Critique my Equipment list (aka what am I forgetting?)

[lady_brewer]

So... moving to "AG" brewing... have only ever done pre-hopped extracts, but I did awesome on my Organic and Physical chem labs in University and am pretty good with baking, so not too worried about skipping the extract step.

I have been collecting equipment to do DB's stovetop brewing for my first go around. This is what I have so far, but I am worried that I am missing something, and will only find out in the middle of the process. Let me know what you think.

1. Recipe: Still deliberating between BM's centennial Blonde, DB's SMaSH APA, and O'Flannigan's Stout... will be ordering hops and grains in the next week for all three, may not decide until brew day what I am making... but if you want to put in an opinion here I am all ears.

2. Pots: I have 2 stainless steel 20quart pots. (22.5 L) Out of curiousity I checked on how long it takes to bring 4 gallons to a boil on my stove... it is one hour. Will factor this into my brewday. I may yet get a turkey fryer from Canadian Tire (has a 7Gal pot) or I may split my boil between two pots. Checking sales, and how the wallet feels before deciding.

3. Chiller: Hubby is going to build me an immersion chiller. Rumour has it he can get a price on a 50ft coil of copper tubing.

4. Grain Crusher: I bought the clay roller/ pasta maker/ soon to be grain crusher from Michael's. 50% off with coupon. Woot.

5. Thermometer: paid $20 for this at walmart. Supposed to be for turkeys, but also says it is good for candy. Figured out how to set it in my pot without it falling in. Still going to waterproof it. Calibrated it... 213F at boiling, 33F in ice crush water. ie it reads 1F above what it really is in (correct me if I am wrong, I live in a world of Celcius). Has some fancy features... can set it to beep when it hits the temp you keyed in, has a timer. Going to be real great after my first batch (where these features are useless since I will be watching it like a mad person and getting nothing else done during the day)

6. Fermentors/ Secondary/ Hydrometer/ Tubing/ etc: Have all this stuff since you do have to do some things, even with cheater's pre-hopped wort.

7. Bag: Since i plan to do the "BIAB" I have a nylon mesh bag to stick my grains, and later my hops in. This means no need for a mash tun... will have to pick up a second (or use my wine-fruit bag) if I do split the boil between two pots.

8. Camera: Not only do I have to torment you people with the excruciating details of every step I take, but my dad wants a blog-like play-by-play, since it was always his "dream" to go this route while he was homebrewing. I would invite him out, but he would only get underfoot, plus I am going to be busy obsessing.

So... what am I missing? Any words of wisdom? Advice?

Minor other things I will make sure of... a well thought out "to-do" list... well laid out ingredients (hops for example), music? Other tasks to keep the hubby from being underfoot... except for when I need lifting... HB for after to cooling stage...

 

[brewagentjay]

7. Bag: Since i plan to do the "BIAB" I have a nylon mesh bag to stick my grains, and later my hops in. This means no need for a mash tun... will have to pick up a second (or use my wine-fruit bag) if I do split the boil between two pots.

Is this true you don't need a mash tun if you use grain bag? I thought that was for steeping specialty grains..... Curious

 

[lady_brewer]

Is this true you don't need a mash tun if you use grain bag? I thought that was for steeping specialty grains..... Curious

Well... technically I am probably wrong... more what I meant is that it isn't needed if I use the method here... https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/easy-stovetop-all-grain-brewing-pics-90132/ which is my plan as of right now...

 

[TechyDork]

Is this true you don't need a mash tun if you use grain bag? I thought that was for steeping specialty grains..... Curious

You are essentially turning your boil kettle in to your mash tun. the difference between brew in a bag and steeping is that you are using base grains with specialty grains to get conversion. Whereas with steeping you are only getting color and flavor from the grains.

 

[brewagentjay]

Interesting...... Thanks.

 

[riromero]

The only thing I would add... 20 gallon pots seem a little cramped. I picked up a 32 quart aluminum tamale pot at Target for $17 an my life became way easier.

 

[Saccharomyces]

When I do this I split the boil across two pots. Boiloff is crazy, I end up topping up with about two quarts per pot at the end, but it beats waiting all day for the wort to boil, and it means I can chill in the sink without dragging out my IC.

The only thing I can think of is water treatment. How is your water? If it's alkaline, you will want to use some lactic acid or 5.2 pH stabilizer to bring your pH into the proper range to get full conversion and avoid extracting tannins. You can get away with skipping this step in minimash but when doing a full mash my experience is you will definitely not want to skip this step as it will make much better beer.

 

[riromero]

I've never mashed in the pot before. Will grain+water really fit in 5 gallons?

 

[lady_brewer]

A bigger pot would be great... but despite looking around in my region there aren't any 32 quart pots readily available, so that will be upgraded with the turkey fryer purchase.

As for grain and water fitting in the pot... there are some calculators out there to help you determine what you can get into the pot itself. My understanding is that this will work if you have 12lbs of grain or less, but you may have to mash thinner than you might otherwise like in order to mash in the pot itself.

- Water - I have wondered a bit about this. We are on a well, so there is no easy way to get a water profile. I would actually have to send away for one. Is there something I can do to get an idea of what it is like before making a go at AG? I read somewhere that there are some simple kits that you can get at a pet store (used for testing water for aquariums) - will this work? I am sure at some point I am going to want to spend the $$ to have my water tested, but I was kinda just going to take a chance on the whole thing for right now... really bad idea? Or just not the best idea?

 

[wildwest450]

If it tastes good you should be fine for beer. You can have it tested anytime.

 

[Saccharomyces]

Really hard to say on the water without an analysis. If you have significant scale or you have a water softener your water would benefit from treatment.

 

[Kralizec]

The only thing I would add... 20 gallon pots seem a little cramped. I picked up a 32 quart aluminum tamale pot at Target for $17 an my life became way easier.

ya 20 gallon is totally cramped. i think you meant quart.