Equipment Question!

I'm wanting to start all grain brewing I have the pretty standard extract brewing kit and wort chiller. I am going to make 15 gallon u here soon. My question is, what other equipment will I need to start all grain brewing and how much will cost me, because by the looks of things you can save a decent amount of Money not buying lme or dme

A kettle that can handle a 15gal full boil is probably going to be your highest cost I would think. I only do 5gal full boils, so I'm not going to speak for more volume to that. After it was said and done though, I probably spend around $100-150 on all of my upgrades to all grain. Worth every penny.

dmbshen41 said:

My question is, what other equipment will I need to start all grain brewing and how much will cost me

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It depends. If you do Brew-In-A-Bag and have your LHBS mill your grains for you, then you likely already have everything you need. If you want to go completely all-grain, then you'll need to obtain/construct a mash tun. This can be done fairly cheaply (< $100). If you really want to maximize your savings, you'll need to buy your grains in bulk and mill them yourself. This has a little more startup cost (you'll need an airtight storage system for large amounts of grain, plus a decent grainmill), but will go a long way in reducing your cost per batch. If your stove can't boil a full batch, you'll need an outdoor burner and some propane.

If you want to get into using better (read: liquid) yeasts, then you'll eventually need a way to do yeast starters (Erlenmeyer flask?), and possibly a stir plate and stir bar. If you want to reduce your costs still further, you can look into washing and re-using your yeast, which has minimal extra cost (just a couple jars and some fridge space).

To save money on hops, you can again buy in bulk. However, you'd need a way to keep them fresh, so you'd likely need a food-grade vacuum sealing system.

If you want to control your fermentation temperatures, then you'll need a little freezer/fridge and temperature controller.

It really all depends on how far you want to take this. I went from 0 to kegging all-grain batches over the span of about 2 months, and I've spent close to $2,000 so far.

There are many variables. brew in a bag? herms? rims? cooler MLT?

15 gallon batches requires some big equipment. Ideally a 30 gallon brew pot, 20 gallon MLT and a 20 gallon HLT You will almost definitely want a pump.

I think the question is. How much do you want to spend going all grain?

Well I don't think I will be brewing 15 gallon barches probably just 5 gallon I'm lookin for the cheapest way possible!!

dmbshen41 said:

Well I don't think I will be brewing 15 gallon barches probably just 5 gallon I'm lookin for the cheapest way possible!!

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10gal brew pot (I have an 8 and I'm on boil-over watch every second of the boil); 10gal Rubbermaid/Igloo cooler; Hardware for cooler conversion; grain mill (I have a corona that I got for $20 that I LOVE). All in all, probably about $100-150 depending on how resourceful you are. I store my bulk grain in a plastic storage shelf/compartment system that was about $30. I have a compartment for bulk grains, a compartment for specialty grains, and a compartment for my mill/scale/assorted hardware. Perhaps the biggest investment is going to be the time it takes on brewdays. If I mill the night before I brew, I can be done in a little over 3hrs (including clean-up). If I have knowledgeable help I can be done a little sooner, but more often than not, I'm brewing solo.

The first post says 15 gallons, and later you say 5. If you are looking to do 5 gallon batches the only thing I would buy would be a 5 gallon paint strainer bag from the hardware store for a couple of bucks. Do a couple of partial boil BIAB batches that way and see where you want to go from there.

cheapest way is brew in a bag. What size kettle do you have currently?

Whattawort said:

I can be done in a little over 3hrs (including clean-up). .

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wow your fast. I'm 6-8 hours including clean up. I brew 12 gallon batches but even when I was doing 6 gallons it took almost the same amount of time

Whattawort said:

If I mill the night before I brew, I can be done in a little over 3hrs (including clean-up).

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What!?!

How is that possible?

Let's assume, as you said, you mill your grains the night before. Furthermore, you have all your equipment all set up and ready to go. Let's even assume you've already measured out your strike water.

