Ball Valve on a brew kettle?

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brewmax25

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How vital is it to have a ball valve on a brew kettle? I am thinking about getting a 10gallon kettle to start AG brewing in. It is obviously way more expensive to get a kettle with a valve and if I can save the money it would be great.

To ball valve or not to ball valve... that is the question.
 
How vital is it to have a ball valve on a brew kettle? I am thinking about getting a 10gallon kettle to start AG brewing in. It is obviously way more expensive to get a kettle with a valve and if I can save the money it would be great.

To ball valve or not to ball valve... that is the question.

What type of chiller? If counter flow then yes, ball valve. If immersion then not required.
 
It is worth it to me because it dramatically reduces the amount of work I have to do hauling heavy crap around. If you don't have a chiller and are stuck putting your pot into a bath to chill it, then having a valve will probably just get in your way. If you have an immersion chiller, you can still get by without one, but it sure makes life easier when you can just open up the valve and drain into your fermenter. If you are doing partial boils now, you may not even be considering how much more unwieldy it is to haul around a full 5-6 gallons in a brew pot. I know my 15 gallon megapot is a total pain in the butt to haul around empty, let alone with 5-10 gallons of wort in it.

If you have a CFC/plate chiller, you pretty much need a valve on there to use it effectively.
 
It was worth it to me even on my 5g pot. I didn't feel like lifting hot wort. First I made an immersion chiller, then I made a better immersion chiller, then I made counter-flow chiller (love it), and now I just got an 8g kettle with a ball valve installed.
I built a small wooden brew rig and eveyting is nice and easy. I recommend getting, because I think you will want it later, and drilling a hole in your nice new kettle is nerve wracking. Well, it was for me any way, and that was just on my cheap 5g kettle.
Whatever you choose, I hope you like it.
 
I have a 9 gallon kettle without a valve and I get away with using my immersion chiller and then transferring to the carboy with an auto-siphon until the kettle is light enough that I can lift it high enough to pour the rest of the wort through a funnel. That being said, I'm cant wait until the day when I can afford to install a gate valve!
 
I found a local welder to weld in two couplers on my keg. It cost me $20 cash including fittings. I have been doing 5gal batches with an immersion chiller but the valve is awesome. That kettle is heavy and hot when done boiling. A few bucks for a valve can save you a lot of towels and ointment in the event of a 5 gal spill.
Just my 2 cents
Cheers
 
My first 5 gallon batch using a lobster pot w/out a ball valve sucked. Trying to get the wort from the pot to my fermenter was a ***** and I had lots of hops and other crap. Bought a polarware 42 qt with ball valve. OMG, what a pleasure. After you chill, a lot of the crap sinks to the bottom, and most of the transfer to the fermenter is as simple as a twist of the ball valve, in it goes through the hose, into my strainer funnel, into the fermenter. So much easier. So worth the money.
 
Ball valve all the way. I used to lift my older (smaller) kettle to pour into my fermenter. More than once I did it too quick and spilled a bit and that wort is a b&*ch to clean off the floor and surrounding items. I've since upgraded and moved my boils to outside but it's still a necessity for me. I hookup tubing to my Blichmann kettle and drain into my fermenter through a strainer. I basically hold the hose over the strainer to catch the hops and other solids. Wouldn't ever go back to a main kettle without a ball valve unless I was abducted and had to live in a 3rd world country and was still somehow able to make beer.


Rev.
 
10 gallons pot into an ice bath? Wow, that's a lot of effort. I put a valve on my 10 gallon because I just got tired of lugging that hot monster into the utility room to chill it with the IC and water tub. A valve lets me leave it on the stove until cleaning, and it is empty and cool then. A weldless valve can be found for under 20 bucks. Best upgrade for the money for any brewer.
 
I makes it a lot easier to transfer wort. What is it, $30-40 for a valve kit? Considering how many batches of beer you'll drain through it, I would, or did actually.
 
So is it possible to drill your own hole into a kettle and add your own weldless valve? If so how?
 
brewmax25 said:
So is it possible to drill your own hole into a kettle and add your own weldless valve? If so how?

Get a step bit at home depot or the like. Buy a weldless bulkhead kit and screw the parts together thru the hole you make with the bit. Pretty easy.
 
I have a cheap (thin) 5g kettle that I drilled for a valve and a thermometer. I don't remember where I got the info to do it, but it must have been this forum or youtube. Now, my kettle is very thin, so I do not know how this would work on a thicker kettle. I used a hole-saw. You know, the kind that fits on a drill? I used some oil as I drilled it. It was surprisingly easy. There is also a step drill bit, that shaped like a cone and get wider as you drill. I have never used one of those. But, all that said, I wouldn't want to do it on an expensive kettle. I just don't have the confidence.
 
