Please help me move to all grain

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HappyDrunk

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Before I begin, yes I know that all my questions have probably been answered ad nauseam. I apologize, but I just want to make sure I've got everything in order before I go buying stuff.

I have been brewing extract for a year and half. I have a fermentation fridge, kegerator, 3 kegs, hydrometers, air locks, etc. Now I am on to the logical next step - All grain.

It seems like a big step in my mind, but after talking with the guy at the LHBS today, I think I'm going to go for it. I have plenty of money, and I want to make this as easy on myself as possible. Here's my list:

1 propane burner
1 10 gallon igloo cooler
1 false bottom for said igloo cooler
1 8 gal (or bigger) brew pot with thermometer and ball valve

My understanding of the process is that I will put the (crushed) grain into a muslin bag and put it into the 10 gal. igloo cooler w/ false bottom. Then heat (5?) gallons of water up to 155, dump that water into the cooler, put the lid on and wait an hour, let some run out and then pour it back into the cooler (do this three times), then let it all run out into my brew pot. This is now wort. From there the process is the same as doing extract minus the extract, right? Bring to boil, add hops, wait 45 mins, add more hops, wait 15 mins, cool to 75ish, aerate, pitch, etc, etc. Is there something I am missing, or is it really that easy? Is there anything I need to look for when buying the equipment on my list (max BTU on propane burner, build quality of brew pot, etc)? I apologize because as I said, I know all the information is here in front of me, but it just seems like a lot - But when the guy explained it to me, it seemed pretty simple. Essentially the igloo cooler with the false bottom is a mash lauter tun, which is a mash tun and sparge bucket combined, right? I hear so many terms, I don't even know. Help me out here guys.
 
All grain brewing can be a simple process, but you are over-simplifying just a bit. You have a few missed steps in there. A good place to start is by reading this. http://www.howtobrew.com/section3/index.html
Better yet, buy his newest edition. It's a great book and will come in handy as you progress through all grain.
Also, I would go with a 10 gallon boil kettle. The extra headspace is nice when you generally have about 7.5 gallons of wort in there to start the boil.
 
Yeah thats exactly what you are going to do, with some dotting of I's and crossing of T's. Palmer's book is great but no reason to wait and do all grain before you buy it. Depending on batch size for diff gravities 8 gal will be pushing it with some 5gal batches but should be no issues. Main thing with the all grain, or BIAB which is what you are going to do, is just make sure you get your mashing temperatures correct. You probably want to start with about 168* water to hit a target of about 154* but that depends on your equipment etc.
 
Can you point out the steps I missed? I think I'm missing something to do with sparging, ie. after letting it sit for an hour in 155 degree water, I need to drain everything and hit it with 180 degree water for a bit. I would really appreciate just a very general outline.
 
It really isn't that hard a transition. You should talk to your LHBS and try to find a time to assist with somebody doing AG, and you'll see how truly easy it is. Adds a bit of time to the brewday, but there's just something not quite right about extract brewing.

You may not need a false bottom for your cooler. I use a steel braid. You'll need to replace the built-in drain with some metal, something similar to this thread. A lot of LHBS will sell all the parts you need for cheaper than you could assemble by yourself.

Skip the muslin bag. Put the crushed grains in the cooler directly.

There are a lot of tutorials that will fill in some of the blanks. Google "how to batch sparge".
 
Yeah thats exactly what you are going to do, with some dotting of I's and crossing of T's. Palmer's book is great but no reason to wait and do all grain before you buy it. Depending on batch size for diff gravities 8 gal will be pushing it with some 5gal batches but should be no issues. Main thing with the all grain, or BIAB which is what you are going to do, is just make sure you get your mashing temperatures correct. You probably want to start with about 168* water to hit a target of about 154* but that depends on your equipment etc.

Why is what I described BIAB? I know I said to put it into a muslin bag, but that is just to make sure that no pieces of extremely crushed up grain get through (I thought?). The cooler would already have a false bottom. Technically, I could do what I said without the bag at all, with only minimal crud getting through. Where is the line drawn? I thought with BIAB, you mashed and sparged in your brew pot.
 
