Is this brew pot too big?

[AirRageous]

My daughter found huge aluminum pot at a garage sale and bought it for me for $50.00. It is 20 inches in diameter and 18.5 inches deep (high). It has a nice smooth operating valve and spout. It also has a removable screen inside over the the spout.

So, somebody make sure my math is correct.

Volume of cylinder is: V = (Pi)r2h, where Pi = 3.142, r = the radius of the cylinder, and h = its height.

10 x 10 x 3.142 = 314.2 x 18.5 5812.7 cubic inches.

1 US gallon = 231.0 cubic inches

5812.7 / 231 = 25.16 Gallons

So, this beast is 25 gallons. I have a 26 quart turkey fryer that I can just barely do a 5 gal. full boil in. I have only done five 5 gal. batches so far. Is this pot too big for a 5 gallon batch? Too much surface area and boil off potential? Would I be better off doing a 10 gallon batch?

 

[QueenCityALER]

Nice! Let me know if you wanna sell it.

 

[MacBruver]

Duuuude! that is an awesome score for $50. All I can say is- try it! It is a bigass pot with bigass surface area, but you'll never know til you give it a shot.

Are you going to be using the turkey fryer burner? My only concern in that case would be making sure that the pot has enough support.

 

[wilserbrewer]

Nice pot, we are all little bit jealous. While not what you would purchase retail for five gallon batches, it will work fine. You may have to make adjustments to your pre boil volume to account for more boil-off. You can also add some top off water mid boil if you are running short until you become familiar w/ the new pot. Ten gallon batches are a great idea if you can handle them in other areas.

You could do a 1/2 keg batch in that pot!

 

[AirRageous]

Are you going to be using the turkey fryer burner? My only concern in that case would be making sure that the pot has enough support.

My burner is a Bayou Classic 154,000 btu with a very heavy stand. It was overkill for the 26 qt pot. I had to just barely crack open the gas or the wort would jump out of the pot. That should not be a problem. Thanks

 

[beach]

Sweet is all I can say.

 

[TheFlyingSparge]

great find!

 

[Laughing_Gnome_Invisible]

Man, you have one awesome daughter. You will love her even more than you ever did before when it finds it's place in your set up. Congrats!!

 

[AirRageous]

Man, you have one awesome daughter. You will love her even more than you ever did before when it finds it's place in your set up. Congrats!!

Yeah, but now she and my son in law want me to brew more beer for them .....

 

[Gremlyn]

At least you have the capacity for that beer to be brewed

 

[BrewBeemer]

My daughter found huge aluminum pot at a garage sale and bought it for me for $50.00. It is 20 inches in diameter and 18.5 inches deep (high). It has a nice smooth operating valve and spout. It also has a removable screen inside over the the spout.

So, somebody make sure my math is correct.

Volume of cylinder is: V = (Pi)r2h, where Pi = 3.142, r = the radius of the cylinder, and h = its height.

10 x 10 x 3.142 = 314.2 x 18.5 5812.7 cubic inches.

1 US gallon = 231.0 cubic inches

5812.7 / 231 = 25.16 Gallons

So, this beast is 25 gallons. I have a 26 quart turkey fryer that I can just barely do a 5 gal. full boil in. I have only done five 5 gal. batches so far. Is this pot too big for a 5 gallon batch? Too much surface area and boil off potential? Would I be better off doing a 10 gallon batch?

I always liked; diameter squared times .7854 times the depth of the cylinder or in this case the pots depth then you'll have the cu/in of volume. With the standard of 231 cu/in to the gallon (or 3,784 ml to the gallon) you must also allow for some head space above the liquid level to the top of the pot. Remember to allow for this deduction of volume measurement. Given it has a large mouth or opening that will result in a faster rate of boil off. I would add a lid with a 10" hole cut into it to reduce your open area and boil off rate. Add a couple handles and your good to go. Congrats on a great find. I would insulate it as this will save a lot of wasted heating energy.

I have a 16" Dia by 17 1/2" tall almost brand new stainless pot with a weldless valve near the very bottom that was saved from the stainless scrap pile given to me for free by a friend knowing i'm into brewing. It still has the new mirror finish inside and out. This comes to 3,518.59 cu/in, I deducted 3 inches for a normal useful filled volume. Brim filled of 15.232 gallons, real life use of 2,915.40 cu/in or 12.62 useful gallons of container volume.
Take note of manufactures and other suppliers of containers on what they can hold and what is the useful working volume, you don't want to be screwed knowing this after the deliver. Just a heads up.

 

[Catt22]

"I would add a lid with a 10" hole cut into it to reduce your open area and boil off rate. Add a couple handles and your good to go."

BrewBeemer- I don't think this will help. It's the surface area of the wort and the intensity of the heat that governs the boil off rate and a lid with a hole in it won't change the surface area.

This kettle might be a little big for a five gallon batch, but it will work. Might have to add some additional water to compensate for the increase in boil off.

His volume calcs check out OK. I like to calc the cubic inches then divide by 1728 to get cubic feet, then convert cubic feet to gallons. 1 cu. ft. = 7.48 gallons. It's the same end result, I just have those conversion numbers embedded in my bios from my engineering days. There's more than one way to skin a Catt.

 

[arturo7]

Nice pot.

Now you must adjust all your recipes to 10 gal.

...and get a larger mash tun

...and a larger lauter tun

...maybe another carboy or two.

Probably wouldn't hurt to recruit a friend or family member to be your brew buddy,

 

[bad coffee]

I'd cover half the top with a piece of foil when you do the 5 gallon batch. It will cut evaporation quite a bit.

