Kettle Upgrade

[red80go]

Also, are the Boilermakers that much better than the ones from B3?

I'm curious where this conception comes from.

Oh just reading other threads on this board and other sites.

[Test_Engineer]

Also, are the Boilermakers that much better than the ones from B3?

I'm curious where this conception comes from.

They are more shiney, and cost more. DUH.

[red80go]

I finally was able to get a 10 Gallon kettle from B3 DOTD. All Grain, here I come this weekend.

[hopshead]

Great advice already given here, but, I have to say on your next kettle purchase buy as big as you have money to. I always said "I will never make more than 5 gallon batches." But, I took the advice of my fellow homebrewers and when I used George W's "stimulus" package I bought a 15 gallon stainless from morebeer. My fellow homebrewers were right, I now want to do 10 gallon batches and ferment in two different carboys - I am actually planning on running a test - Us-05 in one and wlp001 in the other. As for the kettle - it will last my lifetime and my kids lifetime and is the best brewery equip. I own.

[nathan]

I'm now in a single tier sculpture I built with a keggle HLT, keggle Boil Kettle, and a blichmann 20g mash tun.

I've run a boil with 13.5 gallons in the keggle already and had no problems. I shoot for 11 gallons of finished wort, plus the loss of about a half gallon with the trub cone after whirlpooling, so I am boiling off around 2 gallons to get to 11.5. I put 5.25-5.5 into each carboy (7 gallon carboys). I think I may go to 5.0-5.25 per carboy and boil a bit more vIgorOsely on anything but the lightest colored beers, so I could max at 14 gallons pre-boil and min at 10.5, which is 16.5% boiloff at max, clearly too much for anything you don't want super dark, but probably useful for a barley wine or maybe a dopplebock. My standard brews with 13.5 to start and 11.5 to end, though, are a stable 10% boiloff (mostly I do 90 minute boils because of the styles I choose).

[Henway]

Dude, 14G in a keggle?

I use foam control and tried it ONCE. You "can" do it, but even with the foam control, it's super iffy. Even running a whirlpool was sketchy. Maybe if you have a fan blowing across the top, but maybe physics works differently for you (or your keggle is bigger or you add your IC at the end of the boil....) then again, I only have 1350ml loss to the kettle, some more to the pump hose.

I'm happy with the 12.74G starting and finishing with 11G and not having to worry about boilover. I'm getting 9% boiloff with roiling boiling.

[nathan]

no foam control.
My lid hole is about 11.5 inches diameter, so there's a curve at the top. the max volume is a tad over 15 gallons up to the edge of the lip there, leaving just a single gallon of space. I can get a rolling boil and nurse it through the hot break by having my handy hose sprayer set on mist. I think the inward leaning curve top of the keggle helps, and if yours is cut out wider than mine, that might make a difference.

Also, I've only used this in near-freezing ambient temps, so my boil is not as vigorous as a summer-time one (I've even lengthened some to compensate).

If you are careful and use a mister, you can manage some tight-fit boils well enough.
I use a cfc, though, which makes a difference. My IC took up almost half a gallon! It's a herms coil now.

[Henway]

Your's is bigger than mine. I'm jealous.