Going All-Grain

Fellow Brewers,

I’ve been brewing for a year now and I’m ready to take this to the “All-Grain” level. I want to discuss equipment get some ideas as far what was your experience, what tips you may have, etc.

While I am a huge fan of the full electric brewing system, I not a fan of the retail cost of one. I brew for my own consumption and at the moment I think it’s crazy to pay thousands for a turn-key system. I’ve also found out 5 gallon batches disappear way too quickly so I think a 10 gallon batch system is a must. I particularly like the system that http://www.theelectricbrewery.com/gallery offers. So my plan is to break it down to 3 or 4 steps. The idea really is to make it least physically demanding and eliminate as much lifting as possible.

In step one I’ll get a beverage cooler and covert to a mash tun – no brainer. It’s temporary and it’s going to server well for now. As I’ve not used one, I am concerned about how well does a cooler like that maintains a set temperature. I was planning on using an Igloo 10 gallon cooler from Lowes (http://www.lowes.com/pd_58378-528-00042172___?productId=4767313&pl=1&Ntt=cooler ).

In step two I will build my boil pot. Clearly the BoilerMaker by Blichmann seems to be the top of the line and for now it will be in the “would be nice” category. So my question is, what are some other quality pots available? I see brands like Bayou Classic, MegaPot, Concord, etc. I’ve even looked into a local online restaurant supply store. Some reviews I’ve read mentioned a “3-ply” bottom which I assume is good for better heat transfer, but is that important for an electric system?

For now the pot would connect directly to a 220 Volt power outlet until I build up a control panel as probably a last step. But I want to make sure I start with a good quality pot. Once the boil pot is done I want to add the mash/lauter tun, and so on.

And I thank you for our input in advance.

Check out the kettles over at Spike Brewing also...

I am a fan of rectangular coolers, especially the Coleman Xtreme cooler. Pretty easy to build a manifold for. Here is what I built

You can batch sparge or fly sparge and get about the same efficiency.

Are you thinking of going with a single tier system, 2 tier or 3 tier?

I use a BrewBuilt kettle and I love it. I also use a 10 gallon cooler but in 5 gallon batches. There is not a lot of temp drop but I am in SoCal where our weather is pretty mild.

I'm going to throw it out there and while not trying to convert anyone to any particular methodology I think it's fair to say that a simple cheap and effective way to brew all grain is via single vessel brewing (SVB), BIAB being the most common approach to SVB.

There are some links in my signature below with methods that apply to BIAB and AG brewing in general. They may be useful, or completely useless to you.

Just another way of looking at AG brewing.

Best of luck with your future brewing endeavors. AG brewing is a lot of fun.

Gavin C said:

I'm going to throw it out there and while not trying to convert anyone to any particular methodology I think it's fair to say that a simple cheap and effective way to brew all grain is via a single vessel brewing (SVB), BIAB being the most common approach to SVB.



There are some links in my signature below with methods that apply to BIAB and AG brewing in general. They may be useful, or completely useless to you.



Just another way of looking at AG brewing.



Best of luck with your future brewing endeavors. AG brewing is a lot of fun.

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Part of the reason I got the BrewBuilt was that this would be an option with it. It's a nice 10 gallon lot but comes in bigger sizes as well

JLeuck64 said:

Are you thinking of going with a single tier system, 2 tier or 3 tier?

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Ultimately it'll be a 3 tier with pumps and all.

Gavin C said:

BIAB being the most common approach to SVB.

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That's beautiful brew! Thanks for your post.

RishoBrew said:

Ultimately it'll be a 3 tier with pumps and all.

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Reason I asked was I decided to go with a 3 tier, and I wanted to be able to brew without a pump. I live in the country and sometimes have power outages during the winter months. So I splurged on a HLT with a sight glass when building my system. If I had it to do all over again I could have saved some $$$ on the kettle with a sight glass and design a 2 tier system with a pump. Now days most kettle manufacturers sell a product with markings on the inside of the kettle so the exterior sight glass is really just unnecessary in my opinion.

Crunch the numbers on your build for multiple set ups. 3 tier, 2 tier with a pump or two and all the fittings, single tier etc... it will really help with your decision making ( ;