Can I use my beer pots for cooking other stuff?
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As long as it is clean I'd guess you can cook anything in stainless with no issues. 
That! ^As long as it is clean I'd guess you can cook anything in stainless with no issues.
When there's anything greasy involved with cooking, make sure to thoroughly remove it from your kettle or it will kill your foam. Use hot Oxyclean or PBW. Perhaps with some lye added (wear eye and skin protection). Don't forget to clean your valves too.
I make chicken stock in one of my spare kettles, like 6 gallons worth, at a time.
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.
HB_ATL73
Well-Known Member
Used to do low country boils in my 15 gallon pot. Just clean well afterwards
if you keg your ginger beer, you might need to replace the o-rings afterwards? but i'd imagine the pot should be fine....
RPh_Guy
Bringing Sour Back
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.
GrowleyMonster
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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.
WBB
Grab me another beer please!
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!
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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.
Bamos6928
Well-Known Member
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.
