RGingerelli

Recipes 

So right now I am brewing extract with my "Personal Home Brewery #5 - Kegging Super Deluxe BRKIT5" kit from more-beer.

I am interested in starting all-grain to see how it goes and was wondering what else I should get to start brewing all grain.

I have a camp chef burner and a 8 gal kettle with ball valve already.

I was wondering if I should buy a turkey fryer kit they have at target with a 30qt aluminum kettle and burner its on sale for $49 and build a cooler with a sparge arm, or should I purchase http://cgi.ebay.com/5-gal-Mash-Lauter-TunhomebrewingbeerAllgrain/300309026896pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item45ebd01 850#ht_2646wt_907 and use that set up with my current extract stuff.

Any info/help or pictures of your pieced together set up or any other usefull information would be great.

Thanks & Cheers!!

bfeucht

Recipes 

Whatever you buy first, make sure you go 10 gallon for any new purchases. You'll thank yourself later.

I just started out buying a propane burner and 15 gal kettle I saw on-sale, so I could play with new equipment as I bought it. I just picked up a 2nd kettle and a cooler. Next brew should be all grain and I didn't have to drop much money all at once. Kinda nice to dial in the burner before I add more complexity.

RobBug

Recipes 

1 - your ebay link is already dead

2 - all you need is a cooler (10 gallon), some cpvc, a drill with a small drill bit, some tygon tubing (< 1/2 foot) and a plastic isolation valve.

3 - don't worry about a sparge arm and all that junk. Seriously. Unless you spend time here researching etc you will be wasting you money.

4 - the turkey fryer and burner will help shave time off with your sparge water but that is all. I use one to heat my sparge water while I am mashing.

5 Here; read this: Bobby_from_NJ all grain

Read it all but the last portion will help you plan out your brew day.

I will post pics of my MLT here in a min but seriously... There really isn't too much you need to buy. Anything you purchase beyond the cooler will only shave time off your brew day. With a cooler properly modified your looking at a 4 hour brew session all grain (once you have your technique nailed down).

Back in a minute. Gotta grab the camera.

Rob

__________________
My current brews

Bubblehead Brewing - Bangor, WA submariners' Brew Blogs
---
"The hardest part of all-grain brewing is arguing about it on the interwebs ;-)" - tjpfeister

RobBug

Recipes 

Ok...grabbed some photos of my MLT.

Here is my 10 gal Coleman cooler modified



Here is the inside. I used a garden hose to 1/2" hose adapter to connect to the standard bucket valve



Here is my cpvc piping setup disconnected and laid out


Here is the cpvc connected


And the whole setup ready for strike water and grains


I just finished an American Pale Ale today with 83% efficiency across the board with this setup. I hope this gives you some ideas. All pieces parts were put together with eyeball measurements and feel.

Rob

p.s. yes it is all wet... just got done with a brew and these pics as of this posting are 10 minutes old

__________________
My current brews

Bubblehead Brewing - Bangor, WA submariners' Brew Blogs
---
"The hardest part of all-grain brewing is arguing about it on the interwebs ;-)" - tjpfeister

HItransplant

Recipes 

check out deathbrewer's stove top all grain tutorial. All I needed to buy was a 10 gal boil kettle for full boils. I mash in my 5 gal kettle (up to 12 lbs of grain), or in my 10 gal kettle (lots of grain).... oh, and a propane burner is really nice (likely necessary) for full boils.

__________________

cinderbike

Recipes 

So does the bucket valve just sit on the outside? I was looking at a way of doing this.

marcycaulkins

Recipes 

Yeah, i think you are just about ready to start. For years, I mashed in my 20 qt kettle and lautered/sparged in a bucket in a bucket system (used an old bottling bucket for outside bucket, drilled holes in old fermenting bucket and then actually cut the bottom off so it would sit further down, lessening dead space). i am now to the point where i want a cooler based system (nice to only wash ONE large thing than two), but my old primitive set-up served me well and gave great efficiency over many batches, so if you have that crap lying around, go ahead and give it a whirl.
\
In addition, I'd say you need a wort chiller, and I'd recommend a grain mill.

RGingerelli

Recipes 

I have a immersion wort chiller, I need a grain mill though, what is a good mill for a fair price?

RGingerelli

Recipes 

So I have a 8gal kettle with burner for a HLT and a 8 brew kettle with burner.

I plan on doing 5gal batches just because I want to make 5gal batches so I can have quicker turnover of brew. I would rather make a 5gal batch and not like it than make a 10gal batch and not like it.

With that being said, I have a 48qt coleman retangular cooler that I would be willling to convert into a mash tun is that to large for 5gal batches? I would build a manifold for the bottom (copper or cpvc?) and I would build a sparge manifold for under the lid (copper or cpvc?) any help would be great.

Thanks

RGingerelli

Recipes 

or I can pick up a 5gal rubbermaid round cooler for $19 or a 10gal for $40 would round be better?