Pot Dimensions: are inside or outside given in specs?

[tarponteaser]

Evening Everyone,

I'm upgrading my brew set up a bit at a time and have been looking at pots this week. One question I have is the diameter measurements. I am looking at the winware 40 qt aluminum pot which states 14-3/5 diameter and a wall thickness of 3/16. Any idea if the dimensions the inside or outside diameter?

Granted the difference may be slight, but I'm building a heatstick on a j to lay flat near the bottom and may consider getting the 50 qt pot for a bit more room....would a 50 qt pot be overkill for 5 gal batches (and I tend to like IPAs and double IPAs so a bigger pot may be good for all grain big beers).

Thanks for you help. This site rocks....gave me the initiative to go all grain and now planning an electric set up.

Regards

 

[DangerRoss]

Well if you do the volume calculation for the 40 quart kettle with the dimensions: 14-3/5 diameter by 14-2/5 depth (Dimensions gotten from amazon for the Winware 40 qt aluminum pot). It comes out to be that the 14-3/5 in is the outer diameter.

 

[rack04]

I have this pot. I could measure it tonight when I get home that would help.

 

[tarponteaser]

Thanks for the offer to measure...seems like I always get a question on weekends when the businesses are closed.

Talked with Winco rep this am and confirmed it is an outside diameter, subtracted the wall thickness to get the appropriate inner diameter for both the 50 and 40 gal pot.

Decision time 50 qt vs 40 qt??

Even though I'm doing 5 gal batches of all grain ( shooting for 5.35 gal in fermenter), I may go with the 50 qt to give me more boiling capacity when brewing a Imperial American IPA with a target OG of 1.08. I understand that all grain hig og brews require a larger initial volume to boil off to the desired ogdue to mash and sparge volumes required for 20 lbs or so of grain.

 

[DangerRoss]

If you are considering doing 10 gallon AG batches I would jump up to the 60 quart volume kettle. Otherwise, 40 quarts is plenty big enough for 5 gallon batches.

 

[tarponteaser]

Ordered the 50 qt pot today, the 60 qt was tempting for only 4 or 5 bucks more, but most of my brews are 6.5 gal boils...and I only have a compact fridge that fits 1 corny.

When the kayak is built and the shed has room, I'll make a keezer to handle at least 4 kegs.

What I may do with the 50 qt pot is make larger recipes and bottle 2 gals of each batch and keg 5 gals.

Regards