My Score and a few questions

So Im making the transition to AG brewing. I actually just bought ingrediets to make my first mini-mash. I wish I had waited so I can just do the all grain version of the recipe, but oh well the partial should help me prepare for AG transition.

So I found a deal on some equipment: I think I have everything I need for AG!

1. Stainless steel boil kettle (8 gallon). Do full 5-gallon boils! Stainless ball valve allows easy connection of brewers hose to move wort without lifting pot. Additional threaded coupler welded in for thermometer. This is a high quality kettle that will last a lifetime.

2. Converted cooler mash tun. (5 gallon). Mash tun includes a Fermentap thermometer for getting accurate reads of mash temperature, stainless ball valve and nipple for transfering mash to boil kettle, and stainless false bottom to keep grain bed above wort during transfer.

3. Converted cooler hot water tank. (5 gallon). HLT includes a Fermentap thermometer, stainless ball valve and nipple, and a sparge arm that will gently sprinkle hot water over your grain bed during sparging.



First question: are 5 gallon mash tuns big enough for most AG batches? Meaning am I really set up for AG?

I bought ingredients for a partial mash here is the recipe:

In one and half gallons water:
2lb pale malt
1lb medium crystal malt
8oz malted wheat

Sparge with two and half gallons water

4 1/4 lb pale LME

...hops (no question pertaining to this part)

So the question is this: Can I even use my new equipment with this recipe? seems like 3.5 lbs and a gallon and half of water is too small an amount to use with the MLT. Also, If I want to do a full boil which I can now do; Is there any changes I need to do to the recipe? Or do I just add an amount of water with my runnings (taking evap into consideration) to finish at 5 gallons?

Thanks for all the help guys!

I just went to AG and I was using a 5 gallon Mash tun, but will be upgrading to a 10 gallon on my next batch. I'm hitting just over 70% eff. and I can pull off about 1.060 for my max starting gravity. If you want to make big beers you may have to upgrade at some point. My first beer was a Dubbel to which I added 1 pound of candi sugar. My OG was 1.064 but my equipment was maxed out. Maybe someone else can give you tips to increase your efficiency so you can make them a bit bigger.

Thanks bbrim.

By the way I still have not purchased this equipment. Let me know if you think Im getting a bad deal. Im getting everything for under $250.

thanks again!

doesn't say what you're paying for it, so hard to eval. if you searc HLT on ebay you'll see the one that I got that uses a manifold as opposed to a false bottom. I have done a 14lb grain bill in it successfully.

VTBrewer said:

doesn't say what you're paying for it, so hard to eval. if you searc HLT on ebay you'll see the one that I got that uses a manifold as opposed to a false bottom. I have done a 14lb grain bill in it successfully.

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Im paying $230 for the MLT, the HLT and the 8 gallon brew pot with ball valve

See what haggle room you have available. Seems a bit high for two coolers and 8 gallon pot. If you have the DIY skills you could make the mash tuns yourself.

The big question is, will you be happy with it if you do purchase. Lots of folks mash in 5 gal coolers. Looks like a great way to start into AG.

I waited and watched craigslist for months and almost did a couple of buys. Then a 15 gal Polarware pot with spigot, false bottom, burner & stand and Schirron chiller showed up. Got them for $240.

an 8 gallon pot with no couplers at the LHBS is like $95, the coolers alone are $65 before conversion. Conversion kits are what $20? plus the value of thelabor, false bottom and sparge arm. Also, I am not very handy and really dont have the time to mess around with converting coolers. The way I see it ....its not the best deal in world, but it is ideal for my situation.

Any other thoughts on the size? Five gallons big enough? I am only doing five gallon batches...

thanks!

you are going to be doind a partial mash, so yes you can use all you new equipment. Like the false bottom, interested in knowing how accurate those thermo's will read during a mash

I recently converted to all grain myself. I went with the 10 gallon coolers and had them delivered for about $40 each to my local ACE hardware. Free ship to store if you have one close. I thought the price was a little higher than if I had waited to summer, but wanted to get started. I have seen some members report they have bought the 10 gallon for $20- $30 each. With the conversions, I still came in under $65 each, which allowed more money for a bigger brewpot. Did a little DYI and online shopping and came out ahead.

This is my first post but just thought I would chime in here...

I think you definetely have some haggle room here. The kettle looks like it is a nice piece of equipment but you can do better with the coolers. I was just browsing Home Depot and saw 10 gal. coolers for less than $40. I'm not sure what they wanted for the 5 gal. but $65 for one is way overpriced.

As far as not being handy, if you can hold an adjustable wrench you can convert a cooler. That being said, if you can get it for around $150-175 range that would be much better.

CPAle said:

an 8 gallon pot with no couplers at the LHBS is like $95, the coolers alone are $65 before conversion. Conversion kits are what $20? plus the value of thelabor, false bottom and sparge arm. Also, I am not very handy and really dont have the time to mess around with converting coolers. The way I see it ....its not the best deal in world, but it is ideal for my situation.

Any other thoughts on the size? Five gallons big enough? I am only doing five gallon batches...

thanks!

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Do some haggling. I converted a 10-gallon Rubbermaid recently using FlyGuy's method. Cooler I got on sale at HD for 40 bucks, parts to do the conversion ran roughly another 40. And if a DIY idiot like me can do it, anybody can.

The kettle looks nice, but 8 gallons is cutting it close for big beers.

The coolers also look good but I think are too small for big beers.

This is a total guess, but I would not be surprised if the person selling this realized they got all this stuff and did all this work and they can't brew 1.080+ beers, now they are looking to upgrade.

Looks like a nice setup, but will be limiting. Only a problem if you plan on going big in your future.

i second trying to get the price down. 8 gallon pots can be had from AHBS for ~$55. I just built a mashtun with an 10 gallon cooler i bought off eBay and a CPVC manifold for a total cost of like $60.

So you could put together a setup with 10 gallon coolers including a brew pot for ~$175. This won't have all the bells and whistles like thermometers and such that the kit your looking at has, but those can easily be added and it would still work out to about the same price and you would be able to do larger beers because of the 10 gallon coolers. Just something to think about.

It is nice to be able to get everything at once already assembled though. But i'm kind of a DIYer, so YMMV.

you've got two nice therms, three stainless valve set-ups, a good false bottom with a store bought sparge arm plus a nice 8 gal stainless kettle. everything is assembled and ready to go and in very good shape. all your going to need eventually is a ten gal cooler for 40$, and you can swap the therm and valve to the ten gal. from the five and your done. see if he'll let you have it for 200$. If not, remember its all done and ready to go... and if you're married or have a girl-friend, you've over paid before! and this will totally be worth it. pennies a day my friend, pennies a day!

Just thought id chime in. If you arent into DIY and are comfortable with the price then way to go. I will say Home Depot hass the 10 gallon coolers right now for 29 bucks and i just converted one it was very easy bargainfittings .net made it eesy so either way enjoy

I recently did my first AG batch...actually it was my first batch ever and I wanted to be able to do 'big' beers right outa the gates. I went and purchased a 10 gal cooler from Home Depot($34 + another $8 for the fittings) and basically followed the steps in this thread... https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/cheap-easy-10-gallon-rubbermaid-mlt-conversion-23008/ and it was really easy, the only diff was I also purchased a SS false bottom. It works like a champ and took all of about 30 minutes to put together. Me personally, I wanted to start out with everything that I wanted, so unless you are cool with upgrading down the road or only doing partial mashes, go for it.

my 2 cents