AG Equipment/Moving to AG too soon?

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I can only drink so much :D.


I thought you said you were in college??.... :tank:

I'd say go for the 15 if you can afford it. I'm doing AG batches in a 20 quart for my first two runnings, and a 12 quart for whatever dosen't fit in the 20qt. It's a pain in the ass but it sure beats LME as far as I'm concerned. I just tasted my first (green) AG and I don't ever see going back. Now i just need a decent brewpot!!!
 
Good deal on a 15 gal pot. I tend to think that you don't need to buy such a big pot, but I guess for only $30 more. The choice is really up to you. But I do agree with quality over quantity.
 
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But Im worried about only taking up 1/3rd of the pot while Im burning, and my whimpy 55k BTU burner heating all that. AND the surface area increase for more boil off when I dont want it.

I use a 55k BTU burner and have done a 10gal batch without much problem at all; I wouldn't worry about that.

Also, go with the 15 gallon pot as everyone else said... 10 gallon batches take almost the same amount of time and you get double the return; well worth it IMO.

Neal
 
What negative would there be for buying a larger MLT than I need. I plan on doing only 5 gal batches for a while. If I were to go with a 10Gal Rubbermaid cooler would I be shorting myself good beer?

I use a 12gal rectangular cooler w/ CPVC manifold for 5gal batches. It has enough room for a partigyle barleywine or a 10 gallon batch of swill beer. The shallow grainbed is not a problem if you batch sparge, and the bigger surface area lessens your chances of a stuck sparge. In fact I've done 50% flaked wheat grist without rice hulls and didn't get a stuck mash.

I'm using a 40qt pot from a restaurant supply store ($50) as my kettle. If I had to do it over I'd get a 60qt so I could do 10 gal batches. Someday I will get a 60qt and use the 40qt for sparge water. In total I spent less for all of my AG equipment than it cost me to buy 4 reconditioned corny kegs.
 
NoNothing, are you an engineer, by chance?

I would again interject my advice to buy what you will want in a year or two, not what is cheap now. If you want a SS pot, buy it. If you no longer want the Al one a couple brews down the line, you will kick yourself for buying it because it was cheaper. On the other hand. if you have read about the aluminum pots, and want one instead, by all means jump on in!
 
As far as me being an engineer goes..."yes" I am a software engineer, so take that as you will.

I apreciate the advice everyone is giving me, its helping me come to a better conclusion for myself, rather than a quick answer from myself :).
 
I think Boerderij has some money in SS stock pot futures. He is pushing so hard to sell them....:D
 
I have a 7.5 Al pot too. I like it, for 6.5 gal boils it works just fine. Just need to be careful about boilovers, but it works well. I really don't think that ss is worth the extra money. Unless people that use them know something we don't.
 
I dont know much of a difference, I know I can buy a SS with a therm/sight/drain built right in, but I dont need any of those. Dont see why I need a drain when I can pour and I dont need a thermo when I have one, and a sight...well, that would be handy
 
The ball valve is nice if you have a CFC so you can just gravity feed right out of the pot without a siphon. The sight is nice to have to know how much liquid you have, but not that important just get a measuring 'stick' and you will be set.
 
I did a month or two of research and then jumped straight into all grain. I had to fill in a lot of gaps before I started, but spending all that time with research meant I was able to knock out some awesome brews straight out of the gate.

As for the equipment setup, I use a 7.5gal/65kBTU turkey fryer setup and have had no problems with 6.5gal boils (though you have to watch the initial break). I picked up a 5gal cooler, which I still use, but would agree with everyone that a 10gal is a better idea. If you want to make bigger beers, it's even hard to do 5gal mashes in mine; a 10gal would be much more versatile.

You won't regret going to AG, I'm still blown away at how easy it is to make awesome beer this way.
 
No I am not invested in stainless ;)

I started with a 5g aluminum brew kettle, then bought a 3g stainless one b/c i didn't like how the aluminum would get scratched and bent and whatnot. Then I upgraded to a really nice heavy duty 6.5g stainless pot (which I now use for decoctions) that I was thrilled with.... until I realized that 10g was the way to go for me. Sooooo, then I bought my current keggle system.

I did all this purchasing during college and had no money (lots of ramen noodles :(). This is why I have been advising you to look to the future. I wasted a lot of money because I kept buying the "wrong" (for me) stuff. I really wish I would have known about this place then, I probably could have avoided a lot of mistakes.
 
I just switched to AG after 10+yrs as an extract and PM brewer. If I had it to do all over again, I would have gone AG to start.

