Assembling my Brew Equipment

After 3 decent brews about 2 years ago, I want to get back into homebrewing. Unfortunately, I have to re-acquire all of the equipment. I'm still a total noob but spending the past week on these boards has really helped me remember the basics (thank you all )

I've decided that I'm going to forego the secondary this time around. Seems pretty common to use primary only, then bottle.

I have an equipment question: I'm going to be extract brewing on my stovetop, and I'd like to do full boil (5 gal. batches). I can get a 40 qt. brewpot, but if I want the ball valve, it basically doubles the price. I want a quality kettle, but is the valve really necessary? What's the draw -- you can hook up a hose and drain straight to your primary bucket? I'm not planning on getting a wort chiller for now, so I'll need to move the pot from my stove to the sink anyway. Am I missing something? I'd hate to pay $140 now and want a $300 kettle down the road...

I also have a process question: I've never done a yeast starter, but seems to be the way to go, so I plan on incorporating this into my normal process. I've read various instructions/posts, and seems pretty straightforward, but where do you get the DME for the starter? Will I need to buy extra? I assume you don't want to take it from the kit, otherwise the OG will be totally off, am I right? Again, I'm sure I'm missing something

I'm really excited to get started on this! Hopefully by next week.

The valve is amazing. As an alternative, buy a cheaper aluminum pot. There are valve kits that coat between $20 and $30. Just drill a hole, and install it yourself. You will save a ton of money doing it this way.

I have never not had a ball valve on my kettle, so I can't give much input on that. But I do love having the ball valve as it make transferring to primary super easy. I don't know that you need such a large kettle if you are only doing extract. I might suggest going with a 32qt (8 gallon). See the link below. I have the same kettle, its great quality and has the ball valve for $160, free shipping. I do partial mash 5 gallon batches and the 8 gallon kettle works great.

http://morebeer.com/view_product/8419/

For the starter, you do not want to use the DME that is included with your kit. Wherever you are buying your kit from, or another place such as MoreBeer or Northern Brewer should have light DME that is perfect for starters. 1 pound should give you enough for a starter.

I think your next investment should be a wort chiller and a propane burner. Depending on your stove it might take quite a while to get 6 gallons of wort up to a boil.

I would worry about being able to bring 6.5 gallons up to a boil on the stove top. Some folks have a real hard time doing so.

I might suggest going with a 32qt (8 gallon).

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Yes, I don't know why I was looking at 40 qt., that's probably way too big.

I would worry about being able to bring 6.5 gallons up to a boil on the stove top.

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Wouldn't I only need to bring about 5 gallons to a boil?

grace1760 said:

Yes, I don't know why I was looking at 40 qt., that's probably way too big.

Wouldn't I only need to bring about 5 gallons to a boil?

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Still impossible on some stoves. My max is 3 gallons, barely. I have an electric, glass top stove. I've since purchased a propane burner that I use to brew in the garage. I think I paid around 70 for the burner and a 30 qt pot, they were packaged together. I added a valve and sight glass to the pot, and it works out great.

grace1760 said:

Yes, I don't know why I was looking at 40 qt., that's probably way too big.



Wouldn't I only need to bring about 5 gallons to a boil?

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You will need to account for evaporation during your 60 min boil. Depending on how rapid your boil is, you can boil off about 1-1.5 gallons in that hour. You want 5 gallons to be your post-boil volume.

For the starter, you do not want to use the DME that is included with your kit. Wherever you are buying your kit from, or another place such as MoreBeer or Northern Brewer should have light DME that is perfect for starters. 1 pound should give you enough for a starter.

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1 pound of DME would probably be enough for several starters, right?

I've since purchased a propane burner that I use to brew in the garage. I think I paid around 70 for the burner and a 30 qt pot, they were packaged together. I added a valve and sight glass to the pot, and it works out great.

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I'd love to have a burner setup, but I unfortunately don't have the space for it. Maybe someday. I suppose I can always go back to partial boils if my stove can't handle 6 gallons.

1 pound DME should be able to make a couple starters, assuming you are not doing a super high gravity beer. I believe a typical ratio is 1g DME to 10ml water. So for a 1L starter add 100g DME, then fill with water (boiled and cooled) to the 1L mark. If you are using cups, 1/2 c. DME to 2 cups water. I'm fairly new to doing starters, so do a search on here to double check that. Check mrmalty.com for a good pitching rate calculator.

Yeah, 1 lb of dme will last you for a while. Just seal it up well and it should keep indefinitely. If you've already got a decent sized pot (3 gal) you can do partial boils pretty easy. Since you're just doing extract, you don't have to worry about incorporating a bunch of sparge water. Do a quick search for late extract additions, and that will help you out with any problems you might encounter with partial boils.

