I’m still rocking my original turkey fryer setup after who knows how many years. I boiled over my tiny 7.5 gallon aluminum kettle this weekend and was washing the dented, thin rickety thing and started thinking about an upgrade. I’m the King of cheap and just good enough, so I’m wondering how big of a difference I’ll notice if I go for a cheap Bayou Classic 10 gallon stainless kettle and possibly a new burner (Dark star? Something else not too fancy?) Anybody else make a similar upgrade that can say what kind of difference they noticed?
You will be much happier with a 10 gallon pot. If let’s you relax a bit during the boil. You’d burner can wait IMO .
Yeah, I was kind of leaning that way. I’ll have to probably hack out the fryers safety features if I use a bigger pot, but that doesn’t seem too bad. I could then actually reuse the aluminum pot to heat up mash/sparge water, instead of going back and forth from the kitchen to the garage.
Blichman burner is worth it…it’s so much quieter than a dark star 1.0. And with a 10 gal kettle it’s awesome.
After using my Bass Pro shop 7.5G kettle/turkey fryer burner setup for 3.5 years, this past spring I went to a local restaurant supply store and bought a 10G kettle. $70, and she is built like a brick. As brewcat says, it has really relaxed my boiling phase. I still use the 7.5G to heat the liquor, and the burner is still working just fine for me.
I did the same here. Upgraded to a 10 gallon Polar kettle from my 7.5 gallon turkey fryer, but kept using the turkey fryer burner. Still use the 7.5 gallon pot for a HLT. Not only did it make things more relaxing as the wort began to boil with much less risk of boil over, but it allowed me to try some things that simply didn’t work in the smaller kettle - like the traditional Pilsner brew I did that needed a 3 hour boil.
I think it’s clear, I’ll go for a 10 gallon kettle, then keep using my cheap burner for now. Maybe upgrade that later if I run across a good deal.
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Without pricing kettles, the host often offers 20% off any one item. Might be worth looking into.
I do 5 gallon batches and bought a 15 gallon pot. I think its the best choice I ever made.
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I will agree that a very large kettle is way more bang for the buck than a smaller one. Some day you’ll want to crank out 10 gallons of a brew you’ve made that was absolutely the best, and be able to cellar for a long time, because you don’t have time to brew! Sneezles61
Got good deal at the local chinees hardware store. A double burner and a 30 gaĺlon tub under 200$
I do this as well I have both a keggle and a heavy duty 15 gallon pot with a basket which allows me to one day dabble with biab. Generally use keggle for darks and poit for lighter beers…cheers
