Thinking of making the jump to AG

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Chaddyb

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Im wondering exactly how big or small I should go as far as exactly what equipment I should start acquiring. I am undecided if I should start with the bare minimum, or if I should just bite it and start to build a big three kettle brew stand? My line of thought is that, if im gonna just eventually upgrade, why waste the money on the beginner stuff, and why not just go all out? obviously the bigger setup is more expensive to start. Im just wondering what other peoples thoughts are on this?
 
You're going to get answers all over the place on this. Personally I don't like brew stands because they take too much storage space. I have a 2-pump "break away" system that I really enjoy. 2 keggles, 1 picnic cooler mashtun, 2 pumps, a heat exchanger and a few small doodads.

Tear-down + clean-up is pretty much the same as a brewstand, so no loss of time there.

As far as size... I like to brew 11 gallons and end up with 2x 5-gallon kegs.

MC
 
Im wondering exactly how big or small I should go as far as exactly what equipment I should start acquiring. I am undecided if I should start with the bare minimum, or if I should just bite it and start to build a big three kettle brew stand? My line of thought is that, if im gonna just eventually upgrade, why waste the money on the beginner stuff, and why not just go all out? obviously the bigger setup is more expensive to start. Im just wondering what other peoples thoughts are on this?

I actually made the jump a little while ago with a 2.5 gallon test batch. I was like, what the hey, why not? I highly reccomend trying BIAB (brew in a bag), there is all sorts of info about it here and at biabrewer (google that). The only additional equipment is a bag! Now that is not a hard bullet to bite. I have to say, for all of the talk about how difficult it is to go all grain... if you can watch a thermometer and adjust your heat, you can do this. Try it out! My founders breakfast stout clone done as a biab all grain cost me about ~1/2 the cost of with malt extract and tastes like heaven in a glass.
 
Either do BIAB or get a 5 gallon cooler and convert it and do 3 gallon batches. Ya should still be able to use your 5 gallon extract kettle this way. Get yourself a 3 gallon carboy and your under 50 bucks to go all grain..
 
If you can visualize your final goal you can piece it together in a way that makes sense. I have been steadily building my system for about 4 years now and have not gotten rid of any original equipment. I started with a basic setup for brewing 10 gallon batches and have improved my system to improve quality and consistency. That said, if it is not a great financial burden for you to do it all once then you should. Just make sure you are committed enough to the hobby to justify it.
 
I've been doing extract for a little over a year now. I was leaning towards finally building a basement bar like I've always wanted to, but decided since I have a kegerator, I would instead upgrade ny equipment and techniques. I wouldn't mind trying the biab technique, but ultimately want to be doing at least 5 gallon batches. I also won't be buying all of ny equipment in one shot, I will slowly piece it together. I guess in that light maybe I would be better off trying to build a keggle, and getting a cooler a cooler for a mash tun, then converting when I get all the pumps and more keggles....
 
I've been doing extract for a little over a year now. I was leaning towards finally building a basement bar like I've always wanted to, but decided since I have a kegerator, I would instead upgrade ny equipment and techniques. I wouldn't mind trying the biab technique, but ultimately want to be doing at least 5 gallon batches. I also won't be buying all of ny equipment in one shot, I will slowly piece it together. I guess in that light maybe I would be better off trying to build a keggle, and getting a cooler a cooler for a mash tun, then converting when I get all the pumps and more keggles....

Um... So tell me, what equipment do you plan to buy for doing 5 gallon BIAB? I bought a turkey fryer that has a 30 qt kettle and a burner and a cheap grain mill and a pair of 5 gallon paint strainer bags. I think all of that came to less than $100. It doesn't take very many batches of all grain to save that much over doing extract kits.
 
Um... So tell me, what equipment do you plan to buy for doing 5 gallon BIAB? I bought a turkey fryer that has a 30 qt kettle and a burner and a cheap grain mill and a pair of 5 gallon paint strainer bags. I think all of that came to less than $100. It doesn't take very many batches of all grain to save that much over doing extract kits.

Well, I don't know exactly what equipment I need, that's why I'm asking you more experienced folks. Truth be told I really didn't know much about the biab method. After reading the sticky, this seems like a method I would like to try. I see he uses the no sparge method , with your 7.5 gal brew pot, do you do the no sparge method or no?
 
Well, I don't know exactly what equipment I need, that's why I'm asking you more experienced folks. Truth be told I really didn't know much about the biab method. After reading the sticky, this seems like a method I would like to try. I see he uses the no sparge method , with your 7.5 gal brew pot, do you do the no sparge method or no?

Most of the time I sparge. I have a 20 qt stock pot from when we were doing the garden thing so it really easy for me to sparge. I found that with the full volume of water in my turkey fryer it was really near the top when I added my grains so I decided to work with just a little less water and sparge a little to get my volume up before I started the boil. After reading a bunch on here I started sparging with cold water so I could squeeze better without burning my hands and my efficiency went up so I must have been leaving too much sweet wort in the grain before.
 
