Spike kettles

[Brewing1976]

Does anyone have experience with spike kettles?

 

[stevehaun]

Yes

 

[Brewing1976]

Yes

How do you like it?

 

[stevehaun]

I have the old version and my son has the new version. Quality of the kettles improved with the new version. That said, I love mine and would buy them again.

 

[JONNYROTTEN]

what makes the difference between a "good" stainless pot and "bad" stainless pot is the real question.....the answer is pretty much nothing that will make a single bit of difference in the homebrew world

Welded or riveted handles....anyone lifting there pot filled with scalding wort...no....so thats out....whats the difference?..Thats the real question.
If its normal stainless that they all use I see no difference besides that shiny name on the side.

 

[wilserbrewer]

I hear you JONNY...
If I’m not mistaken, I think you have the original version Spike kettle...or what is commonly known as Concord?

 

[verboten]

I have a 15 gallon and a 20 gallon, I like the false bottom for the 15, and the fact that they sell hardware that does exactly what it should. I couldn’t find anything that was plug and play for my other 15 gallon kettle.

 

[Brewing1976]

I have a 15 gallon and a 20 gallon, I like the false bottom for the 15, and the fact that they sell hardware that does exactly what it should. I couldn’t find anything that was plug and play for my other 15 gallon kettle.

Do you do BIAB

 

[verboten]

I'm building a 2 Vessel recirculating mash system, pretty much a 2 vessel 10 gallon robobrew.

 

[augiedoggy]

what makes the difference between a "good" stainless pot and "bad" stainless pot is the real question.....the answer is pretty much nothing that will make a single bit of difference in the homebrew world

Welded or riveted handles....anyone lifting there pot filled with scalding wort...no....so thats out....whats the difference?..Thats the real question.
If its normal stainless that they all use I see no difference besides that shiny name on the side.

riveted handles often leak a bit... at least both the kettles I had with riveted handles did. but I agree with all your points.. different folks have different priorities though.. some homebrewing systems here are more a stainless work of art than others.. at the end of the day they both do the same thing for thier owners. I found my cheap bayou classic 16 gallon kettle works very well for me with the bayou false bottom that its designed to work with. others have not had the same opinion of it but I average 91% brewhouse efficiency with it so I beg to differ. at the end of the day it works as well as any other big soup kettle depending on how its utilized.
My opinion is for those using propane, they may want a heavier duty kettle than those using electric where this does not matter. also if a person is clumsey or hard on thier equipment they may want a thicker walls kettle. paying a lot of money for a kettle tends to change the way you look at it and treat it... when it comes to stuff like tri clamp fitting I find them not very practical for this type of small homebrewing setup.. especially since they are not commonly found on homebrewing equipment like pumps where they would make more practical sense.. Its all pennywise pound foolish to me to have them on a boil kettle but to then be using ball valves with them or on the fermenter with non sanitray barbed hoses most dont disassemble between each brew session..

Spike kettle are very well built... The real question id ask is do you need that kettle at that price for your use or priorities?

 

[oldwhiskers]

I have the 20 gal and really like it, if I had to do it over again I would go with the sanitary connections. It did have slightly thicker sides and bottom than others at the time.

 

[augiedoggy]

I shared this on the other two " kettle" threads going right now but I just noticed this one is actually made by LD carlson in the USA which besides blichmann is the only brewing kettles I know of that are actually manufacturered here... This may be important to some.
https://www.amazon.com/Brewers-Best...-15&tag=homebrewtalk_skimlinks_replacement-20