Brew pot/kettle

[jjinsa]

I have some questions before buying the above.

I will make maximum a 22L batch, but mostly smaller. What pot size do I need?

Is it possible to have a 20L pot, and when the wort is in the fermenter (say 15L), I just too up with water?

Do you have to have a pot with a thermometer/tap etc or is a plain pot fine? How would you then empty the wort into the fermenter?

Thanks

 

[Paps]

What type of brewing you plan on doing? Extract or all grain?
Extract brews use smaller pots because they do `top up` with water in the fermentors. All grain boils all the water used so therefore you need a larger pot.
Mine i beleive is a 10 gallon pot for 5 gallon batches. It is a plain pot. After i cool it down to yeast pitching temps i lift it and pour its contents into the fermentor through a pasta strainer to remove hop gunk (i use ale pails)
If your fermentor is glass get a large funnel.

 

[jjinsa]

Thanks paps. Extract brewing. What size you think is minimum ?

 

[katfude]

I use a 5gal pot for my 5 gal extract batches. I typically boil 2.5 gal in the pot and top up with about 3gal of water in the fermentor to account for loss to boiling and trub loss in the fermentor when the beer is completed.

I would not go any smaller than 5gal or you're going to boil over a lot. Heck, you gotta be vigilant in the 5gal to make sure you don't boil over!

 

[jjinsa]

Is the wort not very thick when you do that? And does it effect that flavor?

 

[katfude]

Partial boils will affect hop utilization more than anything. You will need to use a bit more hops than normal.

Also, when taking your OG reading, you will need to wait a bit for the wort and the top off water to mix for an accurate reading.

 

[CUrchin]

IMO, think about the future when buying a pot. Do you think you try BIAB/traditional all grain some day? Do you want to always flirt on the hairy edge of boil over? Do you really always want to do partial boils and top up? For me it it makes sense to go bigger so you don't end up with a collection of pots that don't get used.

 

[jjinsa]

CUrchin. Fair point. I'm just battling to find a good size stock pot. So I do want to do all grain some say. Will make biggest batch of 23L. What size pot?

 

[CUrchin]

You will find varying opinions, but here is mine assuming a 23L batch:
Extract/Partial Mash with Top Up: About 20L-25L
Extract/Partial Mash with Full Boil: About 32L
BIAB/All grain: About 46L (about double the batch size)

Not sure where you are located, but you can find cheap pots on Amazon or Ebay. I prefer SS, but aluminum is fine as long as you oxidize it first.

 

[BigFloyd]

CUrchin. Fair point. I'm just battling to find a good size stock pot. So I do want to do all grain some say. Will make biggest batch of 23L. What size pot?

10 gallon.

 

[unionrdr]

I do partial boil, partial mash brew in a bag in the same 5 gallon (about 19L) SS stock pot I started with. I've mashed up to 7 1.2lbs of grains in my nylon paint strainer bag in that kettle. I also use smaller SS kettles for batch (read dunk) sparging. We bought a set of four nested SS stock pots with lids & steamer trays at the grocery store a couple years ago for some 28 bucks. So I took the 5 gallon for my BK/MT (brew kettle/mash tun) & use the smaller ones for dunk sparging, depending on the amount of grains. Just plain stainless steel kettles.
That said, I mash in about 2-2 1/2 gallons of spring water. I dunk sparge in about 1 1/2 gallons of water @ 170F for ten minutes in the bag. This allows me to stretch the bag over the lip of the kettle so I can stir the grains to get more efficiency. Then mix sparge wort with main wort to make 3 1/2 to 4 gallons of wort for the boil. 3 1/2 gallons more often as not, as this is about maximum for my 5 gallon kettle. I also keep a couple gallons of spring water in the fridge a day or two before brew day to top off with. Ice bathing the wort down to 75F or so, then strain into fermenter. Top off with cold water to get it down to 65F or so & recipe volume.

 

[jjinsa]

South Africa

 

[jjinsa]

I found a 50L aluminum pot. 400mm x 400mm. Suitable? What else do I need?

 

[unionrdr]

Sounds like a good size. You'll need a hydrometer, bottle caps & capper, long plastic stirring spoon or paddle, a thermometer of some kind for measuring temps of mashes or steeping grains. PBW for cleaning & Starsan for sanitizing. Besides fermenters & airlocks, & thermo strips to stick on the fermenters.

 

[jjinsa]

Only thing I don't have is the thermometer for the boiling. Have a DIY kit that has all the rest. Can you give me an example thermometer?

 

[unionrdr]

You don't need one for the boil, just if you intend to mash some grains for a partial mash or steeping grains. I use a floating thermometer for that, like this one;
http://www.midwestsupplies.com/floating-thermometer.html
Cheap & accurate. These are good to keep track of fermenter temps;
http://www.midwestsupplies.com/fermometer-adhesive-fermenter-thermometer.html

 

[tarmac]

I reccomend nothing smaller than 7.5 gallon (28.4 l). This is give you room for a full boil, boil over protection, and thermal expansion of the wort as it heats up. That's what I started with. You don't need a thermometer for the boil unless you plan to steep grains. You should have one for chilling your wort to pitching temps however.

 

[unionrdr]

Oh yeah, forgot that part. The floating thermometer is also used to check the temp you're chilling down to. With partial boils, you can also chill some gallons of water in the fridge a day or two before brew day to top off with. For example, I chill down to about 75F, then strain into the fermenter. Then top off to recipe volume with the cold water ( usually spring water). This gets the temp down to about 65F, a good initial ferment temp for most ales.