All-grain brew pot size

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W0rthog

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I'm embarking on the all-grain path and would like some advice on the idea pot/kettle for 5 gallon batches. I have a 5 gallon pot I use for extract brewing, but my thinking is I may need a bigger pot for all-grain. I plan to use 10 gallon coolers (2) for the Mashing and sparge water. I just looking for an ideal pot size to boil the wort. I don't know how much liquid I'll have after mashing, in order to estimate.

Thanks in advance
 
I'd go for a 10 gallon or larger brew pot. If you ever need to do a 90+ minute boil (e.g., if you use lots of pils malt), you could very easily begin your boil with 8 gallons of wort.

I got a 10 gallon pot, and there have been days that I wished I'd gone bigger!
 
You'll want at least an 8 or 9 gallon pot for full boil 5 gallon batches (regardless of if they are all grain or extract). If you like taking risks and fighting boil overs the entire brew day you can go smaller but you'll probably want to collect at least 7gals of wort to start the boil with and its nice to have a good amount of space for boiling. ...but you also don't need to be married to the idea of 5 gallon batch sizes. You can 3 gallon batches in your 5 gal pot too without updating any of your other equipment. You'll probably need a gas burner to boil 7gals of wort and you'll want a chiller too but you can do a 3 gal batch on a stove top and bathtub chill.
 
MoreBeer and homebrewing.org have 9 gallon stainless kettles with welded couplings for valves and whatnot. They are labeled "economy" but are actually decent quality. At $70 I think they are the best pot for the buck around.
 
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