Blichmann BoilerMaker owners...

Thinking about making the leap...they look awesome, worth the investment? I suspect so, but I find myself compelled to justify the purchase with some words of encouragement or to come to my senses and not drop all that dough!!

The strainer at the bottom is easily clogged by pellet type hops in the boil. Otherwise I haven't had any trouble with my pot at all.

I really like mine. It is the 10 g one.
everything come apart easily for cleaning.
All components are very high quality.
The only thing I would want to change is that the pot does not have a tri clad bottom. It is solid stainless. It really is not that big of a deal though.
I would definately buy the same pot again

I have a couple 15 gal ones and I am purchasing (6) 55 gallon vessels.

They are worth it IMHO, I use them for electric brewing.

The 55 gallon kettles are only $620, compare that to a SS drum at about $550-$600 which is too heavy to lift, comes with no thermometer, no sight gauge, no stepped bottom (read more deadpsace) and that you have to get a custom false bottom for. They have handles, 55 gallon drums do not... they are a thinner gauge SS, which is plenty durable for brewing, but much easier to drill and manipulate if you decide to punch holes in them. Overall, I love them... they are functional and pretty.

I love them, my $.02

Look at them, they beg to be purchased...

I have a 15 gal with plans to buy a couple more in the future - needless to say I really like them and think they're worth it. I think the strainer that dosbrohahs is referring to has been redesigned but I can't speak of it's performance. There are other threads the talk about the hop blocker. The kettle itself is well designed and well made.

I have a 10 gallon and a 15 gallon and I have a false bottom for the 10 gallon. If you get the false bottom to use in your mash tun, be sure and use a pump and recirculate. I didn't and ended up warping the bottom. Also John Blichmann recommends 1.5 - 2 degrees F per min rise in temperature. No more than that or it could lead to scorching. I'll be getting the 15 gallon as soon as I save enough pennies.
I like these Boilers.

Thanks all. Thinking about going with 20 gallon kettles to have flexibility to do 5 or 10 gallon batches. I noticed lots of you guys use 15's...can you do 10 gallon batches without a huge risk of boilover? It's only $30 more for the 20...

strat_thru_marshall said:

Thanks all. Thinking about going with 20 gallon kettles to have flexibility to do 5 or 10 gallon batches. I noticed lots of you guys use 15's...can you do 10 gallon batches without a huge risk of boilover? It's only $30 more for the 20...

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Yep, Fermcap

willynilly said:

Yep, Fermcap

Click to expand...

so in terms of having the flexibility to do either 5 or 10 gallon batches, the 15 gallon kettle would be the way to go? I worry about 10 gallon batches boiling over in the 15, and I worry that 5 gallons in a 20 gallon kettle might make things difficult. It's a lot of cash for a kettle, want to make sure i buy the right one!

A ton of brewers do 10g batches in 15.5g sankes (including me). No problem.

I brew(extract) in a converted keg. My buddy uses the 15 gallon Blichman. I guess it all comes down to preference. To me repurposing an out of service keg epitomizes home-brewing. My friend and I are both designing our all-grain set-ups. I'm on the hunt for more kegs. He is using a cooler mash-tun and debating purchasing another Blichman for the HLT. The Blichmans are nice. The only negatives I see in the 15 gallon version as a boil kettle are poor thermometer placement(nearly useless if you want to do 5 gallon recipes), thin gauge material and the handles are backwards(to me, anyhow). The cool things are they come ready to use, have a cool sight-glass and look nice.

strat_thru_marshall said:

so in terms of having the flexibility to do either 5 or 10 gallon batches, the 15 gallon kettle would be the way to go? I worry about 10 gallon batches boiling over in the 15, and I worry that 5 gallons in a 20 gallon kettle might make things difficult. It's a lot of cash for a kettle, want to make sure i buy the right one!

Click to expand...

I use a 15 gallon for my BK and no problems. You do have to watch it just in case but I just stir and keep a spray bottle handy and no boil overs. I routinely do 11 gallon batches instead of just 10 and no issues for me.

strat_thru_marshall said:

so in terms of having the flexibility to do either 5 or 10 gallon batches, the 15 gallon kettle would be the way to go? I worry about 10 gallon batches boiling over in the 15, and I worry that 5 gallons in a 20 gallon kettle might make things difficult. It's a lot of cash for a kettle, want to make sure i buy the right one!

Click to expand...

Make sure you know your boil-off rates. My 11 gallon batches start at 14.8 gallons pre-boil, not gonna happen in a 15 gallon pot.

I start my 11 gallons batches with 13 gallons in my keg. Fermcap S baby

wildwest450 said:

Make sure you know your boil-off rates. My 11 gallon batches start at 14.8 gallons pre-boil, not gonna happen in a 15 gallon pot.

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How long is your boil? 4 gallon boil off is a lot of BTUs.

