Turkey Fryer deal

Williams 728
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Looks like a good deal to me. Just be sure to passivate the aluminum pot. I do BIAB with a basket and it definitely makes it easier the drain the bag and even do a thru-the-bag sparge.
 
BlueHouseBrewhaus said:
Looks like a good deal to me. Just be sure to passivate the aluminum pot. I do BIAB with a basket and it definitely makes it easier the drain the bag and even do a thru-the-bag sparge.
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Thanks for the tip!

PADave said:
I guess if you like aluminum pots. Not for me.
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Guess I'll look up the difference between aluminum and stainless steel then...
 
Citizen86 said:
Thanks for the tip!



Guess I'll look up the difference between aluminum and stainless steel then...
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I'll save you time. There are some here who think aluminium kettles are evil, inferior, toxic, and simply make bad beer. Some of these people are well meaning but ignorant, others feel need to justify why they spent more, and others are just snobs.

It'll make good beer and save cash. Just boil some water in it first to create an oxidized (dull) layer.
 
No problem with aluminum here, but I generally don't like those jet burners. I suspect you could swap out a banjo burner head from the jet head for $25 and have a nice biab setup for $120.
 
Exactly what I use, although I purchased when on sale at Cabelas (for about the same price). I BIAB with a Wilser bag, but don't use the strainer. The thermometer is useless (delineation are 100-600) way too hard to read.
 
bfish said:
Exactly what I use, although I purchased when on sale at Cabelas (for about the same price). I BIAB with a Wilser bag, but don't use the strainer. The thermometer is useless (delineation are 100-600) way too hard to read.
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Good to hear! Yeah I saw the thermometer, assumed it'd be a nice extra but wasn't going to rely on it. I just started reading about the Wilser bags, seems like a good buy
 
I use the thermometer from my fryer to let me know when I'm getting close-ish to strike temp without having to take the lid off or check every 3 minutes with my hand held thermometer. Other than that, it's of no use
 
phug said:
I use the thermometer from my fryer to let me know when I'm getting close-ish to strike temp without having to take the lid off or check every 3 minutes with my hand held thermometer. Other than that, it's of no use
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I made a hole in my lid and got a long stem dial thermometer instead. It has a better range of temperature so it is easy to tell when I'm getting to strike temp. It was very accurate until I dropped it from the counter top to the floor but after recalibrating it the accuracy is still adequate for gauging strike temp.
 
I have the same basic setup. My burner works just fine. 80 ish to 160 in about twenty minutes, another twenty to boil. I have to dial it back to a flicker during the boil or I boil off way too much.

This is a good deal. You can make great beer in an aluminum kettle.
 
I use an 8 gallon aluminum bayou classic fryer that works great. If you want a heavier duty, more expensive pot, buy steel. The beer will be the same out of both, regardless.
 
So I ended up not getting this. Since I'll probably stick with 5 gallon brews for the foreseeable future, my local Lowe's actually had this in stock: http://www.lowes.com/pd_607988-1079...43&Ns=p_product_price|1&pl=1&Ntt=turkey+fryer

Just over $30 out the door for a 7.5 gallon aluminum pot and burner, I'd say is an even better deal. I doubt it will last me my entire brewing career, but even if it's for the next 6-12 months and allows me to try out BIAB, I call that a big win at this price point
 
I'm not sure if the Lowes one is big enough for all grain full boils. When I brew for a 5 gallon batch I have to start the boil with at least 7.5 gallons.

I think you may be happier with the King Kooker you listed first. I have that one and it works very well. The 12.5 gallon pot is also extra insurance against boil overs.
 
