All-Grain Equipment?

Hey everyone, so this is a pretty noob question to some of you I'm sure. I'm breaking from extract brewing to all-grain, and I'm investing in some new equipment. First of all, I'm going to buy (rather than make my own) mash tun. Also, I've heard of using pumps to recirulate the mash? Any recommendations for these pieces of equipment? What should I look for/avoid?

Also, once I have my mash tun and have mashed/sparged my grains, do I simply stick with that tun to add the rest of my ingredients/begin my boil?

I know these are alot of questions but this is the only place I can turn to for asking questions, so any feedback is greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Cheers.

FlemingsFinest said:

Hey everyone, so this is a pretty noob question to some of you I'm sure. I'm breaking from extract brewing to all-grain, and I'm investing in some new equipment. First of all, I'm going to buy (rather than make my own) mash tun.

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I think Papazian's book has instructions for making a plastic-bucket mash/lautering tun that might work well for you. It's a lot of drilling though. You can also convert various coolers/kettles with a minimum of hardware; there are a lot of designs for that here. I use a 10 gallon cooler; works pretty well.

Also, I've heard of using pumps to recirulate the mash? Any recommendations for these pieces of equipment?

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That's a lot of work for little return, IMO. Pumps can get clogged, and once you start recirculating the wort (not the mash; that's the grain/water mixture) it cools off, which means you have to warm it up again. To do this some people add a secondary heat exchanger, so that the wort passes through 180 degree water to add heat before it goes back into the mash tun. That means you need a somewhat temperature controlled hot liquor tun and a heat exchanger (which can be a coil of copper tubing.)

Look up HERMS; that describes the above process. It's not really needed unless you're doing step mashes, which aren't all that necessary with modern well-modified malts. A standard infusion mash works very well with most grains and takes less equipment.

Also, once I have my mash tun and have mashed/sparged my grains, do I simply stick with that tun to add the rest of my ingredients/begin my boil?

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No, you vorlauf (recycle) the wort a little to get most of the junk out of the wort, then drain the MLT to a kettle where you boil it. That's why the "Beer Sculpture" type systems you see nearly always have three vessels - a hot liquor tun (really hot water tank) a mash tun (more accurately a mash/lauter tun) and a kettle.