You're "hot water" step is actually two steps: mashing (letting it sit in hot water) and sparging (after draining the mash wort our, rinsing with yet more hot water). The exactly water volumes for each, the timing, and temperatures will vary by recipe, but they are usually pretty similar (it's not as easy as "5 gallons). There are a few methods by which you can sparge (fly, batch).

I'd read up on these basic additional details, and although there is a lot more you can learn beyond these, your initial impression was correct. It's not that complicated (or rather, it doesn't HAVE to be).

Another option you might want to look into is "Brew in a Bag" which would alleviate the need for the cooler and false bottom. You seem to have mashed the two up (no pun intended).

I agree that you should read the Palmer to better understand it, and use a simple, straight-forward recipe your first few times to calibrate the process as well as your equipment. Don't complicate things by trying out a high-gravity beer or coffee stout quite yet.

Good luck! You won't really need it, though.
 
if ur using a muslin bag, there's no need for a false bottom. I'd def ditch the bag and use the false bottom. When you go to rinse the grains, if ur going BIAB, u should open the bag and run sparge water over it. If u use the false bottom wihtout the bag, u'd just vourlauf, drain, add more water, stir and then vourlauf and drain again.
 
Yep, it's that easy. You don't need to put the grains in a bag though. Just toss them into the cooler and add water.

The volumes are relatively simple too. You want about 1.25 quarts per lb of grain, but it doesn't need to be exact. There are numerous calculators online that will help you determine how hot that water needs to be. 155 is going to be too low for sure though. The grains and cooler will drop the water temp 10-15 degrees. If you don't want to bother with the calculators, i'd start at 165. Keep a gallon of boiling water on hand as well as some ice in case you guess poorly.

You didn't mention the sparge step. You'll need an additional 4+ gallonsof hot water (170 or so) to add back to the cooler once you drain it initially. Grain absorbs lots of water, so if you start out with 5 gallons, you might only get 3.5 out. You add the water to the cooler, stir, let sit for a couple minutes, and drain again. You'll want somewhere around 7 gallons of wort to start your boil depending on your system. You'll evaporate at least a gallon and lose some to the hops and you want to end up with 5 gallons into the fermenter.

Generally what I do is heat water in the kettle. Pour it into the cooler. Fill the kettle back up and heat the rest of the water while the grains are mashing. Drain the wort from the cooler into a spare bucket. Dump the water from the kettle into the cooler. Dump the bucket of wort into the now empty kettle and turn on the gas. Drain the tun again into the bucket. Dump the bucket with the rest of the wort into the kettle that is starting to heat up. Sounds more complicated than it is. :)

For equipment, the cooler is perfect. If you've got money for the false bottom, great. If not, a stainless steel screen like a bazooka screen works fine too. You'll want a big pot though. 8 gallons would be the bare minimum, but 10 gallons would be better. My gas stove can boil 7 gallons, but obviously a big floor burner will do it faster. Built in valves and thermometers are convenient but not strictly necessary. One thing you didn't mention is a wort chiller.
 
My method, and I am a lazy brewer so purists may not like how simple I do it:

1. Add water to mashtun (cooler), and let the temperature settle. Adjust temp as necessary by adding more hot or cold water until you hit your mash-in temp.
2. When it's at the appropriate temp (depends on the grain bill), mix in the grains. Let sit for 60 minutes, stirring once about halfway.
3. Drain the first 2 quarts or so into a container and return to the cooler, and drain the rest into yoru boil kettle. This is the vorlauf and gets all the grain that may have snuck through the false bottom/steel braid. THese are your "first runnings".
4. Determine how much additional water you need to bring your boil kettle to your boil volume. Add half of that much hot (190ish) water to cooler, give it a vigorous stir, and then vorlauf and drain.
5. Repeat this one more time with the last half of the water. This should bring you to your boil volume.

From there, it's all the same as what you've been doing.
 
Here is my method, I use a upside down insulated keg for mashing, with a false bottom, and an electric 13gal kettle for boiling.

