If the larger kettle had the same diameter as the smaller kettle, then I would fully agree with Joshua that condensation could be a problem.
But, the larger the kettle, then generally the wider the diameter and so condensation, even with lots of headspace, should not be a problem.
In fact, your evaporation rate will be much higher than a smaller kettle so it could well be that you need less of a boil time to drive off the nasties! One thing for sure though is if you use a larger kettle with the wider diameter, you will need to use more starting water than in a smaller kettle and therefore you will need to use more gas/energy during the brewing process assuming you want to boil for the same amount of minutes. To me, this increased energy cost is the only tangible disadvantage I can think of and it could be somewhat significant between a wide 100 L kettle and a narrow 40 L kettle.
In reality, on the quality side of things, there is no research that I know of. For example, is a brew boiled for 60 minutes in a really 'wide' kettle as good as a brew done in a narrow kettle for 90 minutes? I certainly don't know. Does anyone?
I do have a 70 litre kettle (two actually) and I have no problem with single or double batching in them (23 L VIF or 46 L VIF). I certainly can't taste any difference and, in any comps, neither batch size stands out so I wouldn't worry about it.
PP
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