Can I use my beer pots for cooking other stuff?

Hi guys!
I have some stainless steel pots that I use for brewing beer, but I also like to brew ginger beer. ¿Can I use the same pots or will it affect the flavour?

Thanks and cheers!

 

As long as it is clean I'd guess you can cook anything in stainless with no issues.

 

Great to hear! Thanks guys my friend that I'm brewing beer with said that we can't use the pots for ginger beer cause it stays with the flavour, but I figured if you clean it properly that shouldn't be an issue.

 

Did a crab boil in my 8 gallon sparge water kettle with no ill effects. Cleaned it with oxyclean and TSP. Scrubbed it down with Bar Keepers Friend and a green pad.

 

if stainless, go for it. Aluminum...i'm not so sure. There is that protective "coating" that develops on aluminum pots. Might not be smart to do a crab boil in your aluminum brew kettle

 

Used to do low country boils in my 15 gallon pot. Just clean well afterwards

 

yeah but stainless or aluminum?

 

if you keg your ginger beer, you might need to replace the o-rings afterwards? but i'd imagine the pot should be fine....

 

The OP specifically said he's using stainless steel.

Aluminum can be cleaned equally well. Normally you want to leave the dull oxide layer on aluminum, but not at the expense of leaving food residue or oils.

 

missed the stainless in the OP

 

My small SS brew kettle has made several pots of gumbo and jambalaya. Chili con carne, too. It is maybe 5 gallons full across the top. I use it for extract beers and fill it up to about 4 gallons, then make up the water in the BMB. My big SS brew kettle is bigger than I would likely need for cooking anything but crawfish or crabs, and I have my 120 quart crawfish pot for that anyhow. So my big 14gal brew kettle so far has only made beer, but anytime somebody wants to buy me a few hundred bucks worth of ingredients, I won't hesitate to cook in it. Doesn't hurt a thing if you clean it good.

 

What the heck do you with 6 gallons of chicken stock? Do you own a restaurant? I make a turkey chili that lasts a week and I only use 10 oz of chicken stock when I make it.

 

The best thing about using your brew kettle for cooking is that you can get one using the household budget instead of the brewing budget,so you can get more equipment. I use my first BK (5 gal) for all kinds of cooking, stock , tomato sauce, fish boils, you get the idea. It also is my decoction cooker.

 

Used my electric HLT for cooking several large lobsters. Woot!

 

Also, if you have temperature control it makes a large sous vide. Below, large chunk of beef in vac bag in there. I've built a custom sous vide since then though.

 

I cooked pasta for 100 people for my grandparents 50th wedding anniversary in my 15 gallon kettle. Didn't hurt the taste of my beer that I brewed after that. It was a little strange firing up the brew kettle in front of the church though.

 

I've cooked in my aluminum kettle without problems. Just clean well and don't scrub with anything that removes the oxidation layer.