New brew pot recommendations?

hey,

Been using my modified Brutus style system for a few years now. I have 3x15 gallon Blichmann kettles. When I brew 10 gallon batches, which is pretty much all I do now, I have noticed a lack of bitterness in my beers, which I have pretty much pinpointed to lack of vigorous boil. I will get boilovers when I adjust the boil to appropriate intensity, and those beers are better and appropriately bitter. Because of this, I think I need a larger kettle. I think moving to a 20 gallon will be a good move (possibly even 30?)

Anyways, before I just buy another Blichmann, I was wondering if there are any other pots/kettles which merit consideration. I like the sight glass, and the thermometer. I have a hop blocker for all the good that does. The only other feature which would be nice is a whirlpool return, though I doubt I'll be able to find anything with a whirlpool from the factory.

Any other brands or sources that anyone can recommend?

Thanks.

TD


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So this guys' stuff is pretty amazing. Definitely check him out and he is cheaper than Blickman I believe. I have a 10 gallon set up from him. He has aluminum and SS options for up to 30 gallon tuns. I have the SS, which has the built in temp, recirculation up top, false bottom, and a screen filter for the boil kettles along with a few other bells and whistles.

Cheers!


http://stores.ebay.com/Highlander-Brewing-Supply?_trksid=p2047675.l2568

I checked him out. Thanks. The pots are all 20" diameter. That's a bit too big for my stand without encroachment into other kettle space. I'm on the fence here. Definitely going to wait until next month before I do anything. New kettle or Xbox One. I can't decide.


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I was there last summer haha. Well good luck in the search.

I use a 20G blich. for 10G batches, never have any issues, I can be rather lazy with watching for boilovers, which is nice. I love my blich., I think if you're looking for top quality, they're a wonderful value. Plus, I like to "match."

I also got lucky getting a "scratch and dent" unit.

BTW, if you want to get rid of your 15G kettle when you upgrade, PM me with a price.

Hmm. Yeah, I think I'm leaning toward Blichmann. Always get good support with their stuff and its top quality.


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Before you buy a new pot, can I propose a little experiment?

Get one of the food grade silicone suspensions like fermcap-S from you LHBS or here http://www.northernbrewer.com/shop/fermcap-s-1-oz.html

Put 1 drop into your BK for every gallon in your boil and open it up.

Tell me after if you still think you need to get the new pot. I have heard of people going all out with 7.5 Gallons in an 8 gallon pot.

Don't be that crazy unless your SWMBO is very forgiving.

The silicone will not influence flavor and will fall out with the yeast during fermentation. I use one drop in my Erlenmeyer flasks when making my starter and never get a boil over.

But if you really want a new pot check out bru-gear.com they are just ramping up to production but their prices are surreal. A 20 gallon pot with , thermometer, 3 piece ball valve and sight glass for under 400.

You could also look at http://www.brewershardware.com/20-G...th-Tangential-Inlet-and-Temperature-Port.html but you would have to add your own valves, thermometer and siteglass... but at 360 it is not a bad deal...

Hope this helps,

-Timur

Thanks!

The fermcap I already use. Great trick too, but it's not enough. It's especially problematic when brewing with Pils, because of the DMS and an 90 minute boil. I have adapted many of my recipes to avoid a 90 min boil when possible except those with Pils in significant proportions. The next brew I do, I'm going to do a high gravity and then dilute in fermenter to avoid this problem (I hope). It's a 72% pils brew. Was planning to put a whirlpool port in bottom of my next kettle. Maybe look into the pot at brewers hardware. Thanks


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I haven't much experience with Pils so I will defer to you.

What recipe are you doing that is high gravity with it? I always think of Pils and lager together and without tight fermentation temp control haven't looked very far into it yet.

I built my own whirlpool using equipment from bobby_m at brewhardware.com, it works great and since I use an IC it cut my time to chill in half. I looked at getting a stout kettle with a tangential inlet but decided I needed to hold off on the second mortgage.