Citizen86 said:
So I ended up not getting this. Since I'll probably stick with 5 gallon brews for the foreseeable future, my local Lowe's actually had this in stock: http://www.lowes.com/pd_607988-1079...43&Ns=p_product_price|1&pl=1&Ntt=turkey+fryer

Just over $30 out the door for a 7.5 gallon aluminum pot and burner, I'd say is an even better deal. I doubt it will last me my entire brewing career, but even if it's for the next 6-12 months and allows me to try out BIAB, I call that a big win at this price point
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7.5 gallons is a little small for the 5 gallon batch you intend to do but I have done a few in mine so I know it can be done. You will have a couple problems with this. First is the amount of water that is expected plus the grains will overflow your pot so plan on using less water and then doing a sparge step. The second problem you will have is that the hot break will want to spill over too. To help with that, bring your wort to a boil before you add back the wort collected from sparging. With the smaller amount of wort you will have a little more room for the hot break and with care you can keep it from going over. Once that has subsided, you can add the rest of the wort. This will stop your boil for a bit and will cause a second hot break but this one will be smaller and less likely to spill. You'll also be low on the amount of wort so you have to be careful of the boil so you don't boil off too much or be willing to add back some water to get to your volume to go into the fermenter.
 
walmart has the same 7.5 gallon aluminum pot + burner, normally $50, sometimes it will go on sale for $25.

I have 2 of them now

plenty of room to contain a hot break, just have to stay on top of it with spritzes from a water bottle. might try FermCap someday

one thing I love is it is just the right diameter so that it's 15 inches tall for 30 quarts. I measure volume with an aluminum yardstick, 2 quarts per inch.

math quiz: what is the diameter?
 
I used a 7.5 gallon turkey fryer kettle for 5 gallon batches for years. It works, you just have to really watch your boil and be prepared to avoid boil overs by whatever method works best for you. I've since moved to a 10 gallon aluminum stock pot so I don't have to obsessively watch the pot anymore but 7.5 is definitely doable. Hell, for $30 with the burner, I'm tempted to buy one myself. Never hurts to have more pots and burners around.
 
I used a 7.5 gallon turkey pot when I started extract on the stovetop. My stove took forever to boil, so I had plenty of time to watch for boilovers. Now I have a banjo burner and a 15 gallon blichman, and can do 5 or 10 gallon batches.

Gee, I kinda miss those boilevers..... watching for the foam to rise,..... scraping burnt wort the consistency of glass from the stovetop .......(sigh)
 
RM-MN said:
You will have a couple problems with this.
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Thanks for the tips! I did assume that I would need to do some type of sparge on the grains after they were lifted out of the pot. You gave me some good ideas to do with it.

GrogNerd said:
math quiz: what is the diameter?
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That I'm not sure yet, I actually left it in the car, I'll post back with it when I get it open.

william_shakes_beer said:
I used a 7.5 gallon turkey pot when I started extract on the stovetop. My stove took forever to boil, so I had plenty of time to watch for boilovers. Now I have a banjo burner and a 15 gallon blichman, and can do 5 or 10 gallon batches.

Gee, I kinda miss those boilevers..... watching for the foam to rise,..... scraping burnt wort the consistency of glass from the stovetop .......(sigh)
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Haha, I've been doing extract on a Coleman campfire propane burner with a 4 gallon pot. My first brew night I actually had two consecutive boil overs, both times as I added extract without turning the burner off. Scraping burnt wort off the pot and burner was a fun experience :tank:

Been much more careful since then ;)
 
CJ-3 said:
I'm not sure if the Lowes one is big enough for all grain full boils. When I brew for a 5 gallon batch I have to start the boil with at least 7.5 gallons.

I think you may be happier with the King Kooker you listed first. I have that one and it works very well. The 12.5 gallon pot is also extra insurance against boil overs.
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Yep that's true, however I figured that most of my brews coming up in the foreseeable future would be

  1. extract or partial extract
  2. BIAB and possible 3-5 gallon brews
  3. BIAB and sparge on grains after pulling them out of the pot

It's very possible that I'll desire a bigger pot sooner rather than later, we'll see. I just figured for $30, it was worth a try :D
 
Citizen86 said:
That I'm not sure yet, I actually left it in the car, I'll post back with it when I get it open.
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Lol. I do have that pot, I was asking for people to do the math : at 15 inches tall, what would the diameter have to be for it to hold 30 qts?
 
pennelmore said:
D = SqRt(4*(volume)/(height)*pi)
source: https://www.physicsforums.com/threads/formula-for-diameter-of-cylinder-using-height-volume.223479/

Volume is length cubed. And thanks to google 1 qt = 57.75 cubic in.

