Can one Kettle be used as HLT , MASH TUN AND LAUTER?

So I have only done extract brewing a couple times and would like to move to all grain. I have around 300 dollars in my budget to spend and gear left over from my extract brewing kit... So if I were to purchase one 10 gallon stainless steal brew kettle, could I use this as my hot liquor tank, my mash tun and my lauter?

I'm looking at at these kettles...

http://spikebrewing.com/products/9-gallon-home-brew-kettle-2-vertical-couplers

Yep, it'll work great. Look into Brew In A Bag brewing (BIAB). It's become incredibly popular as it requires little equipment for all grain brewing.

Do some research on BIAB (Brew in a Bag).


Using a traditional process, no...you really need at least two vessels. But you can with BIAB, although there are of course trade-offs.

I use my 8 galon brew kettle and 1 converted retangular cooler, and a bucket and do batch sparge all grain. The rectangular cooler and conversion were less tha $50.00 totall.

If you're handy and you have some tools you could look into building a 15 gallon kettle out of a sanke keg. it doesn't look as pretty as a blichmann, but it's a whole lot cheaper.

You can wrap it in some insulation so it'll hold the heat better for mashing.

Do a search for keggle

I did BIAB with one kettle. Then I bought a cooler and used the one kettle for the HLT, the cooler for the MT, and then putting the wort from the MT back into the kettle to boil. Only one pot and an inexpensive cooler.

Make sure to get a high BTU burner to go with that big kettle.

I was in your shoes just a few months ago. I went BIAB and have already done 5, 5 gallon batches and I'm hooked.
I bought an old Bass ale 13 gal keg from craigs list and build a keggle with it. I have a spigot, thermometer and a glass volume tube built into and use an old turker fryer burner.
If i can give some advice it would be to not get a kettle that holds less the 12 gallons. I usually start out with between 8 and 9 gallons of water depending on how much grain i use and how long i plan to boil to end up with about 5.5 to 6 gallons of wort. I think a 10 gal kettle is cutting it a little to close.

ok ok thanks guys.. so mixed opinions, but it seems like the majority say I will need more than 1 kettle for all grain brewing.. I will look into the BIAB but I don't really like the idea of using a bag (plastic or not), I think I will just invest in another vessel.. My only question is, could I use two of the same types of kettles for this process? Or do I need one specifically as a HLT and one specifically as a mash/lauter?

ToddPacker69 said:

So I have only done extract brewing a couple times and would like to move to all grain. I have around 300 dollars in my budget to spend and gear left over from my extract brewing kit... So if I were to purchase one 10 gallon stainless steal brew kettle, could I use this as my hot liquor tank, my mash tun and my lauter?

I'm looking at at these kettles...

http://spikebrewing.com/products/9-gallon-home-brew-kettle-2-vertical-couplers

Click to expand...

Todd-
I would suggest that you look into a 15 or 20 gallon pot. I would suggest an aluminum pot (they are less expensive and work as well). Try food warehouse services they have great prices.

As far as the BIAB - look into custombiab (I think they are in Ireland) and they make great products - not cheap plastic bags. You could get you entire setup for less than $120.


-John

Ok thanks John... Besides the BIAB method, would 1 - 15 gallon kettle work for all three functions (Hot liquor tank, Mash Tun, Lauter Tun)? What about to brew my wort in?

ToddPacker69 said:

Ok thanks John... Besides the BIAB method, would 1 - 15 gallon kettle work for all three functions (Hot liquor tank, Mash Tun, Lauter Tun)? What about to brew my wort in?

Click to expand...

Todd-
If your not going to do BIAB you will need more pots - you will need a mash tun that you could theoretically re-use for your boil kettle, but that men's siphoning the wort into you hlt cleaning out the grains, re- introducing the wort, topping off the wort with water a doing your boil.

Save yourself the effort, do BIAB - one pot little fuss no muss.

-John

Check out http://www.bagbrewer.com for BIAB bags. Very inexpensive, and he even make one specially-shaped for keggles.

ok ok I gotcha, everyone is recommending the BIAB... but I am trying to make an investment so I have all the equipment for all grain, especially if I want to expand.. I feel like the BIAB is just for beginners, I could be wrong, and which I AM , but I would rather invest in a couple pots so I have these for the future..

If i didn't go the BIAB route, would 2 15 gallon kettles work out for the boiling water, HLT, Mash tun/lauter? Or would I need a pot for each? I understand siphoning can be a *****, so would you suggest getting 3 kettles?

The reason people are recommending BIAB is because it's still all grain brewing, all of the steps are the same, just instead of removing the wort from the grains, you've got a way to remove the grains from the wort. You'll learn the science behind all grain, you'll make excellent beer, and you can do it right now with what you have available to you.

I think you have given it this negative connotation in your head, but it's an excellent way to brew all grain beer without needing the big expensive equipment. Ingenuity does not mean it's a "lesser" way to brew.

But since you seem to have your heart set on the traditional AG brewing method, yes, you can do it with just two vessels, it just involves more transferring and cleaning. In fact, you can do it with just one vessel, you heat your strike water in your one kettle, then add your grains. Now you have your mash. You can heat mash out and sparge water in any available pot you have. Then after your mash is done, move the wort into your FV, clean the spent grain out, move the wort from your FV back to your kettle, boil it, clean and sanitize your FV, then once your boil is done, cool the wort, move it to your FV once again and pitch. and then you're done with a single large kettle, and some pots you have available already.

wow how do you like a post? That was EXACTLY what I was looking for. Thanks Matt..

