Help !!! Direct Fire Kettle

[gbough]

Hi,


We run a 2 vessel 6 bbl Mash/Lauter - Kettle, and are looking into buying or building a direct fire 15 bbl kettle, I've seen some
drawings cone bottom, sloped bottom, etc. We currently use a flat bottom direct fire kettle that has worked well for us.

Even though we like the cone bottom option better, we are afraid of the outlet pipe being in the way of the direct fire, I know that
we can use mineral wool to protect the pipe from scorching the wort in it, but Its one more thing to worry about and maybe a failure point.

Either that or going the sloped bottom route which is a much simpler design, but from what I believe could have more trouble getting nice
whirlpool effect and get the trub to cone nicely.

Any Suggestions, experiences, anecdotes would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

[UnFermentable]

Hi,


We run a 2 vessel 6 bbl Mash/Lauter - Kettle, and are looking into buying or building a direct fire 15 bbl kettle, I've seen some
drawings cone bottom, sloped bottom, etc. We currently use a flat bottom direct fire kettle that has worked well for us.

Even though we like the cone bottom option better, we are afraid of the outlet pipe being in the way of the direct fire, I know that
we can use mineral wool to protect the pipe from scorching the wort in it, but Its one more thing to worry about and maybe a failure point.

Either that or going the sloped bottom route which is a much simpler design, but from what I believe could have more trouble getting nice
whirlpool effect and get the trub to cone nicely.

Any Suggestions, experiences, anecdotes would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

When I used a sloped bottom direct fire, I did not find the slope to be steep enough to disturb whirlpool. I believe it was a 5* slope if I recall correctly. The kettle did have a hop dam that helped keep whirlpool hops away from the outlet when running off to HX. I am not sure it worked any better than a flat bottomed kettle as I usually had enough hops present I would have to cut runoff with a slight amount of liquid left in both styles. Cone bottom is the best as far as wort collection, but I haven't seen/used one that was direct fired. I would be slightly concerned about hops plugging and burning in the bottom outlet if not insulated well.