Steel on gas heating

[Jad.3]

Hello,
I'm considering making me a couple of 50 liter pots for homebrewing beer, and heat it on 6,5 kW gas fired heating stool. I have no experience with this, and wonder if the stainless steel will 'work' and twist under the heat or how thick to make the bottom to avoid it; how great a risk is burning the wort. (There will be either an agitator or a pump mixing.)
So I'd like to ask for your experience with this. Thank you.

 

[day_trippr]

I use 75 liter (20 gallon) pots with 75K BTU (22KW) propane burners (BG-14s) which works out very well. Solely based on that volume vs burner power relationship, I would guess a 6.5 KW (22K BTU) burner on a 50 liter kettle would be significantly "under-gunned" and take a comparatively long time to heat wort to a boil.

Would you have access to more powerful burners?

Cheers!

 

[hotbeer]

You want to make your own! Wow. Aren't they inexpensive enough at the discount stores?

If you are going to just have the bottom the same thickness as the sides, then you might have some hot spots from the flame that scorch the beer wort. There'll likely be more deformation of the bottom due to heating with thin metal. A thicker piece of stainless on the bottom will be better. However stainless isn't the best conductor of heat so the thicker it is, the longer it might take to heat the contents.

It's not uncommon for thick aluminum to be bonded on the bottom some how. But it has to be bonded over the entire surface. Any gaps will mean the heat doesn't get transferred very well and again there'll be hot spots.

Stainless is the preferred metal for boil kettles for many of us home brewer's. Some prefer it for fermenters too. But others of us like something clear so we can see what's going on inside. More fun that just listening to a airlock bubble every so often!

 

[sibelman]

fwiw, Spike kettles claim

• 1.2mm thick walls (thickest on the market)
• 5mm tri-clad bottom (induction capable)

Others have perfectly serviceable 18-
or 20-gauge walls. The bottom seems key, and without a heat-spreading aluminum or copper layer you may see some scorching. Sadly, I have no idea how to bond a disc of heat-conducting metal to stainless steel. Intuitively, thicker steel should help somewhat. Best of luck with this ambitious project.

 

[sibelman]

Something like this 14-inch aluminum heat-diffuser disc might help a lot.

 

[Broken Crow]

Hi and welcome to HBT! Just saw your other post in the intros but this thread seems a more appropriate place to ask:
Have you done any homebrewing or just commercial? There's a huge difference! I love the DIY approach and you'll find there are a number of us on here for whom the homebrewing adventure is just as much about building our own gear as it is having a satisfying beer. A little more information and context will help us help you a lot..namely: Where are you now, and where do you want to go? As to the actual question; A keggle might be a good inexpensive route. Maybe you got sticker-shock when you looked at the prices of ready-made brew gear... I started on the stovetop myself, using mostly gear that most well-equipped kitchens have and got sticker-shock when I decided to upscale and improve my process, so I chose to build an electric-keggle system in the beginning and though it taught me a lot, I see in retrospect that I could have saved a lot of time and effort in various detailed areas. There are about as many ways to brew beer as there are homebrewers. Please; tell us more so we can aid you in finding yours.

 

[Jad.3]

Thank you for the answers gentlemen.

Would you have access to more powerful burners?

- Yes, there are more powerful burners available, namely 14kW one, which would have *your* ratio to 50 ltrs. Or, I could make smaller pots, and sparge as I should.
- How thick are walls and bottom of your pots? Do you use aluminum heat-diffuser?

You want to make your own! Wow. Aren't they inexpensive enough at the discount stores?

- There are plenty of 'Grainfather'-type equipments, very affordable even new. However my big beef with those systems is that I don't want to do decoction using laddle again. I haven't been able to find something I'd like, yet.
Thank you for the insight.

Something like this 14-inch aluminum heat-diffuser disc might help a lot.

- Thank you. (How much is "gauge?" I know inches.)

Hi and welcome to HBT! ...

Commercially I (we) manufacture breweries of like 2000 ltrs/batch size. I did some homebrewing, 20 ltrs or so, on an old electric stove. Alas, now I have some stupid food in the fridge and not a bucket with fermenting beer.
So right now I'm not brewing. I would like a setup that allows me to fill a KEG (that is an european KEG of 50 liters). I am a little spoiled by the big breweries we make so I'm looking for other insights on how to do things. Decoction is a must.
So right now I'm thinking two pots of at least 40 ltrs of useful volume, like a 2-vessel brewhouse, on a gas-stool, electric agitator, lautering manifold; another fridge-fitting-pot for fermentation, and lagering in KEG with a buging dev. on the buffing (?) head.

What do you think?
(I had to look up some terms in a dictionary so please correct me when needed.)

 

[day_trippr]

- How thick are walls and bottom of your pots? Do you use aluminum heat-diffuser?

I use Blichmann G1 welded kettles which are single layer stainless steel 1.2mm thick (bottom and sidewalls) which is roughly 16 gauge metal [edited for accuracy]. I literally never have issues with scorching - as long as I don't do something stupid like pouring in 4 pounds of honey with the burner still blazing ("Don't Do That" )

Cheers!

 

[Broken Crow]

I would like a setup that allows me to fill a KEG (that is an european KEG of 50 liters).

That makes a big difference! You'll want at least a 20G (75l) brew rig if you want to finish at 50l.

 

[sibelman]

 

[homebeerbrewer]

If you have water in the pot, you don't need to worry about the metal. The metal won't get hot enough to be damaged since the water will absorb the heat. Of course, with sugars in the water, you may get scorching. The scorching could insulate the metal enough to damage it, but I think it would have to be pretty thick to insulate it that much.

 

[Jad.3]

I use Blichmann G1 welded kettles which are single layer stainless steel 1.2mm thick (bottom and sidewalls) which is roughly 16 gauge metal [edited for accuracy]. I literally never have issues with scorching - as long as I don't do something stupid like pouring in 4 pounds of honey with the burner still blazing ("Don't Do That" )

Cheers!

Does it have that false bottom in when you brew? How do you mix during brewing?
Have you tried adding honey at the end of main fermentation phase?
TY

 

[day_trippr]

I don't use a false bottom in either boil kettle or HLT, only the mash tun. And aside from dry hops I've always been leery of post-fermentation additions wrt contamination...

Cheers!