I have a used turkey fryer at home would it be ok to use for brewing? I would like to start doing BIAB
5 gallon batches. If I can use it what would be the best way to clean it before the first use.
Of course you can. A lot of us started that way. My turkey fryer was stainless and I always cleaned it well after cooking in it so it was no problem. Oxy clean does a nice job. That said, I’ve seen turkey fryers at tag sales that I wouldn’t touch for free. Who fries a turkey and leaves the grease in it for years and then try’s to sell it a tag sale? You’d be surprised.
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Is it aluminum or stainless? How big of a pot? You can certainly use it for brewing.
Either way, I’d probably do a thorough scrubbing with barkeeper’s friend, and a very hot soak with pbw or oxy, and then boil water in it for awhile. That should get it squeaky clean. If not, repeat the pbw soak and boil.
aluminum 7.5 gal. Sounds like a job for this weekend. It gets cleaned after each use when I fry
thanks for the info.
Make sure you read up on maintaining the oxide layer on your aluminum pot. It’ll get removed when you scrub it, but boiling water in it should restore it.
Also, 7.5 gallons is going to be a pretty tight fit for a 5-gallon batch. I don’t think you’ll be able to do a full-volume BIAB with it, but it’s easy enough to add a sparge step to make up your volume. Also, you’ll probably have around 6.5 gallons wort at the start of your boil, which means you’re in serious boil-over territory. Not that big of an issue, but make sure you watch it like a hawk until after hot break, and be prepared to kill the heat or you’ll have a pretty big mess on your hands.
Don’t let me discourage you from using it, though - Just trying to help you avoid the mistakes I’ve made!
I used that size for awhile. I found 6 gallon boil workable. And yes you have to whatch it close and turn off the flame when you do your additions. I’ve since repurposed that pot as a hlt
That’s my setup. I don’t BIAB, but batch sparge from a cooler. I avoid boilovers with Fermcap and careful attention. I usually start with 6.5 or so gallons, so it’s still a little tricky. Even if it does boil over, it’s just a mess on my garage floor and sticky bits on my burner, so not the end of the world.
Batch sparging from a cooler wouldn’t be a problem at all, read up on Denny’s Cheap and Easy Cooler mash tun. BIAB might be a bit tight. As far as worrying about boilovers, get some Fermcap, comes in a little squeeze bottle, a couple drops will help control the foaming during the hot break.
Uber and I must be twins! Exact same setup and procedure. Lately I’ve been filling her to the 7G line and have been OK.
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You can do biab in that size pot just do a big pour over. Or put your bag in a cooler for your mash and do a dip dpsrge in your pot the combine for the boil.
thanks for the ideas. But what is a pour over? this will be my first attempt at all grain brewing with
building my mash tun this spring. So I’m using BIAB to get me started.
A pour-over is simply lifting the grain bag out of the liquid in the pot, and pouring more water over the grain in the bag, letting it filter through and into the pot until you’ve reached your target volume for starting. Kind of a sort of fly sparge.
Speaking of building a mash tun, here’s a video if you want to see how I did mine. Building a Mash Tun
Hello everyone thanks for all the tips and info. But now everything has changed I received a stainless steel keg from a friend. So today I’m going to cut off the top and make a keggle. Also found a place
where I can get a bag made just for a keggle they also sell pulleys for lifting, looks like I’m going to all grain faster than I thought. Again thanks for all the advice.
I hope you got yer keg legitimately, and yes converting is a great way to go. I did more than cut a hole in the top, I took the top right of at the weld but left the handles in tact. A little more work but I feel its much better to use… Sneezles61
Yes I got it legitimately my friend owns a tavern. He told me before I got it,it was dented so the distributer told him to keep it. I guess the brewery could not use it anymore.
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