Any body use a 100qt brew pot?

[CidahMastah]

I am looking to get an 80 or 100qt brew pot but I am on the fence. I want to get a 100 quart pot and put a 5500w element in it. Plan would be to do most 10G batch boils with it, maybe an occasional 15g batch.

Anyway, wanted to know if anyone has done this with an element in a 100qt megapot. I wanted to grab a megapot, but they are very wide and I am concerned about the convection. I currently have a 60qt megapot and it is 18 inches in diameter and that is almost a bit wide for the element (IMO), the 100qt is 21 - seems too wide to me.

I really want a stainless pot that is 16-18g, and ~18inch or less diameter. This rules out Bayou classics.

There has to be one crazy brewer out there who has upped to this size equipment. Personal usage details would be ideal.

 

[wildwest450]

I personally see no correlation between pot diameter and element length. You could squeeze the occasional 15gal batch in an 80 qt. pot, that's what I would look for.

_

 

[CidahMastah]

I personally see no correlation between pot diameter and element length. You could squeeze the occasional 15gal batch in an 80 qt. pot, that's what I would look for.

_

My only thought was that at 18 inches there is a good amount of space from the tip of the element to the side wall. I was thinking that there might be a more efficient boil, with better convection is the diameter of the kettle didn't exceed 18 inches.

However you may be right.

I was just shooting for getting a boil over proof pot, not that I have too many issues with that now, just was thinking if I was buying, why not.

Also, with my current megapot, I ahve to have 5 gallons in there to safely cover the element and I put the element as low as I could based on my junction box clearance. I was concerned that I would need a good deal more wort volume to cover the element.

I may be over analyzing this one, but just trying to exhaust all possibilities in my search.

It does feel a bit like I am in the minority looking for a pot in this size range.

Plus, sps-100 = ~$242; sps-80 = ~190 (so $50 price difference). both cite ~20inch diameter with 100 @ 20 inch tall and 80 @ 16 inches tall. Thinking that extra $50 might be worth it

 

[wildwest450]

I may be over analyzing this one, but just trying to exhaust all possibilities in my search.

you may well be.

_

 

[CidahMastah]

you may well be.

_

Ha!

By the way. just checked out your "shed".

You are a bad bad man effing awesome...

 

[wildwest450]

Ha!

By the way. just checked out your "shed".

You are a bad bad man effing awesome...

But, I have short elements in my kettles.

_

 

[jhollist]

While I have not yet used my 80qt as electric (still in the process of converting and will do my small kettle first), I plan to do so at some point.

I know not terribly helpful wrt your question.

But thought I would share this with you:
http://www.foodservicewarehouse.com/update-international/sps-100/p5180.aspx

I own the 80qt version of this, but they no longer seem to have that one available. Much cheaper than the megapot, and I have been told that these update International pots are identical to the megapots. I have had no issue with mine and found the quality to be great, especially given the price.

If I end up converting my big kettle first, I'll keep you posted on the progress and how it works.

Cheers,
Jeff

 

[CidahMastah]

Thanks Jeff!

One thing I noticed about that one was they say 20g for the pot, but the other one is 1.2mm (supersteel or megapot), which is on the thicker side of 18g steel. Though, the naming convention seems way to similar.

wonder if that is a typo or a real difference.

 

[jhollist]

I will admit I am not familiar enough with my steel gauges to know intuitively, but the Update International kettle I have is VERY sturdy. I have an older turkey fryer combo that still serves as my small system (I BIAB). The gauge of that smaller pot is definitely thinner. The Bayou Classic site (which I believe is who made my pot) lists their 8-9 gallon pots at 20 gauge.

In short, if it is the same steel as mine, I wouldn't be at all concerned.

Cheers,
Jeff

 

[CidahMastah]

I will admit I am not familiar enough with my steel gauges to know intuitively, but the Update International kettle I have is VERY sturdy. I have an older turkey fryer combo that still serves as my small system (I BIAB). The gauge of that smaller pot is definitely thinner. The Bayou Classic site (which I believe is who made my pot) lists their 8-9 gallon pots at 20 gauge.

