All Grain Setup

I am relatively new to this forum and I am an extract brewer looking to test my ability to do some all grain brewing. So, let me start off by saying "sorry" if this thread has already been done 100 times already.

I'm looking to purchase all grain brewing equipment, but I do not want to do what I did with extract brewing (buy cheaper equipment, realize how much easier things would have been if I spent an extra $50 and upgraded a few items, and purchased upgrade after upgrade, after upgrade). On the other side of the coin, I'm not 100% sure I want to go balls-out and spend $1500 or more on some shiny new keg kettels, etc. I've seen many impressive setups looking at your personal profiles.

So now the question...Who can steer me in the right direction on where to get some GOOD all grain brewing equipment without killing my bank account?

Also, is there anything you spent a ton of money on that you realized was a total waste later?

I just brewed my first all-grain batch a couple of weeks ago. I'm like you in that I didn't want to dump a ton of money without knowing for sure that I wanted to go all-grain full time.

Check out this link

This is where a lot of people in this forum go their all-grain start. It involves minimal investment and if you decide all-grain is not for you the equipment (cooler) is still usable outside of brewing.

A buddy and myself made an almost identical mashtun to this and it worked perfectly.

I have almost that exact same setup. It works quite well. I don't sparge exactly like that, but overall everything on that page is what I do as well.

Now that I'm getting more into brewing, I think I might have wanted a bigger mash/lauter tun to begin with. Instead of using a drink style cooler, I think doing the same thing with a 60 quart cooler (e.g. the kind you fill up with beer to go tailgating) would be better. It would let you do higher gravity batches.

That would be my one suggestion.

Well it depends on if you want to make some stuff yourself. I for one like to make things... but am findnig that wtih certain things going on with me now, this is a trying process on the nerves. If I had to do it all over again, I think I would buy the setup that I am in the process of making. It sells for $155, which is not a bad deal at all.

http://www.northernbrewer.com/allgrain.html

It's about midway through the page.

I scrounged 3 stainless steel kegs, built a 3-tier stand out of wood, bought a couple of big burners and odds and ends...bits of pipe, valves, thermometers. It's a very simple gravity system and it works great. It's pretty much maintenance-free beyond cleaning it and there isn't much to break.

I do 12 gallon batches outside. I wouldn't try all-grain brewing inside again personally

A cooler setup is a decent stopgap, but you'll end up destrying the cooler pretty quickly if you brew a lot. That said, I used a Gott cooler mash tun for a while when I first got started. Then I built a big fancy RIMS system. Then a fancier RIMS system. Now, I've come to my senses and realized you don't need pumps, temp controllers and complexity to make beer. If Belgian brewers don't need bells and whistles then neither do I.

Cheers

When sparging, are you guys heating the run-off into the boil kettle right away?

Kai

I let my kettle get 2/3 full then start heating and cut off the sparge flow. I leave about an inch of water above the top of the grain. When the wort gets to 90C I start the sparge again and tend to get a burst of much higher gravity wort after the "rest". I collect the wort until the kettle is full and by then it's almost at a boil.

If I heated the whole time, it would be boiling well before sparge was finished. I do a nice slow sparge.

Cheers

Janx said:

I let my kettle get 2/3 full then start heating and cut off the sparge flow. I leave about an inch of water above the top of the grain. When the wort gets to 90C I start the sparge again and tend to get a burst of much higher gravity wort after the "rest". I collect the wort until the kettle is full and by then it's almost at a boil.

If I heated the whole time, it would be boiling well before sparge was finished. I do a nice slow sparge.

Cheers

Click to expand...

Is this over and above what Palmer calls "Recirculation"?

I don't recirculate. It's more like letting the mash rest and then doing a final batch sparge. I just seem to get better yields if I let it rest while heating the kettle.

I'm pretty well convinced after trying it LOTS of times that pouring a few gallons back through is a waste of time. Professional brewers I have talked to about it agree.

Janx said:

I don't recirculate. It's more like letting the mash rest and then doing a final batch sparge. I just seem to get better yields if I let it rest while heating the kettle.

I'm pretty well convinced after trying it LOTS of times that pouring a few gallons back through is a waste of time. Professional brewers I have talked to about it agree.

Click to expand...

There are certainly lot's of different views on this. One concern that I have is, that you can get particular matter into the wort that may leach tannins into the boil. But I'm not sure if this is actually enout matter to be concerned about it.

I start heating the run-off as soon as I have some of it in the kettle. But I don't let it come to a boil prematurely. It's only important to keep the temperature above 75C (160F) in oder to prevent the beta-amylase from being effective and ruining your maltose/dextrin ratio that you achieved with the mash.

Kai

Janx said:

I don't recirculate. It's more like letting the mash rest and then doing a final batch sparge. I just seem to get better yields if I let it rest while heating the kettle.

I'm pretty well convinced after trying it LOTS of times that pouring a few gallons back through is a waste of time. Professional brewers I have talked to about it agree.

Click to expand...

I've only done one all-grain batch but I must admit that I recirculated after the first lauter (correct term?) and then for each of two batch sparges and I didn't notice any difference in cloudiness of the wort from the first runnings to the full drain.