1. Clean everything with hot oxyclean water
2. Preheat mashtun with 180* water for 10 mins
3. Dump
4. Add 168* water to mashtun amount varies depending on grain bill
5. Add grain while stirring to get semi thick mash
6. Check temps, if about 152-156 thank beer gods and put lid on.
7. Let sit for 30mins, check temp again, if too cold, add hot water
8. Drain off a qt and vorlauf to establish grain bed
9. Drain off wort until it trickles or get sediment
10. Add sparging liquid at about 170* in 1 or 2 batches, ie. a 1-2 gallons, stir, let sit, drain
11. Let all liquid drain and check gravity, when it gets below 1.010, stop
12. Put in boil kettle, boil, add hops, etc.
13. After boil, whirlpool for 15 mins using my pump and ghetto setup
14. Chill using my plate chiller to pitching temps
15. Add to carboy, aerate, pitch yeast and then clean all the hoses.

Thats my method in a nutshell. You can calculate your exact volumes using beer smith or online calculators but I just started doing it by eyeball. For instance, I'll put 4 gals in, 3 come out, so 1 gal lost to grain etc. I have boil off of about 1.5gal hour so I need to hit a boil vol of about 7 gal for a batch size of 5.5gal.

This really can get as complicated or simple as you want it, if you have exp extract brewing, the jump to AG should be a piece of cake. Sit back, relax, and just go for it.

John
 
You didn't mention the sparge step. You'll need an additional 4+ gallonsof hot water (170 or so) to add back to the cooler once you drain it initially. Grain absorbs lots of water, so if you start out with 5 gallons, you might only get 3.5 out. You add the water to the cooler, stir, let sit for a couple minutes, and drain again. You'll want somewhere around 7 gallons of wort to start your boil depending on your system. You'll evaporate at least a gallon and lose some to the hops and you want to end up with 5 gallons into the fermenter.


I think that this is my biggest conceptual misunderstanding. After letting the grains soak in 155 degree water for an hour, I then drain what water is in there to my brew pot. By what you are saying I will only get about 3.5 gallons from that initial step, but it is wort, right? Why then do I need 170 (hotter) water the second time? Why not just put 9 gallons of 155 degree water in there at first, wait for an hour, and then drain off what I need - Low efficiency?

Edit: Sorry, maybe hotter than 155 as you said.
 
Ok these guys beat me to it. Damn you HBT maniacs!!

Your reply was much appreciated though. That's what I'm looking for is a very general outline of the process. What I still don't get is what I asked in my previous post. Why do I need hotter water to sparge? Why not just start with more water at first, and then drain off what I need?
 
If you are using a Mash Tun (the cooler) then you would not use the muslin bag.

If you want a basic outline:

  1. Buy the malted bartley.
  2. Crush the malted barley.
  3. Look up / figure out / read the recipe to determine how much water to heat up and to what temperature. Do so.
  4. Put the hot water in the cooler (no grains yet!) and put the lid on to bring the coller up to temperature for a few minutes.
  5. Slowly add the grains and stir very thoroughly as you do so.
  6. Check the temp and adjust if needed.
  7. Put the cover on. In 15 minutes come back to check the temp and stir. Repeat until you are at the total mash time.
  8. There may be an optional step here to raise the temperature by adding additional water at a hotter temperature (mashout). If so, do that, and let sit for 10 more minutes.
  9. Oh, yeah, while mashing you should also be bringing yet more water, of a specified amout, to a specified temperatire. This is your sparge water. This should be done much earlier than right here because it needs to be at temperature by this point!.
  10. Drain the first runnings into a pitcher… pouring it back in when full. Do so ~3 times until it has no solids in it.
  11. Now drain it all into your boil pot.
  12. If you are going to batch sparge, now you add your sparger water, stir, and let it sit. Then repeat the pitcher process and drain into your boil kettle. I believe most batch spargers do this twice. I fly sparge, which means that you instead slowly add the sparge water in at the same speed that your mash water is draining out. It requires additional equipment or a lot more patience. Most people batch sparge. There's no difference in results.

In reality, once you get the process, there is more measuring of temperature, gravity, starches (iodine test), etc. But if you wanted the most basic breakdown possible that doesn't skip any major steps, that should be it. If I forgot anything (since I am just writing this quickly on the fly), I am sure that will be pointed out!!
 
