I got a new brew kettle in the mail today. I bought it from Brew 4 less for only USD 99. It holds 34 liters (9 gallons) and is made from type 304 stainless steel. That should be plenty of room for my 25 liter brews, but it is not big enough should I wish to step up to 40 liter batches in the future.
The kettle comes with a lid, a built-in thermometer gauge with Fahrenheit and Celsius scales and a brass ball value. Other similar kettles cost between 200 and 250 USD, so this is quite a bargain.
The thermometer is primarily useful when cooling the wort in the kettle. It will allow me to see when the wort is cold enough to transfer. The ball value has a 3/8" barb that lets me connect heat resistant silicone tubing, so that I can drain the wort directly into the fermenter.
Overall it looks quite sturdy. The only defect I've found is that one end of the lid handle had broken loose. It seemed like the glue had loosed. I've now added more glue, so we'll see if that fixes it or not. This is really a minor issue, and I'm pretty sure I'll be able to repair this.
Now the big question is whether my stove can actually bring 30 liters of wort to a boil.
3 comments:
are you still using this kettle? how has it held up? Regards
I want to buy the same kettle, but have a question that the sellers did not respond to. Is the inside of the bulkhead the same as the weldless one you put in your cooler mash tun? I want to use a bazooka screen or a false bottom, but it likes like from the picture that it would be hard to connect.
The ball value is 3/8" and not 1/2" which you would need if you wanted to attach the Bazooka screen.
Overall I'm pretty happy with the kettle. It's perfect for 25 liter batches which I make on my stove top. The one thing that I see as an advantage as compared to using my two older and smaller kettles is the fact that I can chill all the wort in one vessel using the immersion chiller. That shortens the brew day somewhat.
The bottom is also somewhat thin, so I would be a bit careful about using it with a propane burner.
For the price it is definitely worth it.
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