Author: Marshall Schott

An absolutely essential component for making beer, the brew kettle is a piece of gear many homebrewers spend hours pondering over before purchasing. My first kettle was a 4 gallon pot I bought for about $16. Barely big enough to contain the concentrated extract wort that ended up being combined with cold water in the fermentor, and long before discovering the magic that is Fermcap-S, many boilovers occurred. It worked, but it was a pain in the ass. As the brewing obsession took hold, I began to consider future steps and decided to transition directly to all grain, a method that demands a larger kettle in order to perform full volume boils. To the web I went to search for my best option. Anyone who has embarked on such a mission can likely relate to my experience– damn, there are so many, which do I get?! I figured it was probably safe to stick with a moderately priced kettle, convincing myself they all perform the same basic function. Stainless was a must, only because I have a tendency to beat shit up, with at least one place to install a valve. I ended up picking out a heavy-duty 10 gallon kettle with a single weldless ball valve fitting. When it arrived, I was impressed by just how heavy-duty it was. It only took a few brews before I was ready to start brewing 10 gallon batches, which would require more space. My newish kettle wouldn’t cut it, so I sold it and went another route, one that had become quite popular among my beer making peers.

I acquired a couple half-barrel kegs from a guy who claimed to have purchased them outright from a brewery (I can only hope he was being truthful), took them home, did some cutting, grinding, and drilling, then after attaching a weldless ball valve and polycarbonate sight gauge, called my keggles done. They looked badass. Following my very first brew session using them, I realized I’d made a mistake, I absolutely hated these things. I know it’s personal opinion and that many brewers love their keggles, cool, but they weren’t for me. The height combined with the smaller opening at the top and my T-Rex arms not only made cleaning a pain, but my favorite immersion chiller wouldn’t fit, something I completely failed to consider. Moreover, the concave bottom resulted in rather large losses of wort. The most annoying thing about these keggles, though, had to do with the sight gauge, which about 10 minutes into the boil became more of a napalm gun, spewing skin searing sticky wort all over the place. Fuuuuuuck that. Two batches later and on Craigslist they went.

I limited my subsequent search to kettles with flat bottoms and without sight gauges, eventually settling on the 14 gallon economy kettles featured in many of my articles. The stainless was pretty thin and fairly easily dented, there were a few spots where the welds weren’t perfect, it wasn’t the prettiest kettle ever, but it did the trick for a good price. I was happy to not have to deal with a volcanic sight gauge anymore, though it’s absence forced to me to come up with a solution for getting proper volumes of water into my kettle. I made a dipstick out of a wooden dowel, it soon warped, so I began relying on an old graduated fermentation bucket. It wasn’t until about 6 months into using these kettles, during a fairly rare full-fledged cleaning session, that I discovered the threads in the couplers were full of gooey old wort, despite being thoroughly rinsed after every brew day with a stream of high-pressure water. I tend not to worry too much about stuff like this on the hot side, but after my buddy Wes’ dirty valve fiasco, my concern increased. Deep kettle cleaning became a bi-monthly ritual involving the removal of all parts and toothbrush-ing the threads with a strong alkaline cleaner. All in all, not a huge deal, but it did take some time.

I recently began chatting with Mitch from Ss Brewtech, inventors of some really innovative brewing gear. I’d heard rave reviews from a bunch of folks about their experiences with Ss Brewtech products and was stoked when Mitch asked if I might review their 15 gallon kettle. I’ll be honest, I’d moved back into exploratory mode and Ss kettles were at the top of my list because they seemed to marry all of the preferences I’d developed over the last few years. The kettles arrived well-packaged and in pristine condition about a week later. Removing them from the box, I first noticed they were light enough to easily move around while maintaining a solid feel, and this is when I recognized something I’d previously overlooked, the rubber grips on the handles of the kettle and lid. A nice touch, indeed.

I immediately placed a kettle on my burner to see how it’d fit and was reminded of the tri-clad bottom, which allows for more even distribution of heat thereby reducing the chances of scorching the boiling wort, particularly when using malt extract.

I proceeded to install the weldless fittings included with each kettle, swapping out the standard 3-piece ball valve with my Quick Clean Take-Apart valves.

Plugs for the upper holes are included as well, I installed them briefly for a leak test- not a drip! I then replaced the plugs with optional bi-metal thermometers that allow me to more easily monitor the temp of my strike and sparge water.

My hands-down favorite thing about this kettle is the graduated gallon markers on the inside.

Concerned about their accuracy, as soon as the fittings were installed, I filled my trusty measuring bucket to 4 gallons and poured the water into the kettle to compare. It was spot on, I was thrilled! Now, filling my kettles is easier than ever.

Another unique aspect of Ss Brew Kettles is what they call the trub dam, a diptube with a high temp silicone blade on the end that easily attaches to the back side of the weldless valve fitting via compression. This isn’t an optional accessory, one is included with every purchase.

While I personally don’t get too concerned with trub being racked to my fermentors, I did use it for a couple batches to test it out and it worked really well, allowing clear wort to flow into the fermentor while holding back nearly all solids. Impressive.

Since I use immersion chillers, I’ve removed the trub dam, but it is a very clever solution for those who prefer counterflow chillers or racking only clear wort to their fermentors, as it seems much less likely to clog than stainless mesh and more convenient than hop bags.

| THE VERDICT |

When it comes to selecting a kettle, there’s quite a few things one might consider, from the material it’s made from to the proprietary gadgets it works with. For my money, stainless is where it’s at for its durability, and other than that I want whatever makes my brew day easier. Add this to my obsession with precision and you’ll understand why I’m such a fan of the Ss Brew Kettle with its internal gallon markers. Not only do these quaint markings make accurately measuring liquor volumes very simple, but they require absolutely no additional work when it comes time to clean and no more wort geysers! Speaking of cleaning, the weldless fittings take literally seconds to disassemble, allowing me to toss them into a bowl of cleaner and walk away rather than scrubbing with a toothbrush. I certainly won’t be removing them between every brew session, but it does make things easier.

It can be argued that a kettle is just a kettle, and for those in a pinch, I have no qualms recommending something with less features and a lower price-point to get you by, beer will still be made. However, Ss Brewtech offers homebrewers a high quality and convenient stainless brew kettle with numerous useful options for customization at a very reasonable price. If you’re in the market for a kettle that will last you a lifetime, I’m happy to recommend that you check out what Ss Brewtech has to offer!

Ss Brewtech kettles and other gear are sold through MoreBeer as well as direct from the Ss Brewtech site.

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