Stockpots at Main Street Homebrew

We have three styles of stainless steel pots at Main Street. We recommend stainless steel for its inherent long-lasting nature, but - for economic reasons or necessity - enamel-on-steel (canning) pots can be used until they chip and/or rust. We recommend never using aluminum pots due to the risk that the acidic nature of beer will pull aluminum ions off of the interior metal and potentially taint the flavor of your beer.

Please be sure to check out our state-of-the-art Blichmann Boilermaker Stockpots before you make any decisions about how to boil your beer.

"Economy" 5-gallon stainless steel stockpot. No spigot.	$39.95
Standard 5-gallon stainless steel stockpot - extra thickness means better heat conduction and less scorching. Nicer lid than the previous pot. No draining spigot.	$49.95
"Economy" 8- gallon stainless steel pot with flat lid. No spigot.	$79.95
Extra-heavy tri-clad 8-gallon stainless steel stockpot. No spigot.	$109.95
Extra-heavy tri-clad 8-gallon stainless steel pot, stainless steel bulkhead and stainless steel ball valve. Also comes with threaded thermometer port.	$169.95
Extra-heavy tri-clad 15-gallon tri-clad stainless steel stockpot. No spigot.	$174.95
Extra-heavy tri-clad 15-gallon stainless steel pot, stainless steel bulkhead and stainless steel ball valve. Also comes with threaded thermometer port.	$239.95
Extra-heavy tri-clad 26-gallon tri-clad stainless steel stockpot. No spigot.	$244.95
See our LineUp of Blichmann Pots for the state-of-the-art Brewing Pot Setup. These pots cannot be beat and actually come in lower in cost than competitor's pots after you "trick them out" with the same quality add-ons. Hard to beat a Blichmann Boilermaker for brewing beer. We carry the 10, 15 and 20-gallon Blichmann Boilermaker in stock almost all of the time.	Blichmann Boilermakers
15-gallon converted keg with threaded opening for spigot and optional thermometer probe. These keg-pots are of extremely high-quality, professionally cut and welded and come complete with a stainless steel mesh box (hop or grain) filter mounted inside of the spigot. Please see accompanying picture (link coming soon). You provide 3/4 inch ball-valve spigot and optional thermometer probe.	unavailable

Propane Burners at Main Street

For mashing or for boiling full-volume boils, we recommend nothing less than a 75,000 BTU burner. If you are planning on boiling 15 gallons of wort, you should probably think about the 150,000 burner. Many on the market are 30,000 or 50,000 and this does not give the power necessary to bring water or mash or large volumes of wort to a speedy boil. If you are doing extract beers with partial boils, a 30,000 to 50,000 BTU burner is fine. We do not carry any burners right now except for the Blichmann burners. Check them out here.

Wort Chillers at Main Street

Wort chillers come in three basic designs: immersion, counter-flow and plate chiller.

Immersion chillers are usually coils of coppper which are inserted into the boiling pot of beer during the last ten minutes of the boil process, and then cold water is trickled through the copper line. This acts as a heat exchanger: the water goes in the copper cold, travels through the depths of the beer (still contained in the copper) and comes out boiling hot - thus the energy is removed from the pot. When chilled, the copper is rinsed off and stuck back in the closet - upkeep is very easy.

Counterflow chillers work on the other principle. Copper coil is contained within a "sheath" of plastic tubing, with various connections for water and siphoned beer. Beer enters the inside of the copper coil and spiral downward. Meanwhile, cold water is pushed up the outer plastic coil (with a garden hose). Thus, the hot beer is surrounded by cold water, and the two travel in opposite directions. The beer is chilled by constantly meeting a resistance of ever-cold water coming from the hose below. As the beer exits the copper - granted that the siphon is controlled at the proper speed - the beer will be the same temperature as the accompanying water. This method is by far more speedy and efficient than immersion, but the interior of the copper coil does need to be meticulously cleaned and maintained.

Plate chillers tend to be the most efficient, but also the most expensive. They are best for ten-gallon batches of beer or greater, as the cleaning and maintenance of them tends to negate any efficiency savings you get in the speed of the chilling. They are about the size of a shoebox and extremely dense and heavy. Basically, they have a maze of "plates" inside of them through which the beer flows next to an adjacent maze of plates through which cold water flows. they are very small and space efficient. The model we carry is the Blichmann Therminator and the remark we hear from almost everybody who has purchased one is "Man, this thing chilled my beer down to 50 degrees!" You have to actually *slow down* the counterflowing water to make sure the hot wort does not over-chill! (This is a good problem to have...) The Therminator is the state of the art chiller...

Type of Chiller	Comments	Price
Small (20 foot) Copper Immersion Chiller	This is our biggest seller. It is best for five gallon batches and will chill 2 to 3 gallons of hot wort to pitching temps in 20 to 30 minutes. Low maintenance, easy to clean and virtually indestructible.	$67.95
Large (40 foot) Copper Immersion Chiller	This is better for ten gallon batches. Will chill more beer more quickly. Can also be used for five gallon or fifteen gallon batches.
Blichmann Therminator (Plate Chiller)	State of the art high-end chiller. Ultra-efficient, best chiller on the market today. Best for 10 gallon batches or larger.	$199.95