Purchasing a New Turkey Fryer

[JamesKY]

Yesterday I went around to several stores searching for a good deal on a turkey fryer left over after the Thanksgiving rush to use for home brewing. I found a few good deals but none of them came with a pot that had a valve on it for draining oil or other liquids.

How important is this really in the overall scheme of things? I figure that I can either pour, siphon, or add my own valve with an added expense but I wanted to post here to see if anyone else has any wise words that they would like to impart on me.

 

[SixFoFalcon]

If you are doing extract brews, there is really no need for a tap/valve of any kind. Just use an immersion chiller in the pot to cool your wort after the boil, then use a sanitized racking cane to siphon the cooled wort into your fermenter.

With all-grain it would be a bit more complicated, and you'd probably be better off carefully drilling the pot and installing some hardware of your own. Plumbing is easy--especially compared to all the steps we go through to make good beer.

 

[JamesKY]

I'm sorry, I should have been more specific. Yes, I will be using this for all grain. My plan is to gradually acquire equipment so that I keep my up front costs low. I just got married so I'm still adjusting to this shared financial responsibility business. I figure that I can eventually use this turkey fryer as a HLT when I finally get a larger kettle.

 

[SixFoFalcon]

When you drill, start out with a small pilot hole. Then use a "step drill" to gradually enlarge the hole until you reach the desired diameter for your fittings. The step drill helps keep the metal from getting all mangled when you drill (it basically drills the hole out in 1/8" or so increments.)

My wife and I have set-asides in our payroll. We each have our own personal savings accounts in addition to the joint account. A little bit of each of our paychecks gets directly deposited in our personal account, and that becomes our "play money" that we can use for hobbies or whatever we want. I use that money for equipment and "toys", and I use the "groceries" portion of our budget (from the joint account) for beer ingredients, since that would get spent on commercial beer if I wasn't brewing my own.

 

[malkore]

+1 for these weldless fittings: http://www.greatbargain.net/order/shop1.html

put a spigot on anything.

 

[JamesKY]

Thanks for the suggestions guys. I purchased the turkey fryer yesterday and I'll order a weldless fitting for it and add my own valve. I can't wait to do my first AG batch!

 

[BierMuncher]

Thanks for the suggestions guys. I purchased the turkey fryer yesterday and I'll order a weldless fitting for it and add my own valve. I can't wait to do my first AG batch!

I'll go against the grain (pun intended) here.

I did 8, 5-gallon batches in my turkey fryer and have done over 25 10-gallon batches in my keggle...all without a spigot.

I’m a bit old school and I like to keep it simple. A racking cane works just fine to transfer your wort out of the kettle into the fermenter. If you install a spigot, you'll also need to fashion some sort of false bottom or other filtering device. A false bottom will reek havoc (get stuck) if you use a large quantity of pellet hops.

A simple whirlpool at the end of your cool down and the racking cane will transfer pretty darn clear beer.

Trust me…when it comes to your introductory AG batches…a spigot is not a necessary item.

 

[SixFoFalcon]

I see your point and I agree with you to some extent.

For my own personality, I sometimes find it easier to go through the extra complications at the design/manufacturing stage, and then have the system be more "plug and play" when it's time to go live. But that's just me... a combination of my natural desire to tinker with things beyond the level that is necessary, and my years of indoctrination through working for the government has left me a little, uh, different. :cross:

And your closing comment touches on an important issue we see time and time again in the brewing scene--there are very few things that are "necessary". We spend a lot of time debating things here because we are fanatics, but at the end of the day, you can still make the best beer in the world without buying into all the hype and getting extraneous equipment. RDWHAHB!