I think that this is my biggest conceptual misunderstanding. After letting the grains soak in 155 degree water for an hour, I then drain what water is in there to my brew pot. By what you are saying I will only get about 3.5 gallons from that initial step, but it is wort, right? Why then do I need 170 (hotter) water the second time? Why not just put 9 gallons of 155 degree water in there at first, wait for an hour, and then drain off what I need - Low efficiency?

Edit: Sorry, maybe hotter than 155 as you said.

The short answer is: you're not making tea.

The "Mash" step is soaking the grains in a specific temp that activates specific enzymes that will then convert the starch into sugar. You need to hold it there for the right amount of time to let the process get as far as you want it (and no more).

And it works best at a target consistency (that's part of not just adding all the water at once, another is the size of the cooler you'd need!). When you drain the wort, some of the converted sugars will be left in the grain bed. That's what sparking is for. It's a rinse. It's not "converting" anything, just getting what you've already converted into the brew kettle.

You sound like you really want to understand the process, so read the book ;)
 
Why do I need hotter water to sparge? Why not just start with more water at first, and then drain off what I need?
The hotter water denatures the enzymes and stops the process. I'm not sure how much this really matters, and I know some people sparge with cold water instead with fine results.

You want a thicker mash for efficiency. Remember the enzymes need to come in contact with the starches in order to convert them into sugars. They're moving around randomly so if you've got a loose mash (too much water), they'll never find each other.

The other thing sparging does is helps rinse the sugars that are stuck to the grains off. If you just drained once, you'd be leaving a lot of that tasty sugar on the grain.
 
[*]Oh, yeah, while mashing you should also be bringing yet more water, of a specified amout, to a specified temperatire. This is your sparge water. This should be done much earlier than right here because it needs to be at temperature by this point!.
[/LIST]

This is the part I don't understand! Why not just start with more water?
 
"I think that this is my biggest conceptual misunderstanding. After letting the grains soak in 155 degree water for an hour, I then drain what water is in there to my brew pot. By what you are saying I will only get about 3.5 gallons from that initial step, but it is wort, right? Why then do I need 170 (hotter) water the second time? Why not just put 9 gallons of 155 degree water in there at first, wait for an hour, and then drain off what I need - Low efficiency?"

Well, 9 gallons of water and 12 lbs of grain aren't going to fit in a 10 gallon cooler. Some people do just that in larger vessels.

However, it is not a particularly efficient way to go. Any wort absorbed by the grains will have the same gravity as the last runnings from your tun. Every batch sparge you do will mean that you leave less sugar behind. Most people do 1 sparge, but some do 2 or more. Fly sparging is basically an infinite number of tiny sparges. The sparge water doesn't need to be exactly 170. You don't really want to raise the grain temp above 170 though. You could use 155 if you wanted or 180. Personally, I like to stay on the higher side. I've got plenty of time to heat the sparge water while the mash is going and the hotter the wort at the end, the faster it will come up to a boil in the kettle.

Also, You really don't want too much water in the tun for the mash. The grain only have a fix amount of available enzymes, so too adding too much water dilutes that concentration and slows down the sugar conversion process. The exact level of dilution that is too much is up for debate, but most people stick in the 1-2 qt per lb range.
 
This is the part I don't understand! Why not just start with more water?

If you're asking why not just HEAT all the water (mash + sparge) at once, I now understand what you are asking! If you have a vessel big enough to do that, it's an option, but it will take a lot longer to heat (more mass) and then you'd have to measure the amount of mash water on the way out when it's hot. The remaining (sparge) water will be sitting there for an hour and will cool, and it needs to be hotter than the initial water was, anyway, so you'd be re-heating it. It probably would retain a lot of its heat but I'd say it's just not worth it, for the sake of making measuring it all easier.
 
This is the part I don't understand! Why not just start with more water?

here's and option that I think folks aren't considering: You can start with more water, it's called no-sparge mashing.

The problem is, as someone mentioned, the enzymes need to be in close contact with the staches to efficiently convert them to sugars.

I think when people do no-sparge mashing (I've never done it) they have to constantly stir the mash to make sure full conversion occurs, since a portion of the enzymes are separated from the starchy grains

If you do that, use more grain than the recipe calls for, otherwise you risk poor efficiency, and a lower gravity than you want.

