Brinkman Turkey Fryer

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shaggyt
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Brinkman Turkey Fryer

Post by shaggyt »

Greetings all,

Has anyone out there used, or know someone that has used, the Brinkman Turkey Fryer for brewing?

I just bought one from Home Depot yesterday for a couple reasons:

- Price
- wife wants the brewing out of kitchen
- I want to move to all grain

It's got a 45,000 BTU burner and an aluminum pot, 30 qt. This was definitely a impulse purchase, so I'm mostly curious if anyone has any bad experiences with this product.

Good, bad, or otherwise...let me know.

Thanks,

Bryan
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Post by jawbox »

you should be fine. Most people use a turkey fryer once they move outside. I have a collection of three different brands, all bought due to clearance prices after turkey day.
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RE: Turkey Fryer

Post by wottaguy »

Well...nothing wrong with using them, I still use mine and so do my friends. (yeah they use mine too..LOL)

Just be careful about boil-overs. We have found out that while you're boiling, you can setup a small window fan to blow across the top of the kettle, which will reduce the hot break (foam) and help you to not have any serious boil-overs. You'll get the hang of it with a couple of batches under your belt. You'll will of course have to adjust the gas output to get the correct amount of boil.

Give it a shot....we did....and it works too! :)

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Post by ihawks »

I have almost purchased turkey fryers for ths purpose on many occasions, but have held back because they always come with alluminum kettles instead of stainless. Is there any drawback to using an alluminum kettle?
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Post by slothrob »

ihawks wrote:Is there any drawback to using an alluminum kettle?
Not really.
There are slight advantages and disadvantages to either aluminum or stainless steel. I use both and can detect no difference in the quality of my beer.

With aluminum, you want to oxidize the inside before you brew by boiling water in it for about 30 minutes. It will turn slightly grey to black depending on the grade of aluminum. This oxidized layer eliminates the possibility of getting a metal taste from the pot. Then, you want to avoid stripping that oxidized layer by scrubbing with abrasives or chemicals, like acids. Bleach will remove this and corrode the aluminum, so avoid bleach (it will pit stainless steel, too). Dish soap should be perfectly safe on an aluminum pot, just rinse it well afterwards.

I have a pretty high-end aluminum pot from a discount kitchen supply house that is much sturdier than my low-end stainless pot. I find that I need only rinse my Aluminum pot with water, wipe off the hop debris and break material with a cloth, and rinse it again. It comes easily clean every time. It actually cleans more readily than my stainless pot which always requires soap and some scrubbing.
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Post by Suthrncomfrt1884 »

You'll get a different opinion on that from everyone. I used stainless for my very first pot, but it was only 5 gallons so I quickly needed to upgrade.

At that time I didn't have the money to through 200 into a 10 gallon stainless pot, so I opted for the turkey fryer combo. It was a 7.5 gallon pot, but it did the trick for full boils.

I never noticed any difference in flavors, but some people are so paranoid about it that they aren't willing to chance it.

The only way you will ever get off flavors from aluminum is if you scrub the pot with an abrasive material. This will wear down the coating on the aluminum and expose the raw material underneath. Otherwise you shouldn't worry too much about it.

I have since upgraded to 15.5 gallon kegs for everything, but only because I got a deal on the kegs and I do 10 gallon batches now.
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Post by Suthrncomfrt1884 »

I didn't realize Slothrob was replying to this at the same time as I was. I guess you got a double dose of info.
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Al

Post by slothrob »

At least we agreed! :)
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