BDawg wrote:Once you go to 5 gallon full boil batches, ice baths no longer cut it.
5.5 gallons of near-boiling wort is too much to move around without serious risk of scalding yourself or someone else.
It takes far too long to cool down, and all along the way, it's a great environment for bacteria to take hold and ruin your beer before its even out of the pot. Of course, you can cover it, but that prolongs cooling and any SMM that would escape can't because of the lid.
Bottom line, the turkey fryer and wort chiller go hand in hand. You'll be glad you got them together.
I managed to get a turkey fryer + pot for 40 bucks at the thrift store, I took it as a sign and spent fifty more bucks on a wort chiller. I'd already had a mashtun built from the last AG conversion attempt that ran out of money, so for 100 bucks, I went up to all-grain.
Buy the cheapest damn wort chiller you can find, just BUY ONE. I probably wouldn't be brewing these days if I didn't have one, it's just too useful.