Turkey Fryer

I know this has been discussed to some extent already, but I feel that my question is slightly different then some of those already posed. I am considering purchasing a 50$ turkey fryer. It comes with a burner, and a 7.5 gal aluminum pot.

My question is this: Am I going to benefit greatly from having a thicker bottom stainless steel pot? Is it going to save me from scorching? Am I going to have to sit and stir no matter what because of the propane burner?

The reason for my concern is that the pot is pretty thin. I gave my old 4 gal SS pot to a burgoning extract brewer, and it had a pretty nice bottom that I scorched only once (left it on the burner while adding the extract.)

I don't really have any concern about aluminum. Too many places use aluminum pots and pans to concern me too greatly. Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated. TIA!

Jeremy Roberts
Knoxville, TN

i use a 40$ turkey fryer and a 5 gal ss pot. no problems. once the boil over point is past, just let it roll. the btu's wont scorch unless you dump extract in the pot with heat on without vigerous stirring

I have a turkey fryer set up, but bought a thicker walled aluminum pot. I lucked out and got an 8mm thick walled pot for the same price as a 4mm, which is standard. And it was still cheaper than stainless steel.

However, I use the thinner walled aluminum pot that came with the turkey fryer for heating my sparge water, which gets close to boiling - ~180o. So far (three sessions), it has held up fine.

I agree with Punn. You don't have anything to worry about. There will always be some caramelization and darkening with direct-fired kettles, but you won't get any more than I do with a stainless keg-kettle. Just don't pour extract right on the fire

Cheers

Thanks for you replies! I will go ahead and purchase the turkey fryer and just use the pot that it comes with. Thanks again!

JRob

I picked up a remote control turkey fryer from Target ar closeout for $15 which allows me to heat sparge water or a cleaning solution while steeping/brewing at the same time. And its always great to have another remote around.

Wild

wild said:

I picked up a remote control turkey fryer from Target ar closeout for $15 ...

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Damn, that's cheap! I may have to see if the Target near me may have some of these. I really don't even need one, but it would be handy for sparge or mash water !

A remote control turkey fryer? $15 is a great price no matter what, but have we Americans really gotten that lazy that we can't be bothered to bend over and light our own burners? Congrats on the find, I don't shop at Target so you'll just have to fill me in on how it works.

AlaskaAl(e) said:

but have we Americans really gotten that lazy that we can't be bothered to bend over and light our own burners?

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Absolutely! And more importantly, no more singed knuckles or eyebrows. It works great. I already had a second gas tank but it'd probably be better to setup a "Y" in the line to accommodate both burners.

Wild