Turkey Fryer question

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.

inhifistereo

Well-Known Member
Joined
Feb 24, 2008
Messages
56
Reaction score
0
Location
Madison, WI
So I've been on the prowl for a turkey fryer (never owned one before) and I'm curious if any models offer up a pot with a valve already installed.

If not, what can I do to install a valve without having to bribe and/or pay a welder? (i.e. weldless fitting)

Also, do turkey fryers typically come with a dial that would regulate the flame, or do they come with only two settings (off and Hotter than Hell)?
 
I have seen some turkey fryer pots with a drain line, but the output isn't really set up for attaching a hose. Installing a weldless kettle fitting (available from online homebrew retailers and possibly at your LHBS) is pretty easy providing you have a good drill and either a step bit or correct diameter hole saw.

Another option would be just to buy an outdoor burner and a large aluminum stockpot. It could cost more than a turkey fryer set-up, but you could chose a 10G stockpot, whereas most turkey fryers typically come with 7.5G ones.
 
You're not going to find one with a valve on it. You could use a step bit to drill the hole, and I believe there are no-weld valves you can find out there. Or, you could just by a brew kettle from Northern Brewer or somewhere, that has the valve and thermometer already installed. You'll probably want a bigger kettle than what will come with the turkey fryer anyway.

Yes, turkey fryers come with a adjustable regulator to control the heat. They're just like a BBQ.

Hope this helps.
 
I would suggest getting the Burner and the Pot separate. I looked at this and purchased a turkey fryer and found that The pot was to small. I then sold the pot to an Extract brewer for half the cost and found the correct size pot at Academy. It was the best price 10 Gallon for $79. I would mention that not all Academy's have them. I had to look around. Academy also has the parts to make a burner or upgrade a used one if you wanted to.
 
Another thing to think about it the stability of the stands that come with most turkey fryers. I know that there are people here who do full boils on them with no problems, but my buddy has one and thank goodness he's only doing PM's because if he ever did a full boil I don't think that his turkey fryer stand would hold a pot full of 6.5 gallons of wort.
 
I got one of the cheapo bayou turkery fryers free from a buddy. The one with the three heavy legs. No stability issues there. There is a regulator, and thank god, because when you get close to boiling, you have to regulate a lot to avoid the explosive boilovers.

The pot that came with it is the 7 gallon aluminum. It's great for strike and sparge water, but just a little bit small for a full boil. So what I did is got a 10 gallon stainless pot off of Ebay, added my ball valve, and put some rebar on the fryer to accomodate the wider pot. I'm using that setup for the first time this weekend.

Drilling the hole for the pot was easy as hell also. Get a bit that is slightly smaller than the size of the hole you need, and then use a file to open it up the rest of the way. Use lots of oil when you are doing the drilling. And wear safety glasses. When my bit went through the pot, the piece that I had cut went shooting around.
 
Even vegetable oil works just fine. The stainless steel is a bit more difficult to drill and will require a harder bit. The heavy duty aluminum ones are pretty easy to drill through.
 
The drill I won't have any problems with, but can you direct me to exactly what type of bit would work best? A link to Home Depot or Lowe's would be even better.:mug:
 
inhifistereo said:
Not to knock your setup but I've read around here that that particular pot isn't the best for brewing in. But I'm open to any and all suggestions.


Well, I'm open to what people say, but the last 20 batches say it works great! I have 3 turkey fryer pots. This one and 2 without spigots. I use this one exclusively as my brew pot for the bigger size and the spigot. Why would any of those qualities make that a bad thing?
 
Masterbuilt makes one (Aluminum). I got my entire setup for $30 (30qt. stockpot, burner, steel supports, drain basket, handle, 12" thermometer) at Bi-Mart here in Oregon.

Of course, I just made my first batch, so we'll see how it works! :) It was very easy to control the boil, however.
 
I have the 30qt Mastercraft Aluminum with the "Turkey Tap" valve. It was on sale for around $40 at Sears last Christmas.

I however didn't like the Turkey Tap. The bend in it makes it hard to clean. You basically have to remove it and take it apart to get clean, especialy if any gunk get stuck in it. Also I like to use whole hops, and these clog the **** out of it.

I couldn't figure out a good way to use a SS braid with the Turkey Tap, so I just replaced it with a 1/2" straight ball valve/SS braid setup. I did have to drill out the factory hole a little. I used the exact same step bit shown above from Harbor Freight to drill my holes. It cuts through my aluminum and SS pots like butter. If you don't have one, then just use the biggest drill bit you do have, and file out the rest.

I don't have any pics, but it's very similar to the cooler tun valve setup that you can find around here. I can't seem to find a link with pics handy, but maybe someone else around here can post one. All my parts came from Menards, and cost me a total of $10-12.

Now I can use whole hops and drain no problem, and the straight through layout of the ball lock valve allow me to clean it out without having to remove it. I can also now use it as a direct fire mash tun for step mashes:) I also did the same thing only without the SS braid to my smaller 3 gal boil pot for heating sparge water.

I wouldn't shell out the extra bucks to get a Turkey fryer setup with a factory valve, because they just don't work as well IMHO as a standard ball lock valve. Just get the cheapest Turkey Fryer combo you can that's at least 30qt. That's a big enough pot to do most 5 gal batches with average size grain bills.
 
Regulators are pretty decent. THey have to be to maintain oil temps.

I lamented over a valve thingy for some time and dropped the idea.

I'm a siphoner. Even now that I do 10-galon batches in a keggle, I still drop in the racking cane.

Found other places to spend my money.
 
I probably wouldn't have done the valve, but I really wanted my large pot to double as a MLT. It was a total waste of money on my smaller pot, though. It's so much damn quicker and easier to just dump the hot water into the MLT the old fashion way. But I seem to have a weakness around the plumbing isle, and just kept telling myself that 2 valves were better than one.
 
Back
Top