I got lucky and found a 16 quart stock pot on sale for $40 at the restaurant supply place. For brewing and cooking in general don't overlook the commercial restaurant supply places, the prices are typically cheaper and the quality better.
I'm scaling down from 5 gallon batches due to an injury (I haven't done many 5 batches anyway). I settled on 1.75 gallon batch size because I found 2 gallon NFS plastic buckets cheap to use for fermentors. Plus 1.75 gallons fills about 10 Bombers which I consider to be the correct size for one serving
. I found a vegetable steamer at the Walmart that fits the bottom of the pot perfectly. Add a 24" grain bag and a few binder clips and my BIAB set up is pretty much done. (Re-using the wort chiller from the old set-up.)
Misc stuff I also added to the new set up:
-I picked up a single burner sportsmans stove, at 15,000 btu it should heat the smaller pot fairly fast. The burner will serve double duty for home canning and get me out of the kitchen, much to my spouses delight I'm sure.
-Found a used thermocouple converter for my Fluke DVOM so I can monitor temps very precisely. This will serve double duty in the smoker and for general cooking. I am sick to death of the cheap kitchen thermometers available at department stores.
-Found a pack of three type K thermocouples cheap on E-bay.$3
Looking for a cheap way to add a thermowell to the lid of my pot. I'll probably just use a copper tube closed off with lead free solder.
All told I'm under $100 into the set up. If you skip the misc stuff it would be under $50
By the way, first post here, howdy.