Growing pains, bigger kettles... Anyone do this?

[Tutsbrew]

Anybody here do the same kind of hindsight forehead slapping?

I wanted to brew at home so I got a kit, a kettle, fermenter, yada-yada. Then I got a nice 5 gallon pot to do full boils with extract and it was not quite big enough to allow comfort at the hot break, and ya know, some day I'd like to do all grain so I got an 8 gallon brew kettle, a nice one from MoreBeer! ...Now I just finished my first all grain doing a 7 gallon, 90 minute boil and the 8 gallon flipp'n pot is barely large enough, causing a bit of stress at the hot break. So, I've got a nice couple of tri-clad pots I've outgrown all in the course of half a flipp'n year, I'm in the market for a 10 gallon or larger... :smack:

Note to newbies (newbier than I): Think about the pot you'd like to have. What size would ya like? Double that and get it or you'll be admitting to idiotic behavior such as I just did...

 

[Jupapabear]

Yes. My 30 quart is pretty much too small for 5 gallon batches. I all grain brew only so far, and am looking to get a keggle or something of similar size. Go big, or plan on spending more soon.

 

[Black Island Brewer]

The same can be said for mash tuns. I use a keggle with a false bottom for mashing, and even with that I found a 10 gallon doppelbock is pushing it right to the limit. If I had lower efficiency, I couldn't make it! My original 10 gallon gott cooler would have never held it!

 

[Malric]

Very true. I went from a 3 gallon to 5 and finally 10. On the plus side, I was able to donate my old equipment to people that were just starting out.

 

[vNmd]

Note to newbies (newbier than I): Think about the pot you'd like to have. What size would ya like? Double that and get it or you'll be admitting to idiotic behavior such as I just did...

I read several posts like yours before I bought and took their advice and started with a 10 gal. When it arrived and I seen how big it was I thought OMG, what did I buy. It wouldn't fit in my sink for cleaning or under my cabinet for storage, I should have bought a smaller one. I started doing 5 gal extract batches. That 2 - 3 gallons of boiling liquid looked tiny in that huge pot. Again I thought OMG what did I buy, I should have went with a smaller one.

I have since moved to AG (5 gal BIAB). The pot is perfect, even though I have to clean it on the floor. Thanks to the people who make posts like this one to help others in the learning process. Newbies: listen to these people who have been where you are and are giving advice to make your journey easier.

 

[Epimetheus]

OTOH, don't worry too much about the size of your kettle. (insert off-color jokes here) You can adapt your process to the equipment, and if you decide to get something else there is a ready market for used equipment.

I successfully create 5 gallon batches, all grain, BIAB, in a 32 liter pot on an electric stove. It is just personal preference that I don't want to use propane outside or a larger boil kettle.

If you enjoy using the big stuff, go for it! Having fun with the tools is part of the hobby.

 

[Skeptidelphian]

This is why when I was asked for Christmas ideas by SWMBO, I hinted at a 15 gallon pot. I may do 10 gallon batches some day.

 

[skitter]

Damn, and here I am dreaming of when I can go from a 6qt a 12qt pot for my LBK sized batches...

Good to know when I start building up my 5g operation, I'll make sure I hit a 10g or so pot

 

[Redbeard5289]

Found myself in similiar situations... Used a 7.5 gal pot for years to brew in and when I got a 15.5 gal keggle I recycled my 7.5gal pot to be my hot liquor tank for my brewstand. The things that I can't recycle I throw up on craigslist for some extra $$ to buy new equipment or pass along to another brewer who is starting up.
Been fortunate to have HBT and fellow brewers in the neighborhood to bounce ideas off of and get a better grasp of what I will need now and in the future for brewing.
Rebeard5289

 

[ja09]

When I first upgraded to my 15g kettle from my 5g, I thought this thing was gigantic and maybe overkill. Now I realize 15g is perfect for 5 to 8g batches, but cutting it a little close for 10+g batches, especially with longer boils. Since I like to fill my fermenters with at least 5.5g each, I will be selling the 15 and upgrading to 20, then probably complaining in this same thread a year from now!

