Your thoughts please Ladies & Gents

[Paulchef]

When I eventually go down the AG route I’ve been thinking of a converted thermo pot as a all in one type of thing using a grain basket inside it. Now I don’t want to buy one and then later on regret I didn’t buy a larger pot, I can’t afford the all singing all dancing types, hence the converted thermo pot. My thoughts are 80 litre pot with bottom drain, a heating element possibly a false bottom and a grain basket. Maybe a recirculating fitting with a pump, but haven’t really thought about that bit yet. Now what would be the minimum amount of brew I could do in a 80 litre pot would 23/25 litres be possible or should I down size my pot to 60 litres. I would imagine 23/25 litre would be my average brew but you never know, I suppose 10 litre experimental batches could be done BIAB, In a smaller saucepan/stockpot. What if I wanted to do a 40/50 litre batch would a 60 litre pot suffice.

[Kev888]

Well for me, 60L would be quite sufficient for your brew-length. Thats for full-volume mashing anyway; if you were to sparge or rinse then much smaller would do (I believe the grainfather is noticeably less than 40L for instance).

The minimum you could brew would depend on how much wort is outside the grain (below the false bottom and around the sides of the basket), and for boiling how low the elements were in the vessel.

You could do 23L batches in an 80L pot 'if' it were made appropriately, I believe the braumeister 50L has an about 85L kettle and can do half-sized batches (with the appropriate adaptations/kits), for example. But if bigger batches were to be a rare thing then personally I'd not over-do the vessel size but would instead sparge (or otherwise rinse) on those occasions when capacities were being stretched.

[Paulchef]

Thanks for the reply kev888 I think I’ll go with 60 L pot, there seems to be a lack of stock in the UK at the moment