All grain brew help please.

[cwwillmon]

I have been doing extract batches and kinda want to try a simple all-grain batch. I am however limited in equipment to do it with.

What kind of batch can I pull off with 1 5gal igloo cooler and 2 12L igloo coolers?

I only have a 4 gallon pot for boiling... I know that is my down side.

I know you guys are creative and can shed some love on my situation.

 

[swampbrewcrew]

I would look into partial mashing, or scale your recipes to 2.5/3 gallons.

 

[chickypad]

I say jump in! It's not as hard as it can sound. I would go for a 2-2.5 gal BIAB batch. Since the cooler has a bit more room you could use it as your mash tun with the bag so no modifications needed. These are rough estimates but for instance a 5.5 lb grainbill + 3.5 gal of mash water will be about 4 gal mash volume in your cooler. With mild to moderate squeezing you should get 3 gals of boil volume. You'll need to watch for boil over at first, maybe use foam control. IME that should get you at least 2 gals packaged volume.

Here is the link to priceless brewing's BIAB calculator which is very helpful. Folks can help with recipes and calculations if you need.

The only other thing I would mention is water. If you know nothing about your water you might want to go with RO and use the very basic instructions in the water primer for your first go.

 

[mirthfuldragon]

I just finished a 2.5g all-grain batch with a 4g pot. Fermcap-S will stop boil-overs so you can fill almost to the rim of the pot. I did BIAB, drained the first runnings into a bucket, then batch sparged with boiling water. I topped up the boil pot over the course of a 90 min boil with what would not fit in the kettle at the start. With a shorter boil you could net 3g without issue. My OG was 1.090 so it was a rather big beer so I had to concentrate the wort somewhat with boiloff.

My entire equipment list is as follows: 4g pot, 1.5g pot, stove, hydrometer, carboy, a length of hose, and a bucket. My pot has a weldless spigot which makes life a bit easier. Chilled the pot in the kitchen sink for an hour.

Honestly, I would leave the coolers alone - just one more thing to clean later. I have a full-on keggle-and-cooler system, but right now I'm out of propane and it is cold outside. Nice thing about small batches is that it means I get to drink more types of beer and brew more often.

 

[FloppyKnockers]

My first experience with all-grain was done with my extract equipment - an 8-quart pot and a 12 quart pot plus a paint strainer from Home Depot (4 bucks, 2-pak). I got 8 pounds of 2-row and some specialty grains and divided them between the two pots. Two mashes, two boils, and a lot of math to scale them appropriately.

This is nowhere near the easiest method for any brew, but after a couple rounds I felt comfortable investing more than a few bucks on a dedicated set-up.

 

[tennesseean_87]

I will second all chickypad's recommendations. I started with 2 5gal extract batches, then went to 2.5gal biab and evolved from there to 5 gallon batch sparging and now to eBIAB. Deathbrewer's sticky on BIAB is a good place to start. I'd try a balanced MO smash or something for your first beer. The hard thing about starting all-grain is getting to know the efficiency of your system.

 

[GRJBowers]

I'll throw in my 2 cents, take with a grain of salt.

I'm in a similar situation as you. For converting the cooler into a mash tun I used this schematic (I found this image elsewhere on HBT some time ago, I'm not the producer of the image I just didn't want to link to a photobucket image)

For 5 gallon batches I convert recipes using as many of the specialty grains or adjuncts as I can with as much base malt to get as much sugar out of the specialty malts or adjuncts as possible. Then I use extract late in the boil (usually with 15 minutes left) to make up the rest of the necessary sugars. I use enough mash and sparge water to bring me to a boil volume of about 3 gallons (I have a 5 gallon pot, you might want to use less water to allow for an aggressive boil). This does affect hop utilization for bitterness, so you might have to use a bit more to get the desired bitterness. I'm not sure how it affects hop flavor and aroma extraction. Once the wort is chilled, I throw it in the fermenter and top it up with water until I hit my target gravity.

I don't know if this is a misunderstanding of what partial mashing is, but it's how I understand it and it seems to produce something tasty (most of the time).

Best of luck.

 

[ericbw]

I have made a lot of 2.5 to 3 gallon batches with a 5 gallon cooler and 4 gallon pot. More than that might be pushing it. And doing high ABV beers would be harder, too.

Follow the BIAB suggestions above. Or try a 1 gallon batch to get the hang of all grain first, then scale up.

Were you looking for specific recipes?

 

[kh54s10]

Get a ten gallon pot, a wilserbrewer BIAB bag, and do 5 gallon BIAB batches. I would suggest you get your own mill and buy grain in bulk to get a good grind and to save money. A $25 Corona style mill is fine to start with, I have been using one for about 6 years.

 

[Kee]

Lately I've been mashing with bag in a 5 gallon cooler. Works fine. I can fit 11 lbs. of grain and over 3 gallons of water in there.

A slightly bigger aluminum post would not cost much and give you more flexibility. My boil usually starts with 4 gallons, since I can easily boil that on the stove without modifications.