Good deal on kettle?

[mooseMoose]

Adventures in homebrewing has a 10 gallon, undrilled megapot 1.2 for $110. Is this a good deal?
https://homebrewing.org/products/megapot-1-2-kettle-10-gal

 

[Bobby_M]

It's a good price for what it is. As long as 10 gallons is big enough and you're ok with siphoning out of it, go for it.

 

[seatazzz]

What Bobby said; but why not spend the extra $20 and get the 15g? It's really not that hard to drill holes in stainless for ports; just need a titanium step bit and patience. They have a weldless bulkhead for $13.99 that would work to add a ball valve. IMHO, 10g limits your boil volume too much. And if homebrewing is something you intend to continue, you will definitely want the bigger kettle before you really 'need' it. Also consider browsing your local craigslist or offerup (or the equivalent wherever you are), you might find a good deal there.

 

[day_trippr]

but why not spend the extra $20 and get the 15g?

"And so it begins..."

 

[CascadesBrewer]

Adventures in homebrewing has a 10 gallon, undrilled megapot 1.2 for $110. Is this a good deal?

What type of brewing process are you planning? BIAB? 3-vessel?

Many years ago I purchased a good quality undrilled kettle. I used that for years with a crude 3-vessel process. It worked great for that setup. I moved to BIAB about 4 years ago. I could do full volume mashes up to around 1.070. Above that I would have to do a sparge or reduce my batch size. Both or those are fine options.

Last year I acquired a 15-gallon kettle with a ball valve (it seems to hold around 16 gallons...I added a nicer weldless bulkhead with a dip tube: True Weldless Bulkhead - With Edge Pickup Diptube). I have done 3 or so batches with the larger kettle. I know a lot of people say to get a 15 gallon one, but it is bigger than I want. My long stem thermometer barely reaches the the top of the boiling wort and the kettle is seldom barely over half full. On the plus size, I was able to do a 10-gallon batch of Saison (got 10.5 gallons of wort).

But...having the ball valve is a great upgrade!!! I would pay extra for a kettle with a decent ball valve. One of these days I want to try and drill my 10 gallon kettle and add a ball valve. I would likely use that for most batches and use the larger one for just high gravity beers or when I want to make more than 5.5 gallons of wort.