Step Up To Ag

[Lachlan]

Good Morning Everyone,

AHB, what a great site. I stumbled across it a couple of months ago and the content is fantastic and everyone on here should be proud of what they are involved in. I have been doing partials for the last 6 months with alot of success. Over the last 3 weeks i have been researching AG and slowly preparing myself to make the step.
I purchased a 38L round cooler for my Mash Tun and i have a 20L SS pot for sparge water. I have been scouring the internet for a kettle, either SS or aluminium, lately i have been working to a budget thanks to the Reserve Bank and their helpful interest rate hikes anyway after all my research i see alot of you guys are using old 50l kegs that have been converted to a kettle.
Where do i get one?
What is the cost?
The next issue is heating the kettle, if i can't get my hands on a keg i will be buying a 50l aluminium pot from
http://www.cheflink.com.au/productcart/pc/...?idCategory=219

Can i get enough heat from the wok burner on my BBQ to effectively boil to kettle? at this stage my batch size will be 23L so the max amount in the pot to heat would approx be 34L (i think)
Any and all help will be much appreciated.

Thanks
Lachlan

 

[Guest Lurker]

If the keg has the brewery name stamped on it, then it always remains their property, they never release them. So regardless of whether you find it in a rubbish skip, buy it out of the paper, or steal it from the back of a pub in the dead of night, its all the same you are receiving stolen goods. Which you may well decide to do, many brewers have.

As far as I know the only legal kegs were available from here, not sure if they still are.

http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/inde...showtopic=19570

 

[bconnery]

Can i get enough heat from the wok burner on my BBQ to effectively boil to kettle? at this stage my batch size will be 23L so the max amount in the pot to heat would approx be 34L (i think)

Not unless your wok burner is pretty grunty.
I'd suggest a test run of the 20L from cold to boiling.

More than likely you are going to need a burner.
I use a 3 ring from a camping store, which wasn't too expensive.
It works fine but I would have stumped up the extra 15-20 for a 4 ring if I was doing it from scratch.

Either of these options is fine for the budget set up, without forking out the big bucks for a NASA or Mongolian or whatever super grunty burner takes your fancy...

 

[crozdog]

Good Morning Everyone,

AHB, what a great site. I stumbled across it a couple of months ago and the content is fantastic and everyone on here should be proud of what they are involved in. I have been doing partials for the last 6 months with alot of success. Over the last 3 weeks i have been researching AG and slowly preparing myself to make the step.
I purchased a 38L round cooler for my Mash Tun and i have a 20L SS pot for sparge water. I have been scouring the internet for a kettle, either SS or aluminium, lately i have been working to a budget thanks to the Reserve Bank and their helpful interest rate hikes anyway after all my research i see alot of you guys are using old 50l kegs that have been converted to a kettle.
Where do i get one?
What is the cost?
The next issue is heating the kettle, if i can't get my hands on a keg i will be buying a 50l aluminium pot from
http://www.cheflink.com.au/productcart/pc/...?idCategory=219

Can i get enough heat from the wok burner on my BBQ to effectively boil to kettle? at this stage my batch size will be 23L so the max amount in the pot to heat would approx be 34L (i think)
Any and all help will be much appreciated.

Thanks
Lachlan

Re the heating of your kettle, I doubt that your BBQ wok burner will have enough grunt. many people use 3 & 4 ring burners, but I prefer the high pressure burners with adjustable regulators like the infamous "NASA". I use a 2 ring HP from Gameco in Lidcombe which boild 180l no worries. The italian spiral burners work really well too (1 exploded my stamped concrete entertaining area a month ago h34r: )

guys manage to get 40+l in their 50l keggles with careful flame control. if you can afford it go for an 80l pot cause it gives you a lot of flexibility as you grow with this hobby/obsession eg double batches (all for you or to share with brewing mates); heat your strike & sparge all in 1 go

 

[WitWonder]

Re the heating of your kettle, I doubt that your BBQ wok burner will have enough grunt. many people use 3 & 4 ring burners, but I prefer the high pressure burners with adjustable regulators like the infamous "NASA". I use a 2 ring HP from Gameco in Lidcombe which boild 180l no worries. The italian spiral burners work really well too (1 exploded my stamped concrete entertaining area a month ago h34r: )

guys manage to get 40+l in their 50l keggles with careful flame control. if you can afford it go for an 80l pot cause it gives you a lot of flexibility as you grow with this hobby/obsession eg double batches (all for you or to share with brewing mates); heat your strike & sparge all in 1 go

What he said ^^

Personally I have a 4 ring burner which I don't think is much more than the 3 ring in terms of cost. You can also switch rings off/down when you're boiling if it's too hot. If you upgrade to a larger boiler later you can still keep your 4 ring burner. I'm glad I have a 4 ring burner as it takes a while to boil as it is and that time would obviously increase if you only had 3.

I have a 50L keg and aim for a pre boil volume of about 47L. You need to be careful but it can be done.

 

[Thirsty Boy]

I'll give a bit of a +2 to perhaps considering a larger kettle. I manage a double batch with a 3 ring burner, but you can turn a 4 down to a 3 and you cant go the other way, so.....

If you are going to "obtain" a keg, fair enough, the 50L is workable for a double batch, but not ideal. If you are going to pony up the shekels for a commercial pot, go a bit bigger. Id say that somewhere in the 65L range is around about right. Not too big or wide so that you will get massive evaporation on your single batches, but big enough so that you can do a double batch without having to be too paranoid about boilovers, and you can consider the option of a 90min boil as well.

But - lots of people use kegs @ 50L so if the price difference between a 50L pot and the larger ones matters, then you will be OK with the 50L

If you are sure that you will never want to play with double batches, then you would be able to get away with a 35L pot and a 3ring burner will be more than sufficient. But you will be giving up the flexibility to expand your volumes.

Good luck

Thirsty