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[RM-MN]

I went the other way, I bought a bigger pot so I had room for 5 gallon batches and now I rarely use it because I have begun brewing mostly small batches to favor my bad back.

 

[Tutsbrew]

Hey RM,

One gallon or 10, you are still brewing! Here's to that!

 

[jtratcliff]

If you are willing to go aluminum, you can upgrade on the cheap. I just scored a 52 qt aluminum tamale steamer today for $19.99 + tax at local supermarket chain (Super King for you SoCal folks)

I got my 40 qt at Smart n Final for $19.99 a couple years ago.

If need to stay SS... Well, I can't help you there

 

[mjdonnelly68]

I agree with the sentiment that you should buy a little bigger pot than you think you need with the caveat that you stay within the bounds of practicality.

I started with an 8g boil kettle. 8g seemed to be simultaneously big enough and not big enough.

When I went to buy up, I looked at 15g kettles and finally bought 20g kettles. My thinking was: the difference between 15g and 20g was negligible, and 20g would allow me to do both 5 and 10 gallon batches.

A year plus later after 50 or so mostly 5 gallon batches, I'm looking at replacing my 20g behemoths with 10g pots.

20g are a PITA to lift, clean and store. 10g pots are more than sufficient for 5g batches. Through experience it's clear that 10g pots are more practical for a mostly 5 gallon brewer.

Admittedly, the 20g will come in handy on those rare occasions I brew 10 gallon batches. But if I could only have one set of pots, the 20g would be on Craigslist as we speak.

Pots are like penises: huge is the ideal, but most of us do fine with just big enough.

 

[AgentHubcap]

I like my keggle. I do mostly 10 gallon batches and it works out perfect. I had a 10 gallon pot before that for my 5 gallon biab setup, and that was great at the time, too.

If I were to do it again, I'd probably go with proper kettles over keggles, though. They just seem easier

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[Piratwolf]

An odd tip for those of you fighting boil-overs: drop your 60min addition in the kettle as you're running your wort out of the mash (if you do extract, add them as you heat your water once it hits 185-190F or so. It's called "first wort hopping" or FWH and, while there are disputes about the flavor effects, one thing it DOES is help keep the foam down. I regularly* boil ~14 gallons in my 15 gallon pot & have not had a single boil-over, and the only difference I know of is that I FWH all my beers.

*I brewed about 50 batches this year, so this is a reasonable amount of experience to pull from

 

[Malric]

Most 'experts' (Jamil, John Palmer, etc) claim that FWH hopping imparts some degree of flavor and a smoother bitterness. They also claim that there is an increased perceived bitterness.

 

[Beernik]

I think increasing by 5 gallon increments or doubling are good rules of thumb depending upon how aggressive you want to expand.

My first pot was a 5 gallon. I got pretty good at doing a 4 gallon boil in it. From there I upgraded to a 10 gallon pot. From here I'm looking at converting a keg.

 

[skitter]

I just bought a 4g at Walmart, SS 16qt for my Mr. Beer sized (2.5g) batches. I may actually be able to do All Grain/BIAB in that!

 

[Zuljin]

Small pot advantages:
1. Faster cooking times because it's less volume.
2. Easier to clean in the kitchen sink.
3. May be easier to cook on a kitchen stove top, especially an electric.
4. If it's a five gallon brew, and you can only cook about four gallons, you get to add one gallon (or more) of ice cold make up water. That'll aid in cooling to pitching temperature.

Small pot disadvantages:
1. It's a pita to stand watch over a small pot filled nearly to the brim. If you don't, you'll loose wort to boil overs and have a big, hot, sticky mess.
2. You have to really watch how much your ingredients add to the volume.
3. Stirring can also be a pita.
4. Sometimes you have to shut the heat off to quell a boil over.