Brew day starts. You light the burner and start heating your strike water. Say you've got a great burner and you're up to 168 F (or whatever your dough-in temp is) in just 20 minutes. So you dump into your mash tun and stir in the grains until you hit your precise mashing temperature (another 5 minutes).

You mash for 60 minutes. You vorlauf (1 minute) and drain first runnings (2 minutes). You dump in your sparge water (which you've already heated up, so no additional time) and give it 10 more minutes to "mash out". Vorlauf (1 minute) and drain (2 minutes) again, and fire up the burner for the boil.

Say it takes 10 more minutes to get your 6.5 gallons from 170 F up to 212 F (boiling). You get a good hot break within 2 minutes of boiling, then throw in your bittering hops and start the timer. You now boil for 60 minutes.

Flame out and immediately start up your immersion chiller. Say it takes 15 minutes to get down to 65 F (which would be amazingly fast, IMO). You then drain into your fermenter (3 minutes), aerate (2 minutes), move it into the fermentation chamber and seal it up (2 minutes).

Add all that up, and that brings us to 3 hours and 15 minutes, and we haven't even cleaned up yet. It takes me at least another hour to scoop the grains out of my mash tun and give it a good rinse, mix up some PBW and scrub my boil kettle, hop screen, and HLT, put away my equipment and update my notes.

How on earth can you do a full all-grain brew in 3-ish hours?

maida7 said:

wow your fast. I'm 6-8 hours including clean up. I brew 12 gallon batches but even when I was doing 6 gallons it took almost the same amount of time

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I try to clean as I go so once the boil is done I just wash out the pot and put it away. I also have a beast of a propane burner, so getting 7gal to a boil is pretty darn quick (less than 8min from 140 to 212). There's so much time during the mash and sparge, that cleaning up is pretty easy. I have to watch the pot like a hawk the entire boil since I only have an 8gal pot though, so every other task stops once the hot break happens. It also helps that I brew in my garage and that's where I store most of my equipment.

I brewed an Irish Red saturday morning in 3hrs flat. God I hope that thing is done and my keg is functioning again by the 1st. Gonna have some pretty pissed off party guests if it isn't.

kombat said:

What!?!

Flame out and immediately start up your immersion chiller. Say it takes 15 minutes to get down to 65 F (which would be amazingly fast, IMO). You then drain into your fermenter (3 minutes), aerate (2 minutes), move it into the fermentation chamber and seal it up (2 minutes).

How on earth can you do a full all-grain brew in 3-ish hours?

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Here is where I save the most time. I do the no-chill thing, so there is no waiting on the wort to cool really. I'll usually set the pot on the cold concrete for a few minutes while I dump the grains and hose out the tun. Then into the bucket it goes and I'm done. Easy peasy.

Whattawort said:

I try to clean as I go so once the boil is done I just wash out the pot and put it away. I also have a beast of a propane burner, so getting 7gal to a boil is pretty darn quick (less than 8min from 140 to 212). There's so much time during the mash and sparge, that cleaning up is pretty easy. I have to watch the pot like a hawk the entire boil since I only have an 8gal pot though, so every other task stops once the hot break happens. It also helps that I brew in my garage and that's where I store most of my equipment.

I brewed an Irish Red saturday morning in 3hrs flat. God I hope that thing is done and my keg is functioning again by the 1st. Gonna have some pretty pissed off party guests if it isn't.

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I recommend fermcap-s It will make boil over a thing of the past.

maida7 said:

I recommend fermcap-s It will make boil over a thing of the past.

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Indeed, but I forgot to add it to my last order and I couldn't find it locally.

WoodlandBrew said:

The first post says 15 gallons, and later you say 5. If you are looking to do 5 gallon batches the only thing I would buy would be a 5 gallon paint strainer bag from the hardware store for a couple of bucks. Do a couple of partial boil BIAB batches that way and see where you want to go from there.

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Sorry I meant I'm going to make a 15
Gallon keggle, so I have plenty of room to boil 5 gallons. Ill have to try some partial grain brewing.

Thanks everyone for the advice!!!!