Brew Kettle Double Duty as Bottling Bucket?

Does anyone use their brew kettle (with valve) as a bottling bucket?

My stainless brew kettle is 8 gallons with a stainless 1/2 3 piece valve. While at the local home brew shop picking up gear for a new batch, I realized my bucket was old and could / should be replaced - when it struck me that the kettle could double-duty as a bottler as well.

Sanitation is easy, and with a vavle and barb for tubing, it should be an excellent replacement.

Is anyone else doing the same? It makes sense to me but I'm a newbie with only a few brew batches under my belt.

If you can sanitize it then OK.

Brew kettles can get scratched, especially if you use a hard scrubbing pad on it, and the scratches can hold contaminant. Sanitizer does not clean. Also need to be careful what sanitizer you use; Idophor would be OK, but repeated use of Starsan or bleach will etch the metal, and you could get metallic tastes from the kettle in your next brew.

I like the idea, and just may go that route whenever my bottling bucket kick's itself.

Sanitation shouldnt be too much of an issue if you have recently brewed (ideally right before bottling?) and use proper cleaning techniques. I figure any nasties that were hiding in those scratches should be dead from 1+ hours of 212F, right?

Stainless steele can't be more apt to keep contaminants than plastic. It is a brand new shiny pot. I would think a hot bath through the kettle and valve would work too.

Revisiting an old topic.

Could I bottle from my aluminum brew kettle if I sanitize with Iodophor? My second carboy is in use for secondary on another beer right now and I only have a 2.5 gallon catch of stout to bottle.

i know this is late, but this is a definite Yes!

iodorphor is good, but you can simply just boil water in it to sanitize also.
(i use starsan)

i've been using my boil kettle as a bottling bucket my last few batches and wondered why i didn't do this earlier.

deggenbe said:

i know this is late, but this is a definite Yes!

iodorphor is good, but you can simply just boil water in it to sanitize also.
(i use starsan)

i've been using my boil kettle as a bottling bucket my last few batches and wondered why i didn't do this earlier.

Click to expand...

I realize this thread is old but I am about to do this as well. I would counter the scratch issue with the fact that you could and should be passivating your kettle if it gets scratched. I added pbw and filled my kettle with water. Instead of scrubbing the inside of my bottles, never actually drank from them, I attached a bottling wand and filled each bottle to the top with the pbw solution. Once they soaked a bit I repeated this process with star san. Maybe it's just me but I don't see an issue with this method. The only scrubbing required was to the rim of the bottle but far less time than breaking out the bottle brush.

Very happy someone revived this old thread, was just the info I was asking about elsewhere!