I'd go for that aluminum tamale pot for five+ gallon batches before I went back to a smaller stainless steel pot. I've used an aluminum 18 pound turkey fryer pot (about 6.5 gallons) for years. It's easier than watching the smaller ss pot, but I still have to watch diligently for boil overs and often come up short of five gallons and have to top off. Here recently, I got a nine gallon Bayou Classic ss pot off Amazon for $55. I think brewing just got easier.

 

[Piratwolf]

Most 'experts' (Jamil, John Palmer, etc) claim that FWH hopping imparts some degree of flavor and a smoother bitterness. They also claim that there is an increased perceived bitterness.

Not sure why you put 'experts' like that, given that they are by any reasonable measure. Regardless, those are recipe issues rather than process issues. Since this thread seemed to be focused on a particular process issue, I offered a process suggestion.

 

[DubBrew]

I experienced these growing pains as well. Started with the stock pot we had int he house, maybe three gallons. I immediately wanted to do full boils so I bought a 5.5 gallon pot which of course was too small. Then I jumped to a bayou classic turkey fryer and ultimately a keggle. The good part was all of the old pots were re-purposed. The stock pot went back to regular house duty, the 5.5 gallon pot is now a nice small batch stove top kettle for when the weather is to crappy to brew outside, the bayou classic is my HLT/HERMS kettle and I runt he Keggle which maxes out at 12.5 gallons. I don't have any desire to go larger unless of course I go pro

But yeah, plan ahead. If you like the hobby get a flexible setup that can do 5 and 10 gallons batches early on and skip the middle steps or plan ahead so you can re-purpose you kettles. I just got lucky, not thought was given to my plan.

 

[SoobDood]

I have a 30gt SS steamer/stock pot I use. I just add cold water into the fermenter to make up the difference. I make 5gal at a time. Pretty simple. I use the BIAB method and the steamer basket helps to lift out the grain bags for sparging!

It came with the pot so why not use it?

 

[Tutsbrew]

Most 'experts' (Jamil, John Palmer, etc) claim that FWH hopping imparts some degree of flavor and a smoother bitterness. They also claim that there is an increased perceived bitterness.

....Re-read the OP. Cheers!

Shouldn't all peeps writing a reply read the OP, at least, and reply accordingly?

 

[Malric]

....Re-read the OP. Cheers!

Shouldn't all peeps writing a reply read the OP, at least, and reply accordingly?

I'm not sure why this thread is bringing out the angst, but, perhaps you could read the entire thread before flaming?

Very true. I went from a 3 gallon to 5 and finally 10. On the plus side, I was able to donate my old equipment to people that were just starting out.

Cheers

 

[Tutsbrew]

Malric, sorry if I 'flamed' on someone or if you felt slighted. It could be that I was just letting someone know that a post about first wort hopping with no input regarding the subject matter in the OP (my OP) places that post off topic and perhaps I'm a bit overly picky that way? On other forums it drove me nuts how, for one example, a discussion that was started about Glock reliability led to posts about Kahr Arms factory locations and eventually to peanut butter. -Sigh- Anyway, I hope no worries.

Again, my apologies if I came off as an a$$.

Best to you and yours and all of ours.

 

[rico567]

I bought a 30 qt. pot when I started brewing, brewed extract batches in it for 18 months, then switched to AG. I have no problems doing a full 6.5 gal. boil in a 7.5 gal. pot. The secret is simple: Fermcap-S, available from finer homebrew suppliers everywhere. There's no magic here. It jus uses the same stuff as Di-Gel or other antacids to keep bubbles from forming. Just 6-7 drops when the boil starts, and I can walk away. No worries.

 

[ktblunden]

Malric, sorry if I 'flamed' on someone or if you felt slighted. It could be that I was just letting someone know that a post about first wort hopping with no input regarding the subject matter in the OP (my OP) places that post off topic and perhaps I'm a bit overly picky that way? On other forums it drove me nuts how, for one example, a discussion that was started about Glock reliability led to posts about Kahr Arms factory locations and eventually to peanut butter. -Sigh- Anyway, I hope no worries.

