I need to upgrade my boil kettle. I’m looking for a 40 qt, stainless steel with ball valve and liquid level gauge. Obviously there’s the Blichmann boilermaker. Are they really worth the hefty price? Are there more reasonably priced alternatives?
I just bought a 15 gal stainless Bayou Classic ($115 - Amazon) and I’m adding a weldless sight glass ($26 - brewhardware.com), a weldless ball valve ($28 - Amazon) and a Blichmann brewmometer ($30 - williamsbrewing.com).
That will put me just over $200 when all is said and done…
Yes there are plenty of cheaper alternatives.
You can put a sight guage on most kettles out there.
You can also just mark a mash paddle, wooden dowel, or many other things to measure liquid levels.
I have my levels marked on a plastic mash paddle. Every gallon, and half gallon, could have done quarter gallon as well. But I just eye ball the quarters.
This is the one I bought real nice pot super happy with it http://www.homebrewing.org/2-Weld-15-ga … _2756.html
I have the ten gallon version of that and love it. When I upgrade I will get the version you posted.
10 Gallon Megapot by our host works fine. I just have the drain valve, no temperature guage.
The first question is to ask: “how big do I want to brew?” 40qts means you would be able to do a full-boil 10 gal batch. Is that how you want to roll for the foreseeable future?
40 quarts is exactly 10 gallons- not enough to handle a 10 gallon batch, given you’ll need 11+ gallons pre-boil wort for that. That said, I bought an eight-gallon megapot from our host, which barely works for my 5 gallons batches. I wish I had bought the 10 gallon size to free up boil-over insurance space. I typically start with 7+ gallons pre-boil wort. I also found the the height at which the thermometer is mounted is slightly too high to regularly use it when I’m heating up my strike water. I usually don’t strike with the 3.75-4 gallons it takes to submerge the thermometer. You easily skip that feature to pay for the larger volume.
Sight-glass? I would worry about breaking it and having sticky/hoppy junk stuck inside.
Get 10 gallons with a valve IMO
If your only looking for a pot big enough to do 5 gallon batches then I would go with this. http://www.homebrewing.org/2-Weld-9-Gal … _1684.html
