Brewing kettle

Hi I just recieved my brewing kit I got the deluxe kit. I read somewhere that I only needed a 3 gallon or bigger stock pot but after reading the instructions that came with the kit it looks like I need a 5 gallon one. I bought a 4 gallon one thinking this would be big enough. will this work or do I need a 5 gallon one?

If you do partial boils, you can get away with the smaller kettle. You’ll eventually want to move up to full boils to improve your beer, so go ahead and buy something in the 8-10 gallon range if you can.

I definitely recommend buying a kettle in the 8-10 gal range. But, the kettle you have will get you through until then.

Thanks for the info. Would I be able to just split the ingredients in half and make two batches from one recipe?

Yes, you could split a 5-gal recipe and do two 3-gal boils instead.

Depending on your beer kit, whether you have specialty grains or not, it may be hard to split it into two equal boils. You should be able to boil 2 1/2 gallons in that kettle if you watch it closely. Then just top off to 5 in your fermenter. My first kettle was a 9 gallon and now doing full boils and some BIAB I wish it was a bit bigger. I’ll probably buy a 15 gallon kettle soon. Of course the 8-10 gallon that’s been recommended to you also means you’ll need a burner and will be brewing outside unless you have a gas stove that SWMBO will let you commandeer for a few hours

Just food for thought as you become addicted to brewing. :cheers:

Thanks for the help. I ordered a turkey fryer with the burner. I don’t know how long it will take to get here and want to start brewing this weekend.If I only boil 2 and half gallons do I do that twice? I don’t want to mess up my first batch. I am not sure how to do this so maybe I will just wait for the new kettle.

[quote=“mokurjahoobees”]I am not sure how to do this so maybe I will just wait for the new kettle.[/quote]If you want to use the smaller kettle, you can either do a partial boil and top up the fermenter or you can split the recipe in half and boil twice, then combine in the fermenter.

I, as I’m sure many did, brewed with a 3 gallon kettle for a while when I got into brewing. Boil as much water as you can. You have to leave room at the top for the extract (will raise the water level) and some foam when it boils. Be careful of the first boil. You have to turn the heat down, stir, etc, to keep to from boiling over and making a mess! Once the boil is done and cooled, add everything to your fermenter. Add water to bring the volume up to 5 gallons.

If you have a 4 gallon kettle, boil 3 gallons. You should end up with 2.5 gallons or so after the boil.

If you do a full volume boil, cooling the wort down can be tougher. You can use an ice bath with the smaller volumes pretty easily.

Good luck!

No you’ll add all your ingredients to the smaller boil volume, so you’ll have a very high gravity(concentrated) wort when the boil is over. Once it’s cooled you put it in your fermenter and top it off with cool water to get your full 5 gallons in the fermenter. NB’s extract kits are designed for this process.

But you should seriously look into buying an 8-10 gallon kettle. It took me forever to make the commitment and I’m ecstatic I did and wish I’d done it a year ago when I started.

o.k. I watched the dvd that came with my kit and it says on there to use at least a 3 1/2 gallon kettle. you are only boiling 2 1/2 gallons of water, so i’m a little confused as to why I would need to do partial boils or split the recipe.

2.5 gallons is a partial boil. You boil 2.5 gallons, then top off with water to get to the 5 gallon mark. You only boiling part of the 5 gallon yield.

a full boil you actually boil roughly 6 to 6.5 gallons to get you down to the 5 gallon yield.