The Bar Towel

I've seen variations of this technology mentioned. I've been keeping my eye out for a decent sized affordable brewpot and spotted this:

http://www.canadiantire.ca/AST/browse/2 ... ?locale=en


Opinions?

I don't really need to use propane since I have a decent gas stove to use, but taking the mess outside is promising. I guess the pot can be used by itself.

Tapsucker wrote:I've seen variations of this technology mentioned. I've been keeping my eye out for a decent sized affordable brewpot and spotted this:

http://www.canadiantire.ca/AST/browse/2 ... ?locale=en


Opinions?

I don't really need to use propane since I have a decent gas stove to use, but taking the mess outside is promising. I guess the pot can be used by itself.

Looks identical to the one I picked up at Bass Pro, same pot and stand, although I didn't bother installing the guard. I use the pot that came with it for heating my strike and lauter water, but have a larger, thicker pot that I use for my dough-in and boil. The one that comes with it is pretty thin and I would be afraid of burning the wort if used for a boil. It's also pretty skinny if you use an immersion chiller.

I think one of the drawbacks is the aluminum pot, some say it imparts an odd taste as opposed to a stainless steel pot, the other thing is the safety timer that shuts off after every 10 minutes or so. I had one initially and I returned it and bought a Bayou Classic SP20 burner. It is like a jet engine, boils 3 gallons in about 10 minutes (185K BTU), this one is probably 65K BTU.

phirleh wrote:I think one of the drawbacks is the aluminum pot, some say it imparts an odd taste as opposed to a stainless steel pot, the other thing is the safety timer that shuts off after every 10 minutes or so. I had one initially and I returned it and bought a Bayou Classic SP20 burner. It is like a jet engine, boils 3 gallons in about 10 minutes (185K BTU), this one is probably 65K BTU.

I don't have any trouble getting my pot up to heat on it, a keggle would be a different matter though

i picked up a lobster boil kit from walmart for 69.99, it came with a 10gal kettle and the burner doesn't have a timer on it which can be annoying.

Tapsucker wrote:I've seen variations of this technology mentioned. I've been keeping my eye out for a decent sized affordable brewpot and spotted this:

http://www.canadiantire.ca/AST/browse/2 ... ?locale=en


Opinions?

I don't really need to use propane since I have a decent gas stove to use, but taking the mess outside is promising. I guess the pot can be used by itself.

I bought this exact same burner. The pot is flimsy, but it's nice to have on hand. If you're just looking for a pot I'd keep looking.

But the cooker is good. The real beauty of this one is that the frame will hold a keg/keggle with no modification (obviously without safety frame in place). I can get 40-45L to a boil in about fifteen to twenty minutes (from sparge temp ~135F).
As for the timer which is a real PITA, I eventually took it off Red Green fashion, but a brick sitting beside the dial will stop it turning. It's a good price and you can go get it and use it the same day.

Cheers
Roger

Thanks everybody. My concern was the thickness and that appears to be confirmed. I think I'll keep looking.

Tapsucker wrote:Thanks everybody. My concern was the thickness and that appears to be confirmed. I think I'll keep looking.

Its always good to have a second pot, especially for heating your lauter water. I wouldn't discount it so quickly, although if you plan on getting a keggle soon than a larger burner might make sense anyway.

icemachine wrote:

Tapsucker wrote:Thanks everybody. My concern was the thickness and that appears to be confirmed. I think I'll keep looking.

Its always good to have a second pot, especially for heating your lauter water. I wouldn't discount it so quickly, although if you plan on getting a keggle soon than a larger burner might make sense anyway.

I would go straight to a larger burner. If you weld, you could make your own stand and buy a burner for it. Otherwise, Bass Pro has this one..

http://www.basspro.com/webapp/wcs/store ... 00_175-3-0

..that is nice and stout, with flanged lags for stability and fairly heavy construction. The kit burners always seem a little flimsy, which is a problem for 10+ gallons of boiling wort in a keggle. The burner on this is 58,000 BTU. Not too shabby. Also it is over 2' high so once you have a plumbed keggle, you can run off wort directly into your fermenter via gravity.