970 BTUs per pound of vapor...

Adjust accordingly.

You should be able to tailor your boil off by adjusting your BTU input.

12,134 BTUs/hr will give you a boil off of about 1.5 gallons

For the electric guys, this means you need to dial in 3,550 Watts

willynilly said:

You should be able to tailor your boil off by adjusting your BTU input.

Click to expand...

Uh, thanks

passedpawn said:

Uh, thanks

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Uhhh, you're welcome

passedpawn said:

How long is your boil? 4 gallon boil off is a lot of BTUs.

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I usually end up with a tad more than 11 gallons. My efficiency is figured at 80% but I get a tad higher than that. I do boil off a good 3+ gallons in an hour. A good vigorous boil makes better beer imo.

Really it depends on what you want to make.
If you only intend on making 5 gal batches 10 gal pot is great.
If you predominantly are making 10 gal batches with the occassional 5 gal batch go with the 20 gal pot.
If you are predominantly making 5 gal batches and occassionally making 10 gallon batch, I would go 15 gal pot. Just becareful of boil over on occassions when making 10 gal batch. Maybe collect extra wort from your sparge in a separate pot then add after you have got to your boil and 1st hop addition, after the boil over settles down. Watching carefully.
I know it would not make for a solid repeatable brew, but if it is only occationally...
or maybe you adjust your recipe for 9 gallons instead, once again if it is only occassionally

Just some ideas

What eve you decide to do, I would have them add an extra hole to the 15 or 20 galon pot to allow for the thermometer to be moved. You can get a plug from them that can be moved from hole to hole depending on your batch size.

wildwest450 said:

I usually end up with a tad more than 11 gallons. My efficiency is figured at 80% but I get a tad higher than that. I do boil off a good 3+ gallons in an hour. A good vigorous boil makes better beer imo.

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This is a subject I'd love to see some hard data on. I've never seen an actual study to see whether it makes any difference to just have a nice bubbling boil (which is what I do), or the "Mount Vesuvius" rolling boil some seem to favor. Guess I'm going to have to keep waiting....meanwhile, my beer tastes plenty good to me.

rico567 said:

This is a subject I'd love to see some hard data on. I've never seen an actual study to see whether it makes any difference to just have a nice bubbling boil (which is what I do), or the "Mount Vesuvius" rolling boil some seem to favor. Guess I'm going to have to keep waiting....meanwhile, my beer tastes plenty good to me.

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Data schmata, my beers are a lot clearer, that I know for a fact. Plus how hard is it to turn your burner up a quarter turn? Seem's like a no brainer to try it.

My high boil-off rates are also attributed to a fan blowing during boiling, I brew in my garage and dou't want the staem concentrating in one area.

OK, your beers are clearer. That's a specific of "better" that I can address. You get them clearer by boiling......mine are plenty clear, although I admit that I "cheat" by using Whirlfloc or the 5-Star "Supermoss" product, which is evidently the pure active ingredient (carrageenan) in Irish Moss.
That clears things up; thanks. Different strokes & all that....

I figure that any really BIG beers that I do will be in 5 gallon batches (who needs 10 gallons of IIPA or RIS at a time??), where as the 10 gallon batch will come into play for normal house beers like APA or german pils.

Thanks for all the input everyone, I went ahead and ordered a 15 gal Boilermaker this morning (cant help myself...im a sucker for bling). I figure it will work for now, and if I need to upgrade later it will make a great HLT or MLT.

I guess at this point I need to make more beer drinking friends in Oklahoma so I can get to making the 10 gallon batches more often!!

Can someone please help me out. I need the hight of the measuring from the outside of a Blichmann kettle, The hight of the ball valve from the bottom of the kettle to the center of the valve. Thank you!
Please state kettle size.

Anyone?

3-5/32" on one, 3-7/32" on the other, both 10 gallons.

I don't think that will differ with capacity, as I'm pretty sure they use the same ball valve and dip tube on all of their kettles...

Cheers!

I got a "cosmetic defect" 15 gallon kettle and am doing 5 gallon batches, it's nice to not have to worry about boil overs and I have room for a 10 gallon batch if I ever want to do one. If you're looking at getting one, getting a cosmetic defect one, (I think these are also referred to as S1's?) can save you a good bit of money, my 15 gallon cosmetic defect kettle was about the price of a regular 10 gallon if I remember correctly. There is just a tiny tiny dent that you really have to search for to see it.

Sublimis said:

Can someone please help me out. I need the hight of the measuring from the outside of a Blichmann kettle, The hight of the ball valve from the bottom of the kettle to the center of the valve. Thank you!
Please state kettle size.

Click to expand...

On my 15 gallon, it's 3.25" from the bottom to the center of the ball valve. It looks like day_trippr is right, they're the same on all sizes, which makes sense so all the dip tubes are the same.

Awesome thanks!

Cheers!