All Grain Setup

Live in a big apartment and currently perform extract with no troubles. Already have a brew kettle and I'm looking to jump into an all grain setup. Is there anyone who all grains inside their apartment or town home who maybe doesn't have access to a setup that entails a turkey fryer or burner? I have a gas stove so I can boil a full wort boil with whatever I extract from the grain. Now this is my big project for the summer as I've got the wort chiller going, the kegerators been active for some time and now I wish to lower costs on brewing. I'm open to any help and any step by steps. Thanks everyone!

If you're going to do a full boil, I would do a dry run and make sure you can get 6-7 gallons to a boil. I tried 5 on my gas stove and is was a mess. I could get it to a boil if I put it across 2 burners and even then it took forever.

do a search here for 'heatstick'. it may be something you would be interested in to help with heating strike and sparge water as well as full volume boils. Have you successfully done full volume boils?

Tumpster said:

Live in a big apartment and currently perform extract with no troubles. Already have a brew kettle and I'm looking to jump into an all grain setup. Is there anyone who all grains inside their apartment or town home who maybe doesn't have access to a setup that entails a turkey fryer or burner? I have a gas stove so I can boil a full wort boil with whatever I extract from the grain. Now this is my big project for the summer as I've got the wort chiller going, the kegerators been active for some time and now I wish to lower costs on brewing. I'm open to any help and any step by steps. Thanks everyone!

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The question is how long it will take for your burners to boil the wort; I'd figure on about seven gallons. Some stoves won't put out enough heat to boil that much.

I live in a townhouse, and I brew indoors. I also have a Wolf range that has higher-output burners; this definitely helps. I do use electric for my hot liquor, though; I have an electric turkey fryer that I use to heat my strike and sparge water (and hopefully will soon use as my HERMS heat exchanger). My mash tun is a 10 gallon Rubbermaid cooler with perforated false bottom, and does quite well.

My only real issue is that my GF bitches about my equipment taking over the kitchen and dining room.

I brew small batch, no sparge. I have a 20qt pot (5 gal exactly), so I cannot brew five gallons. Instead I brew 2.5 gallons. I mash in a five gallon rubbermaid, and I add all the water to the mash (about 4.3 gallons), then I just drain it to the kettle. I get about 3-3.5 gallons. I boil an hour and end up with a little over 2.5 gallons to the fermenter. I use 3-gallon Better Bottles. I have four of them. Right now I am cooling with an immersion chiller. With stirring I can cool the wort in about 20 minutes. I plan on building a counter-flow chiller to make that even faster. With this set-up I can brew in about 3.5 hours. About three weeks ago I brewed Friday night, Saturday morning, and Sunday morning. It was awesome, and I had time to dao other stuff those days. I hope this helps.

Plan on 7 gallons of collected wort for your average beer.

Plenty of stoves will not work well for that much. You may have to straddle two burners. Also the weight of that much wort might damage the stovetop. Mine got bent in the middle and I spent a few years wondering why my burners were not level.

Splitting the wort into 2 batches is one answer. Either make 2 separate brews, or recombine after boil. I would not say this is ideal, but it's doable. If you recombine, remember to split all additions in half and boil the same amount in each pot.

Personally, I like the heatstick idea. It gives your kettle a boost of heat. Probalby enough to allow full boil on the standard stove.

KUbrew said:

If you're going to do a full boil, I would do a dry run and make sure you can get 6-7 gallons to a boil. I tried 5 on my gas stove and is was a mess. I could get it to a boil if I put it across 2 burners and even then it took forever.

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Well I succesfully boil full wort boils on my current setup. I have about 6 gallons that boils within an hour, have done several batches of beer with this current extract setup. I'm looking to add the mash tun and all that jazz and get fully into all grain brewing. Any setups that anyone currently use it in an apartment?

Yep, I did a couple successful AG batches in my apartment. Even on an electric stove, I made the insulating sleeve from this post https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f11/improved-boiling-stovetop-53683/ Then I just used my kettle as my mash tun, and an extra bottling bucket to batch sparge. Its super simple but I was getting like 70% efficiency.

a 5 gallon (21 qt, actually) ceramic coated canning pot is like 30 bucks or so. Mash in this with some home depot paint straining bags that cost about 5 bucks for 2. I'd use both while mashing just for added security. You then sparge with the grain in these bags. 2 other large pots are sufficient to boil 7 or 8 gallons without boil over. Yes, it can be done stove top with minimal equipment costs. I got 70% efficiency with this. Probably would have gotten better if I didn't use softened water.

