10 gallon brewpot large enough?

[bguzz]

I've been all grain brewing for over 10 years now and have lived with a 7.5 gallon pot and doing the boilover dance many a time. I've actually gotten good at it. A buddy gave me a 15.5 gallon stainless keg which I cut the top off of and now I have a keggle. I like the headroom in the keggle, but it is so heavy (no port) to lift and seems like I'm wasting a lot of propane because of the thick sidewalls on the bottom. I'm thinking of buying a brewpot. I have zero plans on ever brewing anything more than 5 gallon batches. a 15 gallon pot seems a bit much, but will I have only marginal benefit on boilovers with a 10 gallon pot? or will I be in good shape? All the posts seem to point to 15 gallon pots, but its always with eye to brewing 10 gallon batches at some point...I just want to do 5 only. I use a cooler for mashing, so not issues with using it as a mash tun.

 

[Bowtiebrewery]

Depends on what you brew. 10 should be fine for anything where you need to collect wort pre-boil of around 7-8 gal max and lower. If you are doing 2 hour boils for a RIS or big DIPA, you may run out of headspace. I run a 20 gal for 10g batches and appreciate the extra headspace.

I was doing 10g batches in a 15 keggle for a while and had boil overs all the time. Moved to a 20gal and have not had an issue once.

So yes, I'd recommend a 15 for you unless you only make beers that don't require large boil-offs.

 

[Foosier]

I have a 10 Gallon aluminum pot and also only brew 5 gallon batches. I have never had an issue with boil overs. Also, I do full volume BIAB mashes in my pot as well and have had no issues with volumes. If you are only ever going to do 5 gallon batches, a 10 gallon pot is really all you need.

 

[BBBF]

If you are never going to do more than 5 gallon batch, then a 10 gallon kettle will do.

 

[JimEb]

I use a 10 gallon and it works fine.

I have an ebrew pot with element and a thermocoupler. I've brewed enough to know that I don't need to worry about boilover until 200F. I boil right around 206F. From 200 to 206 I need to stir constantly. Once I hit 206F I turn the element down to 0% until the foam dies down and the temp stays at 206F. Then I crank the element back to 45% and I can walk away.

 

[mirthfuldragon]

Use your keggle and put in a valve. I cannot imagine the difference in surface area of a keggle over a brewpot is a dramatic difference - and not enough to justify spending $100+ on a 15g pot.

I use my keggle for 5g and 10g batches without issue. 15g gives you the option to do 5g and 10g without major boil-over risk. With a 10g pot you'll be limited to 5g batches forever - so you won't be able to do split batches when a buddy drops by on a Saturday with a bucket

You also described my setup - 7.5g aluminum pot (from a turkey fryer kit) for a hot liquor tank, a converted 10g cooler mash tun, and a keggle boil kettle.

 

[kh54s10]

I use a 10 gallon pot. My boil off is right around 2 gallons per hour, so I need about 7.3 gallons to be assured 5.25 into the fermenter and 5 gallons kegged. I have had some boil overs... Mostly when responding to threads on HBT when I should be watching the pot.

It is also big enough for a RIS, but then again I didn't boil it for 2 hours.......

 

[xpops]

if not going over 5gal batches, 10gal pot will work great. I have 16gal and typically do 10gal batches....i did a 5gal batch recently, and it seemed oddly large for what i was brewing.

 

[bleme]

I brew in a 10 gallon pot and do fine, but if I had a keggle, I'd add a port and go with that. I'd also convert to natural gas or electric but that's another story...

 

[betarhoalphadelta]

Use your keggle and put in a valve. I cannot imagine the difference in surface area of a keggle over a brewpot is a dramatic difference - and not enough to justify spending $100+ on a 15g pot.

I brew in a 10 gallon pot and do fine, but if I had a keggle, I'd add a port and go with that. I'd also convert to natural gas or electric but that's another story...

Agreed with the above. Port the keggle and continue using it.

The liquid in there has MUCH higher specific heat than the keggle itself, so I wouldn't worry that you're wasting propane. The amount of propane used should only be marginally different based on the makeup of the pot.

So there's no reason to buy something new (beyond the port/valve) when you have a perfectly good keggle to boil in.