Help with Brew Pot Selection Please

[jhazel]

So I took a little hiatus from brewing and am excited to finally be getting back into it. I used to just brew mini-mash in my kitchen on the stovetop in a 5 gal pot but want to expand my horizons.

I will be brewing 5 gal AG batches, and would be interested to know if the following would be a large enough setup. I know some people have had success with sizes like this, while others says its just too small.

http://www.walmart.com/ip/King-Kooker-30-Quart-Turkey-Fryer-and-Outdoor-Cooker/10661034

Any insight would be greatly appreciated! Its good to be back to brewing and browsing around HBT

 

[Revvy]

That's pretty much what size I use, but a larger pot will be better. It can be tight and ypu have a risk of boilvoers with it, but you can mitigate it a bit by using fermcap-foam control drops which will keep you from boiling over. With them you can have the kittle filled to about an inch below the lip and have a rolling boil and be fine.

But of greater concern for you is that that burner stand advertised has the newer safety feature that requires you to push a button every 5-15 minutes in order to keep the gas flowing.

They're a pain to use for home brewing, and noone's come up with a good way to bypass that feature.

This one doesn't have it, it is a straght un-inerrupted hose from tank to burner'

But if you look at your picture you will see a little grey box a little larger than an AA battery with a red button on it, located after the red-knobbed regulator. It uses different sized fittings so you can't even easily cut it out of the line and straight pipe the hose.

If all you can find at stores are the ones with the safety feature, than look at Cl or Garage sales.

 

[jhazel]

Thanks for the tips Revvy..I wasn't even aware of the push-button safety mechanism.

 

[Revvy]

Thanks for the tips Revvy..I wasn't even aware of the push-button safety mechanism.

Yeah, sadly a lot of folks don't. We've had folks showing up at teach a neighbor to homebrew days with brand new ones out of the box, who end up having a miserable day brewing. Since they have to hit the button every few minutes. And nobody's come up with a fix yet. Best we've ended up doing in the field is to gaf tape the button down. But that only holds for so long, and the boil stops...usually when the brewer happens to be away from the setup talking to another brewer or something.

It may these days be better to find them used, rather than getting stuck with them.

Stupid lawyers, and stupid safety mechanism...I mean if you are foolish enough to wanna drop a 30 pound gobbler in a vat of boiling oil, all the little push buttons in the world aren't going to save you.

 

[marcycaulkins]

I use a heavy 40 qt stainless steel stock pot (with tri-ply bottom, meaning it has an aluminum core which helps it to heat faster than straight stainless). I think it is the perfect size, since I have ample room for pre-boil volume, plus headroom to avoid boilover. Never had to worry about fermcaps (although it is nice to know those exist!).

I am a firm believer in a sturdy pot. Last thing you want is a handle falling off when you are trying to move 5 or 6 gallons of boiling liquid. I got mine off ebay 4 or 5 years ago for around $100.

As far as outdoor stove, I have one of these:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0009JXYQ4/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

No stupid little button. It did have some issues at first.. needed flash cleaned out of the burner so that it would fire with enough force to be capable of boiling. I also fit it with a "wind guard"... basically tin foil wrapped around the outside of the unit. It was very sensitive to breezes before that.

 

[motobrewer]

10 gal or nothing. 7.5 gallon isn't enough for all-grain, i've had one since i started and it's the biggest thing i regret.

for 5 gallons you'll need to collect 6.5-7 gallons of wort in the kettle. it just isn't enough.

 

[jhazel]

Thanks for the input guys. Went ahead and got a 10 gal aluminum stock pot w/ lid. Figured I'd just end up upgrading later if I went with anything smaller.

 

[billymeter]

Is that "stupid little button" just an electronic switch? Is it possible to take it apart and short all the leads on the button? That would simulate having the button pressed down all the time.

 

[Cpt_Kirks]

10 gal or nothing. 7.5 gallon isn't enough for all-grain, i've had one since i started and it's the biggest thing i regret.

for 5 gallons you'll need to collect 6.5-7 gallons of wort in the kettle. it just isn't enough.

Keggle, at a minimum. Though, the fact that it won't quite hold 15 gallons with the top cut out is a limiting factor. I'm brewing a 13 gallon batch this weekend, and will have to resort to a couple of lbs of DME, I simply can't boil enough in my keggle.