Having crossed over, I think the AG fear factor is purely psychological. It seems harder because generally "newbs" start on extract and "experts" brew AG. And because it uses more hardware. Therefore, AG *must* be very difficult and complex. In reality, those perceptions are not true at all. The difference between my AG setup and my extract setup is an MLT made from a cooler and a good thermometer.

As for pouring vs. draining, I disagree with you there. Pouring 5g of hot wort is dangerous. I found this out on Ag #1 when I slopped about a quart of hot wort into my shoes. Thankfully it was from the MLT and I brew by my pool so no real damage was done. Unfortunately, this was a lesson re-learned. At the pressure washing company I used to own, our hard rule was that any dangerous liquid (hot, corrosive, etc) that's not in a one handed container (i.e. gallon jug) gets pumped and not poured.
 
I live in Royal Oak, if you want to get together and brew and all grain batch with a couple Oregon boys you're more than welcome.
 
I live in Royal Oak, if you want to get together and brew and all grain batch with a couple Oregon boys you're more than welcome.

I would love to hit up a brew day, but Im headed up to the UP shortly here.

So, I think I finaly have a plan! after more research and self debating.

I will go with a 10 gal SS brewpot for now, and while I am up at school I will keep my eyes on a comercial keg to use as a keggle. So once I can aquire one from a frat house or something for cheap I can have a 15 gal brewpot.

Im kind of feeling the jump from 7.5 to 10 isnt quite a bit and might aswell jump on a 15 gal brewpot for now and still count on getting a keggle down the road for MLT/HLT if I need.

And $15 for a ball valve on my brew pot seems like a waste to me. I can just cool the wort down to pitching temp and pour it in the carboy. Im not going to pour hot wort in the carboy and crack it anyway.
 
And $15 for a ball valve on my brew pot seems like a waste to me. I can just cool the wort down to pitching temp and pour it in the carboy. Im not going to pour hot wort in the carboy and crack it anyway.

Build it! :D Lifting a 15 gallon pot full of wort (even cooled) is challenging and awkward, so having a weldless fitting on the boil kettle is definitely a good idea. I'd just hate to think about all that beautiful precious wort go spilling all over the place because a hand slipped.
 
Build it! :D Lifting a 15 gallon pot full of wort (even cooled) is challenging and awkward, so having a weldless fitting on the boil kettle is definitely a good idea. I'd just hate to think about all that beautiful precious wort go spilling all over the place because a hand slipped.

Point taken... thats a lot of wort to have go everywhere. I could just get a spiggot on it and call it a day...no need to lift a 5 or even 10 gal bucket of wort.
 
Just stumbled on this thread and thought I'd throw in my .02

AG is not that big of a deal. I have never brewed an extract or PM batch, and I only saw 1 full AG batch done before I jumped into AG headfirst. My buddies and I have used the aluminum turkey fryer setups since the start of our AG adventures (3 years or so for them) and have made some damn good beer with them.

And :off: it's always nice to see some fellow Techies on the board. :mug:
I wish I had started this hobby (read: addiction) while I was still up there. It would have made college a whole lot cheaper! :tank:
 
I'm hoping this saves me some money buy hat has yet to be seen :D.

So far I have my MLT done and I have 2 grain kits waiting to be brewed. I'm still waiting on my brewpot. (the 15gal alum from amazon linked in this thread). I'm about to call and cancel and do something else. I hoped to be brewing this weekend, the first weekend I'll be at tech.
 
Have you tried contacting the seller directly to see what the holdup is?

I just did that, I guess amazon was slow to get in contact with them (I kind of doubt that) but they shipped this morning. I was a bit sad :\. I was still debating just getting a 10gal and if they hadn't shipped by today I was going to cancel and get a 10gal brewpot. Now Ill have a 15 gal. The BAD news is its arrival date is the day Im leaving for school. So I will have to have someone ship it up to me.

Im going to call UPS and see if I can pick it up someplace along the way and not have to worry about waiting around/waiting for the shipment.
 
I just did that, I guess amazon was slow to get in contact with them (I kind of doubt that) but they shipped this morning. I was a bit sad :\. I was still debating just getting a 10gal and if they hadn't shipped by today I was going to cancel and get a 10gal brewpot. Now Ill have a 15 gal. The BAD news is its arrival date is the day Im leaving for school. So I will have to have someone ship it up to me.

Im going to call UPS and see if I can pick it up someplace along the way and not have to worry about waiting around/waiting for the shipment.

Most unfortunate.

Best of luck with the shipment. I'm sure with all the engineers around you'll find some way to pull of the brews, regardless. :mug:
 
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