Accidentally made my 15gal pot into a 28gal pot.

[DustyTheBrewer]

Ok, maybe it wasn't an accident but that's my story I'm sticking to it!

I've always been brewing with a Morebeer 15 gallon pot as my boiler and it has served me very well over the years. That is, until I got a 27 gallon fermenter. My friends are starting to take more and more interest in brewing and have been wanting to split the batches more and more. I have been able to fill the fermenter with my current system by doing concentrated batches but that is one more thing to screw up and it is really bad on efficiency.

So I went to my local custom metal fabrication shop and had them do me up a 14 inch collar that I could weld to the top of my pot. It is basically the same height as the pot.

I'm no metal worker so I had to have a friend help me with the welding. All in all it turned out really nice! They aren't sanitary welds and they aren't super smooth but it's just the boiler. There should be no problem filling that fermenter now, with this badboy!

 

[FRS]

Awesome!

 

[jpalarchio]

Not as crazy as it might first sound.

Blichmann offers something similar (but weldless) to convert their 55 gallon pots to 110 gallons.

Nice work.

 

[Hello]

Now that's a great idea.

 

[Dr. Francois]

Now to upgrade that grill

 

[CCBrewer]

that's sexy.... i'm genuinely jealous... badass dude

(Internet High Five)

 

[DustyTheBrewer]

Now to upgrade that grill

Haha, I know! But it cost $45 a year ago and the piezo ignitor still works!

 

[TravisT]

Wow that is a great idea, will your old burner boil all that liquid? I just upgraded to the BG-14

 

[chocotaco]

Just curious - was this cheaper than just getting a 28 gallon pot? I haven't ever tried to get anything done by a metal shop, but it seems like it would take a few Benjamins for even the smallest project to be worth their time. What did it run you?

Personally I always try to "beat the system" by attempting to make my own systems. But usually it ends up being just as expensive and half the time I end up buying pre-fab stuff later because I couldn't finish the project. So I want to hear a success story

 

[mrphillips]

Necessity is the mother of invention, and I can't imagine anything more necessary than doubling the amount of beer I can make. Hazaah!

 

[DustyTheBrewer]

Wow that is a great idea, will your old burner boil all that liquid? I just upgraded to the BG-14

I figure it should. I'm using a standard 60,000 BTU turkey burner. Obviously it will take a bit longer to achieve the rolling boil but I'll let you know on monday

Just curious - was this cheaper than just getting a 28 gallon pot? I haven't ever tried to get anything done by a metal shop, but it seems like it would take a few Benjamins for even the smallest project to be worth their time. What did it run you?

Personally I always try to "beat the system" by attempting to make my own systems. But usually it ends up being just as expensive and half the time I end up buying pre-fab stuff later because I couldn't finish the project. So I want to hear a success story

It was $110 for the stainless steel and the work it took to roll to size and crimp the top. They quoted me 1.5-2.0 hrs for the weld job (at $60/hr) so it still wouldn't have been that bad if I hadn't welded it with my friend. Actually, the time it took us we may as well just had the shop do it...

For the 26gal MoreBeer pot of the same "heavy duty" quality would have been $300 plus shipping to Canada. They ship here just fine with no problems but for a 40lb pot it just wouldn't be that cheap, haha. That and I would be left with two pots.

Overall I think it was worth it. My GF is always catching me staring at it and inspecting it. She thinks I've gone crazy being so infatuated with a pot...