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Just starting out and need advice!

Discussion in 'All Grain & Partial Mash Brewing' started by LisanMatt, Mar 18, 2010.

 

  1. #1
    LisanMatt

    New Member

    Posted Mar 18, 2010
    Hello everyone!

    We have been brewing all extract recipes for quite a while now and we want to graduate to all grain brewing. We’ve done quite a lot of research and have the basic idea how to brew from all-grain and what the necessary equipment is. From what we’ve gathered, you can spend thousands on equipment – or you can use a couple enamel pots, and some Tupperware or a cooler. We want to make good, consistent, beer; and we are willing to invest some money to do this. At the same time I don’t want to go overboard and buy something for hundreds of dollars – when I could have made it cheaply at home with little to no affect on the beer’s quality (and to note Matt is extremely mechanically inclined so anything that can be made at home he can likely make). If anyone can give us some advice and/or their take on using high quality vs cheap and/or homemade please help!!



    Thanks!
     
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  2. #2
    Pappers_

    Moderator Staff Member  

    Posted Mar 18, 2010
    Hi. You can certainly buy/build brew stands and rigs, semi-automated, etc. But they are not at all necessary to brew very good all-grain hand-made beer. On the other end of the continuum is the stove-top brew-in-a-bag method.

    If you are looking for the middle ground, the equipment you need (in addition to what you already have for extract brewing) includes:

    1. A brew pot big enough to boil 7 gallons - so you probably want around 10 gallon capacity, but some use smaller.

    2. A stove powerful enough to heat that much water/wort - most purchase an outdoor propane stove like a Bayou, but some also go with less expensive hardware store turkey fryers. You'll find lots of threads about burners in the equipment sub forum.

    3. A mash tun. An easy do-it-yourself project is to convert an igloo beverage cooler into a mash tun. There is a sticky thread on how to do it.

    4. A wort chiller (with full boils, sitting the pot in an ice bath just isn't practical for most people). An immersion chiller made out of copper tubing is the standard and another straightforward DIY project. Again, I believe there is a sticky thread on how to do it.

    If you buy or make these pieces of equipment, you will have the necessities to make high quality all-grain beer. Of course, there are a million other items, like a fermentation chamber, a refractometer, kegging outfit, etc. that might enhance your brewing experience. But the four items I listed are above are what you *need* imho.

    Cheers!
     
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  3. #3
    Nurmey

    I love making Beer  

    Posted Mar 18, 2010
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  4. #4
    Pappers_

    Moderator Staff Member  

    Posted Mar 18, 2010
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  5. #5
    Yooper

    Ale's What Cures You! Staff Member  

    Posted Mar 18, 2010
    Or, what she said. Either way.
     
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  6. #6
    kappclark

    Well-Known Member

    Posted Mar 18, 2010
    The cooler conversion is a fun and worthwhile project. It's just one example how brewers on this forum share expertise and keep us noobies from trying to reinvent the wheel.

    My cooler is still going strong after 3 years
     
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  7. #7
    Pappers_

    Moderator Staff Member  

    Posted Mar 19, 2010
    LOL! I never noticed - I must have been too busy belching and scratching! My apologies, Nurmey. Mea Culpa.
     
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  8. #8
    wilserbrewer

    BIAB Expert Tailor  

    Posted Mar 19, 2010
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  9. #9
    DFoster

    Well-Known Member

    Posted Mar 19, 2010
    Make sure you go to a restaurant wholesaler for your kettle. I bought a 20 gallon aluminum pot online for $73 shipped...and it has worked very well. All of my other things I posted on my blog, but it's all about the same as what was mentioned above. I just put down what I paid or what people should expect to pay, etc. Good luck!
     
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  10. #10
    Pappers_

    Moderator Staff Member  

    Posted Mar 19, 2010
    Good idea, DFoster! On our website, I've got a section for our brewery, with pictures of our equipment. Its aimed at our friends and family who are not really brewers, but it might be helpful to someone just getting into all grain . . .

    http://www.singingboysbrewing.com/about.html
     
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  11. #11
    thedidey

    Active Member

    Posted Mar 19, 2010
    The only advice I would have that hasn't been mentioned is to try to plan for the future a little. For example when I made my wort chiller (was still brewing extract) I made sure it could be used for 10 gallon batches in a 60 qt pot. On the other hand, I rushed into the AG a little by buying a turkey fryer with a 30 qt pot. Now that I found a keg to brew 10 gallon batches in I think i'll be ok, but I wish that I had a slightly higher powered burner.

    Suggestions along those lines would be to build your mash tun from a 10 gallon cooler instead of a 5. And maybe think about a 60 quart pot even if you're only going to brew 5 gallon batches for a while. For those things, a little extra dough will get you a lot of extra brewing capacity.

    And good luck. This is a great hobby for someone who likes tinkering....and beer.
     
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