minimal AG setup

I'm confused.

HLT = hot liquer tank
MLT = mash lauter tun

sometimes I see stainless HLT, made from an old keg. You heat up your water for mashing/sparging whatever. Makes sense.

Then I also see websites with rubbermaid coolers as HLT. wtf?

To confuse things even further some brew pots have SS false bottoms? wtf?

I'm hopelessly confused. What do I actually need and what can be reused? For example can I use an SS kettle for heating mash/sparge water, then use that same kettle for brewpot after mashing?

I know some folks use coolers to hold sparge water. Maybe that is what you are seeing as a HLT.

okay, so you can use one rubbermaid to hold sparge water (heated elsewhere) and use another rubbermaid for the mashing. Why add the extra container? Maybe that lets you used the same kettle for heating mash water, empty it to a rubbermaid, then use it as the brew kettle?

You can use the kettle to heat the mash/sparge water and also for boiling, but you will need a MLT and an extra vessel for holding the sparge water. You can't use the same pot to hold sparge water that you use for boiling since your running will be going while you still have sparge water in the container. You need an intermediate holding tank so to speak. We use 2 turkey fryers and it goes very smoothly.

You need a kettle to heat water and boil your wort. You need a container for mashing/sparging. I use my boiling kettle for the HLT to heat water for the mash which I do in a rubbermaid cooler. I use my boiling kettle to then heat my sparging water. I batch sparge so I run off into a bucket the first sparge. I then add the second sparge to the mash tun, my boiling kettle is now empty. I transfer the wort in the bucket to the kettle and start heating it to a boil while collecting the second runnings which once done get added to the boiling kettle.

GT

I mash and lauter using a very slightly modified fermenting bucket. The bucket has a spigot installed into the bottom. On the inside is a "false bottom" -- it's a round piece of SS maybe an inch or two less in diameter than the bottom of the bucket and it's filled with holes. I found it at a thrift store when I happened to be putting my gear together -- no idea what it was originally, some sort of steaming apparatus perhaps. This holey chunk o metal is tied with string to the inside of the spigot. (I was lucky to find this as it seems ideal for this purpose, but there are plenty of things that could be used as a similar false bottom.)

I wrap this bucket in a woolen blanket, aka "The Beer Wooby", secured with bungee cords and mash in a large grain bag. I currently fly sparge with a device I picked up years and years ago called "Phil's Sparger" (http://www.undergrounddigital.com/sparger.htm). I can't really recommend this product it's kind of a pain -- I've been seriously considering trying out batch sparging.

Like GT, I also use my boiling kettle(s) to heat up my sparging water and collect my runnings in a separate plastic bucket. I have vorloffed in the past, but have not been doing so recently. From what I understand the main reason to do this is to establish an effective filter bed and keep big quantities of grain out of your wort. Since I mash in a grain bag, I don't get grain in my wort.

Obviously, this system has real limitations. For example a temperature controlled mash is basically out of the question -- although, hmmmmmm, if I was careful I could probably move bag of grain and liquor to the kettle and gently heat. I'm still pretty happy exploring the world of one-step infusion mashing.

Minimal enough?

BTW, I do five gallon batches with this setup. I'd guess that MLT wouldn't hold much more than 16-18 lbs of grain (with enough room for mashout and sparge water).

Well, like my mom used to say, there is more than one way to skin a cat! I know some brewers have fancy three tier systems complete with burners and pumps to pump the water and wort through their system. Some use gravity and still use the three tiers.

If you look in my gallery, one of my pictures is my set up. I have a rubbermaid cooler- my mash/lauter tun (MLT) and two pots to heat water. I batch sparge, so I don't need a HLT and just heat the water and dump it in.

These systems can be as simple or as complex as you'd like.