Makeing the switch to all grain brewing

I'm thinking about making the switch to all grain brewing and was wondering if anyone would comment on how they made that leap and a less expensive way to go about it. Thanks for any advise or comments you might have.

there are a ton of posts on every step of the way to get to ag all over

I'm in the process of making the switch/learning the ropes too.
I'm opting to start out with the BIAB (brew in a bag) method. Here is a great read: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f36/biab-brewing-pics-233289/
I'm adding a keggle and a strainer to my 5 gallon, flame boil setup. I figure once I figure it out, I'll add more apparatus.

the price of new equipment is meaningless compared to how much more time you will spend brewing in one batch.

You don't need much to make the switch. When I did it all I had to do was to add/make my mash tun. If you have a brew pot that is at least 7.5 gal and use some kind of outdoor burner/turkey fryer, you should be good to go.

iambeer said:

the price of new equipment is meaningless compared to how much more time you will spend brewing in one batch.

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Agreed.

BIAB. $3 at home depot for paint strainer bag is all you need.

It does take more time, though, so keep that in mind.

craigslist, you can catch a guy selling his setup usually

I got a 10 gal cooler for free, so it cost me about $25 in hardware to put together a bulkhead with a braid. I already had a pot big enough for full boils and a turkey fryer burner. Really depends on what you have to work with, just remember it will always be cheaper to modify something like a cooler yourself with purchased hardware than it is to buy an already made solution (with some exceptions regarding used stuff). I've seen already assembled coolers for sale for $150 when you can do that a whole lot cheaper yourself.

I started with all grain, so no big leap for me.

MicroBrewMaster said:

craigslist, you can catch a guy selling his setup usually

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This. I watch craigslist regularly looking for stuff. Last week there was a guy trying to sell all of his equipment fast because he was moving overseas and wasn't going to have room for it. He had all grain equipment, refrigerators for fermenting and kegging, and all kinds of kegging equipment. The whole she-bang. He wanted $600 for the whole thing. Nobody jumped on it and by the end of the week he was only asking $300. I thought about buying it but there really wasn't much I could have used.

If you're already doing extract then all you really need is a mash tun. I purchased a 10G rubbermaid cooler off of the internet and replaced the spigot with a weldless ball valve and bazooka assembly. You can do this for $60 - $70 depending on the cost of the cooler. You can purchase the smaller 5G cooler, but it gets a bit tight in space with larger gravity beers.

Thanks for all the help and advise.... I like the link that was posted about the biag method cool stuff. I also liked the posts on making a mash out of a cooler. Do you not need a second for a hot liquor tank for the sparge? Thanks again for the advise.

If I could go back in time and do it again; I would go with Keggel's, get a good temp probe, skip the IC and go with a plate chiller. Doing that would have saved me a lot of money/pain, but how was I to know? And getting the kegs took some time.

Don't look back, you'll never regret it!