In short, if it is the same steel as mine, I wouldn't be at all concerned.

Cheers,
Jeff

(I googled the steel gauge bit - so me either )

Thanks for the information though, this will help me in my quest That is exactly the kind of anecdotal info I am looking for.

 

[Bachhus]

I have two 100qt pots waiting to be made electric but have not done it yet either. I was on the fence also but the reason I went with the 100 over the 80 was because the diameter of the 80 vs the 100 was the same. The only difference was the height. So you are not giving up more surface area on boil off and only gaining less of a chance of boil over with the 100. You are also gaining the larger capacity benefits. If the $50 isn't an issue then I would do that because you will never be able to get a 100qt pot down the road for $50.

Just my $0.02

 

[CidahMastah]

I have two 100qt pots waiting to be made electric but have not done it yet either. I was on the fence also but the reason I went with the 100 over the 80 was because the diameter of the 80 vs the 100 was the same. The only difference was the height. So you are not giving up more surface area on boil off and only gaining less of a chance of boil over with the 100. You are also gaining the larger capacity benefits. If the $50 isn't an issue then I would do that because you will never be able to get a 100qt pot down the road for $50.

Just my $0.02

Your rational is exactly why I was thinking 100 over 80. You can always put less than 100 qts in teh 100 qt. pot

Did you go with megapot/suspersteel/update international? I assume so because I noticed the diameters were basically the same on the 80 and the 100

 

[Bachhus]

I actually bought some aluminum pots off ebay for something like $60 each. They came with full sized steamers which I had grand dillusions of truning into a hop basket or something i'm sure i'll reget The pots I got have a diameter of 19" if I'm remembering right. I am going to do the weldless electric instal with the big ss lock nut. The diameter was the same on the 80 vs 100 on the pots I was looking at also though.

 

[CidahMastah]

I actually bought some aluminum pots off ebay for something like $60 each. They came with full sized steamers which I had grand dillusions of truning into a hop basket or something i'm sure i'll reget The pots I got have a diameter of 19" if I'm remembering right. I am going to do the weldless electric instal with the big ss lock nut. The diameter was the same on the 80 vs 100 on the pots I was looking at also though.

Gotcha - I think I am gonna roll with the megapot style, since my other stuff is stainless. Looks like Austin Home Brew has them cheap for 239.99 no tax or shipping. Then jsut a ball valve from bargain fitting for 40 bucks and I should be all set to hook up the electric!

 

[Bachhus]

Sounds like a great plan. I wanted to go with stainless but just couldn't justify the extra $$ in my situation. If I had the money to spend on the nicer pots I would have gone the stainless route for sure. I'll get a few years out of the aluminium pots and see if I want to upgrade later.

Either ones you go with I'm sure you will be happy. But once you pull the plug on the 80 and not the 100 you'll never be able to get the larger sized pots for the extra $100 total for the two. If the 100qt ones had a larger diameter and you would be faced with a much higher boil off problem than maybe I would lean towards the 80's but since they are the same diameter I would go with the 100qt's but agian, just my opinion here.

Mark

 

[orangehero]

Boil off depends on how much energy you put in, not the surface area of the pot. Propane users might see an increase in boil-off due to better heat transfer to a larger diameter pot.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/boil-off-rate-192966/

 

[CidahMastah]

Boil off depends on how much energy you put in, not the surface area of the pot. Propane users might see an increase in boil-off due to better heat transfer to a larger diameter pot.

Not sure this is true.

That is like saying surface area doesn't contribute to how fast ice would melt at the same temp (broken up pieces versus a chunk of ice). Of course the broken up pieces with more surface area melt first.

I have read boil off rate is a factor of surface area, ambient air temp, humidity, elevation, wort density and temperature input. In fact I believe surface area is one of the top factors in boil off rate.

I just was unclear how significant the role of surface area was. If I go with a 100qt pot, it shouldn't be an issue though, since I only plan on 10g and an occasional 15g.