Again, my apologies if I came off as an a$$.

Best to you and yours and all of ours.

You bumped the thread 4 months later for a "so there"? His post was in response to the post directly before his.

Regardless, on the actual topic, I went from partial boils in the pot that came with my turkey frier to a 10 gallon aluminum pot. When I was shopping for my Spike Brewing kettle I decided to go for a 15 gallon to allow for 10 gallon batches down the road. Thinking of doing a split batch pretty soon, so the extra capacity will come in handy.

 

[rico567]

Malric, sorry if I 'flamed' on someone or if you felt slighted. It could be that I was just letting someone know that a post about first wort hopping with no input regarding the subject matter in the OP (my OP) places that post off topic and perhaps I'm a bit overly picky that way? On other forums it drove me nuts how, for one example, a discussion that was started about Glock reliability led to posts about Kahr Arms factory locations and eventually to peanut butter. -Sigh- Anyway, I hope no worries.

Again, my apologies if I came off as an a$$.

Best to you and yours and all of ours.

C'mon, everyone knows that Jif "Skippy" Washington invented peanut butter. I read it on the Internet, so it must be true.

 

[MindenMan]

I have an important question( to me ) If I use fermcap how do i know I am past hot break?

 

[rico567]

You bumped the thread 4 months later for a "so there"? His post was in response to the post directly before his.



Regardless, on the actual topic, I went from partial boils in the pot that came with my turkey frier to a 10 gallon aluminum pot. When I was shopping for my Spike Brewing kettle I decided to go for a 15 gallon to allow for 10 gallon batches down the road. Thinking of doing a split batch pretty soon, so the extra capacity will come in handy.

I dunno- I just use Fermcap to keep the boil from foaming up.


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[broncosmoker]

Growing pains depend on conditions as well. I started out on keggles and a 72 qt cooler, five and six gallon carboys. Now I have 16 gallon spiedels, just picked up a 130 qt cooler and am looking to go to 25 gal pots, in just a little over a year. I also am keeping a smaller set to play around with experiments and doing small batches inside for test batches. Now am gearing up to build a new brewstand and searching for an upright freezer.

So even if you think it is enough, do yourself a favor and think out the long term in detail. If you want five gallon batches to keg, is you pot big enough to hold the grain for really making a 6.5 plus batch with correct water ratios? It's a lot of little questions you need to look at when deciding what size is worth it.

 

[sputnam]

did the same thing. fortunately i started with 2.5 gallon extract, now I'm comfortable at 3 gallon all grain so I only bought 5 pots so far but still need another so I can make the 90 minute boils....uuugh

 

[Tutsbrew]

You bumped the thread 4 months later for a "so there"? His post was in response to the post directly before his.

Regardless, on the actual topic, I went from partial boils in the pot that came with my turkey frier to a 10 gallon aluminum pot. When I was shopping for my Spike Brewing kettle I decided to go for a 15 gallon to allow for 10 gallon batches down the road. Thinking of doing a split batch pretty soon, so the extra capacity will come in handy.

Am looking at upgrading cooling capacity, growing pains never stop!

Oh, and KT, I had already apologized to Malric. I think you missed that part...

 

[govner1]

You bumped the thread 4 months later for a "so there"? His post was in response to the post directly before his.



Regardless, on the actual topic, I went from partial boils in the pot that came with my turkey frier to a 10 gallon aluminum pot. When I was shopping for my Spike Brewing kettle I decided to go for a 15 gallon to allow for 10 gallon batches down the road. Thinking of doing a split batch pretty soon, so the extra capacity will come in handy.

I'm not sure 15 gal will give you the size you'll need for 10 gal batches. Especially if you plan on any big beers. Your boil volume could easily approach 12-14 gal. Not a lot of room for vigorous boils.


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