Is my kettle too big?

[eMPTy]

Hi guys, never thought I would be asking this question, but is my kettle too big?

I was given (fairly cheaply) a 82L stainless steel pot, one of those Chinese jobs with relatively thin sides.

Anyway, I am currently only doing extract (in a smaller pot) and am quite new to brewing still. I have been thinking about giving BIAB a go with this new pot, but would likely only be brewing single batches. On thinking about it, I am concerned that the evaporation will be ridiculously excessive. I have tried to do some searching and reading, but given I am yet to face evaporation as a serious issue, I was hoping I could grab some thoughts from those with a tad more experience.

Cheers!

 

[seamad]

It's pretty big, depends a bit on diameter. Aim for 10 % evap, you can reduce evap without changing boil intensity too much by making/using an aluminium foil pie dish to float on the surface.

edit. you could always do double brews and no chill a cube each batch, using different cube hops , yeast etc for later fermentation.

 

[n87]

I have an 82 cheapy pot (500x500 FWIW) and it comfortably does double batches BIAB.

look into no chilling. no chilling, you can get yourself 2 cubes full of wort to ferment whenever you want to.
I dont do single batches anymore, it simply a waste of time when i can do a double and it takes maybe 30 mins more.


I am also looking for a larger (doubleish) pot to make more beer in less time!

 

[eMPTy]

Never heard the floating foil dish idea before. That is certainly interesting. No idea off the top of my head on the pot diameter, but my guess is 75cm or so. MIght check that tomorrow. Regardless, it seemed very wide from a glance.

As for double batches, certainly an option, but not sure if I want to be regularly doing them at this stage.

 

[klangers]

Evaporation is driven by how intense your boil is rather than the diameter of the kettle (within reason).

You will get more evaporation, but I wouldn't worry too much about it - you can always add top-up water.

In fact it gives you a bit more flexibility as noted above. Also, if you do have a high evaporation rate you can use this to your advantage by lautering heaps and boiling off the water to give you a few more efficiency points.

 

[seamad]

Excess boiling will coagulate more protein, protein adds to both body and head, therefore it's better to try and keep it @ the 10 % mark

 

[eMPTy]

The dimensions of the pot are 48cm diameter x 45cm high. Can tell from my previous guesstimate that I had not taken a proper look at it.

Double batches are certainly an option, I just worry about evap. and other issues with singles.

I have a weldless valve and thermowell thermometer sitting around, so I guess i'd hate to drill the holes to add those only to find the pot is just a stupid size.

 

[goomboogo]

What are you using for a heat source? As Klangers said, boil intensity will have more impact on evaporation than kettle diameter. Your decision on batch size may come down to whether you have an adjustable heat source that would allow you to do either single or double batches whilst staying around the evaporation rates referred to by Seamad.

 

[Eagleburger]

I have the same pot and singles dont work well. Doubles are good.

 

[eMPTy]

What are you using for a heat source? As Klangers said, boil intensity will have more impact on evaporation than kettle diameter. Your decision on batch size may come down to whether you have an adjustable heat source that would allow you to do either single or double batches whilst staying around the evaporation rates referred to by Seamad.

I have a 3 ring burner with adjustable regulator

I imagine between the regulator and ability to turn off rings I could get a reasonable degree of control?

 

[goomboogo]

It may take some tweaking but you should be ok with different batch sizes. Check out some videos to see what a rolling boil looks like. It doesn't have to be boiling hard to get the desired result. Before you drill the holes for the ball valve and thermowell, do a 1 hour boil with 27 litres of water. You'll be able to work out your evaporation rates and get an idea how the big kettle will perform with the single batch.

 

[Eagleburger]

This was my original measures with 90min boil. I have a few more bottles now on account of a hop basket. havent done a single in a loong time. I have a keggle for that.


50l batch
Start=71L=39.5cm
Start=63=35cm
Sparge=8
10 loss to grain
Start of boil=61=34cm
8 boil off
End of boil=53=29.5
6 loss to trub/hops
Fermenter=47
5 loss to yeast
Kegs=42

23l batch

Start of boil=36=cm
8 boil off
End of boil=28
5 loss to trub/hops
Fermenter=23
4 loss to yeast
Kegs=19