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Crawfish boil with 500 gallon brewery barrel?
Posted on 3/11/24 at 10:39 am
Posted on 3/11/24 at 10:39 am
Anyone ever have experience with boiling crawfish in large brewery type barrels? Our alumni chapter has been asked by our new venue, a brewery, if we would like to make use of their on site brewing equipment which includes a 500 gallon stainless steel barrel. It has an access hatch at the bottom and a stirrer at the bottom which could help get the mudbugs out.
We're currently in the process of checking whether this specific one can even come to a boil. (Other barrels do but don't have egress other than pipes for liquid.) There are a lot of other questions about how this could work, so we're looking to pick the brain of anyone whose ever done this type of operation if we can.
We're currently in the process of checking whether this specific one can even come to a boil. (Other barrels do but don't have egress other than pipes for liquid.) There are a lot of other questions about how this could work, so we're looking to pick the brain of anyone whose ever done this type of operation if we can.
3
Posted on 3/11/24 at 11:21 am to pheroy
This is a terrible idea. 500 gallons is way too big for crawfish.
Edit: Large crawfish trailers can get near that, but they aren’t cylindrical like a brewery barrel. And most will break it up so it’s not just one 500 gallon pot. Instead it’s multiple pots to get to the 500 gallons.
Plus at 500 gallons, are you planning on boiling 1000lbs+ every boil?
Edit: Large crawfish trailers can get near that, but they aren’t cylindrical like a brewery barrel. And most will break it up so it’s not just one 500 gallon pot. Instead it’s multiple pots to get to the 500 gallons.
Plus at 500 gallons, are you planning on boiling 1000lbs+ every boil?
This post was edited on 3/11/24 at 11:33 am
Posted on 3/11/24 at 7:42 pm to BigBinBR
It’s not the worst idea. You can bring anything to a boil with proper heat. How many lbs is OP cooking?
I’ve cooked lots of crawfish on a trailer and a 500 gallon pot can probably handle about 300 lbs. at a time. Assuming it’s filled 1/2 way with water.
I’ve cooked lots of crawfish on a trailer and a 500 gallon pot can probably handle about 300 lbs. at a time. Assuming it’s filled 1/2 way with water.
Posted on 3/11/24 at 8:23 pm to Motorboat
quote:
a 500 gallon pot can probably handle about 300 lbs. at a time. Assuming it’s filled 1/2 way with water.
Are you sure about that? I only have an 80 qt. aluminum pot and fill it halfway (10 gallons) when I do my boils and can easily put a 35 lb. sack in it.
So, if you convert 35 lbs. of crawfish in 10 gallons of water, then 250 gallons of water should easily handle 700+ lbs. of crawfish and fixings.
This post was edited on 3/11/24 at 8:24 pm
Posted on 3/11/24 at 8:26 pm to gumbo2176
quote:
Are you sure about that? I only have an 80 qt. aluminum pot and fill it halfway (10 gallons) when I do my boils and can easily put a 35 lb. sack in it. So, if you convert 35 lbs. of crawfish in 10 gallons of water, then 250 gallons of water should easily handle 700+ lbs. of crawfish and fixings.
I am not sure of anything but 500 gallon pots can hold a lot of crawfish.
Posted on 3/12/24 at 1:52 am to Motorboat
quote:
I am not sure of anything but 500 gallon pots can hold a lot of crawfish.
A 500 gallon pot (That’s 25 80 quart pots) can cook 1200lbs of crawfish.
Most trailers are 140 gallons. They cook right at 10 sacks.
This post was edited on 3/12/24 at 1:56 am
Posted on 3/12/24 at 2:09 am to gumbo2176
quote:
So, if you convert 35 lbs. of crawfish in 10 gallons of water, then 250 gallons of water should easily handle 700+ lbs. of crawfish and fixings.
Pretty good guesstimate. The general rule is quarts x 60%. It’s not perfect, but it gets you really close. It’s used by most boilers when figuring out how many pots they need for large boils.
So:
60q x 60% = 36lbs or 1 sack
80q x 60% = 48lbs or 1.25 sack
100q x 60% = 60lbs or about 1.5+ sacks
120q x 60% = 72lbs or 2 full sacks.
500 gallons is 2000 quarts.
Posted on 3/12/24 at 4:54 am to pheroy
Using strange equipment for a large cooking project without any practice is an absolutely horrible idea.
Posted on 3/12/24 at 10:52 am to OTIS2
We did 750 lbs last year. 11.5 80 qt pots (one pot is 120 qt) x 2 boils.
