Help me decide on a Blichmann Kettle Size - and why a Keggle?

[Leukass]

I have been brewing on 2 - 16 gallon Bayou Classic pots for a few year. Getting back into brewing and decided i wanted a better mashtun set up and i typically only ever brew 5 gallon batches, because by the time i kick the keg, i want something else to drink. SO i bought a 10 gallon boiler maker with false bottom for a mash tun and brewed on it last week - this thing is awesome. So much so it has me thinking i should upgrade my boil kettle... As i mentioned i typically always do 5 gallon batches. So should i just get another 10 gallon for my boil kettle or should i go with 15 gallon for boil over protection... What size boil kettle do most people use for 5 gallons?

Also - what is the benefit of convertible a keg to a boil kettle? Is there a benefit or is it just because you can get cheap stainless with a keggle?

 

[day_trippr]

The last one is easy: traditionally - in the era of expensive SS kettles - it was to save money.
Now that kettles can be had rather inexpensively depending on ones wants, I've been noticing fewer keggle builds here.

As for your boil kettle size: I brewed five gallon batches for a number of years using 10 gallon G1 kettles and a 10 gallon Rubbermaid cooler, before upgrading to 10 gallon batches and three 20 gallon G1 kettles. I did some pretty big beers as well and the actual limiting vessel was always the cooler.

I think it'd take an extreme recipe (barleywine) to have a preboil volume for a five gallon batch that would threaten a ten gallon kettle...

Cheers!

 

[MikeCo]

A 10-gallon kettle should be enough for boiling any 5-gallon batch, but a 15-gallon kettle doesn’t cost much more if you think you might want to do bigger batches someday. A 15-gallon kettle will certainly minimize boil-over risk on 5-gallon batches.