Buying Brew Pot Need Advice.

[vicelore]

Well after spending hours last night reading HowToBrew online.

i have noticed i need to buy a brew pot. and build a immersion cooler for it. This brings me to my next question.

what size type of pot should i be buying .

I would like my brewing days to take up a good slice of a day and make it a decent event when i brew. so therefor i think i should be making enough wort to fill my two 30 litre fementers up to the normal 20 litre mark ?? then i can give a few bottles to mates etc.

in the future i wish to take my brewing as far as possible and am fairly sure i will be into AG as soon as i have the knowhow and experiance so i dont mind spending a couple of hundred if nessaccary so i dont find myself replacing this in 6 months.

whats your guys advice ? my dream setup would be too brew every 2nd weekend. and have 2-4 kegs in a fridge with maybey 2-4 different types of beer goin at a time.

Thanks allot.

 

[bconnery]

Essentially if you want to make double batches, i.e. 2x 20L as you've mentioned there, you will need a 60L pot minimum I would say, and I think it goes from 50 to 70, so a 70l pot would be your option.

If you just want to brew a single batch, a 40 or 50L would be fine.

I use a 40L pot to make 20L batches for my kegs...

I like to have more variety rather than more beer so I don't want double batches, but others like to make more beer each time so that may be your preference...

 

[geoffi]

I usually do double batches to fill 2 x 15 litre cubes. They actually hold about 17 litres, so my final volume comes out at about 34. I try to make the wort strong and dilute when I keg/bottle. So effectively I'm aiming for 40 litres of finished beer per brew day.

I have a 50 litre aluminium kettle, and it is just big enough to cope with this quantity. I have to watch the beginning of the boil very closely to avoid boil overs.

In hindsight a 60 litre kettle would have been a better choice. It doesn't cost much to go up a size, but it makes things more comfortable.

 

[eric8]

Vicelore,

check out allquip for a stock pot. I think a 70 lite pot would do what you want for a double batch. they have ss and ali pots.
allquip
You don't need to make an immersion chiller, you could just "no chill". But then thats up to you.

eric

 

[SpillsMostOfIt]

Sydney Road, Brunswick or Victoria Street, Abbotsford for cheap pots. Allquip for good'uns.

If you like cheap, aluminium. If you like shiny, stainless steel. If you like malleable, plastic...

 

[tangent]

i reckon whatever size you think, add 25%

 

[vicelore]

so a 60 is probaly what im after ?? what type of cooker am i goin to have to put under that to get it boiling. i probaly wont be using the one in the kitchen as i seem to get in the way.

i was thinking maybey build a frame and mount a camp cooker running on LPG or something under it ??

Then its mobile if i need to put it away or easy to take outside to hose off etc..

 

[vicelore]

iv also herd a little in the lower thread about a false bottom. should i be looking for a pot with this feature ?? i saw on http://www.beerbelly.com.au/vessels.html that they will weld on a tap for you, should i be looking out for stuff like this ?

Cheers

 

[tangent]

if you share the place with a woman, NEVER boil wort inside. You're asking for grief.
check out a Nasa burner or Italian spiral or 3-4 ring LPG burner.

 

[SpillsMostOfIt]

if you share the place with a woman, NEVER boil wort inside. You're asking for grief.
check out a Nasa burner or Italian spiral or 3-4 ring LPG burner.

I did the very first boil in my big pot on the stovetop in the kitchen. I had instant authority to purchase whatever equipment I needed to take subsequent exercises outside...

 

[domonsura]

I got my authority instantly to buy a bigger kettle and everything else I needed to take it all out to the shed........by having a boil-over on the kitchen stove and doing a very poor cleanup


For what it's worth -

For the time being at least, I will & do match allquips web prices for the stainless kettles, and

I do supply aluminium kettles as well, just email me for a price, and

A 70 litre kettle is big enough to ship a NASA or Italian burner inside with no additional freight charge...............

 

[Thirsty Boy]

I'd say that the three ring cast iron burners would be "barely" adequate for a 40L batch... they'll do it, just, but if you know you are going to brew 40+L batches then I'd be going for a 70L pot and either a 4ring low pressure burner or one of the higher pressure burners like the italian or the nasa etc etc.

Your boil kettle doesn't really need a false bottom... thats for your mash tun. The two vessels could be combined, but then you'd still need another one to hold your wort while you cleaned out the pot and got it ready for the boil.

Most mash tun based systems have two or three vessels, a Mash tun with a false bottom or similar device in it; and a Kettle that can have all sorts of things in it, but doesn't need to be anything but a big pot. The third vessel is usually a Hot Liquor tank and is just a vessel for heating/storing hot water. You can do without a HLT and just use your kettle, but it means a bit more mucking about on brew day.

