Definitely TC.@dhoyt
Are you doing threaded or TC ports?
TC will give you flexibility if you ever want to do electric. They are easier to clean as well.
The downside is all the fittings are generally a bit more expensive than threaded.
I brew with a 15-gal Spike kettle using a RIMS/BIAB set up and love it! I agree with the comments about getting a larger kettle than you think you'll need.
Here is my set up while mashing in a "Ten-Fidy" clone a couple of months ago. I do a full-volume (no sparge) brew, so things can get tight in that mode. While this is probably the biggest ABV beer I'll ever make the kettle was about as full as it could get. (12-gal water and a full 5-gallon bucket of grains for a 5 gal batch)
Video Link:
https://i.imgur.com/3gescyB.mp4
that’s a 5 gal batch in a 15 gal kettle? That must be a BIG beer. Was it tasty?
Wow....sorry, I’m a 4-6 abc guy that is huge lolYes, that is a 5-gal batch. The OG ended up at 1.102 and it fermented down to 1.029. (9.6%) It still carbing up, but the initial taste test was yummy.
Yeah I think I have settled on spike because of the customization they have. You can get ports in any configuration you like which is nice. I'm going to go with a 20 gal kettle like I originally was thinking. The big concern was that with a kettle that size I wouldn't be able to do 5 gal batches in it but it sounds like with direct fire it shouldn't be an issue. What I'm thinking about now is the ability to switch between direct fire and electric depending on the situation. So now I'm figuring how many ports I'm going to need. Electric coil, whirlpool, two temps depending on electric or direct fire... Price tag keeps going up! HahahaI brew with a 15-gal Spike kettle using a RIMS/BIAB set up and love it! I agree with the comments about getting a larger kettle than you think you'll need.
Here is my set up while mashing in a "Ten-Fidy" clone a couple of months ago. I do a full-volume (no sparge) brew, so things can get tight in that mode. While this is probably the biggest ABV beer I'll ever make the kettle was about as full as it could get. (12-gal water and a full 5-gallon bucket of grains for a 5 gal batch)
Video Link:
https://i.imgur.com/3gescyB.mp4
Yeah I think I have settled on spike because of the customization they have. You can get ports in any configuration you like which is nice. I'm going to go with a 20 gal kettle like I originally was thinking. The big concern was that with a kettle that size I wouldn't be able to do 5 gal batches in it but it sounds like with direct fire it shouldn't be an issue. What I'm thinking about now is the ability to switch between direct fire and electric depending on the situation. So now I'm figuring how many ports I'm going to need. Electric coil, whirlpool, two temps depending on electric or direct fire... Price tag keeps going up! Hahaha
Yeah I think I have settled on spike because of the customization they have. You can get ports in any configuration you like which is nice. I'm going to go with a 20 gal kettle like I originally was thinking. The big concern was that with a kettle that size I wouldn't be able to do 5 gal batches in it but it sounds like with direct fire it shouldn't be an issue. What I'm thinking about now is the ability to switch between direct fire and electric depending on the situation. So now I'm figuring how many ports I'm going to need. Electric coil, whirlpool, two temps depending on electric or direct fire... Price tag keeps going up! Hahaha
It really comes down to what style of beer and how much you want to brew at a time. A 20 gal kettle is pretty big if you are only doing a batch of a cream ale, but if you like Russian Imperial Stouts or other styles that require alot of grain you might appreciate the extra room in the kettle.
Off topic but isn't spotted cow a farmhouse ale?
Depends on the style for me. For NEIPAs it's whatever, but for real IPAs I sometimes want 6ish abv and sometimes I crave 8ish. They're totally different beersI use a 10gal eBIAB kettle but usually I go for 5-6%ABV and I find it perfect size for full volume BIAB.
I'm only 1 brew in on a 10 gallon eBIAB setup ND it was an 8% full volume mash. I think 9%would absolutely max out a 10 gallon pot, which is fine for me.
Whenever I get around to making something bigger than 9% I'm just gonna scale the recipe back to 4 or 4.5 gallons.
I like having the smaller and easier to handle/clean pot.
Off topic but isn't spotted cow a farmhouse ale?
I totally agree! I personally own 4 of their kettles in all versions and they are all top notch. I can also attest that their customer service is great. Super responsive and helpful.I have purchased two Spike kettles in the last few years and the quality on both was second to none.
FWIW, Spike dropped some details on their BIAB setups yesterday. The batch sizes make zero sense, but I am very intrigued.
I received this and was also confused as to why the 10-gallon size can only do 2.5 gallon batches.
I have a spike 15 gallon kettle and the quality is top notch. To be honest, if I was in the market for another kettle, I wouldn’t even research what else was out there. Straight to spike.
The 15 gallon kettle is ideal for 5 gallon batches. There are a lot of 10 gallon batches I’ve thought of doing that will not fit in my 15 gallon kettle without some type of extra step. You can still do it, but would need to incorporate some type of sparge step. Use this link below to get a better idea on kettle size.
http://www.biabcalculator.com
Yeah I think I have settled on spike because of the customization they have. You can get ports in any configuration you like which is nice. I'm going to go with a 20 gal kettle like I originally was thinking. The big concern was that with a kettle that size I wouldn't be able to do 5 gal batches in it but it sounds like with direct fire it shouldn't be an issue. What I'm thinking about now is the ability to switch between direct fire and electric depending on the situation. So now I'm figuring how many ports I'm going to need. Electric coil, whirlpool, two temps depending on electric or direct fire... Price tag keeps going up! Hahaha
That said I really like the Brew Bag bags. I just use a Brew Hardware false bottom to keep the bag above the element and it works out great.
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