And to all you others, I am definitely going to look into the BIAB method, I just don't like the idea of using plastic. I am trying to learn the real raw art of brewing, so I figure using classic mash tuns and HTL will be more traditional..

ToddPacker69 said:

wow how do you like a post? That was EXACTLY what I was looking for. Thanks Matt..

And to all you others, I am definitely going to look into the BIAB method, I just don't like the idea of using plastic. I am trying to learn the real raw art of brewing, so I figure using classic mash tuns and HTL will be more traditional..

Click to expand...

For BIAB you wouldn't actually need plastic, a muslin bag is cotton, people use them all the time for steeping specialty grains, keeping hops together, etc. a BIAB just implies a way to remove the grains from the wort instead of removing the wort from the grains. You could even do it with stainless steel if you had something with holes small enough to keep the grains from slipping through.

ToddPacker69 said:

wow how do you like a post? That was EXACTLY what I was looking for. Thanks Matt..

And to all you others, I am definitely going to look into the BIAB method, I just don't like the idea of using plastic. I am trying to learn the real raw art of brewing, so I figure using classic mash tuns and HTL will be more traditional..

Click to expand...

Ummmm, converted cooler mashtuns such as the ones many 3V brewers use are....wait for it..... plastic!

I'm just sayin.....

ok I got you. Don't get me wrong, I love the advice, I'm just saying...

I wouldn't use a plastic cooler like the converted ones or I would convert something metal.. The stainless steel ones seem fine online, I just don't like the idea of plastic... but now that I know you can do BIAB in something other than plastic, I may have to do this.. Whats a good website to purchase a non plastic BIAB setup? Thanks again!

Walmart... Or any grocery store. Most carry muslin bags. Most people rig something up so they can hang their grain bags over their kettle. A load bearing hook in a joist and a ratchet pulley work well. Get a bucket or large colander (something with holes in it so that liquid can drain and that you can attach to your ceiling rope set up) this will support your bag, they get heavy once your grain soaks in water.

I think you should probably read up on some of these things though, if you needed help minimizing the number of vessels needed, you probably don't understand the process well enough. Also, you're claiming that you want to learn "raw traditional brewing" but you want to use Stainless Steel, Glass Fermenters, propane, thermometers, hydrometers, etc. Raw traditional brewing would more likely be hot stones into wooden buckets to boil water... The brewing industry advances every day like all industries. By rejecting the use of plastic the way you are, it's like you are fine with 12000 years of advancements, but have stalled at 1950 and reject the last 60 years.

The reason people use plastic coolers is because of their insulation properties, plastic has a much higher thermal resistivity (R-value) than metal, also the vacuum between the outer and the inner wall provides even more insulation. I'm not sure what problems you have with the "idea" of plastic. it's in everything, and it's immensely useful, and very safe if you use the correct plastic for the job. If you reject it's "idea" because it strikes you as cheap, well.... that's just ridiculous. I know shiny things are cool and all, but sometimes plastic is better suited for the job.

I bought this pot for BIAB.



link


For bags, I just picked up some paint strainer bags from Home Depot. If you decide later on to go the more traditional brewing route, add a 10 gallon cooler as your mash tun.

If you going to build a mash tun, get a copy of John Palmers book. He has plans and methods on how to do this the best way. Actually the book covers everything you would ever dream of wanting to know about homebrewing. its the bible of homebrewing.

Wow, the BIAB brewers have sure jumped in on this thread! You definitely do not need 2 pots to do all grain, non-BIAB, brewing. As long as you have a separate mash tun, the converted cooler being the favorite approach. I bought my 10 gallon Rubbermaid cooler for $37, total conversion was another $20 or so. I use my kettle, a 10 gallon aluminum stock pot, to heat my strike water and I transfer that to the cooler for the mash. Towards the end of the mash I use that same kettle to heat my sparge water. I drain the wort from the mash into a volume marked 5 gallon buckets (accurate volume!). Once the sparge is done I transfer my wort back into the kettle for the boil. Hot side aeration is not a concern for us and I have had no issue using this method (which I got from several, at least, thread here).

MichaelBrock said:

Wow, the BIAB brewers have sure jumped in on this thread! You definitely do not need 2 pots to do all grain, non-BIAB, brewing. As long as you have a separate mash tun, the converted cooler being the favorite approach. I bought my 10 gallon Rubbermaid cooler for $37, total conversion was another $20 or so. I use my kettle, a 10 gallon aluminum stock pot, to heat my strike water and I transfer that to the cooler for the mash. Towards the end of the mash I use that same kettle to heat my sparge water. I drain the wort from the mash into a volume marked 5 gallon buckets (accurate volume!). Once the sparge is done I transfer my wort back into the kettle for the boil. Hot side aeration is not a concern for us and I have had no issue using this method (which I got from several, at least, thread here).

Click to expand...

This is exactly how I do it, and I have always wondered about the hotside aeration when I dump the contents of the bucket into the boilpot ...I mash in the basement with electric, and strike water is heated in the cooler using immersion heaters, but do the boil outside with gas ..

ToddPacker69 said:

ok ok I gotcha, everyone is recommending the BIAB... but I am trying to make an investment so I have all the equipment for all grain, especially if I want to expand.. I feel like the BIAB is just for beginners, I could be wrong, and which I AM , but I would rather invest in a couple pots so I have these for the future..

Click to expand...

1. BIAB is an all grain method.
2. It's not "for beginners".
3. You're wrong.