Starting to plan for 10 gallons AG

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nebben

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I'm limited to a split boil of about 1.8 gallons or so for each pot right now on my glass cooktop in the kitchen. Uggh.

Logically, outdoors is the next step. I have considered buying a cheap/used turkey burner with 30 quart pot, and would assume I could at least do 5 gallon extract batches with that. Sounds good. But I'm at the point where I can scrape by with small PITA batches in the kitchen if I can save a little more and put a setup together that will work well for me for many years.

I want to step up to AG soon because of the extra flexibility it allows and (lower cost? this is what I'm telling SWMBO) slightly improved beer. I don't live on a street where I can open the garage door and people swarm to hang out and drink, so needing more than 10 gallons per batch is unlikely in my future.

For a 10 gallon AG batch, what size pots am I going to be looking for? 50 quart or 60 quart? Ultimately, I would like to fill two corny kegs to the top with this setup after all racking/fermenting is complete. This would mean I will need at least 11 gallons of fermenting wort, no? I'm leaning towards the 10 gallon Rubbermaid mashtun and a couple 60 quart pots...does this sound sufficient for my plans?

And while I'm at it, if I'm remembering this right, I would need at least one burner+pot to boil wort...what are the benefits of having a second pot+burner in addition to the cooler mashtun?

Sorry guys, I'm still n00bing out. It's snowing this weekend and I'm looking to put some parts together and hack some stuff.
 
A 60qt. pot would be ideal. That equates to 15 gals. I have a used, legally obtained keggle, which is 15.5 gals.

Get a mash tun that will hold about the same amount of quarts if you plan to brew any big beers. I have a 52qt. Igloo Maxcold cooler which works great, but it is at it's limit when it comes to big 10 gal. beers. Once I'm above ~28lbs. of grain, I'm really topping it as high as I can and mashing thick. I'll be getting a 60qt. cooler soon. :D
 
All-grain is indeed cheaper, even after you have amortized the cost of your additional equipment. Just compare the extract kit prices to the AG kits on any of the homebrew store websites. I both 5- and 10-gallon rubbermaid MLT's, and they are sufficient for all my brewing needs. I don't do 10-gallon batches of big beers though. As for the second pot/burner: That is useful for heating sparge water while you are boiling your first runnings on the other setup. It's only a timesaver and not required. If you use a smaller cooler as a HLT, then you can still save time by heating your sparge water while you wait for the mash to complete. Hope that helps!
 

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