Wow, 12 gallons? I guess I should be able to get 5 gallons boiling no problem. I have a gas/propane range too, the burners are just tiny and don't put out enough heat.
My pot is only 5.5 gallon, stainless steel. I just realized this now (I thought it was larger for some reason, but just ran and looked to be sure). My guess is this would not have enough clearance for a full 5 gallon batch...
Do you recommend any fryer kits in particular, or will any do? I had seen one at Wal-Mart a while back for $50, but I'm not too sure about the quality of it.
I've done recipes with specialty grains, but have yet to do any partial mashing/mashing/all grain. Just curious, but why would you need a bigger pot for all-grain? I haven't looked into doing all-grain yet, although the answer is probably obvious haha
Also, are there any huge drawbacks to going aluminum? My current pot is stainless steel (probably going to look this up right now
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Sorry for all over the place questions
Hey Msal,
Sorry took so long to get back, my son called me and I had to talk to him. He's a young Marine and I'm a retired Navy man. He was looking to blow off some steam and seek advice.
A 5.5 gallon pot is good for making partial boil extract batches. And there is nohting wrong with extract, don't let anybody tell you there is. The problem claimed with doing 2-3 gallon boils is (I have no experience in this, have always done full boils) from what I have read, a brewer using 2-3 gallons for the boil and then adds enough water to top to 5 gallons in the fermenter; the hops are not fully utilized, something about more water available in the boil produces better hop utilization.
Usually, from what I've read (a worthy) brew supply stores add a few more hops to make up the difference in utilization for extract beers.
Turkey fryer kits. I bought a Bayou Classic propane (they have electric kits too). 30 quart or 7.5 gallon gallon aluminum pot, also included the hose that connects the burner to the propane tank. Propane tank sold separately.
Many new brewers hear aluminum is bad.
Here is a thread from HBT that explains why aluminum is not a health risk.
http://https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f11/faq-aluminum-pots-boil-kettles-49449/
Why do you need a bigger pot for all grain. Ok, when an extract beer is brewed the extract to water amount is pretty much set because the dry or syrup extract has already been made, add the recommend amount of water and it all works out.
All grain is different. All grain means a brewer starts out with whole grains of barley that have been ground up by way of some sort of mill. The "ground" grain is steeped (mashed) in hot water in a temperature determined by what the brewer wants to achieve for his extraction of sugars. Higher mash temps near the 158-160F range will produce an extract (mash) that will not ferment to a low final gravity but give a nice body to the beer. Grain mashed nearer the low 150F will produce an extract(again Mash) that will be able to ferment to a lower gravity, cleaner or drier beer.
Why a bigger boil pot is required. If you extract brew and want to boil all your wort at one time a 7.5 gallon pot is helpful so you'll be capable of brewing all the wort in one pot.
In all grain brewing. During the mashing process a brewer extracts the sugar with a lot of water.The water needs to be boiled away and sugars left. All grain brewers start out with a larger volume of wort and reduce the wort volume by evaporating the water in their mash; they might start out with 8 gallons from (these numbers are not exact, just an example) and boil until only 6.5 gallons are left, this boils off water and increase specific gravity. (sugars left)
The sugar (which is what make the yeast happy) will stay in the brew kettle. An 8 gallon initial volume with a 1.035 (sugar solution) starting gravity before it boils for and hour will more than likely evaporate the water and bring the wort down to 5.5 gallons of 1.040 gravity wort.
I'm not a good teacher. Check out John Palmers' "How to Brew" free on the internet. He'll explain this a hell of a lot better than I can.
