How Close Am I to AG? New Equipment.

Greetings!

Last week I ordered some equipment to make a brewing upgrade. For the last 7 months I have been doing extract partial boils via stove top. Due to arrive today is a 10 gallon norther brewer TallBoy SS kettle. Bayou burner SQ14. And immersion chiller.

My plan is to start doing full boils extract and maybe doing PM if I can with my current set up.

I was thinking I could do the easy stovetop PM using my old 4 gallon and then take that water and bring it outside and pour into my 10 gal kettle.

My main goal is to make it to AG one peice at a time. I was thinking I must be getting close now.

My equipment in total is:

10Gal SS kettle (no spigot)
Propane burner
Chiller
4 gallon kettle

To officially move to AG, would I need a second propane burner and kettle along with a MLT made from a cooler?

My LHBS crushes my grain so I don't need a barley crusher just yet. Whats my best course of action here considering my equpiment?

The boil in a baggers will chime in shortly, but to all-grain batch sparge, all you will need is a cooler with a spigot and a SS braid

Check out this link.

http://hbd.org/cascade/dennybrew/

Yep, your all set up to do Brew in a Bag. I have done 2 BIAB batches after 5 extract batches. Brew day is a little longer but it is very easy to learn this process. There is a BIAB stick on the top of this page. Read that and you will know exactly how to do it.

You don't need two burners. You can use your smaller pot for strike and sparge water, and your new one for the main boil. As far as a mash tun, those are easy to convert, you can do it for around $50 pretty easy. There are TONS of videos on you tube. The easiest by far is the SS Braided line, or you could buy a bazooka screen from a HBS. 2 burners is more of a convenience.

jflongo said:

You don't need two burners. You can use your smaller pot for strike and sparge water, and your new one for the main boil. As far as a mash tun, those are easy to convert, you can do it for around $50 pretty easy. There are TONS of videos on you tube. The easiest by far is the SS Braided line, or you could buy a bazooka screen from a HBS. 2 burners is more of a convenience.

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Yep.

It is really easy to do and you can do it even cheaper if you find a used cooler at a garage sale or on craig's list.

Check out the Cheap and Easy Mash tun build thread.

Last week I ordered some equipment to make a brewing upgrade. For the last 7 months I have been doing extract partial boils via stove top. Due to arrive today is a 10 gallon norther brewer TallBoy SS kettle. Bayou burner SQ14. And immersion chiller.

My plan is to start doing full boils extract and maybe doing PM if I can with my current set up.

I was thinking I could do the easy stovetop PM using my old 4 gallon and then take that water and bring it outside and pour into my 10 gal kettle.

My main goal is to make it to AG one peice at a time. I was thinking I must be getting close now.

My equipment in total is:

10Gal SS kettle (no spigot)
Propane burner
Chiller
4 gallon kettle

To officially move to AG, would I need a second propane burner and kettle along with a MLT made from a cooler?

My LHBS crushes my grain so I don't need a barley crusher just yet. Whats my best course of action here considering my equpiment?[/QUOTE]

Do you have a cooler out in your garage? If not buy one for cheap on craigslist and convert it to a mash tun w/ball valve and screen. I just started brewing recently and converted one of my coolers. Got all the parts at home depot. I took my cooler in to the store and wheeled it back to the brass fitting/plumbing section. Put together my own bulkhead and ball valve and added in a big, bulky braided stainless steal hot water heater supply line for my screen. it works really well for me and was very affordable.

Outside of that you should be set. You don't need a second burner. I use gravity (dont have a pump yet) to brew. I have my kettle set up high on an old tool box with my mash tun a level lower on an old cedar chest (yeah, I like to repurpose things ). Once I mash in with my initial strike water I then heat my sparge water and move it to another (empty) cooler to maintain temps. I move my kettle to the floor below my cooler mash tun and finish sparging and drain to my kettle. To this point I have required help elevating my kettle (full of wort) so that i can gravity feed through my chiller and into my fermentation vessel (SS Kegs). That last part kind of sucks. I'm coming up with alternatives as we speak.

I don't already have a cooler so I would definitely need to get one one way or another.

