Pics from my first AG batch (cheap AG setup)

cweston · 05-17-2006, 12:56 PM

There are some pics up in my gallery.

This is my bargain-basement AG set-up:

Keggle
Propane Burner
34 Qt cooler for mash/lauter tun w/ cpvc manifold and plastic in-line valve
2nd cooler jury-rigged w/ no physical modification for HLT
Homemade 2-stage immersion chiller
Aquarium pump + filter + stone for aeration.

I had a short length of SS braid at the end of the siphon tube in the kettle: that clogged too much and I replaced it with about a 14 incher. Everything else worked like a charm.

I can see that my next purchase will be a longer-stemmed instant read thermometer, or maybe I'll just install one on the keggle--that would be nice.

**Baron von BeeGee** · 05-17-2006, 12:57 PM

You just called my setup cheap. Or worse.

brewhead · 05-17-2006, 01:16 PM

well for the right price i can build and ship you something like this: http://tinyurl.com/rx9ly but the bottom line is this.....

does it make good beer?

cweston · 05-17-2006, 01:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by brewhead

well for the right price i can build and ship you something like this: http://tinyurl.com/rx9ly but the bottom line is this.....

does it make good beer?

Exactly: some guys take great pleasure in having shiny, fancy permanent-construction gear. That's fine, but I'm not one of them.

I can see where a three-tiered brew sculpture of some kind could be very handy: there are a couple stages in my process where I need to lift a full mash tun or six+ gallons in the keggle, and it's a PITA. If I did 10 gallon batches I'd need a friend for that purpose alone.

But just as some guys get pleasure from doing it all fancy, I guess I get some similar pleasure from getting the job done simply and frugally.

Glibbidy · 05-17-2006, 01:33 PM

Hey that looks kinda like the hack job I've been using for years. Primitive but effective! The most modern aspect of my brewing setup is the desktop PC

**Lil' Sparky** · 05-17-2006, 02:41 PM

If that's cheap, them I'm GHETTO baby!

I just use a big pot, no "keggle" (maybe someday).
I use a unmodified cooler to mash in and the bucket-in-a-bucket lauter system that Papazian proposed. No fancy MLT w/ manifold for me.
I've got a single-stage immersion cooler. No dual-stage.
I shake my wort. Pump, filter, stone???

But I'll tell you one thing - I still make some damn good beer, and I bet you do too!

cweston · 05-17-2006, 02:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lil' Sparky

If that's cheap, them I'm GHETTO baby!

I use a unmodified cooler to mash in and the bucket-in-a-bucket lauter system that Papazian proposed. No fancy MLT w/ manifold for me.

FWIW, the cooler conversion was very "ghetto."

The CPVC manifold was literally a few bucks worth of CPVC.

It has a hose barb output, onto which I clamp a length of high-temp tubing. The tubing goes through a drilled stopper which goes in the hole in the cooler wall. Outside the cooler that tube clamps onto an in-line plastic valve (a couple bucks).

I can even shove an undrilled rubber stopper into the hole in the cooler and still use it as a cooler.

Drilling the stopper w/ a 1/2 inch hole for the tubing was the toughest part of building it.

**Lil' Sparky** · 05-17-2006, 03:54 PM

CWeston - I noticed you're in Manhattan, KS. You don't happen to work at KSU, do you?

EDIT - I found you're page at the KSU website. My MS thesis advisor (Dr. Scott DeLoach) now teaches there in the Computer Science Dept. I don't suppose you know him...

He was hoping I would come there for my PhD, but it looks like I'll be headed to TX A&M this fall instead. He said it's a really nice place and he enjoys it there, but I wasn't able to come out for a visit before I had to make a decision.

Cheers!

cweston · 05-17-2006, 04:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lil' Sparky

EDIT - I found you're page at the KSU website. My MS thesis advisor (Dr. Scott DeLoach) now teaches there in the Computer Science Dept. I don't suppose you know him...

No, I don't know him. I do like KSU and Manhattan (the "little apple") quite a bit. It's a very nice place to raise kids, etc. I've lived in some similar college towns in the midwest and we like this one better.

Good luck w/ your PhD.

Beer Snob · 05-18-2006, 06:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cweston

there are a couple stages in my process where I need to lift a full mash tun or six+ gallons in the keggle, and it's a PITA.

I think the word for that is not PITA.... it's CRAZY. Man.... your gonna kill yourself. You need like a 3 step ladder, a couple of milk crates or something ... just to put it a little higher. Gravity is a wonderful thing

Look at Dudes pictures... oh and by the way... I'm still waiting for an answer on how the hell you got water all the way up there