I'm doing stove top right now because I don't have any room for a propane burner, so I boil about 2.5 gal in a 3 gal pot (watching very carefully!). You're probably going to want an autosiphon and tubing anyways, so I use that to siphon the cool wort into the fermenter. Once I get the space to go full boils, then I'll consider getting a nice pot with a valve.

o4_srt said:

Still impossible on some stoves. My max is 3 gallons, barely. I have an electric, glass top stove.

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impossible for some, though not all. i can get 7.5g to a pretty great rolling boil on my GE gas range (forget the number, but it's got the powerboil feature on the front-right burner). it completely depends on your stove. can you get your hands on a friend's large pot and try to bring 6.5g of water to a boil?

if you can't borrow a pot to test with, it's unfortunately one of those chicken and egg scenarios -- how do you know if your stove is powerful enough to boil 6.5g without buying the pot to test with? i guess take the largest pot in your house and see how good of a boil you get when it's nearly full to get a sense of how powerful your stove is. hardly scientific, i know...

If you want to do full boils for 5 gallon batches, get the 40 qt pot. By the time you get the 6.5+ (depending on length of boil and how much you have to leave behind to trub and hop sludge) gallons in the pot, you're going to really be pushing a 7.5/8 gallon pot. Life is a lot easier when you have extra space in the kettle.

I would vote for stainless. While I think aluminum is okay, stainless will last for freaking ever. People say aluminum will, too, but I'm abusive to stuff, and I've had to replace an aluminum pot that I used for frying and it really pissed me off.

You can also use the $20-$30 valve kit with a stainless pot, you just need a step bit and some patience in cutting the hole. On the same note, I would highly recommend a valve, it makes life so much easier, and sets you up to get more advanced and potentially use the pot for something different down the line (mash tun or hlt) without too much more work.

I'm surprised no one has mentioned this yet. You can go out to Home Depot (or any other department type store) and pick up a turkey fryer kit for around $60. This will include a propane burner and an aluminum pot. The pot that came with mine is 7.5 gallons, which is about as small as you'd ever want to go for doing a full 5 gallon batch. Space shouldn't be an issue because you can setup outside, or on a balcony, deck etc. It takes up maybe 10 square feet...

ryandlf said:

I'm surprised no one has mentioned this yet. You can go out to Home Depot (or any other department type store) and pick up a turkey fryer kit for around $60. This will include a propane burner and an aluminum pot. The pot that came with mine is 7.5 gallons, which is about as small as you'd ever want to go for doing a full 5 gallon batch. Space shouldn't be an issue because you can setup outside, or on a balcony, deck etc. It takes up maybe 10 square feet...

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I beat you to it, op doesn't have space for a burner, and most apartment complexes have rules against grills/burners on decks and such

Personally...i'd break the rules once a week

Thanks all for the input and advice. I think I'm going to go with this one (or something like it). I was thinking of 32 qt. at first but the 40 qt. is only a little bit more.

And I know I very well may be back on here in a few months to eat crow, but I'm not going to get one with a valve. I simply fail to see why it's so great. I can lift 6 gallons of liquid no problem (and I'll need to anyway to get it to the ice bath).

grace1760 said:

Thanks all for the input and advice. I think I'm going to go with this one (or something like it). I was thinking of 32 qt. at first but the 40 qt. is only a little bit more.

And I know I very well may be back on here in a few months to eat crow, but I'm not going to get one with a valve. I simply fail to see why it's so great. I can lift 6 gallons of liquid no problem (and I'll need to anyway to get it to the ice bath).

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One slip while holding 6 gallons of boiling wort and you're in the hospital and disfigured for life.

grace1760 said:

Thanks all for the input and advice. I think I'm going to go with this one (or something like it). I was thinking of 32 qt. at first but the 40 qt. is only a little bit more.

And I know I very well may be back on here in a few months to eat crow, but I'm not going to get one with a valve. I simply fail to see why it's so great. I can lift 6 gallons of liquid no problem (and I'll need to anyway to get it to the ice bath).

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Ice bath? Is this going to be done in your sink? If so, a ball valve is going to be a PITA and get hung up trying to get it into position. If you have a seperate container that is nice and big to chill in that may be better but also a PITA. I would get the measurments of the vessel you are going to be doing an ice/water bath in and make sure the pot will fit in it.

As you seem to be thinking, bigger is almost always better when it comes to pot size. With a monster pot like that you have a great opportunity to jump to partial mash or all grain really easy. DeathBrewer has a fantastic sticky in the Begginner's forums: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/easy-partial-mash-brewing-pics-75231/ It is a quick step to go from there to AG and then you will never look back lol...I am not trying to say there is anything bad/wrong with extract brewing and if you prefer that over AG then that is that.

GL