30 quart pot

Planning on using an outside turkey fryer that comes with a 30 quart pot. I have a few reason I prefer to cook my beer outside but anyways, I was wondering if 30 quarts would be enough to do a 5 gallon full boil or would I have a boil over with only one gallon spare room?

 

Technically, a 30 quart pot is actually 7.5 gallons. 4 quarts to the gallon, 30/4=7.5....

 

I just used a 30 qt pot with turkey fryer to do a 6.5 gallon boil. It works fine but need to keep a close eye on the initial boil or it will boil over since there is not much head space. I lifted my pot off the burner a few times till it settled down. Once the initial boil was done and I lowered my temp enough, everything was great.

So go for it but don't take your eye off it until you get it settled.

 

That's what I used for a while and it worked fine. I had to boil it down and add the rest of the wort for bigger AG beer where I started out with 7+ gallons though.

 

If you use foam control you'll be able to boil up to 7 gallons in a 30qt with no problem.

I have a 32qt pot and normally do 7.5 gallon boils without any boil over. Foam control is some good stuff.

 

I've boiled two full brews in my 30 quart pot. I'm investing in some foam control Cleaning mess off the outside is not much fun. Knowing then what I know now, I would have spent the extra 30 bucks on a 60 quart pot. (like this one)

 

I normally boil 5 gallons down to 4.25 or 4.5 and then top up to 5 gallons with chilled distilled water. Works for me.

Boiling 6 gallons in a 7.5 gallon pot can be done, but it's tricky.
Possibly look into Fermcap drops for foam control.

 

Thanks for the input guys, im sure I will eventually purchase some foam control drops but im going to try my first batch without since im trying to see how cheap I can brew ales. As for the 60qt pot, not sure that would fit on my bayou classic outdoor turkey fryer

 

you can spray cold water (mister) on the foam to stop it from boiling over.

 

+1 to this. I just used the mister setting on my garden hose spray nozzle with my last batch. (Hey, it's pre-boil!) Worked great!