If you want to stick with just one pot.... you could try Brew-in-a-Bag (BIAB). You only need one pot and a burner for BIAB. The pot doesn't even need any sort of modification, although a tap is always nice to have. Apart from that, $10 bucks will buy enough material to have a BIAB bag sewn up. The downside to this is, that while you only need one pot... it needs to be even bigger. At a minimum for a 40L batch, I'd say 70L and preferably 75 or 80.

More options, more confusion. You will find your answers here, but it might take a while for you to shuffle it all around inside your head and come up with what you want to do and the system thats right for doing it.

 

[Zizzle]

My advice would be to hold off on the purchase until you have gone and seen someone do an AG brew or maybe checked out a few other rigs.

I built up my confidence in being able to do AG while building up my equipment. I started with BIAB and an ali pot which I installed some kettle elements in for about $150.

Also I would recommend you take up domonsura's (of beerbelly) offer:

http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/inde...showtopic=18334
http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/inde...showtopic=12165

While things may go smoothly with the big mobs most of the time, if it doesn't they don't care. So support the retailers who support us. If there is price parity, then it's a no brainer.

 

[vicelore]

i work in the hardware industry and have just had a look through our inventry and found that we sell 3 ring burners . i can get this Burner Ring Triple 1/4 BSP below for $24...

but by the sounds of it it might be a little too low powered.

Thanks for the offer Domonsura. I will be keeping my eye out and if thats the road i take you will be the 1st i contact.

Cheers

 

[jendres]

Great advice from Zizzle.

I'm not doing a standard AG yet, but I've been to Thirsty Boy's BIAB demo (it got me into BIAB) and other demos at Grain and Grape. They are excellent value. (ie. Free!)

From their website:
Demonstration Program
16th February:
Paul Rigby will make a full mash beer.
23 February:
Nik Dontschuk will make a full mash beer.

But it looks like it will be a bit of a trip for you from Somerville.

 

[vicelore]

well i just checked out the prices on the beer belly burners and they look allot better and more powered for the money.

as for holding back on the buys, i know this is probaly going to be used on extract brews for a while still but from what i have been reading on the howtobrew site i am going to need a decent size pot and burner for these. and i thaught i would outlay now and have it be good for the future.

i was thinking maybey a 70 liter Stainless kettle and a burner all mounted on some kind of rack on wheels.

this way i can make big batches of extract/partials for a while and have enough beer to fill mates for partys while i work on my brewing.

and down the track when i start AG i will allready have a decent kettle and burner.

your thaughts ???

Cheers

 

[vicelore]

anyone ??

 

[Fents]

do it mate, you wont regret it.

70L is heaps you could easily do a 50-55L batch in it. Get a good burner too. If your saving cash get one of those $24 jobbies and wack a high pressure reg on it (yes even though they arnt made for it) and it will boil your wort no wukka's.

If you have the spare $$$ get the 70L pot all decked out and the nasa. You will never look back trust me.

 

[bconnery]

well i just checked out the prices on the beer belly burners and they look allot better and more powered for the money.

as for holding back on the buys, i know this is probaly going to be used on extract brews for a while still but from what i have been reading on the howtobrew site i am going to need a decent size pot and burner for these. and i thaught i would outlay now and have it be good for the future.

i was thinking maybey a 70 liter Stainless kettle and a burner all mounted on some kind of rack on wheels.

this way i can make big batches of extract/partials for a while and have enough beer to fill mates for partys while i work on my brewing.

and down the track when i start AG i will allready have a decent kettle and burner.

your thaughts ???

Cheers

Having a big pot for extract/partials depends on a) how much grain you put it, and thus how much boil you need, and B) how much of the water for your beer you want to boil.

Many people don't boil all the water for extract batches, just enough for the grain water and some to hold the extract.
Some like to do a boil of everything that is going in, in the same way that you do when going AG.

It can't hurt to have the big pot for sure, but if you happen to have a really good sized stock pot that would work too.
I used to use a 15l stock pot for my, admittedly 23l, extract and mini-mash batches.

You will definitely need a 4 ring or grunty burner for 40l batches...

This post here is an outline I did of my method for extract+grain batches, using a stockpot, and for partial/mini mash the procedure was the same, just with a little more liquid in the boil and a slightly different steep...

 

[yardy]

not to slag off any of the retail posts here, if 50lt ends up being your preffered Kettle size check out the local scrappy for disused kegs, you might be lucky.
my 2 bobs

yardy