Boil Kettle

Hello, I was wondering if anyone uses a false bottom in their boil kettle to filter out the hops and hot/cold break? Also, is a sight gauge in the boil kettle worth the money and possible mess from boil over?
Thanks , Martin

Bruwsomtin said:

Hello, I was wondering if anyone uses a false bottom in their boil kettle to filter out the hops and hot/cold break? Also, is a sight gauge in the boil kettle worth the money and possible mess from boil over?
Thanks , Martin

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1. Yes, I do. These pics are with 100% pellet hops:





2. IMO, no. I have no sight gauges anywhere in my system and never will.

@CATT22- do you ever have issues with hops clogging up your false bottom.

jheld00 said:

@CATT22- do you ever have issues with hops clogging up your false bottom.

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No. I did think that was happening at one time, but it turned out that I did not have the FB held firmly enough to the bottom and some leaf hops managed to get under it and they plugged up the pump head outlet. I fixed that problem and it's been smooth sailing since. I use whole hops, pellet hops and sometime both together without problems.

For what it's worth, I've got one of BobbyM's sightglasses (brewhardware.com) and I really love it. It certainly isn't essential to making good beer, but I find it very convenient. I previously used a dipstick and found that annoying for some reason. That said, there are plenty of things other people love that I find kind of pointless, so there's no objective answer here.

If you do decide you want one, though, I highly recommend BobbyM's based on my very positive recent experience.