I have been reading up on BIAB and the pros, and cons. It's something that seems worth it for standard gravity beers, but not much higher than that. I have no pully system, nor do I intend to build one, so I assume it will all be man power when draining the grains?

If I was going to only be brewing say 1.050 beers, why even bother with an MLT build?


My equipment came in!

Tomorrow I am going to brew for the first time on my new set up. I'm just going to do straight extract for the first time, but I may give BIAB a shot next time.

My original non biab rig consisted of 1 7 gallon pot, a cooler MLT a turkey fryer, an IC, an auto siphon and a handful of buckets. Later I added a pair of welding gloves...

A brew day went like this:
1. Heat mash liquor + as much sparge as I could in the BK/HLT
2. Dump HLT/BK water + grains into cooler/seal up and mash
3. Heat remaining sparge water in kettle while mashing
4. Run off mash into white bucket
5. Mix in sparge water with the mash and stir
6. dump white bucket in BK and hit it with flame
7. Run sparge off into BK
8. Boil
9. Chill
10. Autosiphon into the fermenter.

Involved a lot less clean up time than what I have now, but a lot more lifting hot water/wort.

I have been reading up on BIAB and the pros, and cons. It's something that seems worth it for standard gravity beers, but not much higher than that.

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Dang, somebody should have told me that before I brewed the 1.070 Belgian Wit.:smack:

I really didn't intend to make the Belgian Wit that strong. I built the recipe with software and forgot to change the expected efficiency from 70 to 80 percent and then to compound the problem, I overshot the 80% I expected too. I wonder what the problem might be with making higher gravity beers that I don't know about.

Nice, that is good to know its possible to do so. I was just going off of what I read.

I consistently hit 80% or better efficiency also doing biab. It's easy to do and you are only a bag away from doing all grain. With that 10 gallon pot you would def. have enough room in it to do pretty big beers for 5 gallon batches.

That's awesome. I think one of these up coming brews I will give the BIAB a shot.

dryboroughbrewing said:

My original non biab rig consisted of 1 7 gallon pot, a cooler MLT a turkey fryer, an IC, an auto siphon and a handful of buckets. Later I added a pair of welding gloves...

A brew day went like this:
1. Heat mash liquor + as much sparge as I could in the BK/HLT
2. Dump HLT/BK water + grains into cooler/seal up and mash
3. Heat remaining sparge water in kettle while mashing
4. Run off mash into white bucket
5. Mix in sparge water with the mash and stir
6. dump white bucket in BK and hit it with flame
7. Run sparge off into BK
8. Boil
9. Chill
10. Autosiphon into the fermenter.



Involved a lot less clean up time than what I have now, but a lot more lifting hot water/wort.

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If you add vorlaufing and drinking a couple of home brews while listening to some good music you have described my brewing technique to a t

If I don 't have a pulley set up, can I still do the BIAB? I can't see my arms able to hold that many grains in the air for 30 minutes!

BeerKillLogic said:

If I don 't have a pulley set up, can I still do the BIAB? I can't see my arms able to hold that many grains in the air for 30 minutes!

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I don't have a pulley system and I don't hold the grains for 30 minutes. I lift the bag, let it drain until the rush of wort slows down, then slip a bowl under the bag of grains and set the bowl and grain on the counter. I have a colander that fits inside the plastic bowl I use so I have that in there before I slip it under the grains. It makes it easy to let the bag drain a bit, empty the bowl, then set it down to drain some more. When it won't drain, I squeeze the last of the wort out but using a pot lid and pressing down with that.

Get a cooler and braid. You be all-grain tomorrow.

CGVT said:

Get a cooler and braid. You be all-grain tomorrow.

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Agreed. And if you batch sparge, you not only need no further equipment, but you can retire the 4 gallon pot for making chili.

Cooler, your large pot, chiller, done. Assuming you have a ferment or that is. I'd guess that goes without saying however.

Thanks for the suggestions. I really need to think how I want to tackle this. If a cooler is the only thing between me and AG, I may just take the plunge. I'm hesitant to do so though, cause I am not handy one bit. So building an MLT may proove a challange to me.

Also I'm still not sure about procedures for AG, and will require some further research.

Do I do all my heating of water right in my 10 gallon pot? I guess I can see why a second burner would be nice....

