15-gallon brew kettle advice

[Wreck99]

Just got it in the mail. Here are pics.
View attachment 249102View attachment 249103

Nice Kettle! I'd imagine those horizontal fittings vs vertical makes it easier to do smaller batches if need be.

 

[khawk95]

Yup. Got a 15 gallon to use primarily with 5 gallon batches. No boil over risk. I can use fermcap if need be with a 10 gal batch.

 

[Wreck99]

Finally pulled the trigger on a new kettle. Looking forward to a new Spike kettle! The "old" one has served me well, though I'll keep it around for something.

 

[normonster]

Expensive hobby this is. If you ever stop though you'll have one sweet crab cooker!

 

[hezagenius]

I got a 15g from Spike last week. I went with the horizontal couplers as well since I do extract recipes on occasion that only require 3 gallon boils.

I think the biggest selling points for why I went with Spike are:
1) welded coupler connections (no disassembly required to clean)
2) horizontal coupler configuration (so I can monitor temps for small batches)

The welds on mine are quite nice. Very clean. Plus the flush mount on the inside is really nice.

I'm waiting on the dip tube assembly I ordered from Bargain Fittings and then I'll be off to the races.

I plan on using some sheet metal or some other piece of metal to act as a heat shield to protect the valve and thermometer.

 

[khawk95]

Used my kettle for the first time a few weeks ago. I did have a little rust pop up after heating mash water, but that cleaned up quickly with some bar keepers friend. No issues since. Best part was no worry about a boil over since I was doing a 5 gallon batch! Priceless!!

 

[Wreck99]

Just arrived. Can't wait to test this baby out!

 

[Scriv]

Question to the Spike owners: when you put the kettle together do you wrench the fittings down or are you going hand tight only? I would guess they get wrenched down.

 

[hezagenius]

Use teflon tape and then wrench them. The teflon helps them seal so you don't have to wrench them super tight.

 

[SpikeBrewing]

You only need to hand tighten all connections

 

[Wreck99]

You only need to hand tighten all connections

I didn't use any wrenches. I just used the teflon tape thickness to adjust the orientation of the thermometer and valve as directed by the SpikeBrewing instructions. That tip works really well. If its not "tight enough" or oriented correctly, just use less or more of the teflon tape as described in the instructions.