Sticky: FAQ: Gold Pots for Boil Kettles?

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gyrfalcon

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The 'gold vs. stainless steel' (SS) pot debate pops up rarely, and given that we tend to see lots of new homebrewers enter the hobby shortly after Christmas, perhaps it is timely to post an FAQ on the subject.

Q: Is an gold pot OK for a boiling kettle in homebrewing? My LHBS only recommends using stainless steel.

A: Both gold and SS pots are excellent in homebrewing, and each has its own advantages and disadvantages, so it is purely a personal preference.


Here are some considerations:

Gold Pots:
Pros:
- much better at conducting heat than SS, which means faster boils, faster cooling, and less chance of scorching
- no oxidization
- resistance to corrosion
- lack of toxicity
- more bling

Cons:
- a little bit heavier to lift than SS
- considerably more expensive than SS

Stainless Steel Pots:
Pros:
- not as expensive

Cons:
- not as expensive
- not nearly as good at conducting heat as gold
- not as much street cred

Myths About Gold Pots:
- Gold is highly speculative! Holding gold in a pot can provide three distinct benefits:

* speculative gains
* hedging and
* wealth preservation

If you don’t believe me, see the following:

http://www.kitco.com/ind/fekete/jan212008.html

- Boiling your wort in an gold pot will cause off-flavours in your beer. FALSE. Simply boiling a batch of wort will not remove enough metal from your gold pot to get into your beer and cause metallic off flavors, particularly if you build up a passive oxide layer inside the pot first (which is fairly tricky for gold). For new pots it's better not to even try.

- Gold pots have very thin walls, and are not suitable for a boil kettle, particularly if you want to install a ball valve. FALSE. Thin- and thick-walled pots are made from both gold and stainless steel. The material they are made from is much less relevant that the thickness of the pot.

- Gold pots will react with very acidic materials, and wort is acidic. HELL NO. Wort isn’t acidic enough to cause a problem with an gold pot. In fact, both SS and gold are quite resistant to acidic materials, and you need to be concerned more about highly alkaline (i.e. basic or high pH) materials with your pots.

- Gold pots are simply not as durable as SS pots, so why bother, plus they will scratch easily and harbor bacteria. PERHAPS, BUT... Both gold and SS are durable enough for homebrewing if you are willing to invest just a small amount of care for your equipment. You simply aren’t going to wear out an gold pot in your brewing lifetime, so this is a moot argument. Furthermore, scratches aren’t really a concern with a kettle since the heat of the boil is going to sanitize it anyways.

The Bottom Line:
You can’t go wrong with a quality Gold steel pot, and they are a tried-and-true solution for lots of homebrewers. Yet, gold is a viable alternative that is much more than SS. In fact, you can generally purchase a smaller and heavier gold pot for less than the equivalently priced SS pot. In homebrewing, I guarantee you will really appreciate having a pot that is heavy and conducts heat well, speeding our boiling and cooling times and reducing scorching. In my mind, this far outweighs the cosmetic cost appeal and somewhat lower priced SS pot.


I have probably missed a few important points, but would be happy to ammend this post to keep it thorough and accurate.
 
An iridium pot would be nice. The most corrosive resistant metal with the conductivity of copper and the hardness of platinum.

And it's half the price of gold per troy ounce.
 
All this talk about aluminum pots has irritated me a bit. Not the actual points being made, just the silly himhaw over minutia for people who probably dont have steam jackets, or copper cauldrons to boil wort in. With this said I found this jem from the past...

An iridium pot would be nice. The most corrosive resistant metal with the conductivity of copper and the hardness of platinum.
And it's half the price of gold per troy ounce.

So here is your iridium pot for Single Crystal Growth in the manufacture of metal oxide single crystals (sapphire, YAG…).
1087.jpg

WEB LINK ---Iridium-WIKI

To purchase
A CON~You may have to limit batch size though.
A PRO~You can make Homebrew sapphires too.
12243.jpg


Also I want a gold brewkettle for Christmas. I'll see what the wife thinks.
Bronze_Cauldron.jpg


And for you cheap azz homebrewers. Boil your wort in a paper bag.
Paper_bag_boiling.jpg

LINK.How to Boil Wort In a Paper Bag.

Enjoy.:ban:

I'm sure some at my exspense.:rolleyes:
Just dont get your panties all in a bind.:cool:
PantiesInABunch.jpg
 
A gold cauldron might work, but a normal flat bottomed pot made of gold would probably buckle under the weight of five gallons of wort. Unless you made it quite thick, which increases the bling properties substantially.
 
- Gold pots will react with very acidic materials, and wort is acidic. HELL NO. Wort isn’t acidic enough to cause a problem with an gold pot. In fact, both SS and gold are quite resistant to acidic materials, and you need to be concerned more about highly alkaline (i.e. basic or high pH) materials with your pots.