I highly suggest sparging though.
 
This is the part I don't understand! Why not just start with more water?

There's a thread out there that talks about just starting with total volume of water but I have no idea where its at. As from what you said about just having 9 gallons of 155 temp water and grains you can actually do it. However, the issue because do you have a big enough mash tun to hold all the water and grains. If you have a 10 gallon mash tun converted cooler it will hold 10 gallons of water. By adding a typical modest grain bill of 10 pounds you end up with over flow. I think you should be able to put 10 lbs of grain and have about 5 gallons of water and be near the top.

I did Brew in a bag to start off with 4 times and each batch came out well however, since I didnt know how much turb I had or my boil off it took me 5 batches to narrow it down to how much to extract out of the mash tun. I use SS keggles and when I do a 5 gallon batch I mash 12 lbs of grain with about 4 gallons of water. Then I Fly Sparge which means Draining my wort out slowly and when water is about 1 inch from the top of the grain bed I add 170 degree water with a laddle. It add about 45 mins to a brew day but you get better eff.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f244/b...0-gallon-batch-401574/index2.html#post5085090

The other way which i havent done yet is to drain wort then get more water and add to grains at specified temp aka second running. One thing to note do not over sparge it will extract tannis into your wort which equals not so good flavors in beer. If you have a refractormeter stop when you extract enough wort but do not get below 1.010.

Hope this helps a little.
 
On the equipment front, I will add that you need to fit a ball valve and coupler to the igloo cooler to connect the false bottom to the valve and to be able to connect hose from the mash tun to the kettle. You can build them from parts at home depot, but a couple of online homebrew places will sell you all the parts (in stainless) as a kit. I highly recommend going that route, as it's hard to dig out all of the right set of parts in HD in one trip, and get them to fit in a leak free way, and they don't usually stock them all in stainless.

Also, Beersmith or similar software is a big help in formulating recipes, setting the correct strike water volume and temperature and keeping track of your efficiency and process.
 
Ok, the response to this thread has been freaking awesome. Thank you to each person who has helped! What I still don't understand is .. let's say I use 4 gallons of water to mash in, I heat it to 155, pour it in, add the grain, let it sit for an hour or so, and then drain. Do I drain it to the brew pot? If so, are there fermentable sugars in there? Could I technically just use that water + 2 gallons of water for my wort? My guess is that there would be extremely little sugar in there and I would wind up with really weak beer, hence sparging to get the majority of the sugars. Then why use the drainage from the mash at all? What I am gathering is that all of the sugars come from the sparging. Is that correct?
 
Well I'm not going to add comments or answer questions....but I will offer to show you on Sunday if you would like to drive down to Mission. PM me if you are interested.
 
Ok, the response to this thread has been freaking awesome. Thank you to each person who has helped! What I still don't understand is .. let's say I use 4 gallons of water to mash in, I heat it to 155, pour it in, add the grain, let it sit for an hour or so, and then drain. Do I drain it to the brew pot? If so, are there fermentable sugars in there? Could I technically just use that water + 2 gallons of water for my wort? My guess is that there would be extremely little sugar in there and I would wind up with really weak beer, hence sparging to get the majority of the sugars. Then why use the drainage from the mash at all? What I am gathering is that all of the sugars come from the sparging. Is that correct?

Yes, you drain the mash into the brew kettle. People typically sparge (to rinse remaining sugars off the grain) with hotter water, so re-using the wort from the mash would not be an option. Also, I would guess that you would partially defeat the purpose because some of your sugar-rich first runnings would get stuck BACK in the grain bed. Those first runnings are the sweetest (no joke), so you don't want to lost that. You can then think of sparking as brining your volume up to boil volume while also adding more sugar to the mix as you do it.
 
Ok, the response to this thread has been freaking awesome. Thank you to each person who has helped! What I still don't understand is .. let's say I use 4 gallons of water to mash in, I heat it to 155, pour it in, add the grain, let it sit for an hour or so, and then drain. Do I drain it to the brew pot? If so, are there fermentable sugars in there? Could I technically just use that water + 2 gallons of water for my wort? My guess is that there would be extremely little sugar in there and I would wind up with really weak beer, hence sparging to get the majority of the sugars. Then why use the drainage from the mash at all? What I am gathering is that all of the sugars come from the sparging. Is that correct?