We would absolutely NOT do this without doing at least a test run. I'm just trying to find out if anyone has ever done it in that kind of rig and could share their experience. It's just a very intriguing possibility that if we could get it to work well, would open up interesting options to scale up more. This is, aside from being a fun chapter gathering, a charity fundraising event for LSU scholarship purposes so if we can get a big increase in $ generated it would be exciting.
We would absolutely NOT do this without doing at least a test run. I'm just trying to find out if anyone has ever done it in that kind of rig and could share their experience. It's just a very intriguing possibility that if we could get it to work well, would open up interesting options to scale up more. This is, aside from being a fun chapter gathering, a charity fundraising event for LSU scholarship purposes so if we can get a big increase in $ generated it would be exciting.
This post was edited on 3/12/24 at 10:53 am
Posted on 3/12/24 at 12:10 pm to OTIS2
quote:
Using strange equipment for a large cooking project without any practice is an absolutely horrible idea.
Leaving out the speed you can get a large pot to boil, the hardest part of larger boils is getting the seasoning/salt correct. It’s not a linear conversion from what you do for a single pot.
Posted on 3/12/24 at 1:08 pm to BigBinBR
It was my understanding there would be no math.
Posted on 3/13/24 at 12:56 pm to HogPharmer
We often cook ~800lbs/batch in a 450 gallon pot. No issue.
Posted on 3/13/24 at 1:16 pm to pheroy
I think its retarted for the brewery to offer that to you. If it was my equipment used for brewing beer, i wouldnt want it brewing crawfish. I wonder how many cleans and brews it will take to stop tasting like crawfish.
Posted on 3/13/24 at 1:23 pm to BigBinBR
quote:
Leaving out the speed you can get a large pot to boil, the hardest part of larger boils is getting the seasoning/salt correct. It’s not a linear conversion from what you do for a single pot.
Why is this?
Posted on 3/13/24 at 1:31 pm to CarRamrod
quote:
I wonder how many cleans and brews it will take to stop tasting like crawfish.
Not much of an issue with stainless steel pots. I make my own homemade hot sauce using habanero, ghost, Butch T Trinidad Scorpions and do so in a stainless steel pot on my stove.
All it takes is a good one-time washing and you'd not know there was all that hot stuff in the pot.
Now, the kitchen gets a bit on the rough side while all that is simmering down before bottling to save. My wife and stepdaughter can't be anywhere near the kitchen when I'm making hot sauce.
Posted on 3/13/24 at 1:38 pm to CarRamrod
quote:
I think its retarted for the brewery to offer that to you. If it was my equipment used for brewing beer, i wouldnt want it brewing crawfish. I wonder how many cleans and brews it will take to stop tasting like crawfish.
We asked them that question. They kind of laughed and said their brewer has a serious cleaning process and they switch between all sorts of things with different flavors & ingredients all the time. As someone mentioned, stainless steel makes that much easier.
Posted on 3/13/24 at 1:40 pm to CptEllerby277
quote:
We often cook ~800lbs/batch in a 450 gallon pot. No issue.
I'm listening... any more info? You can email my username @ yahoo if you're willing to share more details.
Posted on 3/13/24 at 1:42 pm to KosmoCramer
quote:
Why is this?
Because
quote:
It’s not a linear conversion from what you do for a single pot.
Logically it would be I use x amount of seasoning for an 80q so a 500 gallon is 25 times bigger. I should just use 25x. But it doesn’t really work that way. A lot more goes in to the correct seasoning amounts - amount of water used, actual lbs of crawfish cooking, etc.
Basically if you are just a little off at 80q it’s not a big deal. But if you are off that much and then multiply it by 25 times, then it can become a big issue and you mess us a lot of crawfish.
This post was edited on 3/13/24 at 1:47 pm
Posted on 3/13/24 at 2:19 pm to BigBinBR
Why can't you use the same ratio of water, pot size, pounds of crawfish, and seasoning by weight?
Posted on 3/13/24 at 2:50 pm to KosmoCramer
quote:
Why can't you use the same ratio of water, pot size, pounds of crawfish, and seasoning by weight?
Because it doesn’t scale the same. There are tons of variables when it comes to much larger cooking platforms.
Type of seasoning you are using, salt content, liquid boil, any additives (like straight cayenne or onion powder, celery powder, etc.), any thing else added to the boil (potatoes, corn, etc., or just crawfish); even the amount of water used in relation to lbs of crawfish can all affect the outcome.
Again, a small 80 to 120 quart pot is much easier to fine tune than an entire rig.
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