Home Brewing Noob

Hello All,

This is my first post, so please be gentle. I have been interested in home brewing for a number of years now, but have never taken the steps to actually start. I have a passion for great beer and would love to be able to brew my own. I understand that many people recommend that you start with a simple extract beer, but I would like to jump straight into all grain. I have chosen this route because the reason I want to brew my own beer is for enjoyment and to control every aspect, which I cannot do with extract. I have purchased, and have been reading "How to Brew" by Palmer and also "Homebrewing for Dummies, 2nd Edition". These have been great guides and I think I am ready to jump in and brew (or at least attempt to brew) my first batch of beer.

However, I am in need of advice on which type of all grain brewing kit/sculpture to buy, and where to buy it from. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. My budget is fairly open, depending on the advice received from those home brewers who are far more experienced than I am.

Thanks for your help,
Jake

mash tun
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/cheap-easy-10-gallon-rubbermaid-mlt-conversion-23008/

boil kettle
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/wiki/index.php/Keggle

wort chiller
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/simple-immersion-wort-chiller-33036/

fermentation
http://www.better-bottle.com/

siphon
high temp hose


You will need an additional pot/keggle to heat water up for sparging, this is called a hot liquor tank

If you dont feel like building most of the system you can buy a kit

hopsalot said:

mash tun
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/cheap-easy-10-gallon-rubbermaid-mlt-conversion-23008/

boil kettle
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/wiki/index.php/Keggle

wort chiller
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/simple-immersion-wort-chiller-33036/

fermentation
http://www.better-bottle.com/

siphon
high temp hose


You will need an additional pot/keggle to heat water up for sparging, this is called a hot liquor tank

If you dont feel like building most of the system you can buy a kit

Click to expand...

Welcome to the forum Jake!

^^^ all good suggestions, I would also suggest you check out Craigslist. I just spent 6 months in the Niles/Misahwaka area and one thing I found Michigan is a great state for craft beer and homebrewing. I would suggest find a homebrew club in the area and sit in on a session with someone from the group if you have not already tried this. Just my $0.02 before you get all crazy and drop a few hundred $ and discover it's not the hobby for you.

Welcome to Home Brew Talk. Soon you too will be filled with the passion that is home brewing. +1 to hopsalot list ... also read the sticky posts in the Beginners Section. Check out the DIY Forum for ideas and how others have built their rigs. Look at the Brewspace there are a lot of Michigan Mashers and there is home brew club in Grand Rapids.
Good Luck and Hoppy Brewing!

EDIT: As bad67z says, you may consider sitting in on brew if you never have, there are a lot of brewers in GR and West Michigan. I brew very often but about 50 miles north of GR.

Do you have a particular budget in mind? Regardless of budget it may not make sense to go nuts on a kit until you've tried a few brews, but you can definitely piece together a 5-gallon all-grain setup for not THAT much money.

Here is quick example of a pot on CL

http://grandrapids.craigslist.org/for/2540854687.html

bad67z said:

Here is quick example of a pot on CL

http://grandrapids.craigslist.org/for/2540854687.html

Click to expand...

talk it down to $60, and thats a hell of a deal

I like biab. Not much equipment needed, makes great beer every time.

I just use 5 gal paint straining bags for grain n hops in a turkey frying pot and I split 5 gallon recipes into 2 mr beer fermentors (or I use brew builder to convert to 2.25 gal). The paint straining bags are about 5$ and can be reused many times, I found the replacement bayou aluminum turkey frying pot for around 25$ online.

If you decide to go BIAB here is a great link from DeathBrewer

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/easy-stovetop-all-grain-brewing-pics-90132/

If you want to buy everything all at once in a kit, I can recommend the home brewery sold by William's. It includes a boil kettle and wort chiller amongst all the other stuff you'd expect. I am a huge fan of their fermenters as they have a tap at the bottom there is no siphoning. This makes things MUCH easier. I'd say that all these kits lack is a bottling wand, strip thermometer to stick on the side of the fermenter and a bottle sanitizer/vinator:

http://www.williamsbrewing.com/COMPLETE-HOME-BREWERY-C257.aspx

To go all grain, you'd just need to pick up a cooler for the mash tun, a kettle valve to replace the standard cooler valve and a screen or false bottom to filter the mash.

Everyone,

Thank you for all of your help. Many of you have given very insightful and helpful recommendations for putting together my own home brewing hit. However, I guess I was more looking for an "all in one" package for all grain brewing. I am not even sure if this exists or not, but that is what I had in mind. I plan to take a trip to a local homebrew supplier to speak with them about my options too, but I am willing to bet that most of the equipment is cheaper online.

Thanks,
Jake

http://www.homebrewing.org/Beginner-Beer-Making-Kits_c_205.html

Here are a few different options.

JDoane2424 said:

Everyone,

Thank you for all of your help. Many of you have given very insightful and helpful recommendations for putting together my own home brewing hit. However, I guess I was more looking for an "all in one" package for all grain brewing. I am not even sure if this exists or not, but that is what I had in mind. I plan to take a trip to a local homebrew supplier to speak with them about my options too, but I am willing to bet that most of the equipment is cheaper online.

Thanks,
Jake

Click to expand...

Well if money is not an issue and you want a turn key system. Here you go.

JDoane2424 said:

Everyone,

Thank you for all of your help. Many of you have given very insightful and helpful recommendations for putting together my own home brewing hit. However, I guess I was more looking for an "all in one" package for all grain brewing. I am not even sure if this exists or not, but that is what I had in mind. I plan to take a trip to a local homebrew supplier to speak with them about my options too, but I am willing to bet that most of the equipment is cheaper online.

Thanks,
Jake

Click to expand...

Generally speaking, you're going to overpay by buying an 'all in one' all grain equipment kit. Feel free to PM me and I'll give you links to the few additional items I had to get to make the Williams kit suitable for all grain brewing.

^^^ robot spam.... Nice.

I went the same route. I loved the adventure!

I do BIAB with a 7.5 gal turkey fryer and a 21 qt canning kettle, and chill in an ice bath with kosher/ice cream salt. Works great for normal gravity 5 gal batches. Don't forget a thermometer and a hydrometer. You'll do fine.

^ mmmm, take drugs much?

Gab1788 said:

^ mmmm, take drugs much?

Click to expand...

It's robot spam. Ignore it.

Blichmann makes a system and Morebeer.com has some too. +1 on hooking up with a local homebrew club and helping out on a couple brews