New setup questions

I am putting together an all new brewery for my new apartment, which means i need to find a new burner to replace the handy fire pit i had been using. At the same time I am trying to jump to all grain brewing and i need to bounce a couple ideas around.

First, would a standard 30q (7.5gal) turkey fryer and pot work for my heat source? If I equip the kettle with a drain would that serve as a satisfactory brew kettle or will it be too small?

This final question i know will be too easy for y'all but i just cant find an answer... How big of a Hot Liquor tun must i have? Do i really need a three tier rig because space is an issue in the apartment.

Thanks!

A three tier system lets gravity do the heavy lifting. If you don't have a three tier (I don't) you'll simply need to move the liquid manually from one stage to the next.

A 7.5 brew pot is plenty big enough. I used one for a long time before shifting to 10gallon batches.

For 5-gallon batches I got by fine with a 5-gallon Rubbermaid cooler as a MAsh Tun.

If you batch sparge only one cooler is needed. You can make great beer with this technique and store all you gear in the cooler when finished.

I would recommend a larger pot than 7.5 since you will to collect roughly 7 -7.5 gallons before the boil.

Check this site for batch sparging info>>> http://hbd.org/cascade/dennybrew/

awesome, at least im not totally stupid

Thanks for the quick response and knowledgeable feedback...

Black Forest Man said:

I am putting together an all new brewery for my new apartment, which means i need to find a new burner to replace the handy fire pit i had been using. At the same time I am trying to jump to all grain brewing and i need to bounce a couple ideas around.

First, would a standard 30q (7.5gal) turkey fryer and pot work for my heat source? If I equip the kettle with a drain would that serve as a satisfactory brew kettle or will it be too small?

This final question i know will be too easy for y'all but i just cant find an answer... How big of a Hot Liquor tun must i have? Do i really need a three tier rig because space is an issue in the apartment.

Thanks!

Click to expand...

Hello and welcome.

7.5 G is not bad for a set-up. The thing is for All Grain, you start with about 6-6.5G and boil it down to about 5g. This leaves little room for space to prevent boilovers. From what I see here, several people use a 30qt/7.5g stock pot with great sucess. You can always upgrade to a bigger kettle and use the stcok pot for a HLT later on.

Here are a few links for some ideas of what other people use. I hope this
helps and gives you some ideas.

PS a three tier system is a not used by most people (as most homebrewers are, like myself, cheap)...and space is an issue.


http://cruisenews.net/brewing/partial_mash/page1.php

http://www.schwedhelm.net/brew/howibrew.html

http://www.brewingtechniques.com/library/backissues/issue5.4/palmer.html


Cheers

Just wanted to add a bit to the previous good advice.

I definitely support the suggestion to batch sparge. It makes things a bit more flexible, and you will be less reliant on a three-tier system. Having said that, a three-tier system is still pretty handy for batch sparging, but it will require three vessels.

I suggest going with two coolers (one 10 gallon for the mash and lauter tun, one 5 to 10 gallon for a hot liquor tank), and a turkey fryer. The nice thing about having the cooler HLT is that you only need one pot and burner (nice, if space is an issue). Otherwise, you will need two pots and you will probably want two burners (one to heat sparge water, one for heating the runnings). That all adds up to lots of space.

I use two 10 gallon coolers (see modifications in my sig) and a turkey fryer or pot on the stove:



The cooler set-up is really handy because you don't need a brew stand and you can pretty much move it anywhere. Plus the coolers can be used for other purposes, like chilling a corny keg full of beer, or as a cheap fermenation chamber (the 10 gal ones fit carboys really well).

And if you ever want to get into step mashing, an easy $35 add-on (steam injection system - see my sig for details) will allow you to heat your mash in the cooler MLT.

So, I highly advocate the 2 x cooler and 1 x pot/burner setup, especially if you are tight on space and need to be flexible on how/where you brew. Hope that is useful!