling us how that comes out. I do full boils (@6.5 gal.) in a 7.5 gal. pot, which is no problem using Fermcap-S to prevent boilovers. But I regard it as pretty much the minimum (just as I regard full boils as a standard practice for AG).

It wont be a 5 gallon bach in a 4.5 gallon pot. It is going to be an two 4 gallon batches in 2 separate pots.

But I am wondering how could I brew a 4 gallon batch (mashing will happen in a cooler...so now I am just talking about the 60 minute boil...that's all I need the pot for) in a 4.5 gallon pot....that seems to be impossible...since I need to put more than 4 gallon worth of wort in the pot....because of the evaporation rate of the liquid.
 
I had a 5 gallon beer (6.5 preboil) over flow my 15 gallon keggle a week ago.... 4.5 is going to be way too small Imo.

Are you boiling outside with a propane burner? If so I wouldn't waste money on anything smaller than 15 gallons
 
I had a 5 gallon beer (6.5 preboil) over flow my 15 gallon keggle a week ago.... 4.5 is going to be way too small Imo.

Are you boiling outside with a propane burner? If so I wouldn't waste money on anything smaller than 15 gallons

inside....and my stove is electric. Thanks for the reply.
 
If I were you I'd keep looking for something bigger. As stated above, I wouldn't want smaller than a 7.5gal pot for 5gallon batches. So if you're doing 4gal then a 7.5gal pot would be about right. I use a 10gal pot for my 5gal batches and really like it. I'd say it's fairly likely that if you buy something smaller, you'll just end up getting a bigger pot later on. Just my $0.02. Good luck.
 
inside....and my stove is electric. Thanks for the reply.

Ah okay, that does present a problem.

If you're a do it yourselfer, you might think about just getting a larger pot and putting a heating element right in the pot. Elements are fairly cheap and you could either do an "assisted stove top boil" where the stove and the electric element work together, or with a powerful enough element, boil without the stove. Immersed elements are also extremely efficient with some good insulation around your pot.

I know that's getting away from your initial post, just something to think about. I personally wouldn't want to be on the verge of a boil over inside all the time....it's bad enough when I make starters haha.
 
I have been doing something similar to this.
i have a 3 gal kettle and brew 5 gal batches.
process:
mash for 1 hour then boil 2.5 gallons
then boil another 2.5

seems to work fine, im no scientist when it comes to this brewing game. Clean equipment and fundamental understanding and everything should come out fine.

i did however just upgrade to a 8 gallon aluminum kettle so this process won't be used anymore. If you check out amazon.com they have many 8 gal pots which are mint for all grain biab and other methods of brewing, mine was 70 bucks shipped to canada.
 
I have been doing something similar to this.
i have a 3 gal kettle and brew 5 gal batches.
process:
mash for 1 hour then boil 2.5 gallons
then boil another 2.5

seems to work fine, im no scientist when it comes to this brewing game. Clean equipment and fundamental understanding and everything should come out fine.

i did however just upgrade to a 8 gallon aluminum kettle so this process won't be used anymore. If you check out amazon.com they have many 8 gal pots which are mint for all grain biab and other methods of brewing, mine was 70 bucks shipped to canada.

thanks for the reply. This means that you only have 0.5 gallon extra space if your pot is a 3 gallon one, but this doesn't make much sense since you also have to have space for the extra liquid that boils off.
 
Ah okay, that does present a problem.

If you're a do it yourselfer, you might think about just getting a larger pot and putting a heating element right in the pot. Elements are fairly cheap and you could either do an "assisted stove top boil" where the stove and the electric element work together, or with a powerful enough element, boil without the stove. Immersed elements are also extremely efficient with some good insulation around your pot.

I know that's getting away from your initial post, just something to think about. I personally wouldn't want to be on the verge of a boil over inside all the time....it's bad enough when I make starters haha.

Your comment is really interesting. I am wondering if, for example, this electric element (http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00AUB5WZM/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20) could help me boil water for 60 mins. Is it totally safe to use such tools for brewing beer?
 
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Your comment is really interesting. I am wondering if, for example, this electric element (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Kitchen-Electric-Immersion-Heating-Element/dp/B00AUB5WZM/ref=sr_1_18?s=kitchen&ie=UTF8&qid=1367238681&sr=1-18&keywords=electric+element) could help me boil water for 60 mins. Is it totally safe to use such tools for brewing beer?

I'm still looking into building an all electric brewery with these things myself, so I'm not the most knowledgeable yet, but yeah, that seems to be about what you want. Most I've seen use a fitting on the side of the pot so that the element mounts close to the bottom, horizontally. Check out the electric brewery section, there are some really knowledgeable guys there, a lot of EEs to help with the technical stuff too, search "assisted boil" or something like that.
 
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