Is my stock pot too small?

[Cur]

My boyfriend and I just brewed our first batch of beer last weekend (Holiday ale) and we used an 8 qt stock pot. It seemed to work out fine and we were able to boil it for an hour but I've read that making wort in a quantity this small can really reduce the flavor. Any idea how this will turn out? Is there anything we can add to it at this point? I'm expecting a bigger stock pot for Christmas, but we're thinking about brewing a second batch of something (IPA maybe) before then. Should we wait until we've got a bigger pot?

Thanks!

 

[Sacdan]

You should try to get at least 3 gallons of boiling wort. You can then add water to the primary to bring it to 5 gallons. I would recommend at least a 16-20qt pot.

 

[Synovia]

You should try to get at least 3 gallons of boiling wort. You can then add water to the primary to bring it to 5 gallons. I would recommend at least a 16-20qt pot.

16-20qt pots aren't really any cheaper than 32-35 qt pots. Aluminum stock pots in the 8+ gallon range can be had for less than $20 in a lot of places.

 

[Runyanka]

You can find stock pots really cheap from online resturant supply stores.
http://www.lmgtfy.com/?q=aluminum+stock+pots

 

[springer]

I bought a 24 qt SS pot at Sam's for 58$ nice heavy pot with the aluminum tri clad base.
They also have a 40 Qt aluminum for 53.$ pot online

 

[Rowdy]

go to boscovs in the mall and get a 20 qt stainless for 12 dollars.
will hold you over until you get something better..

link
http://www.boscovs.com/StoreFrontWe...itemNumber=12585&assortmentId=12&type=Product

 

[david_42]

The problem with making an IPA in such a small pot is the limit on bittering, followed by dilution. Say you have 1.5 gallons in the pot and max out the IBUs at 100. When you dilute to 5 gallons, your IBUs drop to 30. Not in the IPA range. One way around this problem is to boil part of your hops in the top-off water and cool it ahead of time. You could do two 1.5 gallon batches, then just add flavor and aroma hops to the boiling wort.

Or wait for the bigger pot.

 

[Richabt]

Yes to everything said.
If you can boil more volume, you will get better hop utilization. If you did a side by side comparison of the batch you made and a batch made with higher volume, you will taste a difference. It doesn't mean your beer will be bad, but it could be a little better.

 

[Sacdan]

Bigger is better. I do full boils as well. If you can do that, definately do that!

 

[wstcstwil]

i bought this pot on amazon.....not the cheapest but its stainless of good quality. dont buy aluminum unless you are real hard up.

Amazon

 

[Scimmia]

dont buy aluminum unless you are real hard up.

You'll need to back that statement up. Many, many people brew in aluminum without any problem at all.

 

[Cur]

Wstcstwil - thats actually the pot I asked for for Christmas!

I think we'll go ahead and wait till we've got the 20 qt pot before brewing again. In the mean time, since we made so little wort and lost out on a lot of hoppiness, would it be a good idea to dry hop in secondary?

 

[springer]

i bought this pot on amazon.....not the cheapest but its stainless of good quality. dont buy aluminum unless you are real hard up.

Please explain?

 

[wstcstwil]

Please explain?

Not sure why as im a noob. But the two books i have read say stainless is clearly the way to go. My guy at my local home brew store also said the same thing.

I am sure some other ppl on here will know specifically why.

 

[Scimmia]

Not sure why as im a noob. But the two books i have read say stainless is clearly the way to go. My guy at my local home brew store also said the same thing.

I am sure some other ppl on here will know specifically why.

AFAIK, it's from an old rumor that aluminum will give you Alzheimers and/or give you a metallic off flavor, neither of which have been proven. Aluminum builds up an inert oxide layer, making it a non-issue anyway.

 

[springer]

Not sure why as im a noob. But the two books i have read say stainless is clearly the way to go. My guy at my local home brew store also said the same thing.

I am sure some other ppl on here will know specifically why.

the books were most likely written when they were investigating the possibility that cooking with aluminum may cause Alzheimer's there has been no proof it does. Don't know why the home brew guy would say that maybe he read the same books. This is very long thread on that subject here on HBT aluminum boil kettles I have and will continue to use my 30 gallon and 20 gallon aluminum pots. And I do have keggles also .

 

[Buffman]

Not sure how we got off-topic into the steel v. aluminum debate here. To the OP, I wouldn't worry about dry hopping if your recipe doesn't call for it. Dry hopping will mostly give you hop aroma; what you lost with a small boil was hop bitterness. I don't know any way to get bitterness in at this point. My advice is don't worry about it.