"Premium" Brew Kettle: Worth the Money?

[FxdGrMind]

I bought a 9.2 gal kettle with connical botom and drain valve(side).

Upgraded from Alu, turkey fryer pot to the SS.

Worth every penny!

Boils better, turns over the hops in the boil more evenly.
Swirling durring the IC submersion durring cooling, the connical bottom is PERFECT for retaining trub. And as the valve is above the trub, its a direct feed to the fermenter, NO Siphon Needed!!! WOOOOT!

It has made my process improved over what I started with.

Granted my kettle was still cheaper than the Blingman.

 

[SpanishCastleAle]

You could be eating steak at restaurants every night, but you chose to buy Blichmann's.
,
J

I think he meant real steak, not driving a Geo to Golden Corral with a $30 used aluminum turkey fryer you just picked up off of CL duct taped to the roof.

 

[HalfPint]

I think he meant real steak, not driving a Geo to Golden Corral with a $30 used aluminum turkey fryer you just picked up off of CL duct taped to the roof.

Hell, with the money I saved from driving my grandmothers old geo and using a $30 turkey fryer kettle, I could at minimum eat at golden corral 25 times. Hell, I'd be drinking just as good as beer as him, but I'd get to share my evenings with a bunch of country bumpkins at the buffet.

Yes, life would be good.

J

 

[SwampassJ]

When I can find one for cheap on CL or even a Keggle I will be all over it. My 32Qt tamale steamer has me right near the damn top. Next brew I'm going to try some fermi caps.

 

[axr]

First off, don't get a 10 gal. Get a bigger pot.

Second, how important is saving money to you? This nicer pots are..well..nicer, but cost more. A keggle will boil wort, you can put all the same doo-dads on it, but those blichmans just look stinking awesome.

The ONLY complaint I have about the keggle is the base. It won't fit very securely on many burners.

+1 on Turbobrew's first two comments. Regarding the the keggle not fitting on many burners, I too experienced that issue but was easily resolved by purchasing a round weber grill grate (22.5"?) from HD for about $10

 

[SumnerH]

You need separate vessels for mash and boil. Unless you use a lauter tun arrangement and pump back into the kettle... almost no one does this on the HB scale.

Not many do the lauter tun/pump thing, but lots of home brewers mash and boil in the same kettle. Many of the bayou pots come with a steamer basket that's really handy for doing BiaB and keeping the bag off the bottom of the pot if you step mash or otherwise want to fire the pot with the bag+grain in it, and also make it so you can lift larger grain bills without worrying about the seams on your bag.

Plus, they don't have the sight glass, thermometer probe, and all that other crap that's primarily just a cleaning hassle.

 

[Shepherd5]

I don't mind spending more money on something nice that I won't ever have to replace, and will still suit my needs as they change through time. If I decide to stop brewing, the resale value of nice equipment will still be high. When I purchased my home, I furnished it with furnature that I will enjoy for the rest of my life and beyond, as I did with my music recording gear. It is nice not to ever look back or repurchase something better later, because life is simply too short, enjoy!

If I had purchased an inexpensive 15 gallon pot for $139.00 instead of the better one for $239.00, and then two years later got so into brewing that I wanted better equipment, I would spend another $239.00 wishing I had just bought a good one to begin with, like a Blingmann, or whatever!

I understand that some folks can't afford to spend that much on a tight budget, but if there is a way to swing it, get a good kettle.

 

[brewdood]

Can't you mash and Brew in the same Kettle? I would imagine you could just run the wort after mashing into a plastic bucket, clean out the spent grains and dump the wort back into the kettle and start your boil? I suppose you would have to have another cheap kettle for your HLT though.

 

[munche]

I didn't get a blichmann, but I do have one of the fancier kettles from morebeer. It has the ball valve for draining, and a second fitting that I placed a thermometer into. The thermometer IMO was worth every penny...having constant instant read temps without having to reach into the hot pot is awesome. The ball valve means i'm not having to dump wort into a funnel to get into my carboy...which I like. In fact, using an old entertainment center and my bottling bucket, I've got something of a "3 tier system" going where I can run the hot water out from the kettle into my cooler MLT.

My kettle is 8Gal so I might go bigger, but I'll definitely get another kettle with a spigot and a temperature gauge.

 

[JayInJersey]

Buy Blichmann for your HLT and MLT...go turkey fryer on your BK as you don't need the bells and whistles on that.

I'm in the process of Bliching out my MLT then will be my HLT ... but my 20G $150 fryer I got off Amazon is fine by me for the BK.