Good Luck.

Long story on the high gravity brew. It's because of the yeast blend I got. Only way I could get any of the stuff I wanted was to buy a large 1BBL size pitch. I plan to use half one week, and half the next, since 15 gal is half of 1 BBL approximately. I am increasing my brew from 10 gal to 15 gal. I plan to brew a higher gravity wort and dilute to desired OG in the fermenter before I pitch. This way I will be able to boil off all the DMS, and not worry about boilover. I normally shoot for about 11 gallons in the kettle post boil, and post chill to fill two cornys after fermentation and trub losses. This time, I'm going to measure my pre boil gravity and volume, and from there calculate the boil off needed, and top off water to fermenter needed to hit my desired OG 1.049. It'll be a new trick for me. I'm sure I can pull it off. Most I've pulled from my mash tun was 11 gallons 1.101 into the fermenter.

Anyways, even in spite of this situation now, the reality is that I often settle for less than optimal boil intensity to avoid boilovers and my bitter beers have suffered in the bitterness department. Time to correct that with a suitably sized kettle. I had never noticed this except in some DIPAs and a arrogant bastard clone attempt, fell far short of the desired bitterness. Plus, I now would have a decoction kettle instead of using the boil kettle to do decoctions, or use for split batches and doing different style, partigyle brews, etc.

TD



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Heh! With luck, I can win the 20 Blichmann Boilermaker give-away!!

TD


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I have the brew hardware 20g with tangential inlet. Is perfect for 10g batch's. The triclamps might not be necessary for hot side but they are nice, i mounted my strainer right to the kettle. They give you a 1" dip tube which is hard to block up, even with whole leaf hops




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Look at Stout. They also have a whirlpool inlet that is WELDED in. I like having a sight gauge or Brewer's Hardware would be in the running for my next pot. You can also put a small cheap fan above the Kettle tohelp control spillover.

I have both Stout and Blickmann, but think that the Stout is a much better product.

Thanks. I checked out Stout. Waiting to hear back from them. What is the base like? flat or coned? Whats the dip tube like? can a march 809 pump create a sufficient whirlpool with their 20 gallon kettle? I've never had good luck with that. Switched away from the therminator to Copper convoluted CFC for recirculating and chilling at the same time. Works much better and I don't worry about the sanitization as much, just give it a good rinse when shes finished, the hot wort from the next batch will kill the critters. With my existing whirlpool port, I've never seen a decent trub cone (through the lid rigid copper tubing with an elbow on the end, hard mounted to lid through a hole and an elbow with a QD. I have a kit for putting one at the base of the kettle, but had feared will cause problems/leaks so it is still in the bag.
I also like the Stout electric element port, in case I ever want to go electric, that would be a really great feature.

TD

I still have not heard back from anybody at stout.

I thought I'd search HBT for more information on stout and found a thread (think you've posted to it also). Some HBT member has been struggling with leaking welds. While I like the look of the stout, it's hard for me to look past the comments there. Plus it's $600.
The whirlpool port is cool, but I think I need to keep looking.
Must have sight glass
Don't really care about "sanitary fittings" a plus but not critical.
A tangential inlet port for easy whirlpooling is high on the list of "wants".
I have been happy and have have had zero problems with my Blichmann kettles so far.
I think stout is getting scratched off the list, unless they are guaranteed leak proof. The difficulty in getting answers to product questions, and no phone numbers advertised is also discouraging.

Any other recommended brands?

TD


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TrickyDick said:

I still have not heard back from anybody at stout.

I thought I'd search HBT for more information on stout and found a thread (think you've posted to it also). Some HBT member has been struggling with leaking welds. While I like the look of the stout, it's hard for me to look past the comments there. Plus it's $600.
The whirlpool port is cool, but I think I need to keep looking.
Must have sight glass
Don't really care about "sanitary fittings" a plus but not critical.
A tangential inlet port for easy whirlpooling is high on the list of "wants".
I have been happy and have have had zero problems with my Blichmann kettles so far.
I think stout is getting scratched off the list, unless they are guaranteed leak proof. The difficulty in getting answers to product questions, and no phone numbers advertised is also discouraging.

