All Grain Equipment Question

Hey i am thinking about buying an All Grain System and wanted to get some opinions and also some help. I am trying to decide with kind of Hot Liquor Tank and Mash Tun to buy. I was wondering if I should go with the plastic cooler types or go with stainless? I understand that the cooler types are pretty much single infusion one temperature. Any thoughts on which is better? Stainless or Cooler style?

Depends, do you want a stand with burners, temperature regulators, and all the bells and whistles? The plastic cooler works but you can not maintain a consistent mash temp like you can with a temperature controlled AG setup in which case you would want SS. Also your HLT tank would have to be stainless or alum. as you need to heat it. Only your Mash Tun would be able to use the cooler in which you would pour the heated water into it, put on the lid and hope your temp holds.

Do you plan on fly sparging or batch sparging?

Cooler mash tun’s work great in that they conserve heat much better than stainless steel mash tuns, but you cannot do directly heated step mashes. You can do decoction mashes where you pull out ¼ of the thick mash out heat it up and do different rest with it. You can also do a kind of step mash, you just start off with a thick mash at the beginning and work your way up from there.

Do you want to brew lagers or ales? Better yet which one do you brew more often?

edit: ehedge20 when I speak of cooler tun's conserving heat better, I am comparing it to having a mash tun that is not directly heated on the stainless steal side.

My brewing principle, known by the broader acronym of K.I.S.S., dictates that I use the same 30 qt. SS pot as an HLT and a boil kettle, with a 10 gal. Rubbermaid "Big Orange" cooler in between for a MLT. Sparge water is heated indoors on the cooktop in a smaller 15 qt. SS pot that does multiple duties as stockpot, soup kettle, etc.

A simple system, but mine own, and it produces great beer.