B

 

[david_42]

Bad deal! Now you have to build a bigger mash tun, buy more carboys and expand the kegger. That won't be cheap.

I have an 80 quart pot and haven't had any problems with boil-off. Just a matter of getting the flame right.

 

[Laughing_Gnome_Invisible]

I just took another look at the pic. You have a problem. This pot is no good.

Take a look at the rim. It appears blurred. This is most likely because it exists in a temporal fracture. The top half of the kettle exists simultaneously ten minutes in the past and ten minutes in the future. This will likely screw up the timing of your hop additions as they pass through the opening.

I have read up in Palmer's book about this, and surprisingly he doesn't even bother to try and address this problem.

Good luck with your crappy time-confused pot. I would only give 5 bucks for it, and even then you would have to ship it to me for free!




Please.

 

[khiddy]

Is adding any sort of lid or foil, just to reduce boil-off, actually a good idea? Wouldn't that cause some DMS to be concentrated and drip back into the boil?

 

[pen25]

Yeah, but now she and my son in law want me to brew more beer for them .....

give the daughter and son a beer and you will keep giving them beer.

teach them to brew and they wil brew a life time. ;-)

 

[t-bag]

I heard somewhere that aluminum wasnt a good metal to brew beer in something about off flavors from the aluminum kind of like how a beer tastes like a can if its in can vs. a bottle. idk im just pissed that i had to buy stainless steel at 50 bucks for a 22 quart and everyone here seems to think aluminum is awesome.

 

[camiller]

Nice pot.

Now you must adjust all your recipes to 10 gal.

...and get a larger mash tun

...and a larger lauter tun

...maybe another carboy or two.

Probably wouldn't hurt to recruit a friend or family member to be your brew buddy,

Let me fix that:

Now you must adjust all your recipes to 18 gal.

...and get a much larger mash tun

...and a much larger lauter tun

...maybe another carboy or two, or three, or four.

 

[wildwest450]

Is adding any sort of lid or foil, just to reduce boil-off, actually a good idea? Wouldn't that cause some DMS to be concentrated and drip back into the boil?

I wouldn't do it. Who cares if you have a high boil off rate? It's an easy adjustment once you do a batch. I use a 15 gallon pot for 5 gallon batches and boil off 2 gallons per hour. Just use brewing software and have at it!

 

[PintOfBitter]

I just took another look at the pic. You have a problem. This pot is no good.

Take a look at the rim. It appears blurred. This is most likely because it exists in a temporal fracture. The top half of the kettle exists simultaneously ten minutes in the past and ten minutes in the future. This will likely screw up the timing of your hop additions as they pass through the opening.

I have read up in Palmer's book about this, and surprisingly he doesn't even bother to try and address this problem.

Good luck with your crappy time-confused pot. I would only give 5 bucks for it, and even then you would have to ship it to me for free!




Please.

hah! why did nobody else find this funny?

 

[alpo]

Is that an NPT bulkhead welded on there as well?

 

[AirRageous]

Wow, been out of pocket for a couple of days and this thread went from one page to three.... cool. Now to address some of the comments.

Laughing Gnome: Good guess but you got it all wrong. It is not the pot dementionally challenged making the for the blurry pic. It was me. Just as I snapped the shutter, the aliens starting the abduction beam. That's why I have been out of pocket for a while.

I already figured that I would have to do at least 10 gal batches but now I think 15. I am setting up a brew day for Memorial Day with my son-in-law and a friend. THEY split the ingredient costs and they get their own fermenters. We do a 15 gal batch and we all take our fermenters home to bubble away. They supply their own bottles and I will help them bottle later.

I have only been doing extract and one PM batch so far. My next purchase were going to be a mash tun and lauter tun for all grain. Now I need to re-figure how big those need to be.

Alpo: What is a NPT bulkhead? Sorry if that is a noob question.

 

[Thirstyone]

As long as you don't make more than you can ferment and chill, it will never be too large!

 

[AirRageous]

My son-in-law and I brewed a 10 gallon PM batch yesterday. It only filled the BIG POT to just under half but it worked great. The boil off in one hour was only about one gallon. We topped it off with water and all is good. It was also nice for the boil over problem. With so much extra space, we could control the boil over easily. We will get a third partner involved next time and do 15 gallons. Then each of us takes his 5 gallon fermenter home to bubble away.

 

[AirRageous]

OK, we have now stepped up to a 15 gallon batch. We brewed on Sunday and it worked great. The level was still well below the lip so boil over was not a big concern. It got close once but was slow enough to stop easily. No constant hovering over the pot. I am sure we can do a 20 gallon batch with no problem. Now just have to get some more brew partners involved to help with the costs.

 

[wilserbrewer]

Now just have to get some more brew partners involved to help with the costs.

With a beautiful large pot like that, what you need IMHO is a mash tun and a sack of grain. Going all grain will lower your costs substantially if you can buy by the sack especially.

Have fun!

 

[AirRageous]

Yep, AG is on my "to do" list. How big of a cooler would I need to get to make a MLT for a good 15 - 20 gallon batch?

 

[wilserbrewer]

My rule of thumb is 1.5 times batch size, so that would be a 120 quart cooler for 20 gallon batches. Damn, thats a biggie, a 100 qt. would work for 20 gallons of moderate gravity batch sparging. Just a heads up, a 20 gallon batch would have that 25 gallon kettle pretty damn near the rim accounting for boil off and losses to trub. A full 15 gallon batch might be a more comfortable number?? Good luck!


Here is an excellent thread if you really want to know the details.
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f11/how-big-your-mash-tun-needs-123585/