New brewer putting together my kit

[Chicago_Eric_]

Hi everyone, my lovely girlfriend got me a starter kit 1 gallon from Brooklyn Beer for Christmas, needless to say I'm addicted now. I don't want to be upgrading materials every six months and wasting money so I just want to get the biggest of everything that my kitchen stove can allow. I live in Madrid and if you've ever been here, the apartments are tiny and small city yards??? We've never heard of em. My current supplies consists of the following:

2 Brooklyn Beer kits w/ 1 gallon carboys
Stainless Steel 20L Pot
Stainless 8L Pot

The cooler style mashers I was looking at are either a 24L or a 29L from a homebrew shop. The smallest bucket style fermenter is a 30L. To maximize output and fill the fermenter with as much beer as possible, is it a wise idea to boil the same beer separately in the two Pots and then combine them into the same fermenter?

Thanks!

 

[ncbrewer]

is it a wise idea to boil the same beer separately in the two Pots and then combine them into the same fermenter?

I did that for a while. I made an effort to split everything proportionally so the two boil kettles were the same gravity and about the same amount of hops - even split the Irish moss equally. It worked ok, but it was a bit of a hassle keeping everything going right. Doing a single boil would be much easier, but your stove probably can't handle a single full boil for a 5 gallon batch.

Another option would be partial mash. You could do this in a single kettle and add the extract after the boil. Then add top-off water after it's cooled. This would also be easy to cool in a sink full of ice water - another advantage for a small apartment.

Welcome and Good luck.

 

[JPBrewLI]

Consider how much beer you actually want / can drink / time you want to spend bottling.
With what you have your set to do <=2.5 all grain batches. can use the other pot to pre heat sparge water.
I'm currently doing BIAB, don't see a cooler style masher as necessary.

If you want to do 5 gallon batches, buy a 10 gallon pot that fits your stove and can always supplement with something like this.
https://www.brewhardware.com/product_p/hotrod.htm
If you have the 5 gallon corny kegs available there they can be used for fermenting, beer storage (lazy bottling), or tapping and drinking
You'll also need to invest some in a co2 tank, hoses, gauge.
Where i am they are $40 a piece and seem like the best investment to move up into larger volume brewing.

If your just looking to buy stuff, instant read therm, auto siphon.

In general i try to not buy "uni-task" items if i can avoid it.

 

[Owly055]

You have the idea others have had........ get it right the first time. The question is what is "right"? You can make excellent beer with BIAB, or with a mash tun, or a 3 tier system, RIMS, HERMS, etc. It really makes no difference. YOU make the difference, not the system. What do you want? If you like simple processes, and minimal equipment, and want to focus on the product, and on designing and refining your own brews, BIAB is the way for you. It takes almost no equipment, but the product equals anything anybody can make on their fancy systems. It's about process control, not the system. If you are technically oriented, and like to build complex systems and show them off to your friends, you will want to go a different direction. Everybody here will advocate their particular system, but in the end it makes no real difference to the product.

If you love to drink and entertain........... go BIG. If you love to brew, go small, so you can brew more and experiment more. Big systems are for people who like to produce a lot of beer, or who would rather drink than brew. Small systems are for people with limited space, or people who can't wait to brew the next beer. If you have 10 gallons of beer, you have to drink more and / or find more people to drink before you get to brew again.

I love to brew, to try new ideas, and have a lot of variety........ so I brew 2 to 2.5 gallon batches. I've ranged up to 5 gallons, but prefer to brew small. I prefer BIAB, because I need almost no equipment, and much of it has other uses. I've also refined my processes to have very short brew days...... instead of the typical 4-5 hour brew days. Everything is compact, and easy to handle, and stows easily. I wrap my stockpot in foam for the mash, and boil in the same pot.

The biggest headache is bottles............ Cleaning, sanitizing, priming, etc. If I could do one thing over again, it would be to start with small kegs. They fit on the top shelf in my fridge, and I charge them from paintball tanks.


H.W.

 

[ancientmariner52]

With apologies to Owly, I will take the liberty of summarizing what he just said. With your first outfit, you are not buying a brewery. You are buying the knowledge and experience you need to make choices down the road. Therefore, spend the least amount you can and start brewing. Then you will know where to go next. Good luck!

 

[Owly055]

With apologies to Owly, I will take the liberty of summarizing what he just said. With your first outfit, you are not buying a brewery. You are buying the knowledge and experience you need to make choices down the road. Therefore, spend the least amount you can and start brewing. Then you will know where to go next. Good luck!

Excellent summary........... You won't really know what you want until you've brewed awhile.......... Keep it simple, keep it cheap. ( I need to keep my posts simple and to the point also ;-)

H.W.

 

[ncbrewer]

With apologies to Owly, I will take the liberty of summarizing what he just said. With your first outfit, you are not buying a brewery. You are buying the knowledge and experience you need to make choices down the road. Therefore, spend the least amount you can and start brewing. Then you will know where to go next. Good luck!

And nobody can tell you in advance, because it's too dependent on your individual wants and needs

Edit: Also depends on your time available, budget, available space, utilities available, etc.

 

[Chicago_Eric_]

Thanks everyone for the advice. My first kit has been conditioning for about 11 days and I tried one, not bad at all, but loads of room for improvement. I think I'm going to do one more kit before I go at it with trying a recipe from the board here. I was going to get a kit that makes 5 liters from a local brew shop. My two glass carboys are 1 gal. Would it still be fine to have those carboys only about 65% full?

 

[stieg000]

Wont make much difference, I've done many 2.5g batches in a Lowe's food grade 5g bucket.

I like the idea of using a mini keg as Owly055 mentioned. Sure makes the idea of doing small batch more appealing. Can't stand bottling. I have used carb caps and a 2L bottle for excess batches that won't all fit into a 5g keg.

Have a buddy that bought a c02 tank, regulator and 2g keg for soda water only. He doesn't brew at all. Way cheaper than a sodastream. Even if you quit brewing, you could have artisan soda all the time.