So, SqRt(4*(30qt * 57.75 cubic in/qt) / 15 in*3.1415926)

SqRt(6930 cubic in / ~47.12 in)
12.13 in

How'd I do?
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good job! 5 gold stars! :eek:nestar::eek:nestar::eek:nestar::eek:nestar::eek:nestar:

I won't double check your math, but will mention you could have done 2 qts at 1 inch and saved an arithmetic step
 
Welp, I feel like I was pretty indecisive, but the day after I bought the 7.5 gallon one, I was at Walmart and decided to take a look, and lo and behold, they had the 12.5 gallon steamer for the same price as the website. The Walmart website seemed to show that it needed to be shipped to the store.

So I picked up the 12.5 gallon one, and returned the 7.5 gallon one to Lowes. The comments on this thread were helpful - BIAB is going to be much more comfortable in a 12.5 gallon kettle. I also noticed that the 7.5 gallon turkey fryer had a 15 minute auto shutoff, and I don't think the 12.5 gallon steamer has the same "feature", so I'll be more happy with that as well.

Just ordered a Wilser BIAB full setup with the BIAB bag, hop bags, and the 1/4" pulley. Will plan my first BIAB for when it arrives :D
 
Yeah, mine has that auto shutoff, i just wrap packing tape around the timer so it never moves

Somewhere on HBT is a DIY permanent fix, tho I've never bothered with that
 
Citizen86 said:
I don't think the 12.5 gallon steamer has the same "feature", so I'll be more happy with that as well. :D
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You are correct, it does not have an auto shut off. Once you get it up and running let us know how you like it, personally I love mine and I recommend it as a cheap way to get into all grain.

Just make sure to boil water in the aluminum pot before your first use. It has to be done anytime you use aluminum instead of stainless. Besides, it also lets you know what your boil off rate is, which is handy info to have for calculating your starting boil volume.
 
The idea is to build an oxidized layer on the aluminum.

I would do it more to know what my boil off rate is before guessing on a batch.
 
It's also a good time to measure how much boils off.

I broke the timer knob off mine the first time I used it, so I went to use a pair of vice grips to turn it. The weight of the vice grips stopped it from ticking down so I just leave them on there.
 
I filled it up about half and brought it to a boil the other night, keeping the basket in there as well. Man, that jet burner really produces a huge flame!

I noticed that only the parts of the pot that were contacting water were browned a bit (makes sense, our well water has a bit more iron than most), so I filled it up to the brim and brought that to a boil. The top half isn't quite as brown but it is somewhat. So I think I should be good to go. Hopefully going to do a brew this weekend :rockin:
 
charliehorse said:
You could go with this for a few dollars more (it's stainless and drilled):
http://www.basspro.com/Bass-Pro-Shops-Stainless-Steel-3-in-1-Combo-Cooker/product/10213184/
When I started All-Grain, I got one of these:
http://www.basspro.com/Bass-Pro-Shops-Aluminum-Fish-Fryer/product/10205245/
and supplied my own pot (about $60, stainless, 30qt from an Asian grocery).
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I have a similar boil kettle to the first bass pro shop one. How hard would it be to replace the valve on there with a weldless ball valve and bazooka screen?
 
Ok because I'm just worried that the curved spigot will be hard to clean and sanitize. I've only used it once so far
 
That should say that I don't see any reason why it *would* be hard. That said, you're only running wort through it when you drain the kettle. Rinse it out with the hot water you have in the kettle when you wash it (and rinse water). As long as you don't put your stuff away dirty, you shouldn't have a problem.
 
Clean your equipment post-boil and you won't have to worry about the valve harboring junk. I paid $20.00 each for two turkey fryers from Walmart. One is not opened, and the other heats my 22qt SS pot, my 30qt aluminum pot and my 40qt aluminum pot. Mine has the 50k BTU round (4") burner and makes more heat than is needed to boil 8 gallons of wort. I suggest you get a handful of marbles and drop them into your pot to keep boil overs in check.
 

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