I do two pots on the electric stove and it works well. It's really not that complicated to split your hops and then combine everything once cooled in a carboy. For me it really helps I have a stove I don't care about that I bought for 50$!

If you can boil, then all you need to do is build a mash tun out of a large drink cooler. Or you could do the stovetop mashing method, but well... Building stuff is much more fun.

I also do All Grain on a gas stove inside. I use 2 4 Gallon Stainless Steel pots. I fill each one with about 3.5 gallons (7 Gallons total). After I sparge, I split the combined sweet wort into the pots evenly. And then split hop additions.

One note here. 3.5 gallons in a 4 gallon pot leaves very little head room. On brew day I need to hover over my stove. I get the potential boil over everytime I brew. I am usually able to stop it before it covers my stove....but there has been the occasional miss.

With that said, I cannot wait to get a 40qt pot and propane jet to start brewing outdoors. It is hard to keep a water bottle in one hand, another hand on the off knob, another hand pouring in the hops, and a homebrew in the other.

Homercidal said:

Plan on 7 gallons of collected wort for your average beer.

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Wait, what? What does this mean?

Pre-boil volume of water + fermentables ~ 7 gal?

HoppyMaltPoet said:

I also do All Grain on a gas stove inside. I use 2 4 Gallon Stainless Steel pots. I fill each one with about 3.5 gallons (7 Gallons total). After I sparge, I split the combined sweet wort into the pots evenly. And then split hop additions.

One note here. 3.5 gallons in a 4 gallon pot leaves very little head room. On brew day I need to hover over my stove. I get the potential boil over everytime I brew. I am usually able to stop it before it covers my stove....but there has been the occasional miss.

With that said, I cannot wait to get a 40qt pot and propane jet to start brewing outdoors. It is hard to keep a water bottle in one hand, another hand on the off knob, another hand pouring in the hops, and a homebrew in the other.

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You might want to look into getting some Fermcap-S!

Never tried it. Any experience with this? I can't stand the look the wifey gives me when the boil over happens (although this has only happened once in the past year).

jezter6 said:

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

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Yeah, this thread was insanely helpful. I'm in the exact same spot...small high rise apartment, small kitchen, no outdoor space to call my own, etc.

I've done a few partial mashes now and am about to try my first AG stovetop brew on my next batch. I have a 5 gallon pot I use for the mashing and a 9 (or maybe 10? i forget) gallon pot that I always straddle across two burners which I do the boil in. Heating up 6 gallons takes me about 45-55 minutes (my tap water usually starts out around 145).

I think I'll still have to use extract or adjunct sugars for some really high gravity beers but for most things I'm expecting this setup will work just fine.

Tumpster said:

Well I succesfully boil full wort boils on my current setup. I have about 6 gallons that boils within an hour, have done several batches of beer with this current extract setup. I'm looking to add the mash tun and all that jazz and get fully into all grain brewing. Any setups that anyone currently use it in an apartment?

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All you need additional is a cooler mash tun. You can use your boil pot as an HLT for strike and sparge water and just get a spare 5G bucket to collect first runnings in. Then after to dump in your last batch of sparge water, then dump you collected runnings into the pot that is now your BK. I've been AG brewing with one keg, a cooler, and a bucket for nearly 2 years now. Works fine. Especially if you're limited in space. You could also add a second 10G cooler or another big pot and go electric like mentioned for a dedicated HLT. But if you're trying to save for space, One pot, one cooler and 1-2 5G buckets is all that is needed. You could really use your Ale Pail to collect your runnings, then just wash and sanitize during the boil to use as the fermenter. That's 3 vessels including your fermenter.

Since I had my second kid it is getting increasingly difficult to get outside to brew so everything is done in the kitchen. Here is my setup:

I went to Home Depot and got a 10 gallon square cooler, put some 3/8 tubing through the hole and zip tied a SS braid to it. I got the cooler on clearance so my Mash Tun cost me about $20.

Then I had a really sturdy wooden chair collecting dust in the garage and brought it up in the kitchen.

I also picked up two 5 gallon ceramic canning pots from Wal Mart for $10 a piece.

Here is my process:
I put the cooler on the counter and one of the 5 gallon pots on the chair while I heat my water on the stove top in the other. I drain my drippings into the other pot until I get 3.5-4 gallons.

I then use the other pot to collect the sparge drippings and put both pots on the stovetop and do a full boil.

By using the chair I never have the hot dripping sitting on the floor so I avoid any possible discoloration or damage.

The whole thing uses very minimal space and I can get really good efficiency.

Good luck.