I just got a 16 gallon kettle with spigot and a 52 quart Coleman Xtreme cooler to use as a mash tun. I will primarily be brewing 5 gallon batches but will do some 10 gallon batches periodically for beers I really love. I'll be brewing in sunny AZ so no concerns about heating up the kettle in freezing temps
I've looked at burners and am trying to decide between the Bayou Classic SQ14 (55,000 BTU) and Banjo KAB4 (210,000 BTU). I have a few questions here:
- Is the KAB4 flame adjustable enough to do 5 gallon batches without going overkill? I seem to remember reading it may not be?
- Would the SQ14 provide enough heat for 10 gallon batches? How long would it take to heat to a boil?
- Any other info I should know? Windscreen differences?
Same situation for the wort chiller. Primarily 5 gallon batches with the occasional 10 gallon batch. My questions:
- Any concerns with the height of a 16 gallon kettle? Does that rule out 25' ones?
- What size should I target? I'm thinking 50' because of the 10 gallon batches.
- Stainless or copper? I'm leaning towards SS for ease of cleaning.
- What model would you recommend I get? I would want to hook it up to a garden hose so that would be the ideal fitting.
Long post, I know, but thanks in advance!
What kind of chiller were you looking for? Immersion, CFC, Plate chiller?
As for the Stainless VS Copper, they both clean as easy. The only difference is that Copper will darken from just sitting there and will brighten up (immersion) once in the boiling wort or you leave it in Starsan for a little bit.
Copper conducts heat better than stainless but not by leaps and bounds better.
As for which one:
Immersions work better if you whirlpool your wort in the kettle while using the chiller or you stir the wort. The idea is you want the entire wort to get cooled. If you just leave it in there without moving the wort around, you'll develop cold and hot pockets and it will take longer to chill. Immersion are easier to clean and you can see if it's clean or not.
CFC: These are efficient in chilling as well and require no work during the chilling process. The do work best when a pump is used to pump the wort through but you can also gravity drain into them as well. These are basically a coil within a coil. The inner coil the Wort is passing through one way, the outer coil the water is passing through the opposite way the wort is going in. You don't have to stir the wort as the CFC is doing it all for you. Draw back is it takes a little more time to clean. I have a CFC and to clean it, I boil water with PBW directly in my BK that I use to clean the BK and then I whirlpool the boiling hot PBW solution through the CFC back into the BK for about 15-so minutes while I clean other items. By then the CFC is clean and then I flush it with clean out water.
Plate chiller: Sort of like a CFC except instead of coils, the wort and water are going through fins like a radiator within the plates. Same concept as a CFC, water in one way, wort in the other. I've never used a Plate chiller but some will swear by them. The down side to these are that because the wort is passing through small fins, you have to be careful with what is in your wort (hot break, hops, etc) and do a sort of pre-filter before it goes into the Plate chiller or you can clogged it. These also take some time to clean as well but you can not only pass boiling hot water with PBW through it (you'll want to pump in in the opposite port from where you pump your wort through so it will dislodge anything caught in he fins) but you can also take the plate chiller and bake it in your over to burn off anything inside of it and to sanitize it.
There are tons of threads on here regarding "which is better"
As for brands, and immersion chiller is an immersion chiller. A 50' one will give you more surface area to chill. Most people will just build there own with Copper tubing, there are a bunch of threads on here, do a search on building one if your interested in going that route.
Plate chillers there are so many different brands out there and they come in all different sizes, bigger the better cooling but will require more time to clean. i can't really recommend any since I've never used one, hopefully someone else can recommend one that they use.
As for CFC's, I have the Williams brewing stainless steel one(
http://www.williamsbrewing.com/STAINLESS-CONVOLUTED-COUNTERFLOW-CHILLER-P3452.aspx), works good. Others have been using the Zchiller ones and are extremely happy with the performance of them, I may switch to the Zchiller at some point:
http://zchillers.com/. there are also a few "Build your own threads" on here for CFC's as well.
One more way to chill that others use: They use no chiller at all. They close up the kettle and let the wort cool on it's own over night. If you have a stainless conical fermenter you can drain the hot wort right into it, close the lid and place a paper towel that was sprayed with starsan over the blow off hole. You don't want to make an airtight seal on the conical with hot wort or you'll damage the conical when it creates a vacuum. Once it's cooled, remove the paper towel, pitch your yeast and use you air lock/blow off tube as normal.
