trub volume

[straight cash homey]

I made my first batch of the year tonight, dortmunder export. when I brew ales I dump everything into the fermentor, trub, hops, wort everything. but when brewing this lager I decided to put everything into the carboy and let it settle and rerack off the trub/hops to get clean wort. It has been three hours since I chilled to 44F and the trub is taking up a good four inches on the bottom of the fermentor. i racked anyway and I got about 4.5 gallons of clean wort instead of 5.5. by the time I pitch and ferment it out, I'm only gonna get maybe 4 gallons of finished beer. i was thinking of making slightly bigger batches to get a full five gallons of finished lager, but my brew kettle doesn't hold anymore. I could let it sit longer and compact more, but I want to pitch asap to avoid an infection. anyone else had this problem.

[bthud]

I had almost the same thing happen to me about a month ago when I used Whirlfloc for the first time. There was a ton of trub at the bottom of the kettle and I too ended up with about 4.5 gallons or so. It made me wonder whether it was worth using whirlfloc. I do have a superclear Cal common though...

[huskerbrew]

I've had that problem in the past, so I bought a bigger brewpot to boil a larger volume. I was using a 30 qt. pot and just bought a 10 gal. pot so I can boil a full 7.5 to 8 gal w/o problems.

[Bugeater]

Same problem and solution here too. Now brew with a 10 gallon pot instead of a 7.5 gallon. 10 gallon aluminum stock pots are fairly cheap. The smaller brewpot works great for heating your mash/sparge water.

Wayne

[straight cash homey]

do you think this looks like a good deal on an aluminum kettle? $75 and free shipping.
http://www.cookware.com/Masterbuilt-40PBL-MST1025.html

[huskerbrew]

Try this one. This is the one I just bought: http://www.austinhomebrew.com/product_i ... ts_id=2321

[andy77]

Smart and final or a resturant supply store is a nice place for a big 'ol aluminum pot, too.

[Bugeater]

While these two pots are the same price, I would still take the aluminum pot. Economy (read that as cheap) stainless steel pots are generally thin. This, combined with the relatively poor heat transfer properties of stainless steel compared to aluminum, leads to hot spots with a tendency to scorch. Aluminum will spread the heat evenly along the entire bottom, avoiding a lot of the scorching potential.

The reason the polarware or blichmann pots are so expensive is because they have thick clad bottoms that spread the heat out. If you take at least minimal steps to take care of an aluminum pot, i.e. don't toss it down the stairs or stand on it as a step stool, it will last a lifetime. Between these two pots, the aluminum has more going for it.

Wayne