All grain equipment

[greenhaze]

I wanted to start all grain brewing and was wondering what equipment will I need.
Here is what I have , 7.5 gallon pot, 6.5 Carboy, plastic bucket, bottling bucket, stir plate, wort chiller, hydrometer, various spoons, clip on thermometer, 2L elenmeyer flask.
What else do I need ?
Slainte

 

[hogwash]

Mash tun and outdoor burner. You'll find that you'll want a bigger kettle too. I started with an 8 gallon kettle and quickly moved up to a 15.5 gallon. Had to watch it like a hawk to avoid boilovers and never could get a very good boil going just because it was nearly filled to the top. I produced some good beers with it but it was a pain in the butt. My beers have gotten a lot better since I got the bigger kettle.

 

[mikescooling]

You tell me? Do you want to do BIAB or use a 3 pot system? How much do you want to brew at a time? Are you going to grow into this system? How much do you want to spend?

 

[rdann87]

HLT, MLT, BK.... Heat Source, Grains, Hops, Water, Thermometer, Hydrometer, Fermenting Vessle.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/wiki/index.php/All_grain

 

[frenchy9991]

Well before diving right into all grain with a 3 vessel set up, you can start with biab. I made my first 3 all grain beers in a 30 qt turkey fryer with a 5 dollar voile curtain i picked up from target. The curtains are made from nylon and do not react to heat. You can start this way. many BIAB brewers advocate no sparge water, but with the small kettle i found the best way was to mash with about half of my start water. Mash according to your recipe, then pour this off to your bottling/fermenting bucket. While keeping your grain bag aside in anything that will contain it, heat the rest of your water in your kettle to roughly 175. Put grains back in and let sit for ten minutes or so. Now, SLOWLY lift out your bag and let all or most of the water drain out. With this system, i was getting 75% efficiency from my grain bill. When you finally get a bigger kettle (better yet a keggle!) you can start with all the water you will need for pre boil. There are a lot of calculators for mash water out there, but a good place to start is 7 gallons; one gallon for grain absorption and one gallon for boil off. Hope this helps and good luck to your brewing endeavors!

 

[hunter_le five]

Mash tun and outdoor burner. You'll find that you'll want a bigger kettle too.

+ 1 to the mash tun and outdoor burner.

Rigging up a Rubbermaid cooler mash-tun will probably be the easiest/cheapest way to go. Built mine in about half an hour and a trip to Home Depot. There are plenty of threads here on how to construct one.

As has been said, doing a full wort boil on your stove top can be tedious at best. An outdoor propane burner (I use a cheap Banjo cooker) is much better.

As far as the kettle: a 7.5 gallon will work, but you really will have to be careful to avoid boil-overs. I've made about 6 batches so far in my 7.5 gallon kettle, and it's served me well. I do plan on upgrading to a 10 gallon unit very soon though.

 

[greenhaze]

Thanks for all the info. Would ye recommend this kit from Midwest ?

http://www.midwestsupplies.com/deluxe-all-grain-kewler-kit-10-gallon.html
Slainte

 

[DougK]

Thanks for all the info. Would ye recommend this kit from Midwest ?

http://www.midwestsupplies.com/deluxe-all-grain-kewler-kit-10-gallon.html
Slainte

Only if you have money to burn.

You could build the same thing for half the price.

10 gal home Depot cooler $45
3/8 in valve $5
3/8 in by 1.5 in nipple $3
3/8 in barb fittings 2 x $3
Washers $2

That comes to $61 and you have a hot liquor tank.

Add $40 for a false bottom and you have a mlt. or you can do the screen for $5. I didn't like the screen.

You can get the sparge arms fairly cheap too. Or make your own out of cpvc.

 

[frenchy9991]

Don't really need the hot liquor tank in that kit yet, like above if you've got the money go for it but you can do your mash and sparge water in the kettle you already have

 

[DougK]

Don't really need the hot liquor tank in that kit yet, like above if you've got the money go for it but you can do your mash and sparge water in the kettle you already have

No doubt. I'm one of those guys that won't pay 100 dollars for something I can build myself for 80.

You could also use a spare ale pail and a bucket heater for sparge water. Cost there would be about 50 bucks. The bucket heater could be used elsewhere as well.

 

[RM-MN]

Let's separate "need" from "want". You might want the fancy 3 tier system with lots of bells and whistles but what you need is a pot big enough to contain the liquid (I use a 30 qt and can do a 5 gallon batch in that but it's tight), a heat source (my kitchen stove will boil 7 gallons, yours may not), and a way to separate the grains from the wort (I use a paint strainer bag, works fine for me). Now you decide how much more to spend since you already have the pot. I got my paint stainer bags from Home Depot, 2 in a package for under $4. That was the minimum I could spend to go all grain. How much do you want to spend?