I am running the above burner with a 50L keg that I converted to a keggle.

Having said all that, it all depends on how much you want to spend right now.

The Canadian Tire one is 58K BTU as well, besides the height difference and lack of timer, they seem to be pretty similar, except the CT one is $10 cheaper and you get a pot for heating strike water.

I'm glad to know this size will get a keggle up to heat as it is what I'm using currently

icemachine wrote:The Canadian Tire one is 58K BTU as well, besides the height difference and lack of timer, they seem to be pretty similar, except the CT one is $10 cheaper and you get a pot for heating strike water.

I'm glad to know this size will get a keggle up to heat as it is what I'm using currently

Based on the picture of the CT burner, the height/width of the surface is appx equivalent to the diameter of that 30 qt pot. Keg diameter is sig greater than that of the 30 qt pot. I'd want to be sure that a keg will be able to sit up on top, because overlap of the keg would be an issue due to the convex bottom. That might just be me tho.

cannondale wrote:

icemachine wrote:The Canadian Tire one is 58K BTU as well, besides the height difference and lack of timer, they seem to be pretty similar, except the CT one is $10 cheaper and you get a pot for heating strike water.

I'm glad to know this size will get a keggle up to heat as it is what I'm using currently

Based on the picture of the CT burner, the height/width of the surface is appx equivalent to the diameter of that 30 qt pot. Keg diameter is sig greater than that of the 30 qt pot. I'd want to be sure that a keg will be able to sit up on top, because overlap of the keg would be an issue due to the convex bottom. That might just be me tho.

As I said the CT burner holds a 50L keggle nicely. The Bass Pro Shops one looks like it has a better stand. The burners look about the same.
I think it's hard to go wrong with either of these.
I'll be using the CT one at the Amsterdam's Learn 2 Brew on November 5th, come on down and take a look. There will be about 15-20 homebrewers; pretty much every propane burner out there will be in use!
Cheers
Roger

Lager Bore wrote:

cannondale wrote:

icemachine wrote:The Canadian Tire one is 58K BTU as well, besides the height difference and lack of timer, they seem to be pretty similar, except the CT one is $10 cheaper and you get a pot for heating strike water.

I'm glad to know this size will get a keggle up to heat as it is what I'm using currently

Based on the picture of the CT burner, the height/width of the surface is appx equivalent to the diameter of that 30 qt pot. Keg diameter is sig greater than that of the 30 qt pot. I'd want to be sure that a keg will be able to sit up on top, because overlap of the keg would be an issue due to the convex bottom. That might just be me tho.

As I said the CT burner holds a 50L keggle nicely. The Bass Pro Shops one looks like it has a better stand. The burners look about the same.
I think it's hard to go wrong with either of these.
I'll be using the CT one at the Amsterdam's Learn 2 Brew on November 5th, come on down and take a look. There will be about 15-20 homebrewers; pretty much every propane burner out there will be in use!
Cheers
Roger

I forgot that you had said that. Awesome, that being the case it may be a good choice.

Lager Bore wrote:

cannondale wrote:

icemachine wrote:The Canadian Tire one is 58K BTU as well, besides the height difference and lack of timer, they seem to be pretty similar, except the CT one is $10 cheaper and you get a pot for heating strike water.

I'm glad to know this size will get a keggle up to heat as it is what I'm using currently

Based on the picture of the CT burner, the height/width of the surface is appx equivalent to the diameter of that 30 qt pot. Keg diameter is sig greater than that of the 30 qt pot. I'd want to be sure that a keg will be able to sit up on top, because overlap of the keg would be an issue due to the convex bottom. That might just be me tho.

As I said the CT burner holds a 50L keggle nicely. The Bass Pro Shops one looks like it has a better stand. The burners look about the same.
I think it's hard to go wrong with either of these.
I'll be using the CT one at the Amsterdam's Learn 2 Brew on November 5th, come on down and take a look. There will be about 15-20 homebrewers; pretty much every propane burner out there will be in use!
Cheers
Roger

I'll be there for sure, just to get an idea what other guys are doing and what improvements I can make