Brew Pots

[Kiltlifter]

I need to get a brewpot but am needing to do it as "cheaply" as possible. I've looked at a 3 gal stock pot and the price is right ($15 enamel) but I'm wonding if I should just bite the bullet and get a full 5 gal pot ($40 stainless)? Is a full brew that much better than putting your hot wort into 2 gal of cold water in your fermenter? Fairly new to brewing so I hope this isn't too silly of a question.

[toneyc]

The 3 gallon pot will do until you can afford to get a bigger one. Yes, the bigger ones are better, but use what you can afford. I think I used a 3 or 4 gallon pot when I first started, then I bought a turkey fryer that came with a big aluminum pot and eventually sprang for the 6 or 7 gallon stainless pot for $60-70. I still had a boil over yesterday.

:p
Toney.

[wortchillergoal]

I agree, use what you can afford. If you want a big pot cheap try looking in your yellow pages to see if ther is a used restaurant equipment dealer near you. They sometimes buy up the cookware with the equipment of a closing business.

[Dave A]

I haven't done a "full boil" myself yet so I can't say how much of a difference it makes. I did my first 5 or 6 batches in an 8 qt pot that I already had, that's cutting it close but it can be done. I picked up a 16 qt stainless pot with a heavy copper bottom for $25-30 in the housewares dept of one of the big department stores in the mall and it's made life alot easier. I would have gone with 5 gallons if I had found that size and quality for under $50, but as Toneyc pointed out, you still can't do a full boil, you'd need a couple extra gallons of head space for that.

[danno]

since summer is just about over up here in Minnesota, this weekend I saw Walmart starting to put all their patio furniture and grilling stuff on clearance. This meant $20 for complete turkey fryer kits, with 30 qt aluminum pots...

[sullydavid]

I started with a 4 gallon stainless that I figured I "had" to have. Did about 5 batches and then decided I had to have a turkey fryer, which came with a 6 gallon enamel pan. I did a couple full wort boils (extract). Now I have decided that I "have" to do 10 gallon batches so I use both pans.

My advise is to think about how much of a gadget person you are and how long the cheapy will hold you. I am a gadget junkie and pretty much wasted money on a small pot that I only really used 5 or 6 times before replacing. If you are like me go big now, if nto decide if you can wait a year or so.

[YamahaXS]

If you are on a budget, do what you can to save money. there will be other things that you will want to buy....like extra carboys, extra buckets, more everything!


You can brew with a 3 gal pot, it's just more likely to be messy.

[Brownbeard]

I got my 5 gallon stainless steal pot on E-bay for $14.99 plus $6 shipping. Not too bad.

[mcarlson74]

Another thing you should get too if you are going to go with a full boil is a wort chiller. It will take quite a while to cool down 5 gal of wort without one. If times are kind of tight I would go with the smaller pot and wait until you can afford a wort chiller and bigger pot.

[wortchillergoal]

Make sure you can lift 5 gallons of wort, not meaning to sound smug. I know some older brewers that went from a fuul 5 gallon brew to smaller as they were no longer comfortable with lifting the weight of the wort.

[Fast_Eddy]

If you can lift it and afford it - get a pot that will allow a full boil. You'll get better beer as a result. You can always pick up the 5 gallons and carry it to a bath tub full of ice to cool it down. I did it for like 3 years until I recently broke down and bought a wort chiller. The chiller was nice for my last batch but I was getting just as good cold breaks without it. It just took more effort 'cuz I had to carry the hot wort around....

Now if you have the $$$ go ahead and buy both.