Contrary to believe, aluminum pot will not cause off flavoring, if properly prepared. In other words the kettle must be oxidized. There are a few ways to oxidize your aluminum kettle. You can fill it up with water and boil it for about an hour or put it in an oven for approximately 45 minutes. What this does is creates a thin grey coating or barrier. This layer is crucial to help protect. DO NOT scrub this layer off! When cleaning use the non abrasive side of the scrubbing pad. Because it is oxidized you can not use cleaning products like oxy clean.
A plus side to aluminum is it very cost efficient, and is more readily available. You can find one at your local Walmart/Target, for a fraction of the price you would pay for SS. It is a much better conductor of heat. Which means you will be able to boil and cool your wort much faster than stainless steal. My first brew kettle was a Tamale/ seafood steamer. The kettle was 40qt. For approximately $25 at target. Being to to homebrewing I could not afford a SS kettle. I had sever successful brews using an aluminum kettle.
I feel like I should address some concerns most people have towards aluminum kettles. Aluminum is NOT link to Alzheimer's. A number of studies have been done since the late 70's. They have found zero links between Alzheimer's and aluminum pots. Like most americans, we drink our sodas and beer from aluminum cans.
Aluminum is used by several brewers around the world. Many will agree that brewing craft beer in aluminum kettles is perfectly fine and safe.
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PITCHING THE YEAST- Cooling the wort as rapidly as possible (<80* F for ales or <60 for lagers) is crucial. once the temperature drops below 120*, the wort is susceptible to contamination. The longer you take to cool the wort the more risk your taking on contaminating. Although still a risk, once the yeast is pitched it help prevent contamination by, depleting the oxygen, consuming sugar, lowing the pH, and creating alcohol. Also pitching yeast at high temperatures can kill your yeast and create off flavoring.
4.USING DRY YEAST VS. LIQUID YEAST-Dry yeast is inexpensive, conveniont, and because the yeast is dried it has a shelf life of over a year. Also it's more tolerable to warm weather and shipping conditions than liquide yeast. Dried yeast does not require any yeast starter, and is ready for direct pitch, due to the nutrietion reserves. Although they both yeasts have there benefits, dry yeast simplifies and cuts cost in homebrewing.
3.CLEANING AND SANITIZING- The easiest way to ruin your beer is not sanitizing or using the wrong products to sanitize. Im sure if you read any homebrew book or blogs you realize the importance of sanitizing, and the importance of using the correct product. Using soutions like Starsan is the easy way to clean and disinfect your equipment. Also using products like oxyclean to pre clean bottle, buckets, carboys. Do not use bleach and other home products, because they will ruin your batch. My experiance shows that no rinse sanitizers are not only easy but very affective.
2. USING AIRLOCK TO TELL FERMINTAION- Looking at the air lock for bubbles is a comman mistake bigginers use to see if there beer is ferminting. Bubbles in the air lock is just a small sign that your beer is ferminting, and just because it stop bubbling does not mean it stop ferminting. There can be serval reasons why there are no bubbles in your airlock. The only way to be 100% sure is to take a hydrometer reading. As long your gravity reading keeps dropping your beer is ferminting.
1. IMPROPER TEMPERATURE- Keeping the wort at the proper temperature will insure it will fermint properly. Each yeast has its ferminting temperature, wich should be on the label. To high or low temperatures will ruin your beer and prohibit proper fermintation, creating off flavoring. Your yeas will either ferment too quick or never start.There equipement that helps regulate and control the temperature. However a very inexpensive way is to keep your wort in an ice bath or wrapped in a warm blanket. Keep in mind it should be stored in a dark area to prevent any damage from the sun. I keep my carboyed in my closet.
A plus side to aluminum is it very cost efficient, and is more readily available. You can find one at your local Walmart/Target, for a fraction of the price you would pay for SS. It is a much better conductor of heat. Which means you will be able to boil and cool your wort much faster than stainless steal. My first brew kettle was a Tamale/ seafood steamer. The kettle was 40qt. For approximately $25 at target. Being to to homebrewing I could not afford a SS kettle. I had sever successful brews using an aluminum kettle.