A good bit of sugar does come out with your first runnings, so keep those, but sparge also, that way you get the maximum amount of sugar
 
I moved to all grain a couple months ago. Google Denny Brew cheap'n easy batch sparging. This was the best and easiest advice I found on the Internet. Further, adding initial volume of water to mash tun at 180 F then stirring until it reached 170F before adding grain helps me hit my temps quick and easy.
 
Ok, what do you guys think of this:

1. Heat x (let's say 3.5) gals of water to MT+5 where MT=mash temperature (i.e. recipe calls for mash at 150, then heat to 155)
2. Pour water into cooler with false bottom
3. Add grain, stir, put lid on
4. Wait 1 hour
5. Drain 1 quart of mash runoff and add back to cooler until runnings are clear
6. Drain all mash liquid into brew pot

**Here comes the tricky part. I know my calculations aren't right here, but roughly .. If I got 2 gallons from my mash run off, then I would need 5 gallons of sparge water. What is right here ... follow the recipe?! **

7. Add 5 gals sparge water at temperature in recipe
8. Stir and then wait 10 mins
9. Begin draining until amount in brew pot = 6.5 gals OR 1.100 SG

** What is the correct protocol here? 1.1 SG of just the sparge run off or the combined mash/sparge run off? What do I do with any left over water here if I am batch sparging? Am I correct that if I am fly sparging then I won't have left over water here? Just checking.**

10. I now have wort. Continue as I have for the last year and half with extract.
 
Two things:

You'll probably lose more than 5 degrees in temp when you start mashing. I count on 10 degrees lost, and until you figure out your equipment, remember that it's easier to cool down quickly (with cold water and/or stirring) than heat quickly.

1.100 in pre-boil wort is ridiculously high gravity. What you might mean is until the runnings are 1.010. In which case, yes.
 
If you have Beersmith it will give you mash and sparge water amounts based on your equipment. There are also some free calculators on the web, just google search mash and sparge water calculator. As far as help understanding techniques, there are a lot of "how to" videos on youtube regarding all- grain brewing. Sometimes it's easier to see something being done rather then reading about it.

Note: http://www.brew365.com/mash_sparge_water_calculator.php This is usually in line with Beersmith's calculations and pretty accurate.
 
Holy cow this thread took off! I goto the mall and buy some shorts for a few hours and ba boom. A lot of good info here and just take up someone on their offer to help on their brewday, its so simple you will be shocked. Goodluck.
 
I would consider a 10g brew pot. I had an 8g when I jumped to all grain and I ended up having to lower the starting volume and add 1g top off water to the fermenter due to the boil off of the banjo burner. I got a 10g prior to my last brew day and life is good doing full wort boils now.
 
I would consider a 10g brew pot. I had an 8g when I jumped to all grain and I ended up having to lower the starting volume and add 1g top off water to the fermenter due to the boil off of the banjo burner. I got a 10g prior to my last brew day and life is good doing full wort boils now.

+1 :mug:
 
Holy cow this thread took off! I goto the mall and buy some shorts for a few hours and ba boom. A lot of good info here and just take up someone on their offer to help on their brewday, its so simple you will be shocked. Goodluck.

You ain't lying! I can't tell you guys how much I appreciate the help. One definite thing I have gathered thus far is to go for a 10 gallon or bigger brew pot or (and make sure my terminology is correct here) make a keggle. As far as helping someone on their brew day, it's just too hard to plan - work could bring me anywhere in the country with a days notice.

Anyway, I think I have the information I need now thanks to you guys. The equipment I listed should work, right? Igloo cooler with false bottom, 10 gal. brew pot (or keggle), propane burner, and I'm good to go from what I've gathered. The only step I was missing was the sparging, which seems simple enough to me now. Not that I fully understand it yet (the difference between mashing and sparging - It seems they'd do about the same thing to the untrained eye), but I'll do some more reading on it. Something about converting enzymes to sugars. Anyone have any recommendations on propane burners, brew pots, how to take the cheap plastic valve off the igloo and replace it with a SS one, etc?
 
