Mash Kettle advice please ?

Chris in Spain

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Still a newbie in brewing terms, I've done some small batches of all grain brews. 1st was undrinkable, poor temperature control, but now I understand the process a bit better I want to brew a bigger all grain batch. I don't own any pans big enough and I think my gas hob would struggle anyway.
So I was looking at electric Mash Kettles, my budget is around £200, see the link I've posted on one I found.

https://www.klarstein.co.uk/index.p...d9b27745449f443e05c9f28c92a653&listtype=list&

Any one know if this is a good choice?

It says capacity is 25litres. I was looking at a clone recipe of Adnams Ghost Ship which says the start boil volume is 28litres.

Will I be able to use this kettle to make beers that have a higher start boil volume, so could I keep topping up with water as it evaporates ?

Any opinions or advice would be really helpfull.
Many Thanks
 
It says capacity is 25litres. I was looking at a clone recipe of Adnams Ghost Ship which says the start boil volume is 28litres.
Boil off is not recipe-specific but rather related to the equipment that you use to produce the wort. It's very likely that the boil off from this type of pot will be smaller. Very likely not more than 1 gallon per hour. This pot may be a bit of a tight fit for typical batches but the boil is usually pretty mellow in this type of system.
Batches are typically made at 20 liters and if you start with it pretty full, you can get close. You wouldn't need to top up with water but you can easily save back a little of your late runnings and add to the pot after a little is boiled off. If you get it and find that you really aren't able to get to the batch size of a particular recipe, just scale the recipe back. Or you can brew the recipe as is but with less water which may give you a slightly stronger wort which you can top up going into the fermenter.
 
Was listening to somone whose process was to freeze 40% of the water of the batch the day before, add that to the fermenter then pour the other 60% of the batch with a concentrated wort over the top of the ice. He was getting to pitching temp about 5-10 minutes after adding to the fermenter. Sounded really appealing as the weather is starting to heat up down here and cooling with warm groundwater becomes a pain.

Any thoughts on how you'd do something similar with the recipe builder here? Could certainly do it if you take the finished recipe through the dilution calculator, but that involves thinking and planning...
 
Boil off is not recipe-specific but rather related to the equipment that you use to produce the wort. It's very likely that the boil off from this type of pot will be smaller. Very likely not more than 1 gallon per hour. This pot may be a bit of a tight fit for typical batches but the boil is usually pretty mellow in this type of system.
Batches are typically made at 20 liters and if you start with it pretty full, you can get close. You wouldn't need to top up with water but you can easily save back a little of your late runnings and add to the pot after a little is boiled off. If you get it and find that you really aren't able to get to the batch size of a particular recipe, just scale the recipe back. Or you can brew the recipe as is but with less water which may give you a slightly stronger wort which you can top up going into the fermenter.

Thanks for your advice, maybe I'm worrying for no reason.
 
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^^^ Get the system that will work for you and your infrastructure and then worry about tailoring recipes to fit.
Inexperienced brewers get very fixated on the idea that they need to follow a recipe for a certain beer but they're thinking in terms of a recipe as it relates to a cake, for instance. The ingredient list for a beer is only a part of the picture. Since mash temperature(s), mash thickness(s), PH, water profile, wort oxygen saturation, pitch temperature, fermentation temperature, transfer, carbonation, storage, serving temperature, pour quality etc, etc... are all factors that very much impact a beer's flavor and impression of it's quality upon consumption.
Any 2 brewers can start with the exact same grain bill, hops and yeast and end up with different beers.
Figure out how you want to brew and what your capabilities are and brew the very best version of any particular beer that it's possible to brew. You can make any number of small changes along the way if you keep the goal of highest overall quality in mind at all times. ;)
 
^^^ Get the system that will work for you and your infrastructure and then worry about tailoring recipes to fit.
Inexperienced brewers get very fixated on the idea that they need to follow a recipe for a certain beer but they're thinking in terms of a recipe as it relates to a cake, for instance. The ingredient list for a beer is only a part of the picture. Since mash temperature(s), mash thickness(s), PH, water profile, wort oxygen saturation, pitch temperature, fermentation temperature, transfer, carbonation, storage, serving temperature, pour quality etc, etc... are all factors that very much impact a beer's flavor and impression of it's quality upon consumption.
Any 2 brewers can start with the exact same grain bill, hops and yeast and end up with different beers.
Figure out how you want to brew and what your capabilities are and brew the very best version of any particular beer that it's possible to brew. You can make any number of small changes along the way if you keep the goal of highest overall quality in mind at all times. ;)
Thanks Austin, your so right, don't know why I was so fixated with sticking rigidly to the recipes and trying to get a system to fit, glad you pointed it put to me.
I know I'm still very green when I look at your list of things impacting a beers flavour, I have so much to learn!
Thanks again.
 
Hi Chris in Spain, thanks for the recipe! I’ve used The Malt Miller before and their gear never disappoints. Thanks again!

Your welcome, I've got the hops to brew this beer and also have a go at Brewdog Punk IPA, citrus flavours are my thing right now
 

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