Also, what is the downfall to not sparging? I'm reading the efficiency is affected?
 
Most of the time I sparge. I have a 20 qt stock pot from when we were doing the garden thing so it really easy for me to sparge. I found that with the full volume of water in my turkey fryer it was really near the top when I added my grains so I decided to work with just a little less water and sparge a little to get my volume up before I started the boil. After reading a bunch on here I started sparging with cold water so I could squeeze better without burning my hands and my efficiency went up so I must have been leaving too much sweet wort in the grain before.

That seems easy enough. Your basically giving the grains a nice rinse to get all the sugars out then?
 
I actually made the jump a little while ago with a 2.5 gallon test batch. I was like, what the hey, why not? I highly reccomend trying BIAB (brew in a bag), there is all sorts of info about it here and at biabrewer (google that). The only additional equipment is a bag! N

^^ This. I've been doing mini-mashes for six months because for some reason when I first joined the forum, I read posts about how "steeping is not mashing". Bull crap. If you can hold a steep @ 155° for 45 minutes, you might as well mash at that temp for 70 minutes and mash out for 20 @ 170° - I'd have at least $100 back in terms of grain-bill savings.

BIAB with no-sparge seems like the path of least resistance to break into all-grain. Plus you can over-mill your grains since there are no stuck sparges and you can still get efficiency in the 80%+ range. One kettle, all-grain, high-efficiency brewing with no real extra equipment? Yes please.
 
^^ This. I've been doing mini-mashes for six months because for some reason when I first joined the forum, I read posts about how "steeping is not mashing". Bull crap. If you can hold a steep @ 155° for 45 minutes, you might as well mash at that temp for 70 minutes and mash out for 20 @ 170° - I'd have at least $100 back in terms of grain-bill savings.

BIAB with no-sparge seems like the path of least resistance to break into all-grain. Plus you can over-mill your grains since there are no stuck sparges and you can still get efficiency in the 80%+ range. One kettle, all-grain, high-efficiency brewing with no real extra equipment? Yes please.

The posts about steeping is not mashing is right on but all you need to do is add some grain with diastatic power, meaning those which still retain the enzymes to convert the starch to sugar, and you are mashing. You can hold roasted barley at 155 forever and get no conversion because the process of roasting destroyed the enzymes needed to convert.
 
The posts about steeping is not mashing is right on but all you need to do is add some grain with diastatic power, meaning those which still retain the enzymes to convert the starch to sugar, and you are mashing.

Yea what is going on in the kettle is different but in terms of process, they are basically the same. Yea you have to watch pH, control your temps a little closer, but at the end of the day, I'm watching a kettle hold temps.
 
So basically if I just picked up a turkey fryer kit I would have most everything I need, besides the straining cloth? (burner, and bigger brew kettle)
 
Also if I were to do any 2.5 gal batches, what is good to ferment them? Wouldn't a regular fermenting bucket be too big? (too much headspace)
 
Chaddyb said:
Also if I were to do any 2.5 gal batches, what is good to ferment them? Wouldn't a regular fermenting bucket be too big? (too much headache)

They make 3 gallon carboys which should be ideal for 2.5 gallon batches. I'd recommend a blow off tube for your higher gravity beers.
 
Also if I were to do any 2.5 gal batches, what is good to ferment them? Wouldn't a regular fermenting bucket be too big? (too much headspace)

I've been doing them in 6 1/2 gallon buckets. Headspace doesn't matter when you are actively fermenting as the CO2 put out in the ferment is heavier than air and forms a layer above the beer thus preventing oxidation. I think it is much better than too little and dealing with krausen on the ceiling when the lid blows off.
 
So another question, if I make 2.5 gal batches, I suppose I can just cut the grain bills and hops in half from a 5 gallon recipe? I wouldn't mind doing smaller batches for things like IPAs where I'm the only one who drinks em in the house, and the hop qualities tend to fade if they sit too long.
 
Chaddyb said:
So another question, if I make 2.5 gal batches, I suppose I can just cut the grain bills and hops in half from a 5 gallon recipe? I wouldn't mind doing smaller batches for things like IPAs where I'm the only one who drinks em in the house, and the hop qualities tend to fade if they sit too long.

This is exactly what I plan to do.
 
So another question, if I make 2.5 gal batches, I suppose I can just cut the grain bills and hops in half from a 5 gallon recipe? I wouldn't mind doing smaller batches for things like IPAs where I'm the only one who drinks em in the house, and the hop qualities tend to fade if they sit too long.

That's what I've been doing. All grain brewing scales very well so you could go from a gallon batch to a 20 gallon batch and the only thing you would need different is a bigger pot and burner for the big batches. Otherwise in the ingredients it's just math, half size batch takes half the ingredients.

I'm now running into the hop fade on an an APA I made in November. It isn't bad but it is noticeable.
 
Thanks for all the help, I'm gonna try out a half batch doing the biab method and see how it goes.
 
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