Can someone help me out with a complete Equipment list!

A few months ago I decided I would try my hand at all grain/partial mash brewing.
Id only brewed cider, and want to try my hand at beers/ales.
I've read and read and read threads/guided on here, and looked up a few recipes I'd like to try.

I have a lot of equipment already, scattered around from stuff I've bought, to what people have given me.

Could someone give me a basic equipment list so I can just make sure I'm no missing something that I've probably over looked.

I don't have a good or well stocked LHBS close to me which is a pain, but i can order my grains online.


Onto a couple of questions.

How difficult is it to convert 5gal recipes into 1gal recipes so i can experiment as such with a few different recipes without having to potentially wasted a 5gal batch. I found a couple of brew calculators that converted the grain amounts, and mash temps. Is there anything else i need to convert or is it a pretty standard /5 for a 5gal - 1gal conversion.

Another thing, the store I get grains from don't have too many different hop types. If I match a recipe with hops of a similar AA will that effect the overall taste much, as I'm guessing each hops have a different flavour?

Any help i can get on this would be great, as now the weather is turning nice I'd love to start some brewing!

My equipment list is as follows: a keggle with a ball valve for draining after the boil, a converted cooler used as a mash tun, a turkey fryer burner for boiling, and a 40 foot long copper coil immersion chiller with a cooler and pond pump for pumping ice water through the chiller.

converting the batch to smaller sizes is as simple as reducing the ingredients proportionally to match the desired batch size.

yes, hops do have their own flavors that they bring into the beer, try looking for a hop substitution chart online, and maybe look into ordering hops online as well so there is less need to sub something different.

My list is similar to az's, but I don't have a converted keg. All I do is heat the water up to about 175 or so and then dump it in my 2 converted coolers (each has a braided stainless steel line and a ball valve), and let the mash go on happily in there. I have a big stainless spoon, a thermometer, an immersion chiller (50 feet), a dual propane burner, and other smaller pieces of equipment (funnels, hydrometer, etc.). Mine is about as simple as it can get to produce quality all grain brews consistently.

I agree with az about how batch sizes are handled. At our volumes, it really isn't going to matter too much if you are off a tad here or there.

Other homebrew books that have recipes usually have a hop substitution chart too. But, like az says, you should be able to find it online.

the biggest thing is a good size pot (I found a used one at a cooking store 8.2 gallon stainless), Mash Tun (aka converted cooler I used flyguy's drinking cooler with braid),wort chiller(i coiled some copper tubing), and thermometer the rest you can get away with your other brewing equipment. hydrometer, fermenting container,

Cheers guys.
I have a big stainless steel pot that i used when making GRAFF cider which needed some form a mash.

I think I will try my hand at a partial mash to begin with, I've read a few guides, and I don't have great space atm to go complete mash. I have two large stainless steel food pots, that I can mash and sparge in.

Also doing 1gal batches, will I have any problems with efficiency?

I think I have confused myself with an overload of different peoples methods. If I partial mash without a converted cooler, and do the whole process on the stove, or even set an oven to the desired mash temp and put it then for mash in to reduce heat loss, while I'm doing 1gal batches at least, would it still be a good idea to create a wort cooler to use when I make the move to full mash?



One completely different question, I know water is a big component in brewing, is there any worth in me getting a 5.2ph water stabiliser?

Like a lot of pastimes, homebrewing can be approached in a pretty elementary fashion, or with an elaborate and complex rig, and you'll still get perfectly good beer in the end...provided you do your part.
I'm in my third year, and I still try to adhere as closely to the K.I.S.S. principle as possible. I have a couple of SS pots, a 3 gallon one to do preheat and sparge water, and a 7.5 gallon one to do my boils. I insulated the latter one with automotive firewall insulation, so it's a pretty efficient boil kettle. Heat comes courtesy of a Bayou Classic propane burner.

I use a converted Home Depot / Rubbermaid 10 gal. "big orange" cooler for a MLT, just a braid & valve kit from Bargain fittings.

I use 7 gal. plastic buckets acquired from US Plastics to ferment. While I'm moving to an extended primary-only fermentation, where secondary is called for I use either 5 gal. better bottles or the 5 gal. glass carboys from my original kit.

Bottling is just in 12 oz. longnecks, for the most part, using Grandpa's old bench capper.

Most of my little equipment I got in my original kit, the intermediate from Midwest Supplies. The most important piece of equipment in that was the autosiphon, which I wouldn't be without. The most important equipment I've acquired since then would be 1) a 25 ft. copper wort chiller, 2) a refractometer, and 3) a Thermapen.

Since switching to all-grain, I've used a "Corona" type grain mill to crush my grains- once again, a simple and inexpensive approach.

In answering the last question, I use the RO (reverse osmosis) water from the machine in the grocery store, because our well water has such high levels of calcium and iron that it's unserviceable for brewing. I add a tablespoon of 5 Star's 5.2 pH stabilizer to my mash, per package directions.

Note: the preceding is not intended to disparage anyone else's equipment inventory or methods. There are numerous paths to a good glass of beer, and this is just mine, YMMV.

Never done a small 1-2 gallon batch, but IMO this shouldn't require much equipment at all. Don't think I would bother w/ a cooler, I would try a grain bag and mash in a pot. Stick the mash pot in a warm oven to maintain temps. Sparge the grain(bag) in a second pot, combine runnings and boil. 1 or 2 gallons can easily be chilled in the sink w/ a bit of ice as almost as easily as using a chiller.

For a small batch, again IMO partial mash is silly. PM allows you to make a larger brew w/ less equip.

Regarding 1 gallon batches, just be forewarned, seems like a helluva lot of work for 8 pints, but of course, whatever your pleasure.

Thanks guys!

I only want to do small batches as a test for different recipes, then ones that I like I'd move up to 5gal batches. I don't have any 5gal demijons,only around 13 1gal ones

I think ill gather equip for full boil, so I can move up to 5gal batches straight away.

I know I'm being lazy now, but are there any posts to homeade mash tuns and such so I can get an idea of making one.

I don't know what your (Cazamodo) access would be to these coolers, but I'm assuming equivalents are readily available in the UK. This is the lengthy thread to the conversion I did:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/cheap-easy-10-gallon-rubbermaid-mlt-conversion-23008/#post223137

....although I took the quick & dirty approach to acquiring the parts, and just bought a kit from Bargain Fittings (a HBT advertiser).

Thanks that looks god, ill have a look around and see if I can find anything like that in the UK, the parts should be no problem, but I haven't seen a water cooler around like that.

Doesn't need to be any particular sort of cooler; people do the same thing with just about any insulated cooler, be it cylindrical, cubical, or rectangular / box-type. All will work.

for 1 gallon i would read the brew in a bag thread. for cooling a 1 gallon with a chiller not sure you should be able to ice back it if the volume is that low.

take the pot and move it to the sink fill the sink with cold water then let it cool off once the water warms up you can drain it. I would do that twice then do it a third time and add ice that should cool it down.