Keep in mind that you are in control of the volumes of beer your produce. If you want to do a high gravity beer with BIAB, you can adjust the end volume to match your equipment capabilities. Nothing wrong with ending up with 4 gallons instead of 5.

To answer your question, you would heat the entire volume (pre-boil volume + grain absorption amount) of water for your beer in the kettle to the appropriate strike temp, then you'd add your bag full of grain.

Stir well to avoid clumps. Let it sit for 60 minutes.

Then, pull the grain bag out and let it drain.

I've seen people take a grill grate and put it over the top of the kettle and set the bag on it. If you have an old sheet pan, you could drill some holes in it and set that over it. A cookie cooling rack? Be creative. No need to make pulley systems. You just want to get the wort out of the grain.

Then boil!

Don't let the acquisition of equipment stop you from brewing. Making wort is easy. No need to make it complicated. You'll quickly decide if BIAB is how you want to go.

I'm convinced. I'm thinking that this Sunday will be the day. I'm gonna brew up a simple english pale ale, or something simple of the sort. I'll post back how it goes.

BeerKillLogic said:

Thanks for the suggestions. I really need to think how I want to tackle this. If a cooler is the only thing between me and AG, I may just take the plunge. I'm hesitant to do so though, cause I am not handy one bit. So building an MLT may proove a challange to me.

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It is far easier than you're making it out to be. Remove the spigot from the Igloo cooler, and attach a weldless ball valve assembly with a mesh screen.

http://www.northernbrewer.com/shop/bronze-cooler-valve-kit-w-barb.html

http://www.northernbrewer.com/shop/mash-boil-screen.html

If it takes you more than 15 minute something is wrong.

Did not realize it was that easy.

I'm just apprehensive cause what I usually do is try to tackle a DIY project, buy all the material and when it comes down to it, realize I have no clue what I am doing.

I think I got this one though.


When speaking about traditional AG methods using the 10 gallon cooler as spoken about earlier. Since I don't have a second kettle or burner, and would have to heat my strike, and sparge water all in the boil kettle, as well as factoring in the actual boil, do you find you go through a crap load of propane?? At this rate it sounds like the tank will last for one single brew if I did AG

BeerKillLogic said:

Did not realize it was that easy.

I'm just apprehensive cause what I usually do is try to tackle a DIY project, buy all the material and when it comes down to it, realize I have no clue what I am doing.

I think I got this one though.


When speaking about traditional AG methods using the 10 gallon cooler as spoken about earlier. Since I don't have a second kettle or burner, and would have to heat my strike, and sparge water all in the boil kettle, as well as factoring in the actual boil, do you find you go through a crap load of propane?? At this rate it sounds like the tank will last for one single brew if I did AG

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That's what I do. I heat my strike water in my boil kettle and mash in. About 20 - 30 minutes into the mash, I start heating my sparge water. I collect my first runnings in a bucket and then transfer the sparge water (batch sparge) to the cooler. Then I transfer the first runnings from the bucket to the empty kettle and start the boil while I sparge. A single tank of propane will usually last me three 5-gallon batches with 60 minute boils each. Sometimes four if it's in the summer.

BeerKillLogic said:

Since I don't have a second kettle or burner, and would have to heat my strike, and sparge water all in the boil kettle, as well as factoring in the actual boil, do you find you go through a crap load of propane?? At this rate it sounds like the tank will last for one single brew if I did AG

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On my last brew session, I suppose I used about 1/4 of a tank. Maybe 1/3 I'm not sure. So my results will be similar to what Darwin posted. 3-4 brew sessions per tank. And yeah, I use one large brew kettle for everything...heating strike water, heating sparge water (for batch sparge) and then it all goes back into the kettle for the actual boil as it comes out of the mash tun.

Thing is, you have to heat the initial water for the mash so you're bound to that time no matter what. Kettle is available at this time. You're then bound to the length of the mash which typically is 60 mins so you only need a fraction of that to get your sparge water up to temp. All your other mash water is already in the cooler so the kettle is available at this time. Then it's time for the boil. Kettle once again open for buisness. Hence the reason you only need one large kettle and one burner for batch sparge system.

