Turkey fryer questions

[McCall St. Brewer]

SWMBO got me a Backyard Classic turkey fryer from Walmart for Xmas. (I would like to think that this was a very thoughtful gift on her part, and that she was truly thinking of me when she bought it, but realistically it's so that she no longer has to endure the smell of boiling wort)!

Couple of questions? I do extract brews with steeping grains, so I normally am only boiling 2 gallons of wort. Can I still use my smaller stainless steel stockpots with the turkey fryer, or will I risk boilovers? The turkey fryer comes with a relatively large, but aluminum stockpot. Do people use these, or is it much better to get stainless steel?

 

[chillHayze]

I'd use the new stockpot and do the biggest boil possible, provided you can cool the wort quickly. An ice bath is out of the question; you will need an immersion or CFC.

 

[jcarson83]

Use the aluminum, it won't hurt a thing. You will need a chiller of some sort of chiller though and with the price of copper these days that might be expensive.

 

[anojones]

If looking for a chiller (immersion would probably be easiest)- try some of the online stores (morebeer.com etc). Some seem to have chillers for less than you can buy a coil of copper for now (probably due to them manufacturing them before copper $ went through the roof). No reason not to boil in your new aluminum pot. I do all my brewing outside, it's nice to just hose down the area if you have a boilover or spill (just don't leave any hops for the dogs).

 

[Bobby_M]

If you think you'd like to progress to all grain eventually, I find it benefitial to go in smaller steps so you don't have to adapt to all the changes at once. That means it's nice to go for larger boils to get used to handling that volume of wort. Yes, it does mean you'll have to learn to cool it and also account for better hop utilization. What I mean is, if you use kits that think you're doing a 2 gallon boil, you'll have to reduce your hops if you want the recipe to hit target IBUs.

That being said, there's no reason you can't continue doing partial boils and also use the propane burner outside.

Benefits to full boil:
More hop utilization
Less scorching on the extract (lighter beer color if you care)
Closer to being good at handling 5 gallons for future AG.
Less chance of infection in top up water (maybe)

Cons to full boil:
Heavier pot
Cooling equipment needed
Start thinking about adding oxygen back in after the boil

In my case, I really want to get to all grain soon and dealing with full boils was something I could easily start doing while still building confidence with extract.

 

[dcbrewmeister]

The homeless depot near me has the banjo 30qt (or 34?) fryers on sale for $49. I think the 34qt was $79 'cuzz it's got more stuff.

I bought the dual burner stand because I wanted the burners.

 

[67coupe390]

SWMBO got me a Backyard Classic turkey fryer from Walmart for Xmas. (I would like to think that this was a very thoughtful gift on her part, and that she was truly thinking of me when she bought it, but realistically it's so that she no longer has to endure the smell of boiling wort)!

Couple of questions? I do extract brews with steeping grains, so I normally am only boiling 2 gallons of wort. Can I still use my smaller stainless steel stockpots with the turkey fryer, or will I risk boilovers? The turkey fryer comes with a relatively large, but aluminum stockpot. Do people use these, or is it much better to get stainless steel?

Yes, you can still use the stainless steel stock pot. In fact that is what I would do. The aluminum pot may be bigger, But less healthy due to the fact that aluminum oxide will be" leached into the wort. That being said, I still buy the can soda at work when I need a soda and don't have the dollar for the bottle and I turned out fine I turned out fine i turned out finer i fine out turn i IIIII fine What!!!

 

[67coupe390]

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?p=175664&posted=1#post175664
Another thread and reason not to use the frier pot

 

[beerfan]

I use a 30QT aluminum fry pot, the only issue I have is I probably could use a 40 QT. It works great though. Two game hens at once turned out great also. I would never go back to doing anything on the stove. Plus I just bought the wife a new stove because a ruined the last one.

 

[Orpheus]

mmditter,

I got a 30 Qt. turkey fryer and brewed with it the first time on Tuesday. I'm a steeping/extract brewer and used the lobster pot I've been using on my stove on the turkey fryer. It's a 4 gallon pot and I probably had 3 gallons in there when all was said and done.

I'm proud to say I had no boilovers and this was the quickest boil I've ever had. I love this thing and will never go back to the stove. I was extremely vigilant as I was worried about the boilovers and scorching. As soon as everything was boiling, I was able to put it on the lowest setting and that got me through the hour boil nicely!

 

[BernieBrewer]

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?p=175664&posted=1#post175664
Another thread and reason not to use the frier pot

Don't drag my thread into this I'm still holding out hope that this is an unrelated problem....

 

[dantodd]

There is no reason to worry about aluminum stockpots. As long as it is heavy enough to mitigate scorching you're fine. One of the problems with many cheaper stainless steel pots is that they are too thin. All else being equal I'd use stainless because it is easier to maintain but there is no health risk and many folks, including me, use aluminum all the time.

As for canned soda/beer, that is just plain old ignorance. Soda and beer cans are all lined so there is no contact between the aluminum and liquid. They discovered long ago that long term storage of food in unlined metal is a bad idea for health and taste reasons. Especially when the cans really were tin and lead soldered.

 

[67coupe390]

There is no reason to worry about aluminum stockpots. As long as it is heavy enough to mitigate scorching you're fine. One of the problems with many cheaper stainless steel pots is that they are too thin. All else being equal I'd use stainless because it is easier to maintain but there is no health risk and many folks, including me, use aluminum all the time.

As for canned soda/beer, that is just plain old ignorance. Soda and beer cans are all lined so there is no contact between the aluminum and liquid. They discovered long ago that long term storage of food in unlined metal is a bad idea for health and taste reasons. Especially when the cans really were tin and lead soldered.

