Need to upgrade my boil kettle

[Blackdirt Cowboy]

I hope I put this in the right place. I am completely new at this, so go easy on me if I say something stupid. I am looking to upgrade my boil kettle for my beer making operation, and would like something to double for cooking/mashing corn. I’m mostly interested in making bourbons and whiskeys right now. My pot still has a 20 gallon boiler. Currently, I don’t have a fermenter large enough to ferment a 20 gallon wash, but I’m planning on getting a 30 gallon and 55 gallon plastic barrel for that. I’ll probably cook/mash like Jimbo does in his tired and true recipes. What size of kettle should I be looking at getting? I need 20 gallons for my beer making, but will that be big enough to make a 20 gallon wash for bourbon?

[still_stirrin]

I use a 1/2 barrel keg as a brew kettle. If I had to brew in 20 gallon batches, it’d be an expensive upgrade as the commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) boil kettles larger than 20 gallons get quite expensive.

You’re looking at micro-brewery equipment sizes....1 to 2 barrels. And I’d suspect that if you get to that size, you’d want a stainless conical bottom fermenter with a glycol jacket so you could properly recycle the yeast...as a micro-brewery would.

Personally, to fill a 30 gallon fermenter, I would make 3 sequential 10 gallon batches (sure, it would be a long day, or two). I’d make one beer one day, maybe two on the first day, then start the ferment. Then the next day, I’d brew another to top up the fermenter when it was aggressively fermenting. Also, with that size of ferment I would definitely inject oxygen into the flow while pumping the wort into the fermenter.

What you’ll find is that very quickly you can outgrow the simple handling of the wort and you’ll want automation to help facilitate your brew day. For me, 20 gallon ferments would be 2 x 10 gallon brews (automating 10 gallon sizes is more economical than upscaling to 20 gallons...bigger mash/lauter tuns and kettle).
ss

[zapata]

If you are following along with Jimbo, he uses the same size pot and boiler.

Also considering you can always mash a little thicker and add extra water after mashing to help cool down faster, a pot the size of your still is plenty big enough.

If you haven't run it yet, remember you dont fill your still all the way to the top. If the still boiler max liquid capacity is 20 gallons, you probably dont want to run more than 16 gallons at a time.

[Blackdirt Cowboy]

Awesome info. I was planning on getting a 20 gallon kettle to do 10 gallon brew in a bag beer batches. Sounds like it’ll work out perfectly to cook corn in as well. Thanks guys.

[Jimy Dee]

BC, consider researching converting a beer keg to an electric boiler with a wavy element. I did it recently where I can easily boil 40 liters of water and it makes doing mashes a doddle. I got a friend to do the conversion for me as I am not technically trained or minded. It has been worth every penny. There are plenty historic posts on it. Best of luck. JD