All grain equipment?

Hi.So i have done my first extract brew kit which tastes good.Now i have an idea of the basics involved with brewing.I want to move onto all grain brewing so i can make beers excactly the same as down the local pub or better!

But i have looked at online retailers and there seems to be loads of different equipment for it.

What do i need for all grain brewing?What is the essential equipment?

That's a pretty open-ended question with a lot of possible answers.

At minimum, you need a pot capable of boiling 7 gallons or more (and a heat source capable of doing it). You need some sort of lautering/sparging system, which could be a basic as a plastic cooler and a screen or manifold of some sort to drain it.

I'd say brew some more extract batches and get a little more comfortable with that process before trying it, but that's just my opinion.

There are literally dozens of threads on this very subject with plenty of good information, but this is a good site to start with:
http://cruisenews.net/brewing/infusion/

In your thread search you will find that orfy and Blighty have adapted equipment commonly available in the UK to all-grain brewing.

I did two searches which turned no results.I typed in all grain equipment and mashing equipment.

I will do some more searched. thanks for the link.

cweston thanks for the advice but i'm the sort of guy that only has todo something once and remembers what i have to do. Especially if i'm really interested in it.

the basics:

big kettle (at least 8 gallons, preferably 9-10)
lauter tun (this is easy to make, a couple of food grade plastic buckets, some plastic tubing and a hand drill is all ya need, check out my gallery pics for an idea)
sparge arm/big spoon (you can make this too, or just use a ladel and gently ladel sparge h2o over grains)
propane/gas burner (this is kind of optional, but highly recomended for boiling 6+ gallons of wort)

thats it...its not that difficult, just time consuming. Everything else you probably already have, like a dairy thermometer, how-to books and what not.

optional items:
hydrometer (to know when to stop collecting run-off)
iodine (for starch conversion test)
ph tester (to check acidity of mash/sparge h20)
mash tun (instead of mashing in the kettle you could use a converted cooler)

Read this page too: -> http://www.hbd.org/cascade/dennybrew/

some things you might want to consider for all grain or even mini-mash:

>invest in at least two kettles capable of handling 10 gallons of wort with plenty of head space which means essentially 60 quarts. for the hassel you will go through to make an all grain batch you might as well be doing it in 10 gallon batches.

>a converted cooler to hold same

then you can follow Paul's Brewing Page which has some excellent information to it. he does things simple like single infusions which are great for us novices'.

If you have not already read John Palmer's "How To Brew" Verson 1 online, it is a good read. You can also buy version 3 at the LHBS, or John's home page has links.

As far as equipment, check out Denny's Page with pix and "How To".

Thanks for all the help and great links.Those links have certainly explained alot.Which i would have probably ended up asking you lot.

I'll add to the list a little. First two already mentioned:
1. 7+ gal. pot & heat source
2. Mash tun
3. Wort Chiller or other device to get hot wort down to fermentation temps fast. A full boil is a lot to try to cool with an ice bath. A chiller is almost necessary, and can be built fairly cheap i.e. $30.

it's also fun to make your own wort chiller:

http://www.madawg.net/pix/imchilla1.jpg

http://www.madawg.net/pix/imchilla2.jpg

but as stated you can buy one, but i haven't found one quite like mine