If you can get a second propane tank it's a good idea. I've run out during the boil, it's nice to have a spare at the ready.

glugglug said:

If you can get a second propane tank it's a good idea. I've run out during the boil, it's nice to have a spare at the ready.

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Yeah, a second propane tank takes one item of stress out of the brew day. I usually get 3 or 4 brews out of a 20 gallon propane tank and I do 11 gallon batches. Depends on the temperature of the water you're heating and whether you are brewing in a windy area. Good luck.

Screw BIAB. I built a mash tun today.

Its on now!

Nice! You are going to like all-grain. I was nervous before my first all-grain day, but it is much easier than I thought it would be. Just jump in an do it!

Yeah I can't wait. If either one of my brew stores just happen to be open tomorrow, I'm going in for ingredients.

Good luck and enjoy! I always love the smell of mashed grain.

all you need is a coleman extreme 52 qt cooler and some harware. Check out youtube for all the stuff you need. I think i got my coleman for $30, hardware+SS dishwasher braided hose for $15 or so. Really easy to convert! Also you wont need a 2nd burner or propane tank just a 2nd kettle maybe. You will heat up water for mash on your 1 burner and you wont have to add any as the coleman extreme doesnt lose temp for an hour. You can use the same burner to heat up sparge, then drain into your brew kettle!

Thanks for the information though, man. Just on the last page I posted how I took care of the situation!


If my calculations are correct in figuring out my efficiency, then my first AG brew day turned out to be 66%

My first all grain batches were lower than I expected. I tried fly sparging and it got a little better, but I really dialed in after I got a mill and started conditioning and grinding my own grain. I went back to batch sparging and make better beer than I did fly sparging.

TL:dr version?

Check your crush.

BeerKillLogic said:

Thanks for the information though, man. Just on the last page I posted how I took care of the situation!


If my calculations are correct in figuring out my efficiency, then my first AG brew day turned out to be 66%

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just read, nice!! thats a good lookin mash tun you got there

Thanks. So glad I just went for it.

I have been trying to recalculate my efficiency due to taking a hydrometer reading at about 148F. My initial result from 12.56 of grains reaching a pre boil amount of about 6.5 gallons was 1.033, so with temp correction calculators at first I thought was 1.047, and repunched the numbers today and got 72% using other sources.

Who really knows. I supposed I need a refectometer at this point?

Do you use BeerSmith? If not, it is well worth the $20. You just plug in your numbers and it does all of the calcs for you. It also has some conversion tools, including a hydrometer temperature adjust. You can plug all of your recipes in and keep notes etc etc. It's a great tool.

Yeah I do use beersmith. With allgrain and the equipment used for it being so new to me, I still haven't figured out how to set up the equipment on beer smith as what I actually am using.

I'll play around with it more when I get some time.

Will my regular old cheapo hydrometer cut it for measuring pre-boil gravity as long as I do temp correction, or am I going to need to purchase a refractometer because of the temp of the liquid?

I just use my hydrometer. I will probably get a refractometer sometime down the line when I have some spare cash, but it is not real high on my need/want to buy list.

I have found that the adjust tool is pretty accurate. I have read my hydrometer with hot wort and adjusted for temp and then allowed it to cool and the adjustment is pretty much spot on.

Make an equipment profile for your tun in BeerSmith. You will probably have to play around with it a bit to dial in what is really happening, but once you get it right, it will be solid. I think one of the most important thing in getting accurate data is to make sure that you are entering the actual amounts of liquids. If your volume entries are off it throws everything off.

I would spend the $30 on amazon and get yourself a refractometer. I did and its so much easier. These things take 1 drop of wort or beer to get a reading.

BeerKillLogic said:

Yeah I do use beersmith. With allgrain and the equipment used for it being so new to me, I still haven't figured out how to set up the equipment on beer smith as what I actually am using.

I'll play around with it more when I get some time.

Will my regular old cheapo hydrometer cut it for measuring pre-boil gravity as long as I do temp correction, or am I going to need to purchase a refractometer because of the temp of the liquid?

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I use the original BeerSmith, not BeerSmith 2, but there were lots of tutorial videos on their website that helped me to set up an equipment profile and get a lot out of the program.