Time to stop lurking and start writing. Since I'm basing my all grain setup on what I've learned here, I thought I'd share the progress as I go along. This may take a while, so who knows how long it may be between posts.
I got stars in my eyes looking at all the shiny stainless steel equipment out there, and the engineer in me thought the recirculating versions looked super cool, but the more I thought about it the more I liked the simplicity of coolers.
So here's the plan. Cooler for the HLT, cooler for the MLT, one big pot, one burner and one pump. I want to be able to do 5 to 15 gallons at a time so I got the 70 Quart Ice Cube since it's narrow and tall and should still work for the smaller batches. I brew with a couple of other guys and we usually do 10 gallon batches, but I like the option of going big or going small.
I'm looking at the 20 gallon megapot for my brew kettle (because SOMETHING has to be stainless!). I saw a similar pot sold by Home Brew Stuff that cost less, does anybody have one of these? Opinions?
I plan to batch sparge, so I'll use the one pump to fill the MLT and then heat the water for the HLT while the mash is going. After the boil I'll fill the HLT with ice water and recirculate wort through my immersion chiller to cool it off (because I have to recirculate SOMETHING!).
Any advice or feedback as I go along would be greatly appreciated.
The coolers arrived today. Now I just have to clear some space in the garage so I can get the stand (ok, shelf). Here's what I'm planning (roughly)...
I got stars in my eyes looking at all the shiny stainless steel equipment out there, and the engineer in me thought the recirculating versions looked super cool, but the more I thought about it the more I liked the simplicity of coolers.
So here's the plan. Cooler for the HLT, cooler for the MLT, one big pot, one burner and one pump. I want to be able to do 5 to 15 gallons at a time so I got the 70 Quart Ice Cube since it's narrow and tall and should still work for the smaller batches. I brew with a couple of other guys and we usually do 10 gallon batches, but I like the option of going big or going small.
I'm looking at the 20 gallon megapot for my brew kettle (because SOMETHING has to be stainless!). I saw a similar pot sold by Home Brew Stuff that cost less, does anybody have one of these? Opinions?
I plan to batch sparge, so I'll use the one pump to fill the MLT and then heat the water for the HLT while the mash is going. After the boil I'll fill the HLT with ice water and recirculate wort through my immersion chiller to cool it off (because I have to recirculate SOMETHING!).
Any advice or feedback as I go along would be greatly appreciated.
The coolers arrived today. Now I just have to clear some space in the garage so I can get the stand (ok, shelf). Here's what I'm planning (roughly)...