Spike Brewing Kettles

Anyone have experience with these? I found them from a local CL post. thinking about picking up a few for my future electric setup. I tend to believe a kettle is a kettle, but I welcome comments from people who bought bargain kettles.


http://spikebrewing.com/

Hilarious.

See this post - immediately below yours...

Cheers!

Whoops, the search for kettle produced a million results and spike had nothing. I guess that solves it.

Wolf- Did u end up buying one? If so, are you feeling good about the purchase?

Wolfhausen83 said:

Whoops, the search for kettle produced a million results and spike had nothing. I guess that solves it.

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JPKDetroit said:

Wolf- Did u end up buying one? If so, are you feeling good about the purchase?

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I ordered one last Monday, it was supposed to ship last week but didn't. I'm told it was shipped today. I'll report back after my first brew which will hopefully be end of this week.

I got the 15 gallon with 1 welded port w/ ball valve.

Cool. Thanks. If you remember can you let me know how it looks after you've received it and brewed with it? I'm pretty close to ordering one but want to make sure it's not too good to be true

jwible204 said:

I ordered one last Monday, it was supposed to ship last week but didn't. I'm told it was shipped today. I'll report back after my first brew which will hopefully be end of this week.

I got the 15 gallon with 1 welded port w/ ball valve.

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Wolfhausen83 said:

Anyone have experience with these? I found them from a local CL post. thinking about picking up a few for my future electric setup. I tend to believe a kettle is a kettle, but I welcome comments from people who bought bargain kettles.


http://spikebrewing.com/

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I ordered one last week. Looks like it will be here tomorrow? Hope to be using it this weekend. I'll post pictures when she's fitted out.

I'm still waiting on mine, apparently it shipped today, though I received tracking info for it last Tuesday. After testing/brewing, hopefully end of this week, I'll start a thread or reply to this one.

jwible204 said:

I'm still waiting on mine, apparently it shipped today, though I received tracking info for it last Tuesday. After testing/brewing, hopefully end of this week, I'll start a thread or reply to this one.

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John,

Your kettle went out today and should arrive Thursday or Friday at the latest.

I'm excited to hear some feedback The welded couplers are so much nicer than the soldered joints. They are fricken bullet proof! :rockin:

Well I received my Pot (15.5 gals) last week. No problems at all with lead time or shipping delays. I ordered the check valve and thermometer with the unit along with a sight glass (from another vendor)that I installed with no problems. Brewed with it on Sunday and all went well. There were a few issues I have with this unit (melted lens to thermometer and some distortion on lid from heat) but all in all it is a great pot and would recommend to anyone looking for a large pot at a very reasonable price.

I would suggest a glass lens on the thermometers outfitted with horizontal fittings or using a heat shield when brewing. The lid is a none issue.

Thanks to Ben for the great communication and fast service
Archie

That's a nice looking sight glass. Where did you get it from?

Williams brewing out of CA. Fast shipping. Easy install.

Somewhat new to HB and looking to up-size pots and switch to AG soon. What is the purpose of the Sight Glass? Also, in regards to the ball valve on the kettle does this sit high enough above the trub that you don't siphon the trub out when transferring your you primary fermenter? Lastly, what is HLT?!?! I keep seeing that acronym and can't find a definition anywhere. I know it has something to do with AG.

HLT = Hot Liquor Tank (or more accurately, it should be called a hot water tank because, really that's all it's meant to do - it's your source for your hot water).

A sight glass, once calibrated properly, is there so you know how much water is in your kettle.

Yes, the ball valve sits high enough off of the trub in most cases.

Sorry this is off topic, but on the stand builds you have a HLT that transfers the hot water to the mash tank then to the boil kettle?

Chris7687 said:

Sorry this is off topic, but on the stand builds you have a HLT that transfers the hot water to the mash tank then to the boil kettle?

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yes, that's the gist of it.

@Chris7687 There are a lot of acronyms on here that take a bit to learn if you are just using context clues. That being said, once I found out that we have a HBT wiki page it made things a lot easier. Look on the top banner between recipes and groups, all of our acronyms minus one or two are on there.