WTB: 20 or 15 gallon kettle.

[hatepickingnames]

Looking to expand the brewery. 20 gal preferred but a fifteen works too. No keggles though.

 

[keg2881]

I have a 15 gallon for sale

 

[CidahMastah]

have you checked out the 25G megapots (update international) for 219-230 shipped? I have two for my HLT and BK. Sturdy build and very well priced IMO

 

[hatepickingnames]

20 is overkill for what im up to. Only planning on doing 10 gallon batches. I just hate boil overs. 25 is too big.

 

[CidahMastah]

25 gallon is perfect for boil over protection on 10g batches. I do 11g batches and have almost had a boil over in my kettle when I left the lid on coming up to boil.

It also makes a great sized HLT due to the large volume, and thus a good herms candidate due to the large thermal mass.

I thought 25 might be crazy, but it is pretty ideal IMO. But YMMV

I have a 25BK / 20MT / 25HLT

 

[hatepickingnames]

I got ya. I too know the dangers of capping the kettle and walking away. I resolved to not leave the room after 200 degrees. Herms is out of the question for me. What are your preboil volumes? I boil 7.5 gallons in my 10 gal now with occasional boilovers moslty due to inatentiveness. If my boiloff/ losses are constant i should be aok with doing 13 or so in a 20 gal.

 

[CidahMastah]

Yeah even the best of intentions... plus a beer or two have caused me to forget watching at 200F+. For me I usually pull the lid at 206F.

Preboil volumes are a gallon per half hour. So for an 11G batch:

a. 60 minute boil = 13G preboil Volume
b. 90 minute boil = 14G preboil Volume

That is for a 100% manual mode boil on my electrical system with 5500W (so a good strong rolling boil). I have slowed that down my decreasing the heat applied. However getting a consistent boil volume is more important to me than saving .10 in electricity on a boil

Re: your question, do you mean 13G preboil volume? Or a 13G batch? (15-16G preboil for 60/90 boil times, respectively).

Basically the difference in the megapots in the 20 - 25 gallon pot is the 20 is 16 tall by 20 wide and the 25 is 20 tall by 20 wide. So a little less than an inch (.8) in wall height = 1g

If you watch it with a spray bottle handy you should be fine for a 13g preboil vol (gives you about 5.6 inches of wall to the top of the pot (for preboil volume of 15-16 gallon it gets a little tighter at 4-3.2 inhces of wall height). Not sure if you use an immersion chiller (I do), so that may factor in as well. Obviously the 25G gives 9.6''.

 

[hatepickingnames]

Thats what im thinking. I meant a 13 gall preboil. Gotta consider boil vigor as well. I dont know how 5500 w compares to a propane burner but i might not be hitting it quite as hard as you.

 

[CidahMastah]

Yeah 13 preboil should be pretty comfortable. But the one thing to keep in mind is the foot print is the same, the wall just gets higher (that is why I stepped up one more size).

And of course I have this cray idea that at some point I might do a 16 gallon batch of lager and ferment/keg it in a sanke for the lagering phase. So that means I would need to have 19G preboil... So you see where crazy starts to creep in. Granted that will likely happen once a year haha.

 

[cattlepunk]

I have a 15 gallon for sale

How much? Specs? Pics?

 

[keg2881]

How much? Specs? Pics?

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