Pot size

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Evan_L

Well-Known Member
Joined
Nov 21, 2012
Messages
446
Reaction score
78
Location
Willimantic
I've been doing 5G extract batches and am assembling the equipment for AG. I can see myself doing 10G batches in the future maybe every 3rd or 4th batch. Is it wise to go with a 15G boil pot now rather than a 5G to save money later? Is it ok to do 5G boils in a 15G pot or are there drawbacks to this?
 
In general, I'd go with the biggest pot, best quality you can reasonably afford. I use my 15 gallon pot of 5 and six gallon (BIAB) batches, I don't see why it would not work fine for an extract brew. You just need to calculate the boil off rate. But you should do that with any new pot.
 
Well first off you will need bigger than a five gallon for full all grain batches. Minimum eight, maybe seven and a half. You need roughly 6.5 gallons to account for boil off and trub loss to get five gallons into the fermenter.

You can do five gallon batches in a fifteen gallon pot just fine. Only difference is that you will likely need to start with more liquid to account for a bigger boil off which is related to the diameter of your kettle which is obviously bigger in a fifteen gallon pot.
 
Smallest you should go with is 7.5G. I started off full boil AG batches with an aluminum turkey fryer that was 7.5G. Believe me that you have to watch it like a hawk. You have no room for error. If you have a flare up, you boil over. Spend a little bit more for peace of mind. I currently do 10 gallon batches in eurpoean keggles (13.2G). That's cutting it. Wish I had gotten 15.5G kegs.
 
It's pretty much already been said but you'll need a 10gal kettle to do a 5gal batch. If you plan on moving to 10gal batches in the future might as well buy one kettle and be done with it.

We have a lot of people buy a 10gal and then 3 months later I see they are buying a 15gal. We offer a 15gal with ports located lower so a smaller batch can be brewed and still have the thermo submerged.

http://www.spikebrewing.com/product...e-stainless-steel-with-2-horizontal-couplers/

-Ben
 
And you will also need an appropriately sized burner for the large pot. 4 gallons is about all most stove tops can support. If you want to be doing 10 gallon batches, then like the others have said 15 gallons is pretty much a minimum. Especially if you are doing high gravity brews.
 
Yep, I initially bought a 10g kettle and soon realized that my 5g (~6.5g - 7g boil) was close to the top. If you walk away for a minute, chances are you may have a boil over. I then went for a 13g kettle for my BK and it's perfect. I don't have to keep a super close eye on it with the initial boil and now I just use the 10g as my HLT. Bought these from Spike for a reasonable price. Another mistake I made and wish I could do it again, was that my 10g (now used for HLT) has the 2 ports vertical (one above the other). The problem with that is the top port has my thermometer and sometimes with lower volume sparge water, the thermometer doesn't touch the water. For a BK, I'd get the top/bottom ports and for a HLT, I'd get the side by side ports.
 
I just want to assure that a 15 gallon kettle is a great choice. I use a 15 gallon kettle for all my brews; I regularly start with 8 gallons in the kettle and end up with 5.5 gallons in the fermenter. I have never done larger than a five gallon batch and boil overs are pretty much a thing of the past. Fifteen gallon kettles are perfect for five gallon batches.
 
Back
Top