Aluminum vs Stainless

Hey all, I'm looking at stepping up volume capacities after a failed beer this weekend and need some help. My current brew kettle is approximately 4-gallon capacity, so I'm looking at a larger stock pot/LP gas cooker system (turkey fryer comes to mind). My only hesitation with buying a turkey fryer for brewing is the stock pot is aluminum and not stainless. Will the AL be fine considering the duration of heat applied for brewing or should I drop the money to get stainless?

Thanks!

Aluminum is fine to use as a boil kettle.

Check out the "This vs. That" sticky in the beginners forum.

Also, John Palmer's How To Brew has a good appendix on how to care for aluminum, and how to clean it, and more importantly, how NOT to clean it.

As long as you boil water in the aluminum pot prior to using it, you should have no problems. I bought a new 30 qt aluminum pot this weekend. Boiled 6 gal of water in it Sat and brewed on Sun. The boiling water helps to seal the pores in the aluminum. You will see a change in the "color" of the inside of the pot. It will get much more dull once it's where it needs to be.

Aluminum pots work very well. The only down side to the pot typically included with a turkey fryer kit is its size. A 30 quart pot is enough for 5 gallon batches. However, you have to be very diligent in preventing boil overs. I made the move to a 40 quart stainless on my last batch. I had no problems with boil overs. I did have a problem in reaching a boil. My turkey fryer has the typical burner and a 5 PSI regulator. Using this set up it took me an hour to reach a boil. Last week I bought a new banjo burner with a 10 PSI regulator and boiled 6 gallons of water in 25 minutes.

Excellent, thanks for the tips!