Need Advice on Equipment, NEW to AG

I know this might be a little overwhelming, but going to ask it any who. I would like to get into all grain brewing and was wondering what I should start off with, ie, mush tuns and sizes, pot sizes, ect… Doing 5Gal batches only.
I have been doing extract for a bit and thought I might as well jump into the big dogs. Right now I have an 8 gal brew pot, two carboys and that’s it. Should I purchase equipment or make my own, another thing kept in mind is my budget, I know some of the equipment is quite expensive and I am pushing towards just making my own mush tuns and what not. I have also seen some people having two, depending on what type of sparging method is done…Thanks for the help
Noob

Get yourself a 5 gallon water cooler with a spigot. They usually have them at Home Depot for about $30. False bottoms are expensive but you can get a kettle screen (bazooka screen) instead. You need a ball valve and all the parts to attach that to the screen through the cooler when you remove the water spigot.

An 8 gallon pot is pushing it since you will be boiling close to 7 gallons to start with. Boil overs could be an issue if you aren't extremely careful.

You should have two pots, one good one for boiling 7 gal of wort and one cheap one for a hlt with at least 5 gal capacity. Get a 8-10 gallon cooler. I have a round 10 gal igloo. Fit a valve on it in place of the cheap one. Leave a little stub of nipple sticking out of the inside. You can attach a toilet water hose or a bazooka tube to it with a coupling. Spray insulate the lid if it's an igloo. Get a grain crusher and a drill if you don't want a work out. Other wise investments include a good thermometer, a refractometer, some cheap buckets, long steel spoon.

The only thing you need to add to you set up for all grain 5 gallon batches is a $1 paint strainer bag from Home Depot. I've used a cooler tun and done BIAB and found the latter much easier, and quite effective. You should have no problems doing 16 pound batches in an 8 gallon pot.

Here is my simple 4 gallon setup:
http://woodlandbrew.blogspot.com/2012/09/biab.html

You can do just as WoodlandBrew says and start with a very simple BIAB. After that see if you want to stay there or want to do other things that BIAB might not satisfy with. The sky is really the limit depending upon how much you are willing to spend. For me, I went from extract brewing on my stove, to extract with a turkey fryer, to partial mash, then to all grain. At each step along the way more stuff was purchased, made or hobbled together. If you are simply looking for a way to make some suds then go with BIAB and you might happily stay there. However, if your hobby leads you to do much more tinkering and your the type that is always looking for a new way to do stuff--like me--then try slowly progressing through the stages. For me, trying to find the better way to do things is as much fun as making the beer itself. At each stage you learn something new about brewing. My first all grain batch was made with an eight gallon brew kettle (that I still boil with) on a turkey fryer burner with a cooler for mashing. The mash was then transferred to a homemade Zapap two bucket lauter tun for lautering. I made many batches this way but have upgraded to a MLT made from a cooler fitted with a Bazooka screen and ball cock. My latest project was building a brewing water filter.

Thanks for the help, i may try the BIAB method...

Buy as little as possible until you figure out what your pain points are.

Been looking into this BIAB concept, might take a stab at it, looks easy enough.

I just did my first biab and it is really easy. Once you get the basics down from extract it is only one more step. Plus, no ballcock needed.

ya def will be doing the BIAB, having my grandma sew me up a voile bag and just got a 15.5 keg from my father law, starting to piece my stuff together nicely,

I've been brewing awhile and have settled on a process very similar to what Woodlandbrew says.
Just get yourself a 5gallon cooler (mine was $13) and a paint strainer bag (2 for $2 or so). People will say to get a 10g, and you can, or start with a 5 gallon, and add a second one later. The paint strainer bags that fit the white platic buckets fit a 5 galln cooler perfectly.

Treat your TOTAL volume of water needed, heat it, then dump the amount needed into your cooler for mashing. Do your mash runnings into another food grade white bucket, and then do a dunk sparge with the grain bag directly into the remaining water in the kettle. You can add a second batch sparge in the cooler if you want before the dunk sparge. My dunk sparge usually nets 1.015 that I add the mash runnings into. Boil as usual.

This system nets impressive efficiency in the 80s with easy work, and is only limited by the grain capacity of the cooler. I regularly make 1.070 Belgians, and it works perfectly for my needs.

i was thinking about doing the cooler set up but i already landed my hands on twon 15.5 kegs, so im prob going to lean towards the keggle set up.

c_osbourn said:

i was thinking about doing the cooler set up but i already landed my hands on twon 15.5 kegs, so im prob going to lean towards the keggle set up.

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Setup the keggles as your HLT and brew kettle. Use a 10gal round cooler as your MLT. You are going to need two burners anyway. The cooler will help to maintain mash temp for at least one hour. I prefer this than having to maintain temps with a burner. You can do a lot in one hour while mashing in. Next step, get a stand, pumps, controller, valves, silicone tubes, plate chiller, Randall, oh yeah...get a second job. Happy brewing!

NO kidding going broke already......ive heard that the kegs hold thier heat quite well..TRUE??

c_osbourn said:

NO kidding going broke already......ive heard that the kegs hold thier heat quite well..TRUE??

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I have a two vessel system and skip sparging. I cover my direct fired MLT with some towels and it maintains temperature within 1-2 degrees. My original system was more than 4x the cost of the system I use today. I've gone quite minimal with hardware and am much happier for it. YMMV.

kpmckay has the right idea. I have considered a no sparge system.
I do not use kegs but I know that many wrap their ss/aluminum kettles with towels and other insulating materials. A quick look through the equipment or DIY forums might give you some ideas for materials.

So far my setup is going to be a 15.5 keggle with a turkey fryer burner and a custom BIAB, we shall see how that pans out

c_osbourn said:

So far my setup is going to be a 15.5 keggle with a turkey fryer burner and a custom BIAB, we shall see how that pans out

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You will be very happy with your beer.

I hope so, when i get back going to take a stab at a nut brown ale AG, think this will be a good first AG beer.