NB all grain kits, yay or nay?

anyone use the northern brewer all grain kit? i'm intrested in getting into all grain and x-mas is right around the corner. they have a 10 gallon kit and a 5 gal kit. are they worth the 200+ bucks that they charge? any personal use? yay or nay?

thanks guys and any other recommendations are welcome, i want to get into all grain but i want something where i dont have to plan out an entire brew system to do it.

link http://www.northernbrewer.com/brewing/brewing-equipment/all-grain-equipment/deluxe-ags

when i made my switch to AG, i made a mash tun out of a cooler with some parts from home depot, total cost was $13. As long as you got a fermenter and a Cooker, there is no need to spend that much $$. I found that donosborn.com was very helpful in the making of a cheap mash tun, IMO.

I went to all grain on the cheap too. Used an existing cooler, made a PVC manifold and a bulkhead drain. I probably only have $25 in it even with the ball valve.

I heat my sparge water in the boil kettle, collect runnings in a plastic bucket.

If you don't really like building stuff yourself then it might be a way to go. If you want the 5 gallon I saw one here http://www.learntobrew.com/store/item/34w80/-_All_Grain_Equipment/Cooler_5_Gallon_Mash_Tun.html that seems to be a better deal, that's without reading the fine print and checking shipping costs.

Personally I don't like using plastic HLT's but many do so with no issues. I also would go for a 10 gallon set up.

Since I didn't have the pieces, I went the NB route for the 10gal setup. Buying in pieces would be something like this:

10gal cooler: $45 * 2 = $90
cooler conversions: $30 * 2 = $60
false bottom: $75 * 1 = $75
high temp tubing: $2 * 5ft = $10
low temp tubing: $1 * 5ft = $5
total = $240

So when I broke it down, the $240 at NB for the complete setup was good enough for me.

pdbreen said:

Since I didn't have the pieces, I went the NB route for the 10gal setup. Buying in pieces would be something like this:

10gal cooler: $45 * 2 = $90
cooler conversions: $30 * 2 = $60
false bottom: $75 * 1 = $75
high temp tubing: $2 * 5ft = $10
low temp tubing: $1 * 5ft = $5
total = $240

So when I broke it down, the $240 at NB for the complete setup was good enough for me.

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This will work, no doubt. However, if you batch sparge, you can skip one cooler entirely (although it's easier with two). Also, you can mash in a large paint straining bag and skip the false bottom and the tubing as well. Now you're under $100. You will need a way to do a full boil and cool the hot wort either way.

You don't need two 10 G coolors. Just one as your MLT, a turkey fryer and an immersion chiller.
If you shop around you can save considerably.

Darwin18 said:

You don't need two 10 G coolors. Just one as your MLT, a turkey fryer and an immersion chiller.
If you shop around you can save considerably.

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Have to agree with this. Since the NB kit doesn't include a kettle, burner, or chiller, $200 seems like a ridiculous amount of money to me. This isn't to knock anyone else, but honestly, you could do this for much cheaper.

10 Gallon rectangular cooler: $20
Stainless braid, bulkhead, etc (there are a number of tutorials for building these on this site and all over the intrawebs): $35

Um... that's really it. You don't need two coolers to batch sparge. I'm assuming you already have a kettle and burner, but if not, now is really the best time of year to pick up a turkey fryer. And you can build a great IC for less than $50. That's absolutely all you need to go AG, and it's a setup that you can use for years.

Just my $0.02.

what is the advantage of useing two coolers? i see many people here useing just one, that's all i would assume you would need, one MLT and then just a kettle to heat the liquor and sparge water, is the other cooler necessary for fly sparging?

They have the second for a hot liquor tank to free up your kettle. This way you can collect your wort and start it heating for your boil at the same time. Saves some time. I actually do this myself.

red96jeep said:

i want to get into all grain but i want something where i dont have to plan out an entire brew system to do it.

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As mentioned before, with batch sparging that NB set-up is overkill. Assuming you batch sparge, one thing that can make a cooler conversion a real no-brainer is to buy a Kewler Kitz conversion kit (about $30) and a Bazooka screen (about $15). While it costs a little more than getting all the parts separately at a Home-Depot or Lowes, it will save some hassles and make it really easy to convert any cooler you get.

Check out Denny Conn's Cheap & Easy Batch Sparge instructions for how to build the easiest imaginable MLT. I've done 10 10 gal batches so far with this setup and zero issues. Find a used turkey fryer on ebay or craigslist, and you're good to go. I found my keggle at a scrapyard down the road from me. Stainless scrap prices were up pretty high that day, so it cost me $9.10.

I went on the cheap as well, built me a MLT out of an Ice cube Igloo, I have a keg for my HLT and a used 10 gallon kettle of ebay. I have about $150 warped up into it.