32qt Pot Big Enough?

[Cacaman]

I was on the verge of buying a Igloo 10g cooler to convert for $39.99 + a 36qt aluminum pot for $39.99 all with a 20% off because my friend works there.

On my way to Academy to pick everything up I stopped at the grocery store and ran into a 32qt aluminum pot on sale for $19.99. Personally I think this is a better deal even with the 20% off the other one.

I plan on making full boil 5.5 gallon batches, but 90min boil recipes call for about 7.11 gallons of water. Do you all think 32qt can handle that big of a boil without boiling over if I'm careful enough?

 

[Barnzy02]

Yeah that should work, im pretty sure the pot i use is 32 qt and i do full boils. I've done around 6.5-7 gallon to boil down to 5.5 gallons. As long you are paying attention and don't leave it unattended for long, you shouldn't have any problems.

 

[tchuklobrau]

The 32 qt pot will work you just have to watch a bit better to prevent boilover. However I only spent $15 more on my cooler and got a 15g cooler. so there are many other ways to think about it. $ you save on pot=bigger cooler = higher gravity beers. Either way will work , it all depends on what you want in the end.

 

[phenry]

I use a 32 qt kettle and have boiled ~7 gallons in it. You need to watch it like a hawk at the start of the boil, but after that it's plenty big enough.

 

[Mongrel]

It's big enough to work, and small enough to make you want a bigger pot. Get the biggest pot you can.

 

[Cacaman]

Interesting, I seem to be sold on FlyGuy's 10g cooler conversion, so that's my reason for getting that. I don't know...those squared freezers seem too... bulky for me. Maybe in the future I'll look back and regret this

Thanks for the feedback!

 

[Cacaman]

It's big enough to work, and small enough to make you want a bigger pot. Get the biggest pot you can.

Yeah otherwise I wouldn't be asking the folks at HBT for advice hehe... my main question here I guess was, which one of these will get me more bang for my buck without having to overkill. I still need to budget for copper tubing and hose for my counterflow chiller.

 

[Beardedterror]

I do it all the time. I've never boiled a big brew (1.100+) full boil, but any low to medium gravity beers should be fine. I usually have about 3 or 4 inches of space at the top. Just be careful and watch for boilovers.

 

[Number68]

i've got a 32qt aluminum pot, like the others said, right when you hit boil, you need to be ready for a boilover, I had a small one tonight simply because I had a new burner that was a lot hotter than my old one, wasnt prepared for how quickly it started once it got going. but, not a huge amount lost, so live and learn

 

[Cacaman]

...so live and learn

Amen.

 

[tchuklobrau]

It comes back to a question of gravity. If you plan on doing 5g for awhile, what is the highest grasvity you want? 32 qt will boil up you beer allday long. 36qt will give less worry. If you go with the smaller pot you can get a bigger cooler and probably the manifold materials. It comes down to what you plan for your future. A bigger cooler now = only 1 upgrade later if you go to 10g.

 

[Cacaman]

It comes back to a question of gravity. If you plan on doing 5g for awhile, what is the highest grasvity you want? 32 qt will boil up you beer allday long. 36qt will give less worry. If you go with the smaller pot you can get a bigger cooler and probably the manifold materials. It comes down to what you plan for your future. A bigger cooler now = only 1 upgrade later if you go to 10g.

True story. Lately I've only done low gravity beers, but I can't predict the future and say I will never try anything new. Thanks for the tip!

 

[Cacaman]

As a matter of fact, just got back from the grocery store. Is this the type of deal/cooler your referring to tchuk?

 

[tchuklobrau]

lol close enough. fyi the lid on that is probably not insulated. might wanna put a can or 2 of great stuff in it to help reduce heat lose out the lid. I had to on mine.

 

[joelmole]

Bigger is better IMO. I have a 42qt pot and I'm happy I got it. The other thing to look at is the construction. Is the 36qt pot built more heavily? Some of those cheap $20 pots are pretty flimsy. Pretty important when you have 6 gallons of wort in it and find out you need to move it a few feet.

Edit: The other way you can look at it is that you could buy two of the 32qt pots for the same price as the bigger one, and you'll have an HLT, which is nice. I don't have one and it's kind of a pain in the ass. I heat my strike/sparge water in my boil kettle, which means I need to collect my wort in something else until I can empty out my boil kettle completely, and then I have to move the liquids around between vessels to get everything where it needs to be. This is definitely one of my next purchases.

 

[DeNomad]

32 quarts - nope... not unless you enjoy cleaning up boil overs. I used to boil 5.5 gallon batches in a 40 quart pot and you still had to watch the thing like a hawk. I now use a 15.5 gallon keggle... which I paid the same amount amount for as your 32 quart pot.

 

[wolfman_48442]

Yeah, as everyone else has said, it'll work, but it will make your brew day longer because you can't do ANYTHING else while boiling, because you WILL be standing at the pot with a spray bottle of water, fighting the rising tide of foam...
Go at least 40 quart, you'll be glad you did.

 

[joelmole]

When you're talking about a big pot like this, each extra gallon of capacity will maybe add 1.5 inch to the height (pulling this number out of thin air, but stay with me for the sake of the argument). So if you start with 7 gallons pre-boil (not out of the question for a 5.5 gallon batch), you might have 1.5 inches of clearance at the top of a 32qt kettle, which isn't enough to avoid boil-overs easily. 36qt would give you about 3 inches, 40qt about 4.5 inches. Once again, this is an estimate, but you get the idea.

 

[daksin]

Should work fine! I didn't read closely, but didn't see anybody suggesting Fermcap S. It's a great additive and stupid cheap. A few drops will totally eliminate boilovers.

I would still keep an eye on it the WHOLE time- you never know what's going to happen with that little breathing room.
I love my 32qt alu brew pot.