Picking a Boil Kettle and HLT

[jlawrence]

I'm trying to put together all the gear to begin all-grain brewing By September. I currently have a converted 48-qt coleman cooler for a mash tun and I'm looking to get a BK and HLT soon. Im planning on doing 5 gallon batches, but I may consider moving to 10 gallon at some point. I enjoy all ales and plan on brewing a large variety.

So that being said, I am considering a 15 gallon BK but I'm not sure what size HLT to get. What do you guys recommend for both a BK and HLT? My options are 8,9, and 15 gallons.

 

[J187]

So, 8g will work for most 5 gallon batches, but I far prefer 10g pots for 5 gallon batches. Just more room to work with, no chance for boil overs, etc. I did not get a 15 gallon pot, which is what you want for 10 gallon batches, because I'm a 5 gallon batch guy and I wanted my built-in thermometer to read - a thermometer in the middle of a 15 gallon pot might be ABOVE the 5 gallon mark. For HLT, that depends on what kind of sparging you want to do. I batch sparge and simply use my old 5 gallon extract kettle with no bells and whistles. If you fly sparge, you'll want a vessel with a bulkhead and valve and possibly a thermometer. A lot of guys that fly sparge use a Kettle - cooler - cooler system. Where one cooler is the MLT and the other is the HLT. That works well and holds the sparge water temps well too.

 

[jlawrence]

For the BK it wont matter too much if the thermometer reads the temp, but i never thought of that for the HLT. I'll be batch sparging btw. What about a 15g BK and a 8 gallon HLT? Or is that too much? Basically as long as it works for both 5 and 10 gallon batches it would be ideal so I don't have to have more than 2 pots

 

[GenIke]

You dont need both a brew kettle and HLT, especially if you're just starting out.

 

[FourSeasonAngler]

I use a 10 gallon orange Igloo cylinder beverage cooler for my HLT. I installed a 1000W element into the side so I can plug it in to heat my liquor, and added a 1/2" SS qtr turn ball valve with a (thick) bulkhead adapter and SS pick-up tube so I can drain it into my mash tun or have it pumped in. Works great for heating my initial strike water to warm up my mash tun too.

 

[jlawrence]

What do you recommend I use for sparge water?


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[Walzenbrew]

When it doubt, I've found it's always better to go bigger. If you don't plan on quitting anytime soon, it's better to get the bigger size than to have to sell down the line and upgrade.

 

[jlawrence]

When it doubt, I've found it's always better to go bigger. If you don't plan on quitting anytime soon, it's better to get the bigger size than to have to sell down the line and upgrade.

My thoughts exactly. I'm just trying to figure out if I need 8 or 15 gallons for a hlt, more or less. I'm set on 15 g bk unless someone can tell me why not



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[FourSeasonAngler]

I have a 25 gallon brew kettle, a 15 gallon mash tun and a 10 gallon HLT. I run mostly 15 gallon batches of 1050 to 1070 OG beers through this system without an issue on capacity at all. When/if I decide to run 1080+ OG brews I will need to bump down to 10 gallon batches.

If you decide to brew a big beer (1080+ OG) you'll be fine with a 15 gallon BK, but your 12 gallon cooler MLT will probably come up short. (Unless you partial mash...)

 

[FourSeasonAngler]

Also, trying to brew 5 gallon batches on a system designed for 15 is ridiculous. The boil-off and dead space loss on a giant pot makes small batches a waste of water and very tedious work.

Just something you might want to consider if you want big equipment but only brew big batches occasionally...

 

[jlawrence]

Also, trying to brew 5 gallon batches on a system designed for 15 is ridiculous. The boil-off and dead space loss on a giant pot makes small batches a waste of water and very tedious work.

Just something you might want to consider if you want big equipment but only brew big batches occasionally...

Ya, fair enough. Maybe a 10g BK would be better for now as I really don't know how many 10g batches I'll do, or when I'll even start doing them.