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For the past 3 to 4 years we have been using a 36" h X 20" dia x .200 wall kettle. It was fabbed by one of our brew bros who is a pipe fitter by trade. He bribed (1/2 case of Smythewicks clone) the plant manager of a scrap stainless pipe that he put a bottom and 2 handles on. It is a real nice...

The kettle is undersquare. Tall and skinny. The boil surface exposed to air is not much greater then our 15 gallon kettle and hence the evaporation rate is not real significant. On top of that I am not measuring all that precisely how much wort we start with and how much we end with. I know 55#...

A small group of brewers and myself recently upgraded to a 40+ gallon brewery. The strike water is heated in a 15 gallon ss kettle. Mashing is done in a Rubbermaid marine type cooler with a capacity of 160 ish qts. $60 on sale from Sam's Club. We have an electric hot liquor heating system that...

Cougfan We used to place 1/2 cup or so of late runnings (when it gets most important) into a ss pot and place the pot in the snow and swirl around about 10 seconds. If you need some snow, ship me an empty box and I will get you some. Now adays we pull the wort from the mlt with a pump and...

Brewbeemer as much as I dislike B.L. I could gag a bunch if that's all I had to do to get on a boat in 70 deg weather. I am so danged tired of operating the manual snow thrower I could punch Al Gore between the eyes. Good thing he invented the internet. r

I have been brewing a long time and still forget. Drain after use in the winter. 10 degrees outside = 20 degrees in my brewery (garage). This was my 3rd patch job. The burst copper tubing was discovered just as we were sparging 56# of malt. Too late to turn back, had to make a panic run to...

Very interesting post. We have been wrestling with too warm a mash using the GBR program and thought it was our thermometer or techniques, etc. But since the GBR stuff is free, and I like free, does it just need an offset added to the calculated temps or does it vary as the mash temp goes up...

40 some gallons. Shee, big deal. Hell I spill more then that. That's only about a quart a day. Ever wonder how long it takes to pee 40 gallons? Especially if you are an old guy with prostate issues. Like weeks and weeks of leaks and leaks. sorry r

Used to get stuck sparges too often. (once is too often) Had a corona grinder and a ss false bottom. Gave the corona away and purchased a good roller mill. The mash/lauter tun is now a 160 qt. coleman (or rubbermaid) marine cooler with ss braid sorrounding a piece of copper tubing with many...

I have never done a decoction mash. I have often thought that using a large s.s. bowl to hold the mash to be decocted, placed in a pressure cooker and held at plus 212 degrees would be a convenient, no scourch technique. Maybe slight scourching will help some styles though. Goofy idea? rick...

I have used a 100 watt light bulb to keep fridge at temp. If you are fermenting in clear glass, put light in coffee can. r

We are fortunate to have a big kettle (40+ gallon boil capacity). With a 30' 1/2" copper immersion chiller and a real nice agitator to keep things swirling around we are down to <70 degs after 30 minutes using well water. Stirring makes all the difference. r w mi

We had the same issues with 30+ gallon brews. Mashing 40 pounds of malt and having only 2-15 gallon kettles (and a couple of 5 gallon units as backup) we pulled the wort out of the 160 qt mlt with a pump and sent it into a tee that then feed both 15 gallon kettles. It was hard to balance the...

I am not sure what you mean by line voltage controller. Bimetallic strip must refer to the temperture sensor. Do you have a better description / link? r

I have used ir pyrometers at work and while being very handy they always leave you suspicous of the real temp. They require compensation based on something called emmisivity and it in itslef is almost as complicated as brewing beer. I have used thermocouples, rtds, and various old school...

We all thought a double burner would be needed. As soon as the first runnings got to about 2 gallons we fired up the single burner and kept the new wort at near 200 degs so when done sparging, near ready to roll. Insulation no doubt is a good idea. At minimum, a shroud of some sort to force...

Thanks for all the insight folks. I was somewhat concerned about the kettle dimensions being so far from "square". But the possiblility of having a relatively cheap big kettle caused us to throw caution to the wind. The price of a commercial kettle of proper shape is way to high for us po'...

The idea also bantered about was tossing in some marlbles to help the boil nucleate. Not sure what that really is other then a neat word. The first brew used 30' of 3/8 tubing. Not enough. Now we have 50' of 1/2 " with an real nice motor driven agitator to keep the wort swirling. Hope to...

One of the brew pals built a big kettle for our group of 4-6 garage brewers. 20" dialmeter x 36". stainless steel. Approximately 46 gallons to the top. We noticed a problem during the first boil.of about 40 gallons. It was impossible to maintain a steady boil. With a nice healthy flame, the...

One of the brew pals built a big kettle for our group of 4-6 garage brewers. 20" dialmeter x 36". stainless steel. Approximately 46 gallons to the top. We noticed a problem during the first boil. It was impossible to maintain a steady boil.