Best all grain brewing equipment to start with?

[owmatooth]

I have had a great time using BIAB. I bought the pulley- and have never used it. I hold the bag of grain up and the wifey squeezes it for a minute or so. I'm in a 10 G pot and just use a racking tube to get it over to my carboy after my immersion cooler has done it's job.

I didn't see immersion cooler on your list, so yeah, that's another piece you'd need. I assume the BIAB is frowned upon by traditional brewers, but no chance you can tell the difference in the beer. To me it's much easier than dealing with the extract and worrying about the syrup scorching on the bottom of the kettle.

I've also given up completely on bottling, kegs are much simpler and much faster to drink. Just bought a chest freezer to start my keezer build this week.

 

[Hwk-I-St8]

I have had a great time using BIAB. I bought the pulley- and have never used it. I hold the bag of grain up and the wifey squeezes it for a minute or so. I'm in a 10 G pot and just use a racking tube to get it over to my carboy after my immersion cooler has done it's job.

I didn't see immersion cooler on your list, so yeah, that's another piece you'd need. I assume the BIAB is frowned upon by traditional brewers, but no chance you can tell the difference in the beer. To me it's much easier than dealing with the extract and worrying about the syrup scorching on the bottom of the kettle.

I've also given up completely on bottling, kegs are much simpler and much faster to drink. Just bought a chest freezer to start my keezer build this week.

I have a friend who does BIAB and cranks out fantastic beers. Never let anyone convince you it's substandard. It's not my choice, but it is less expensive, you have less to store and the results are just as good.

 

[Jtk78]

Get a bag from wilserbrewer and your all set..couldn't be easier....

I'll second this. While chose to go with a cooler mash tun and HLT, I still decided to get a bag for my cooler mash tun. Wilserbrewer (member of the site) had great pricing, was easy to deal, shipped quickly and has a great product.

 

[thekraken]

Wilserbrewer ... was easy to deal, shipped quickly and has a great product.

I'd say he was great to deal with! In my case he really went above and beyond to help me get setup when I screwed up my order and needed an exchange.

 

[gbx]

I've done more than 100 BIAB batches with not much more than you have. All you need is $6 bag and something to stir the mash with (this could be anything from a stick to a wooden spoon to a fancy mash paddle). I don't use a pulley, I put the bag in a bucket with a mash paddle wedged in so it can drain. Use your bottling bucket for this step. Now spend any money you were thinking of using for upgrading to all grain on kegging. Kegs will improve your beer and your enjoyment of homebrewing so much more than any hotside improvements.

 

[philly224]

Just ordered the BIAB setup from Wilserbrewer. Seems like an amazing business and I have not even got it yet!

I also forgot to mention earlier in the thread that I do have a wort chiller so I am good there.

Is there a certain style I should start out with that might be a little easier to manage? I was thinking about ordering this kit on morebeer:

https://www.morebeer.com/products/7-deadly-cs-ipa-grain-beer-kit.html

 

[applescrap]

Get a bag from wilserbrewer and your all set..couldn't be easier....I would skip a mash tun, valves, and everything else for now...spend your money on a Cereal killer grain mill for under $100 shipped and mill your own grain...

I've been brewing all grain BIAB for years and have nothing but a pot, heat source and bag...Years later and still have no desire to upgrade anything.

It comes down to 2 things:

Do you want to make good beer?
OR
Do you want to make good beer with all the bells and whistles?

The beer doesn't care and will be exactly the same either way...

An economy car will get you down the road
Cruisin in your 5.0 will get you down the same road with the ragtop down so your hair can blow...Vanilla Ice

The road is the same...its the driver that makes the difference

This is well said.

With no insult intended, it seems to me some people like to build things and brew beer. If your trip is building things the sky's the limit.

If you want to brew beer get a bag and get to it. If you dont have huge forearms consider winch. Look forward to your results!

 

[mongoose33]

Just ordered the BIAB setup from Wilserbrewer. Seems like an amazing business and I have not even got it yet!

I also forgot to mention earlier in the thread that I do have a wort chiller so I am good there.

Is there a certain style I should start out with that might be a little easier to manage? I was thinking about ordering this kit on morebeer:

https://www.morebeer.com/products/7-deadly-cs-ipa-grain-beer-kit.html

If you've been doing extract brews like this, it'll be fine. The only fundamental difference between what you've been doing and this is where you're getting the wort from. If you're OK with the hop schedule and you know how to dry hop, the rest should work fine.

And you're doing this in the order that, to me, makes the most sense. You've mastered extract brewing, you have all those pieces down. Now, you're just changing how to create your wort, and it's really not a huge addition to your knowledge base, given what else you've alraedy done.

I think new brewers should start w/ extract, master the process, then move to all-grain. You're doing that, and I expect it will go very well. And IMO simple brews for the first time are better than complicated ones, for reasons which should be obvious. But you're past that, and it's time for you to make the jump.

(I do 5-gallon batches; a lot of my brews cost me maybe $20 to do, at a per-12-ounce-bottle cost of perhaps 40 cents. Hoppier costs more, obviously. When you get this one-gallon thing down, look at 5-gallon batches as a possibility).

Brew on, enjoy, and let us know how it goes.