Sounds like your good to go. As for the cooler the valve and the false bottom, just search for ball valve on cooler. There are a ton of write ups on how to do it and the parts required. As for th false bottom that's up to you, personally I am really happy with the braided line, I have never had a stuck sparge and I hardly get a speck of grain when I mash out. As for time savings I just did my first overnight mash. Mashed in the evening and sparked and boiled the next morning it was awesome, I started heating sparge water at 7:30 and was finished cleaning by 10am. My 5 gallon Rubbermaid cooler loses about 1 degree per hour. I drilled a small hole in the lid and slide a thermometer down there to keep an eye in the temperatures. Have fun because when you drink your beer you make with all grain it tastes better. It just does
 
Since you're still a little fuzzy about mash vs. sparge.

Mash: this is where most of your fermentable sugar comes from. During the mash you mix water with your grain and let it sit for an hour. During this hour enzymes (from the grain) convert carbohydrates (also from the grain) into sugar. If you're batch sparging (which I recommend) you vorlauf and drain this liquid into your brew pot. At this point you have wort, but not enough of it.

Sparge: You could simply top up with water and start the boil if you wanted to (this would be no sparge brewing), but there's still some sugar left in the mash tun. Instead of simply topping up you can take that water and rinse your grains with it to get any left over sugar still in there. In batch sparging, first you figure out how much additional water you need. There are plenty of calculators online for this so you can get it ready and hot ahead of time ( I use brewpal on my iPhone ). Next heat it up, pour it over the grains and stir vigorously. Next vorlauf and drain it into your mash tun. In batch sparging you don't need to worry about the gravity of your sparge water, that only matters with fly sparging.

I hope that helps a little. Mash, converts carbs to sugar and drains most of them into brew pot. Sparge, rinses left over sugar from the grain and drains them into brew pot.
 
I read through most of these posts, mainly the OP and then the suggested changes.

+1 to getting the biggest kettle that you can afford. I went with a 5 originally for extract, then bumped up to 11 gal when I went AG and now am upgrading to keggle for 10 gal batches.

My only suggestion(s) are first of all, if you have not already done so, check out this:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f36/all-grain-pictorial-video-tutorials-78963/

Also YouTube will have a ton of videos.

In my opinion, it is something that has to be seen to really be appreciated. If you can, get down to do a brew with the poster that offered.
 
Since you're still a little fuzzy about mash vs. sparge.

Mash: this is where most of your fermentable sugar comes from. During the mash you mix water with your grain and let it sit for an hour. During this hour enzymes (from the grain) convert carbohydrates (also from the grain) into sugar. If you're batch sparging (which I recommend) you vorlauf and drain this liquid into your brew pot. At this point you have wort, but not enough of it.

Sparge: You could simply top up with water and start the boil if you wanted to (this would be no sparge brewing), but there's still some sugar left in the mash tun. Instead of simply topping up you can take that water and rinse your grains with it to get any left over sugar still in there. In batch sparging, first you figure out how much additional water you need. There are plenty of calculators online for this so you can get it ready and hot ahead of time ( I use brewpal on my iPhone ). Next heat it up, pour it over the grains and stir vigorously. Next vorlauf and drain it into your mash tun. In batch sparging you don't need to worry about the gravity of your sparge water, that only matters with fly sparging.

I hope that helps a little. Mash, converts carbs to sugar and drains most of them into brew pot. Sparge, rinses left over sugar from the grain and drains them into brew pot.

I think I have a pretty good handle on the process now. Now I just need help figuring out exactly which equipment to buy. I'm thinking I'll just go all out and buy a pot with sight glass, thermometer, and everything - 15 gal if possible. I would like to buy everything from one spot, and although amazon is my usual one stop internet shop, they don't have very good selection of brewing equipment. I'm currently doing some more searching. If anyone knows of a good spot or has any more recommendations (which propane burner?, false bottom on brew kettle?, is the sight glass worth it?, buy mash tun v build?, etc), please let me know. I need the brew pot, propane burner, mash tun with false bottom, and an immersion chiller.
 
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