Disadvantage of Large Kettle

Is there any disadvantage to having a very large kettle? For instance, If I bought a 55 gallon kettle to do 30 gallon batches, could I still use it for a 10 gallon batch? Or even a 5 gallon batch? Or is it too large ? What are the drawbacks/issues that would arise?

Cleaning it afterwards

I would imagine that 5 gallons in a 55 gallon pot would have the same effect as a sauce pan. Your boil off rate would be the same as it is for the larger batches = very high.

yeah I think the 55 gallon is a little overkill. Probably looking at something more along the lines of 30 gallons. I like the Blichmann Boilermaker pots.

My thinking is that the large surface area on the bottom of the kettle increases the risk of scorching/carameling the wort on smaller boils.

It could also increase boil-off on smaller batches.

5 gallons in a 55 gallon boil kettle would only be an issue if the kettle were really, really wide. My BK is 25 gallons and is pretty wide (2.5 feet) and I have no issue doing 5-10 gallon batches. I wouldn't get a kettle that large unless I was going to get some use out of it. It's a pretty expensive piece of equipment, bulky to store, impossible to lift when full of liquid. The only other (small) issue I could think of is the mass of the kettle absorbing heat. I'd imagine it would take a little more time/fuel to bring 5 gallons to a boil in a 55 gallon kettle than in a 15 gallon kettle.

It would be kind of tricky to calculate your pre and post boil wort volumes. You'd have about 3 inches of wort in the bottom of most large kettles. I have x3 45 gallon kettles and I know that 5 gallons wouldn't even hit the sight glass level.

That is true. It probably doesn't even reach the temperature probe level. Have you ever brewed a 5 or 10 gallon batch on your 45 gallon system?

It takes 15 gallons to reach the thermometer stem on a 55 gallon boilermaker.

HokieHomeBrew said:

That is true. It probably doesn't even reach the temperature probe level. Have you ever brewed a 5 or 10 gallon batch on your 45 gallon system?

Click to expand...

No, I haven't. I could probably do a 10 gallon batch though. I'll post some pics when I get back home (30 days..ish..).

That is true. It probably doesn't even reach the temperature probe level.

Click to expand...

do you really need a probe to tell you when water starts to boil?

No, you don't but if you were cooling your wort and recircing into your BK, you'd want to know what temp it is then. And, if you use a Tee fitting like I do, your temp and sight glass are fed from the same coupler. I personally like to use the same pots, and welded fitting setup for all of my tuns. This way, if you ever have an unforeseen issue with something you have a backup.

Hop Bitterness / Flavor

- I have a 20 gallon mega pot that I use for 5 gallon batches working my way up to 10 gallon batches. I noticed that my beers are not as hoppy as they were brewed in smaller pots. I'm wondering if the surface area of the 5 gallon is attributing to this not as hoppy flavors coming through.

Does boil off affect the hop characteristic of the final beers?

I would imagine that is where a lot of my aroma hop additions are going .

Thoughts?