Komodo

Recipes 

I've been brewing awhile and have settled on a process very similar to what Woodlandbrew says.
Just get yourself a 5gallon cooler (mine was $13) and a paint strainer bag (2 for $2 or so). People will say to get a 10g, and you can, or start with a 5 gallon, and add a second one later. The paint strainer bags that fit the white platic buckets fit a 5 galln cooler perfectly.

Treat your TOTAL volume of water needed, heat it, then dump the amount needed into your cooler for mashing. Do your mash runnings into another food grade white bucket, and then do a dunk sparge with the grain bag directly into the remaining water in the kettle. You can add a second batch sparge in the cooler if you want before the dunk sparge. My dunk sparge usually nets 1.015 that I add the mash runnings into. Boil as usual.

This system nets impressive efficiency in the 80s with easy work, and is only limited by the grain capacity of the cooler. I regularly make 1.070 Belgians, and it works perfectly for my needs.

c_osbourn

Recipes 

i was thinking about doing the cooler set up but i already landed my hands on twon 15.5 kegs, so im prob going to lean towards the keggle set up.

HeavyKettleBrewing

Recipes 

Setup the keggles as your HLT and brew kettle. Use a 10gal round cooler as your MLT. You are going to need two burners anyway. The cooler will help to maintain mash temp for at least one hour. I prefer this than having to maintain temps with a burner. You can do a lot in one hour while mashing in. Next step, get a stand, pumps, controller, valves, silicone tubes, plate chiller, Randall, oh yeah...get a second job. Happy brewing!

c_osbourn

Recipes 

NO kidding going broke already......ive heard that the kegs hold thier heat quite well..TRUE??

kpmckay

Recipes 

I have a two vessel system and skip sparging. I cover my direct fired MLT with some towels and it maintains temperature within 1-2 degrees. My original system was more than 4x the cost of the system I use today. I've gone quite minimal with hardware and am much happier for it. YMMV.

HeavyKettleBrewing

Recipes 

kpmckay has the right idea. I have considered a no sparge system.
I do not use kegs but I know that many wrap their ss/aluminum kettles with towels and other insulating materials. A quick look through the equipment or DIY forums might give you some ideas for materials.

c_osbourn

Recipes 

So far my setup is going to be a 15.5 keggle with a turkey fryer burner and a custom BIAB, we shall see how that pans out

HeavyKettleBrewing

Recipes 

You will be very happy with your beer.

c_osbourn

Recipes 

I hope so, when i get back going to take a stab at a nut brown ale AG, think this will be a good first AG beer.