Turkey Fryer with Spigot Drain Good?

I finally got the money for some AG brewing supplies!

So, I was on cabelas website tonight and found these:
Turkey Fryer 1
Turkey Fryer 2

Are these a viable alternative to the $200+ dollar brew pots I'm seeing online. Note that I do realize the more expensive brew pots often come with false bottoms, but I'll mash in a cooler anyway. I'm just wondering if these turkey fryers could work to drain to a cooler mash/lauter tun and to a fermenter. The spigot on the first one looks like it might take a standard hose fitting (sounds promosing). Anybody use these before?

Worst case, I guess I'll buy a regular stock pot and break out my Milwaukee drill...is it exeedingly difficult to drill stainless?

...I would go with stainless. I heard, although I am not for sure that alum can impart flavors unwanted in beer. They have the stainless turkey friers. I have one I use it for heating sparge water. I dont like the way the threads on mine go inside the pot. The valve is tough to clean also but it screws out on mine and I replaced with another valve. Also no its not hard to drill stainless, you can use a small bit and work your way up. I have a weld be gone on my kettle, the only thing is that rubber o-ring will need to be replaced from time to time. I like it because I can take it all apart and soak in PBW and get all the gunk out after a brewing session

the aluminium is cool as long as u dont scrub the h3ll out of it

i use almost that exact same cooker as #1 cept mine is from gander mt @50 bones

Dark_Ale said:

...I would go with stainless. I heard, although I am not for sure that alum can impart flavors unwanted in beer.

Click to expand...

That's not really a concern. See here.

Personally, either setup looks fine to me. It appears there is a threaded fitting on the outlet of the faucet, which would be great, especially if you can get a stainless fitting that you can use to attach a hose.

My only concern is that setup #1 has a cheap looking burner stand. Maybe it is stronger than it appears, but I like the look of the burner for #2 better. #2 also has a slightly bigger pot, which will help a bit.

Personally I wouldn't spend the extra money for that valve.

I discussed my experiences here:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=57038&page=2

You should be able to find a standard 30qt Turkey fryer setup for around $40 or maybe even less at Wal-Mart or Sears and for another $10-15 you can add your own 1/2" ball valve with SS braid. This would be a superior setup to the "Turkey Tap" valve that comes on these, and cheaper to boot. The straight through design of a standard ball valve, is much easier to clean. Plus with a SS braid attached, it could double as a direct fire MLT.

And like it says above, Aluminum is fine, just clean it with a cloth or sponge. There will be a blackish gray oxygen layer that builds up on it. This is good! You don't want to go scrubbing that off with a scotch-brite or anything.

Just my 2 cents.

Either of those units would work fine. However I feel that price is a little steep. Granted, with a few clicks of the mouse it could be at your front door! If you were to search around locally, my guess is that you could find something similiar for less $$. But this takes time and effort!

It really depends on convenience, and what your time is worth. A larger pot say 40-44 qt. is ideal, as is stainless. You can add a spigot if you are handy or also rack from the kettle, though not as convenient.

Depending on how strong your back is...you can also just pour a 5 gal batch of chilled wort to the fermenter.

Mike

30qt is the bare minimum for 5 gallon AG brews. Look into getting a bigger pot if you can.

I have two identical pots that I use for Mini Mashing. I have to agree that this is just about the minimum size if you are considering All-Grain.

The spigots on the pots work alright. The only problem is control flow from the spigot but is not a big deal.

Don't believe any of the aluminum hype of alzhiemers. Kind of like the tale of getting the flu from the flu shot....

TD

Look around for a good deal on a 10G or larger aluminum pot, get a weldless fitting for around 30 bucks and you'll have a decent brewpot. Spend another 30-50 for a good burner and you'll be in business.

You might as well buy at least a 10G pot, you'll kick yourself later if you do not.

Agree with going big. I bought a 7 gallon pot and it's ust barely enough for full boil extract. I'm gonna need to go bigger soon.

I see a lot of people advocating larger pots, which I don't disagree with. But if you are on a tight budget, there is no better value than a 30 or 32 qt turkey fryer pot, IMHO. You can EASILY boil a full 5 gallon batch in one of these pots. If boil-overs are a concern, just get some Fermcap/Foam Control drops. I use this stuff when I boil in my 30 qt aluminum turkey fryer pot on the stovetop. I have come to trust its effectiveness so much that I keep an eye on it MUCH LESS than when I am boiling a similarly-sized batch on the deck using my 15 gal keggle. Seriously.

Big pots are nice, but if you are doing things on the cheap, you really can't beat a decent turkey fryer pot and a bottle of foam control drops.

I have used both the plain and the spigot drain. The spigot on mine has no way to add tube inside the pot.

A 30-32 is good for 5 gallon boils , my SS pot was 24 quarts and I only had a few misshaps with boilovers at first but a sprayer bottle with water knocks down a head instantly. I have moved up to a 15.5 keg .

you can find a cheaper turkey fryer at either Home Depot, Target, Wal-mart, etc. I think I paid $40 for mine, and then spent my cash on a good keggle. Came out to be about $140 total...

I found a $25 turkey fryer at Lowes last weekend. I thought the stand looked cheap, but the we used it and works well, I will be adding braces between the separate legs. The burner is much better than my friend's turkey fryer that cost him 70 or 80. The pot is 30 quarts. Not all their stores have these though. We couldn't find it around Akron, OH but they have them in Beaver, PA.

Thanks for all the advice. I've opted to go bigger, and go for a stronger burner. Got a 36 quart pot on order and a decent Bayou burner.