I'm no expert on aluminum and I'm 100% sure it has no short term affects, BUT on the other side of the coin people thought the world was flat and asbestos was the best thing since sliced bread. And England has one of the highest rates of alzheimers in the world and also has the worlds highest aluminum oxide content in their water
I think I'm fighting a losing battle on this one. So don't worry, have a home brew!! -Charlie Papazian-

 

[dcbrewmeister]

I'm no expert on aluminum and I'm 100% sure it has no short term affects, BUT on the other side of the coin people thought the world was flat and asbestos was the best thing since sliced bread. And England has one of the highest rates of alzheimers in the world and also has the worlds highest aluminum oxide content in their water
I think I'm fighting a losing battle on this one. So don't worry, have a home brew!! -Charlie Papazian-

I'm no expert either. But other than the simple acknowledgements of using aluminum NOT ONE brewing equipment manufacturer has developed, sold, or built a brewing system made of aluminum.

I'm not talking home brew stuff, I'm talking pro like Specific who supplies a lot of brewpubs with their equipment. It would most certainly be cheaper and easier to handle (lighter) so you really need to ask "why not?".

Places you eat at cook in aluminum everyday (stock pots, pasta water) but they don't deal with anything with the acidic nature of the wort we make beer out of. And that is something I would think about before using an aluminum pot for boiling wort in.

Or when you get older or develop alzheimers, just let us know if you still think brewing beer in an aluminum pot was worth the $50 you saved.

dcbrewmeister <=== steps off soapbox

 

[EvilTOJ]

The reason they don't make specific aluminum homebrewing equipment is, given the choice between it, SS, or copper, people will buy the fancy copper or SS instead. I did a quick google search linking Alzheimer and aluminum and there isn't one specific cause of Alzheimers, it's caused by a variety of factors.

 

[dantodd]

The alcohol and calories in your beer is much more of a health risk than aluminum, even if there were a causal relationship; which there isn't.

 

[dcarter]

I personally use an aluminum pot to prepare my strike water and a SS pot for brewing. The reason for this arangement is because the Aluminum pot has a spigot on the bottom which makes it perfect for sparging. On a health note, most soft drinks are much more acidic than wort and billions are sold and consumed safely around the world daily. I would say that this is a strictly personal decision which should be made based on resources and preference.

 

[dcbrewmeister]

The reason they don't make specific aluminum homebrewing equipment is, given the choice between it, SS, or copper, people will buy the fancy copper or SS instead. I did a quick google search linking Alzheimer and aluminum and there isn't one specific cause of Alzheimers, it's caused by a variety of factors.

"specific" is the name of a company that makes brewing equipment BTW - and they don't build for the homebrewer just so you'll know in the future.

So because Google can't find anything it doesn't exist?

 

[dcarter]

On an actual "Turkey Fryer" tip, I recently bought a "SafTFryer" from Lowes because it had the aforementioned 35 qt aluminum pot with the spigot on the bottom. The fryer itself will not even boil water. It was still a good buy at 79.00 just for the brew pot but keep in mind if you buy one of these that the fryer is absolutely useless. After 2 hours at the highest heat I could manage from the thing, 5 gallons of water managed to get to a blistering 150 deg F. Great if you are looking for a hot bath but not so good for mashing.

 

[the_bird]

That's odd you couldn't get it above 150 degrees; it looks like it'a 46k BTUs, which isn't too far below what most people have success with. Good info, though.

 

[Bobby_M]

I'd think you probably have a defective regulator. If it's really 46kBTU, you should have no problem boiling. I boil 6.5 gallons by straddling two of the three burners on my grill and it's only rated at 40kBTU total. The math plus my experience says 26,000 ought to be enough (even though it takes 40 minutes to boil). Does your flame look bigger than the average stovetop? How full is your tank?

 

[dcarter]

I borrowed a "cajun cooker" from my neighbor for my first AG and it worked great. It has two burners, a low and high temp, which is perfect for strike water on one side and boil on the other. This thing is elevated on legs about 3 feet off the ground so its also easy to work with. I will probably buy on of these which I understand are sold through walley world. I cant explain why the SafTFryer performance was so dismal but only buy it if you need a good pot

 

[dcarter]

Flame seemed to far from the pot bottom to me. I have thought about elevating it on some stainless tubing but I will probably just spring for the Cajun Cooker.

 

[the_bird]

Take a look-see at the Bayou Classic Banjo Cooker. $65 (free shipping from Home Depot), 210k BTUs. This thing KICKS. It's also very sturdy and low to the ground, which makes me more comfortable using it. A converted keg just fits on it - stabily, but without a ton of excess room.

 

[Beer Weevel]

Take a look-see at the Bayou Classic Banjo Cooker. $65 (free shipping from Home Depot), 210k BTUs. This thing KICKS. It's also very sturdy and low to the ground, which makes me more comfortable using it. A converted keg just fits on it - stabily, but without a ton of excess room.

Is this the best burner or what, it rocks!!!!!!

 

[Pogo]

dcarter -

I was looking at one of those Saf-T-Fryers yesterday.

They have a built-in thermostat! Especially when set to wide-open it will keep cutting the temp down, thus the Saf-T part, so that it doesn't start a 'dangerous' rolling boil!

Simply disconnect the bulb end of the thermo-coupling from where the designers mounted it, and re-route it and the tubing down one of the legs, and tape it down, out of the way, and far from the heat, so that it will only sense cold, and it will tell the burner to COOK HOTTER!!!

Pogo