Minimum Pot Size for Extract Brewing?

[schwarzk]

I've looked through a lot of threads already, so I apologize if this has been discussed already (actually, I'm sure it must have been, but I can't find it).

I have a 12 qt. stock pot at home that we almost never use for anything, and I was wondering if this could possibly be just big enough to do a boil when using an extract kit. I know bigger is better, but when you get down to it, what is the lowest you can go?

We hope to move up to all grain someday when we have a garage and/or basement to store all the equipment, but for now, I'm trying to avoid accumulating a lot of extra stuff that we would just want to upgrade later. My husband and I have done wine and [gasp] no-boil kits in the past, so we already have hall closets jammed full of primaries, our carboy, and bottling equipment.

If 12 qts. is too small what about the 15 qt. one from Austin Hombrew that's on sale for $5.99? I saw that mentioned in another thread--it's cheap, but only 3 qts. bigger than what we have, so I wonder if it's worth it.

Thanks!!

 

[Yooper]

You can boil in a 12 quart pot. I think that you'd get best results with adding the bulk of the extract at the end of the boil, and there are many brewers who do a 2 or 2.5 gallon boil. I'd go ahead and give it a try before buying a new pot.

 

[OHIOSTEVE]

My first boil was in a 12 qt stockpot. Did some steeped grains and boiled as much as I could then topped off with bottled water. Beer is tasty.

 

[bad coffee]

3 gallon is fine. If you use fermcap-s, you could boil 2.5 gallons without making a mess.

Research late extract addition. Once I stopped boiling all my extract for 60 minutes my beer got much better.

B

 

[david_42]

If the stock pot is NOT enamel, then okay.

 

[dracus]

I've made over a dozen extract beers all of them boiled with 2.5g of steeping + extract.

They were all yummy and discious. I've only just started to do larger and/or late addition extract addition.

 

[rrmiller]

If the stock pot is NOT enamel, then okay.

Why no enamel?

 

[schwarzk]

Wow! Thanks for all of the replies and advice. I'm excited to go brew some tasty beer!