I find having a ball valve on my 15g brew kettle extremely useful. If it's not too much extra money I'd invest in one. I think it'd be more cost effective to buy a pot with a ball valve already mounted instead of purchasing a pot, purchase the weldless kit, drilling the hole yourself (and possibly making a mistake), and mount it.

~SB
 
dbrewski said:
Get a step bit at home depot or the like. Buy a weldless bulkhead kit and screw the parts together thru the hole you make with the bit. Pretty easy.

This. Measure up from the base of the pot to the center of where you want your hole, then ease the step bit in to the step that marks your desired hole diameter. It's probably cheaper to buy it installed, though, unless you have the step bit already OR (in my case) figure you'll do this repeatedly over the coming years :)
 
I don't think it's cheaper to buy it installed. If you are currently not using a kettle with a valve, get the best kettle you can afford without one. If you ever decide you want or need one, go to brew hardware dot com and you can get whatever accessories you want for the pot (sight glass, thermometer, valve, etc.) and the step bit for less than you will pay for them in a pot. You can add them as you need, and they also sell the step bit for like $12 or something, at home depot I think they are more like $30-50.
 
why is it worth it to you?

It's worth it to me because it just makes life easier. I probably could've gotten by without one until I started AG brewing since I use an immersion chiller. But it sure made transferring the wort to the carboy really simple.

But now that I do AG, I heat up both my strike and sparge water in the brew kettle and use the valve to transfer the hot liquid into my mash tun cooler via gravity. Trying to move gallons of 180 degree water without the valve would be very challenging and maybe even dangerous.
 
Buy a weldless kit & drill bit and install your own. Your total cost will probably be ~$30. A ball valve on the kettle eliminates alot of lifting heavy hot water (as mentioned above). It is a cheap tool that comes in handy. I put a weldless valve on my 5 gallon BK and am installing one on my 10 gallon kettle tonight.
 
Don't forget to check your LHBS too! Mine will drill the hole for me (free of charge) when I finally pony up and buy a weld-less ball valve kit from them.
 
So I am brand new to this, learning / equipment purchasing phase. I keep reading how the valve makes it so much easier even with an IC because you can drain through the valve into the fermenter without moving the kettle.

Do i assume that means everyone is boiling at some reasonable height? If I have a burner on the ground I cant see making much use of the valve unless I am subsequently moving the ketle to higher ground.

Am i missing something here? It seems lifting and pouring a 5 gal batch would be rather easy, and would aerate in the process. More than 5 sure, but with 5 gal batches does the valve really help?

My purchase list has a 10 gal SS pot no valve for 5 gal batches, now I am second guessing.
 
So I am brand new to this, learning / equipment purchasing phase. I keep reading how the valve makes it so much easier even with an IC because you can drain through the valve into the fermenter without moving the kettle.

Do i assume that means everyone is boiling at some reasonable height? If I have a burner on the ground I cant see making much use of the valve unless I am subsequently moving the ketle to higher ground.

Am i missing something here? It seems lifting and pouring a 5 gal batch would be rather easy, and would aerate in the process. More than 5 sure, but with 5 gal batches does the valve really help?

My purchase list has a 10 gal SS pot no valve for 5 gal batches, now I am second guessing.

I built this small brew rig. I heat my strike water in the kettle and set the mash tun on the ground to fill it. I lift the mash tun to the top tier, and after mashing, it can flow back into the boil kettle. Since I needed to have my chiller at a height above the fermenter, I have to lift the kettle to the top of the stand to get a good flow through the chiller. It has never been a problem with my 3 gallon batches, but I just got a new 8 gallon kettle for 5 gallon batches, so I think I am either going to raise the burner on this stand, or I am just going to start over and build another one.
In any case a simple brew rig makes setting up for brew day a breeze, since much of it doesn't move (CFC, Propane tank, burner...). Good luck!

Brew Rig 3g.JPG
 
Do i assume that means everyone is boiling at some reasonable height? If I have a burner on the ground I cant see making much use of the valve unless I am subsequently moving the ketle to higher ground.

Am i missing something here? It seems lifting and pouring a 5 gal batch would be rather easy

I have the leg extensions for my Bilchmann burner which allows it to drain through my tubing into my fermenter.

Lifting a 5 gallon kettle is surely not a problem for those like myself in middle age (late 30's) but it is for some others. Even that aside, can you honestly say you've never once messed up a little and poured too fast or shifted and spilled some wort? If not, then just keep doing it the way you're doing it. I for one only spilled some wort twice, not enough to affect my volume dramatically at all, but cleaning spilled sticky wort off the objects it hits is a major PITA. I'm happy doing it the way I do it now :)


Rev.
 
After you chill it, it's nice to keep all that sediment on the bottom. Using the valve does not disturb the crap on the bottom until you get to the very end.
 
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