Photos of My Stainless Pot and set-up so Far!!! and questions...

[Darren Andrews (Daza)]

Hey guys here is my pot this morning doing the water test to see if anything leaks and it passed!! I have a question should I put a filter or screen on the inside part of ball valve to avoid unnecessary trub in the fermenter? cheers. and weighed the pot without lid comes in at a whopping 7.6kg. pretty heavy when half full of water too.

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[Mr Agsy]

Hi Darren . You could install a Bazooka screen to your pot. It works well when filtering your hops during the boil..

http://www.trademe.co.nz/home-living/food-beverage/other-beverages/...

[Darren Andrews (Daza)]

Could be worth trying would that clog up easy? How much trub is left in pot after doing a boil and hop pellets thrown in? Cheers for link.

[Ben Dean]

This is my hop filter, works a charm.

[Darren Andrews (Daza)]

A sieve? any one or is it a home brewing one? I was thinking of doing it that way ages ago, shit there is a lot of hop trub there! good not to put that in the fermenter. I bought a stainless whisk today for aerating the wort once in the fermenter is that what you do?

[Ben Dean]

Just a $10 sieve from pak n save, fits perfectly over my fermenter. The wort flows out pretty quick from the ball valve on my pot so it aerates as it spews into the FV.

[Darren Andrews (Daza)]

Ok sweet I'll check them out later, hey is your brew kettle electric or gas burner? I am going gas and want to decide on which burner I'm going to get today. Cheers

[Ben Dean]

I have one of these:

http://www.amazon.com/Bayou-Classic-SP10-High-Pressure-Outdoor/dp/B...

It's worked great for me so far. Shipping costed me almost as much as the burner itself though and there seems to be more options available in NZ now compared to a few years ago when I bought mine.

[Darren Andrews (Daza)]

What size pot in diameter do you use on it? I love those burners its on my shortlist and fishpond.co.nz sell them but they seem to always be out of stock sadly. The burner it self is a 4" cast iron bayou? Bring to boil pretty quick? Good on gas? Brewtopia sell those burners in a far different frame which doesn't look as stable as these ones. And only $105. Comes with the adjustable regulator too so good value, the other is a 12" bayou type burner on its own for $69 no stand or regulator. You not interested in selling are you? Haha. Cheers mate.

[Ben Dean]

I have a 40cm (50L) pot. Yep the burner itself is a 4" cast iron Bayou, pretty quick to bring to mash temp and boil - about 15 min for each. It's the only burner I've ever owned so I don't know how good on gas it is compared to others.

The one on a taller frame on brewtopia looks pretty good, I have built a bench for mine to sit on as I was getting a bad back lifting up a heavy pot when it came to transfering to the fermenter.

Mine's not for sale sorry :)

[Darren Andrews (Daza)]

Thanks for the advice I appreciate it. mine is a 40cm 50L pot heavy solid high quality with heavier base, love my pot. I know what you mean about the lifting the heavy pot filled with the wort. I plan on doing 23L batches for a start. The bench you built doesn't get hot when using the burner? I have seen them use a flat piece of sheet-metal for protection against fire. Do you get any black soot on the pot? can the flame run just blue? and on full does the the flame come around the sides? cheers. got any shots of your burner in action or not. thanks.

[Ben Dean]

The bench gets warm/hot to touch but not hot enough to burn as very little heat actually goes downwards out of the burner.

No black soot as the flame is blue with the air intake open. Although on first use you need to fire it up in an open space sans pot as all the paint burns and flakes off the frame, the instruction manual warns of this. The flame stays under the pot, nothing comes around the sides.