Note on WHOLE HOPS in our (or anybody's!) kettles

Almost no matter whose kettle you use, if it has a pickup tube in it, you'll struggle with too much whole hops in your boil.  

They clog - and a real hassle.  You are better off just bagging them.   OR if you don't want to do that, you can buy a stainless steel coiled scrub pad (used for doing dishes) and stuff it around your pickup tube so that material/hop cones and leaves are first filtered by the stainless scrub pad.   A trick one of our guys figured out on his kettles years back.