Any other recommended brands?

TD


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Click to expand...

Check us out, think you'll like what you see

www.spikebrewing.com

PM sent


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I like how Spike gives you the option to have the thermometer placed at the bottom of the kettle. I do 5G batches so I got a Blichmann 10G kettle. I would have bought a 20G to have the option to do 10G batches, but Blichmann places the thermometer too high in the 20G pot for a 5G batch. I didn't know about Spike a few years ago or I would have definitely considered their 20G kettle.

My Blichmann came with some plugs for changing the hole position. I never did. I agree though, be nice not to try to reposition, and no reason not to put it a bit lower.

TD

ZVNJ said:

I have the brew hardware 20g with tangential inlet. Is perfect for 10g batch's. The triclamps might not be necessary for hot side but they are nice, i mounted my strainer right to the kettle. They give you a 1" dip tube which is hard to block up, even with whole leaf hops




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Click to expand...

I can't seem to find that. Can you post a link or send me a PM?

Thanks

TD

I think he meant Brewers Hardware...

http://www.brewershardware.com/Premium-Sanitary-Fitting-Ferrule-Outfitted-Kettles/

Cheers!

After using the Blichmann for a few years, I really really love the sight glass. Brewers hardware doesn't have one.

The stout kettle has a large dead space I'm told. Nearly a gallon. That seems like a lot. That's using their dip tube. When I used to brew in a keggle, I had the "hopstopper" which had a center draw. It worked well at filtering debris. Doubt I could find such a thing as a retrofit for the stout kettle.

Looked at some on eBay, but were way too wide in diameter. The spike kettles seem nice, but when I saw their site, I was more interested in their conicals.

Brewhemoth kettles look uninspired.

Still looking.

TD


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After using the Blichmann for a few years, I really really love the sight glass. Brewers hardware doesn't have one.

The stout kettle has a large dead space I'm told. Nearly a gallon. That seems like a lot. That's using their dip tube. When I used to brew in a keggle, I had the "hopstopper" which had a center draw. It worked well at filtering debris. Doubt I could find such a thing as a retrofit for the stout kettle.

Looked at some on eBay, but were way too wide in diameter. The spike kettles seem nice, but when I saw their site, I was more interested in their conicals.

Brewhemoth kettles look uninspired.

Still looking.

TD


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Blichmann does make a great product. The only drawback I have noticed is the thermometer placement. I use the whirlpool immersion chiller from morebeer in mine. It's actually made for a larger kettle so it sits a little funky in my 10G kettle. But, it gets the job done. The chiller would be ideal for a 20G kettle though. I also have the false bottom from jaybird. It looks like Spike will ship Jaybird's false bottoms with their kettle for a small surcharge. His false bottom is great btw.

Just curious, do you see the sightglass as a huge benefit over markings inside the kettle? It seems like my sightglass port gets clogged sometimes making it unreliable so I would probably prefer to have markings in the kettle.

I like having the graduations. I supposed they aren't essential, but helps to get the results a your looking for I suppose.
Never had a blockage except on mash tun, the usually clears up when I stir for the mash out.

TD


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I am also in the market for 3, 20 gallons vessels for an electric brewery. After several attempts, I did get an email back from Kristen at Stout saying that they were so busy that they are not taking any custom orders. They are trying to hire more staff so they can handle the current volume and take custom orders in the future. Am bummed about that because I really like the sanitary welded tri-clamp fixtures. I emailed spike brewing, but they are not doing any TC, only threaded fittings. Now I am considering contacting some of the local breweries to see if they ever sell decommissioned kegs, and seeing if I can find a local welder to install TC ferrules.

Dupe post deleted

Grbc take a look at bru-gear.com they might be able to accommodate you at a reasonable price. Tell Phil Timur sent you.