Homebrew novice with a kettle question....

I'm looking to get a kit to start brewing and most do not come with a kettle. I was looking around in the basement the other day and found a five or six gallon kettle, but it has some sort of coating on it, it could be enamel? However all the kettles i see for sale for brewing seem to be stainless steel. Does anyone know would this matter? I'm sorry if this is a dumb question, i just don't want to spend 40 bucks if i don't need to.

Chances are, at that size, it's either enamal or aluminum. Both of which are fine for brewing. Eventually, you will want to step up the size of your pot, and at that time, it's better to go with stainless steel. As long as you don't scratch the aluminum pots, you will not get metallic flavors in your beer.

Yep, you probably have a big canning pot which is usually coated with enamel. Fine and dandy as long as you take care to not chip or scratch the coating. Might as well use it if it's in good condition to start. You usually see stainless steel just because they are tough as nails and super easy to clean and care for.

Yeah try it out. If you really get into the hobby your going to want a good 10 gallon or so brew pot as one of your first purchases but that can wait. Step one get addicted to the hobby. Step two spend all your money on it.

Suthrncomfrt1884 said:

Chances are, at that size, it's either enamal or aluminum. Both of which are fine for brewing. Eventually, you will want to step up the size of your pot, and at that time, it's better to go with stainless steel. As long as you don't scratch the aluminum pots, you will not get metallic flavors in your beer.

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You can scratch the crap out of Aluminum and not get metallic flavors. Its enamel you're thinking of.


I love my Aluminum pot. 8.5 G, $22, Walmart.

Scratching may not be as big of a deal as I make it out to be with aluminum, but if you take off any of the protective coating that forms on aluminum, it will create metallic flavors. Have you noticed that on aluminum kettles there's usually a dark line around where your water level usually is? That's because boiling water in aluminum creates a passive oxide layer(somewhat like enamel). If this layer comes off, it'll taste like all your beers are coming out of cans.