18l Stainless Steel Pots

[Scotty]

While shopping today i found some 5 gallon (about 17.9L) stainless steel pots. They were only about $15 each and i was wondering is they would be large enough for all grain brewing?

 

[Backlane Brewery]

Whilst I was shopping last night I found a bunch of huge ss pots in a local $2.00 shop- marked as 18/8 stainless, made in India, 20 litres for $16.95.
My question is, bearing in mind you get what you pay for, are they worth it? Or should I go to a specialist catering supply shop ?
This is in addition to Scotty's question on size.

 

[GSRman]

my boiler is 60L and i probably wouldn;t want to go too much smaller..

 

[johnno]

You wont do a 23 litre AG batch with a 20 litre pot. I have one and use if for my partial mashes. I usually mash about 3 kilos of grain and the pot is pretty much full right up to the top after a batch sparge.

cheers

 

[neonmeate]

i've got a 26L pot and it's fine by me, about as big as i can go while still boiling on top of the stove. my batches come out 19-20 L. a 20L pot would be a hassle, you would be stuck with 15L batches and even less after racking etc, for the time you spend all-graining that doesnt seem like a lot of beer to enjoy at the end of all that work... but that is cheap. maybe you should get two!

 

[Justin]

Oooo, you missed out on Batz's pot deal. 60L alu plot for $80 with stainless shank and stainless ball valve. Would have been a good buy. Guessing Ant bought it though.

Alu pots are a good cheap alternative for cheap all grain pots that your not going to grow out of.

If I was building my system from scratch again I would have probably gone this alu stock pot route. They are easy to drill and work with, this is a huge bonus if you don't have a tig welder or good drill bits.

IMHO, if you planning to go all grain don't waste your money on cheap alternatives like undersized pots. Save you money and buy something that you wont grow out of. Trust me, if you are going to go all grain you'll use that pot once or twice then go to something bigger and never use it again. I have a 20L stock pot just like the ones you guys are talking about, guess where it sits. Back of the cupboard never to be used for brewing again.

Just my thoughts.

Cheers, Justin

 

[user 384]

While shopping today i found some 5 gallon (about 17.9L) stainless steel pots. They were only about $15 each and i was wondering is they would be large enough for all grain brewing?

It depends. As a cheap way to get a pot that you can use on the stove top it will be fine. As a long term approach no way. I brewed AG for over a year with this type of pot. Obviously I couldn't do full wort boils, but I would just dilute the wort during the boils as some evaporated and then again in the fermenter, when it had cooled. It worked fine, and was an easy and inexpensive way for me to explore AG.

Few years down the track and it's hopelessly undersized for what I want to do now.

Cheers
MAH

 

[Backlane Brewery]

So, you need a 60l alu pot to play with the big boys?
Justin & GSR, appreciate what you say, but at the moment while confident with
K & K/ K & A type brews I am a bit wary of running before I can walk. Reading this forum has given me a lot more confidence but still, there is nothing like experience.
If a 20l or so pot will do for 11-15l PM brews I will get one. I think I may give a few of these PMs a shot before trading up to the all SS HERMS RIMS AG HLT (insert further acronyms here) nasa burner water cooled dream machine. And matching fridge.

 

[Guest Lurker]

Only one fridge? Oh dear.

 

[neonmeate]

ok you guys that make 50L batches, how do you drink all the beer? you must have pretty good alco tolerance... im brewing 20L batches and still i had to chuck a party to get rid of all the stuff i couldnt drink..
do you only brew 10 times a year or something?

 

[chiller]

One jug, then another and another .... sleep ... then another jug, followed by another .........

Oh look, time to brew again. .... Where did that beer go ??


Steve

 

[user 384]

ok you guys that make 50L batches, how do you drink all the beer?

Drink the beer? Oh that's where I'm going wrong!

A wise man once said to me:

"If you make beer, they will come"

Cheers
MAH

 

[roach]

One jug, then another and another .... sleep ... then another jug, followed by another .........

you seem to have a fixation with jugs Steve .

I must admit I am quite partial to dowing a few jugs and I agree with MAH's profound statement that if you make it they will come. Tho for the 'west end draught' megaswill drinkers, any hint of hops will cause them to run a mile.

 

[Scotty]

Thanks for the advice guys, so 18l pots are useless. Im not too worried i have a 50l keg im going to turn into a boiler.

 

[roach]

Thanks for the advice guys, so 18l pots are useless. Im not too worried i have a 50l keg im going to turn into a boiler.

Scotty,
I use one of those 18l pots for heating the strike and sparge water on the gas stove, as i have no HLT. I use a 50l keg as a boiler. Holding out for a 30l urn as a HLT, or go the plasticman way.

Cheers
Roach

 

[Jazman]

i used to use that sizes for partial and as a hlt too with the other burner i have ,i do use a 45 litre keg and it big enough for me

 

[pint of lager]

18 litre pots are ideal for partial mashing, small all grain batches and extract brewing.

Because of the size, you can get away without using a chiller, just dunk the whole lot in a tub of water in the laundry, change that a few times to chill the wort. Make sure the handles are firmly attached.

If you decide that you want to launch into larger batch sizes, you will still use the 18 litre pot from time to time, for heating sparge water, and boiling part of the mash for decoctions.

Every house needs a large saucepan for big batches of soup, and cooking plum puddings.

 

[Rubes]

Or u can use 2 on the stove to do full batches up to 30L. I have 2 18L ones I picked up for a song.

They are usually cheap and nasty pots - very thin and very easy to scald extract in. The flimsy handles also scare the shit out of me when I lift them full to force cool in the bath! I think that if the price is right it is a great introduction to all-grain and just because it doesn't look fancy doesn't mean it won't make beer just as good. Well in my case it doesn't but that isn't the fault of the equipment

I am upgrading to a large more substantial boiler very soon but I don't regret spending the money on my pans at all.

 

[GSRman]

I used to brew extract partial boils in a pot of about that size, and have only just stepped up to the big pot and chiller and burner in the last couple of weeks

 

[GSRman]

When boiling up my extract yesterday, with ~30L in the pot, i had a boilover... the hot break didn't seem to want to fall back in with the wort,...