Russian Doll AG (Nesting for storage)?

Hi all,

New brewer here, thinking about jumping straight into all-grain. I'm trying to pick equipment, but I live in a condo and am thus severely space constrained. I've done a bunch of searching, but I haven't been able to track down threads where people are specifically trying to minimize the space needed to store their equipment.

Due to my space constraints, 5 gallon batches is as large as I'll go, although it would be nice to be able to pull off high grain bill recipes. Also, I'm hoping to use my kitchen stove for the boil, so I'll need a kettle that's wide enough to span two burners (around 16").

From poking around, it seems like there are a few options:

1. Use a regular three vessel brew system. If I go this route, I'd really need all three containers to nest (like a russian doll) for storage. Can anyone recommend equipment that would do this?

2. Use a single 10 or 15 gallon pot with a false bottom and ball-lock valve as a mash tun, drain the wort into a bucket, then reuse the mash tun as the brew kettle. (In other words, no sparge.) The bucket would be stored inside the pot. (With this equipment I could allow try aussie-style BIAB.)

3. A compromise would be DeathBrewer's method, which requires two pots, but they could be smaller.

Any thoughts? For efficiency, I guess 1>3>2? I'm leaning toward option 1, but only if I can come up with a compact set of equipment.

Thanks!

Hi Tophmck and welcome.

All grain takes a lot more equipment and hence more space, even with nesting. I have two brewing spaces - what I call the world headquarters, which is a 10 foot table in the basement with fermenters, bright tanks, bottles, bottle tree, bulk grains, etc. Then in the garage, I have a cart with a burner, huge-ass kettle (which the mash tun fits inside of), mash tun, grain mill, and immersion chiller. None of the stuff in the garage did I need when I brewed with extract. You see my point? Even if you can get some stuff to nest, you'll still need more equipment and space doing all grain.

If you haven't brewed before and space is a critical issue for you, I'd suggest a starting with extract. All the equipment you need for that will also be of use when/if you do all grain brewing. Plus, for brewers with limited space, its just less stressful. And you can make really great, award-winning extract beers.

I'm sorry I'm not directly answering your question about finding equipment that nests, but did want to suggest that you can save alot of space if you do extract with steeping grains brewing.

Cheers!

I live in a loft with only two very small closets and a small storage space in the garage, and I brew all grain, both inside on my stove and outdoors on a turkey fryer. I manage to store all my gear and fermenters in pretty tight space.

Velcro is my storage trick. This is my "brew closet" in the main room, the coats are waay over on the right, and bottle boxes are stacked below.





And I have more bottles stored (usually the ones bottle conditioning and carbing) are in the bedroom.

I have now switch from using beer cases for bottle storage to using milk crates, They hold a full case (24) bottles of beer in half the space of the cardboard, and you can stack them high.

With a little creativity andyone can store their brew gear.

My brew equipment takes up one entire closet, 15 gallon pot, 52 qt MLT, Bayou SQ-14, ~300 bottles, 2 primary fermenters 2 secondary 5 gallon BB's, miscellanous equipment (hoses, stir plate, five 1 gallon growlers, mason jars etc...)

My closet is fairly small, but I manage to fit everything in there, and when I begin to make bulk purchases of grain and hops, I plan on placing a mini fridge or mini freezer in there as well and organize things a bit better for grain storage.

FWIW, I also use milk crates to store my bottles, I fit 35 longnecks into each one, and stack them about five high, I have 10 of them, not all completely full, but they are also handy for moving 5 gallon carboys.

Milk crates FTW!

Thanks for the responses, everyone! It's really helpful to get a sense of how other people manage to stash all their gear.

Probably it's a bit early for me to make the jump to all grain. I've just tried a couple batches so far:
- one extract kit that used some specialty grains
- EdWort's Apfelwein
- Brandon O's Graff

but I need a brew kettle, and it dawned on me that if I got a large one then I could try BIAB.... And from there it was a slippery slope into eyeing all kinds of all-grain setups.

I guess for starters I'll just go for a 10 gallon pot. Seems like that shouldn't be unreasonably large for extract batches, and it'll be big enough to let me experiment with a lower gravity no-sparge and BIAB. (15 gallon would be better for those methods, but I'm afraid a regular extract batch would get lost in a 15 gallon pot...)

I've got my eye on the 10 gallon Megapot, which at 17" in diameter, is wide enough to use with two burners. (And maybe, down the line, that width will make it possible to slip my MLT inside of it for storage...)

BTW -- I love the idea of the milk crates! I'll need to track some down, as my bottles are definitely starting to get out of control.

Hey guys Found this thread via a random link to elsewhere on this forum...

Im an Aussie - I live in a small house in Sydney with a courtyard and like the OP I simply dont have the room for a three vessel system.... So, I went with BIAB and I couldnt be happier with my results and id recommend it to anyone!

I use a 40L electric urn that I bought from a catering equipment supplier for $260 (US$240) Not sure how much they would cost in the states though. So basically I dont need a burner - or much else really.

The material, nylon thread and draw string for the bag came to around $15 and a lend of a friends sewing machine cost me a nothing. My mash paddle is a $10 paint stirrer from a hardware store and to chill the wort I use another 25L....err... 6.6 gallon water cube (more on this here)

It really is easy as pie. One of the guys on our forum has written up a detailed "How to" - it's written for Australians and the numbers are in metric, but should be able to work it out...

http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum//index.php?showtopic=36094

Cheers

phoney said:

Hey guys I use a 40L electric urn that I bought from a catering equipment supplier for $260 (US$240) Not sure how much they would cost in the states though. So basically I dont need a burner - or much else really.

Cheers

Click to expand...

The catch here is that you Blokes down under are on 22o volt house current, us Yanks are on 110 volts. Those electric urns seem great, but not really available over here, and even if you could score one, you would have to run a 220 line and possibly mod the pot for our type plug???

Oh right! I didnt realize you couldnt use urns on 110 volts.. So how the hell do you guys boil water for tea & coffee for large amounts of people eg: at functions etc?

Anyway, it's still not too far off the mark to use one 40L (10 gal) vessel, and a burner underneath. Most people do BIAB that way actually.

cheers

Awesome, phoney. I was worried a 10 gallon pot might be on the small side for BIAB, so I'm glad to hear a 40L pot has worked well for you.

That's a shame that the urns aren't available here -- seems like a nice all-in-one solution for BIAB.

I wish the brew shops here sold BIAB bags, like the ones Gryphon Brewing sells (unfortunately, they don't ship internationally). I guess I'll need to track down the right fabric and break out a sewing machine.