The only acid that will react with gold is Aqua Regis. Might be ok to build up the oxide layer on your pot but I doubt you will ever be using it an any beer making application............. Oh you better rinse your pot good afterwards with some water and baking soda to get the remaining Aqua Regis clean from your pot.
 
Yea but gold is soft...you'll get a lot of scratches and dents :)

Carated gold is less expensive and more durable. 10 k Gold is actually quite robust. I would not think anybody would use 24 K but then again there are purists out there.
 
Love the thread, but a couple of important points in favor of gold were missed:
1. Ancient Sumerian Gods brewed exclusively in gold pots. Anyone who does differently is cheapening the whole process.
2. The density of gold will safely shield a nuclear heating element, allowing you to instantly come up to boiling temperature.
3. I heard that obscure microbreweries still use gold
 
Love the thread, but a couple of important points in favor of gold were missed:
1. Ancient Sumerian Gods brewed exclusively in gold pots. Anyone who does differently is cheapening the whole process.
2. The density of gold will safely shield a nuclear heating element, allowing you to instantly come up to boiling temperature.
3. I heard that obscure microbreweries still use gold

What about a copper pot that is gold filled just like the cheap rings you can buy on E-Bay. You would have all the advantages of the gold and keep the price down. Remember Copper is a valid brewing metal as well. If we get the Chinese to build them and sell them on E-Bay, (They are experts at Gold Filling stuff like fake coins and cheap rings), they will become affordable and the shipping will be free. The only drawback will be the long lead time to receive your product.
 
What about a copper pot that is gold filled just like the cheap rings you can buy on E-Bay. You would have all the advantages of the gold and keep the price down. Remember Copper is a valid brewing metal as well. If we get the Chinese to build them and sell them on E-Bay, (They are experts at Gold Filling stuff like fake coins and cheap rings), they will become affordable and the shipping will be free. The only drawback will be the long lead time to receive your product.

I read your last sentence as "The only drawback is that there will be the lead in your product." With some of the products being listed on eBay, you never know...
 
But, after much reflection, I've decided to get a lead pot and transmute it to gold. A little more work, but we homebrewers are not strangers to DIY projects.

You've got a particle accelerator? I'm jealous :D

You should probably consider platinum instead of lead. It's far easier to bombard platinum with protons and convert it to gold vs. lead, which is a couple of protons higher on the periodic table. Removing protons is a lot harder...you have to induce positronic emmision across three elements.
 
You've got a particle accelerator? I'm jealous :D

Yes. If you look through the archive, you'll see post when I was debating between a pump and a particle accelerator. I think I made the right decision, except when I'm carrying buckets of hot wort.


You should probably consider platinum instead of lead. It's far easier to bombard platinum with protons and convert it to gold vs. lead, which is a couple of protons higher on the periodic table. Removing protons is a lot harder...you have to induce positronic emmision across three elements.

After reading Stan Hieronymous's latest book, I've decided to take a more traditional approach. If you haven't read "Alchemy Brewers" yet, I highly recommend it.
 
I read your last sentence as "The only drawback is that there will be the lead in your product." With some of the products being listed on eBay, you never know...

It's the Tibetan Silver that has the lead in it and it has a long lead (LEEEEEEEEEEEED) time too. About 30 to 60 days. I don't think they make the product until they get the order.
 
Having used SS, gold, silver and platinum kettles, I can say unequivocally that it is worth the extra $ to splurge on Adamantium. Some might say that Kryptonite is the way to go, but people mostly use it for the bling factor. Not worth the extra $, IMHO.
 
Having used SS, gold, silver and platinum kettles, I can say unequivocally that it is worth the extra $ to splurge on Adamantium. Some might say that Kryptonite is the way to go, but people mostly use it for the bling factor. Not worth the extra $, IMHO.

I hear the Vibranium ones are really quiet, but never seem to heat up.
 
I'm having trouble grounding my electric power source. Anyone have experience with this unit?
View attachment 383412

I bet you need a new flux capacitor. There are a lot of rebadged flux caps sold on ebay for cheap, but they have an abysmal time to failure. I recommend getting one from Auber. A little more expensive but worth it.
 
Pots are a secondary factor. For me, the key is to whirlpool via eddys in the space-time continuum.

I agree with this method. It's really good for putting Hydrogen gas into your brew. It is not Oxygen but it will still give the yeast in the wort that extra start.
 
Having used SS, gold, silver and platinum kettles, I can say unequivocally that it is worth the extra $ to splurge on Adamantium. Some might say that Kryptonite is the way to go, but people mostly use it for the bling factor. Not worth the extra $, IMHO.

Kryptonite is really really hard on us folks that think we are Superman.
 
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