 

[applescrap]

In biab the grains move, in other methods the water moves.

 

[philly224]

If you've been doing extract brews like this, it'll be fine. The only fundamental difference between what you've been doing and this is where you're getting the wort from. If you're OK with the hop schedule and you know how to dry hop, the rest should work fine.

And you're doing this in the order that, to me, makes the most sense. You've mastered extract brewing, you have all those pieces down. Now, you're just changing how to create your wort, and it's really not a huge addition to your knowledge base, given what else you've alraedy done.

I think new brewers should start w/ extract, master the process, then move to all-grain. You're doing that, and I expect it will go very well. And IMO simple brews for the first time are better than complicated ones, for reasons which should be obvious. But you're past that, and it's time for you to make the jump.

(I do 5-gallon batches; a lot of my brews cost me maybe $20 to do, at a per-12-ounce-bottle cost of perhaps 40 cents. Hoppier costs more, obviously. When you get this one-gallon thing down, look at 5-gallon batches as a possibility).

Brew on, enjoy, and let us know how it goes.

Im planning on doing 5 gallon batches from the start. I have a big enough pot so it should be no problem. I've been doing 5 gallon extract batches for a while now.

Where do you get your ingredients? $20 a batch is solid.

 

[MrAverageGuy]

+1 on BIAB - makes life easier IMO. If you don't already have it, the next thing I would look into is a reliable and accurate way to control temperature during the fermentation.

 

[mongoose33]

Im planning on doing 5 gallon batches from the start. I have a big enough pot so it should be no problem. I've been doing 5 gallon extract batches for a while now.

Where do you get your ingredients? $20 a batch is solid.

Of course this all depends on the recipe, but for me one key is buying malt in bulk. I buy from RiteBrew which is 3 hours up the road from me. I'm not nearby often, but if I plan on going by, I make an order and pick it up. No shipping. I have a friend who goes by there on an irregular basis, and he's picked up for me.

Anyway, they have 2-row malt for $38 for 50#. That's 76 cents a pound. They have Maris Otter for $52.35 for a 55# bag. That's about 98 cents per pound. Caramel/Crystal is about $1.20/# if you buy 10 pounds or moe.

Many of the hops they sell are well under $2/ounce.

So--if I do a California Common, it's 10# of 2-row, one pound of crystal malt. $7.60 for the 2-row, $1.20 for the crystal.

I use 3 ounces of Northern Brewer hops. They're 1.39 per ounce at Ritebrew, for a total of $4.17.

I use either Wyeast 2112 or WL810 with this. $6 from Ritebrew, $6.50 from my LHBS if I don't have any.

So--if my math is correct, the total of the malt, hops, and yeast is $18.97 to $19.47. I suppose I should add propane to that, and maybe the Star-San and PBW to it, and that probably bumps the cost to $25 all-told.

But the ingredient cost is less than $20.

 

[bajaedition]

going from extract to all grain does not really need to be as expensive as a lot of guys say it is, I had a old cooler I converted and bought a 8 gallon cheapy kettle when I made the jump. Did a lot of water transfers buy pyrex pitcher till I had the systems bells and whistles engineered and built out.

Now that was quite a few years back, during the last decade I have seen the entire BIAB revolution unfold. I see a lot of desirable qualities to the revolution. the biggest is the stripped down equipment approach. I mean with what you listed in the OP and a grain bag you could all grain. And engineer and build whatever you find will improve your brew or make it easier.

I have just currently decided to modify my more traditional 3 tub system into a 2 tub system by eliminating the mash tun but keep the HLT. I did a BIAB 3 step infusion mash a while back and a while back, got a fantastic conversion and the beer is great, I think the simplicity of BIAB is for me.

 

[mongoose33]

going from extract to all grain does not really need to be as expensive as a lot of guys say it is, I had a old cooler I converted and bought a 8 gallon cheapy kettle when I made the jump. Did a lot of water transfers buy pyrex pitcher till I had the systems bells and whistles engineered and built out.

I started out draining water from my BK to the mash tun through the ball valve on the BK. Water cooled while it did that, and it was slow. Decided I wanted a different way and had already bought the pitcher below so I could more carefully measure water volumes.

So I did the same thing you did--used the pitcher to dip out water from the BK. If I had 4 or 4.5 gallons in my BK, I'd do 4 or 5 dips until a gallon or so was left, and I could just pick up the BK and dump the rest in. Much faster, and no lifting of full BKs or mash tuns or anything.

The pitcher is a bit pricey, but it's very good.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004NEWBBU/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

 

[bajaedition]

I started out draining water from my BK to the mash tun through the ball valve on the BK. Water cooled while it did that, and it was slow. Decided I wanted a different way and had already bought the pitcher below so I could more carefully measure water volumes.

So I did the same thing you did--used the pitcher to dip out water from the BK. If I had 4 or 4.5 gallons in my BK, I'd do 4 or 5 dips until a gallon or so was left, and I could just pick up the BK and dump the rest in. Much faster, and no lifting of full BKs or mash tuns or anything.

The pitcher is a bit pricey, but it's very good.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004NEWBBU/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

wow that was luxury, my pyrex only held half of that