Easiest/Cheapest Way to Get Into All Grain?

[sportscrazed2]

So far I know of the brew in a bag, 2 buckets 1 with holes in the bottom, cooer converted to mash tun. what do you think would be the best setup?

 

[Yooper]

The "best" setup will vary, but I think a converted cooler would be the easiest. It holds mash temperatures far better than a bucket/bucket in a bucket will, and unless you're a very strong man BIAB can be a challenge for bigger grain bills. And even with BIAB, you need a cooler or something anyway to hold the temps steady.

 

[Revvy]

In brewing "Best" is subjective...There is no best way, just what we prefer. Each of those ways you mention is the BEST for those who do them.

Now your original question, cheapest way, is probably going to be brew in a bag since it uses the minimum of gear.

I prefer the cooler mashtun setup.

This is basically what I use to do AG for 99% of the beers I make, both 5 gallon or 2.5 gallon. (On top of the "regular" brewing gear I already had.

25 dollar turkey fryer with stock 7.5 gallon pot (more if you opt for a bigger pot)
I paid 25 for mine at Meijer's or maybe Kroger's in late October/early November a couple years back, seems they were getting ready to stock a newer, an consequently more expensive, model for the Thanksgiving holiday, so they deep discounted the older model to clear them out. Look along the back wall where the seasonal stuff is, and you may be surprised, they may be moving last year's fall stuff out of the way to shuffle the summer stuff, like BBq's off the main part of the floor and into "seasonal" so the really old stuff may be on deep clearance.

50 dollar 25 foot immersion style wort chiller

50 dollar modified 5 gallon cooler (A little more if you opt for a 10 gallon)

My process is fairly simple as well. Heat my strike water, add it to kettle. While mashing heat my sparge water, drain runnings into bucket (which is often just the ale pale I am going to ferment in, but sometimes my bottling bucket.) Add sparge water to mash tun. Then either sparge all runnings into bucket, then transfer to kettle to boil, or pour first runnings into kettle and start boiling, and drain sparge into bucket and add to boll.

If the total runnings/mash and sparge fit into my cooler, then I can skip the bucket, and just swap between the cooler and kettle.

 

[Kranity]

My setup is pretty darn similar to this, but I don't use propane, I do it stovetop. Seems like a pretty "classic" method. I mean really though, the important thing is to tailor your brew setup to your living situation - climate, space, SWMBO, etc. Dollars should kinda be secondary, most DIY brew setups shouldn't cost much, and you should be ready to invest what little it takes to get yourself a convenient setup. "Easiest" really is gonna be in direct correlation with your ingenuity and access to the supplies/tools to bring it to life.
... imo.

 

[sportscrazed2]

Thanks for the meijer tip will check that out

 

[Synovia]

Right now, all I really use are my $22 aluminum 34qt pot, and my $40 cooler mash tun (5g igloo, crap from home depot)

I've got a propane burner too ($50 SQ15 on amazon), but I'm not using it right now because the new stove seems to be able to boil 7g just fine, and the propane tanks got sold in the move cross country.


I also dont use a chiller, because I do No-Chill (although, I siphon directly into cornies, so you can add that price on).

 

[rod251]

I can't comment on the "best" setup, but I can tell you what works for me. I skipped extract and went all-grain from the start. I'm on a budget, so the less money the better in my situation. First off, I do 3 gallon batches. This yields me a little over a case of beer per batch, which works out great for me as I only drink 1-2 beers an evening. I normally have two batches fermenting at a time, which ensures a me a variety of styles ready to drink.

I brew on the stove using two stainless pots, a 3 gallon and a 4 gallon. I got them on ebay for around $25 total. First I pick my recipe. Take a 5 gallon recipe, divide the quantities by 5, then multiply times 3. Most of my recipes call for around 5-6 lbs. of grain and .5 oz of hops. As for yeast, an 11g dry pack, a vial of White Labs, or a pack of Wyeast works perfectly with no starter.

On brew day I put 2 gallons of water in each pot. The 3 gallon pot gets heated to strike temp, and the 4 gallon pot starts out with sparge water. After mashing in the 3 gallon pot, I put an extra large grain bag in my fermenting bucket and pour the mash in it. I sparge into the ferment bucket, then pour the wort into the 4 gallon pot. While I'm waiting for the wort to boil, I thoroughly wash and sanitize my fermenting bucket. It takes about 30 minutes to bring my wort to a boil on the stovetop. After the boil, I use a foottub with ice water to cool my wort to pitching temps, which takes about 45 minutes. I may go with a wort chiller down the road. Then I pour the wort through a filter into the fermenter. The filter collects trub and aerates at the same time.

BTW, my first fermenter was from a Midwest kit, but my second one I made from stuff at walmart for less than $10, including homemade airlock. I make beer, and good beer at that. I currently have some Irish Red ale and Blonde Ale in the fridge, more Blonde Ale and Porter bottle conditioning, and more Blonde Ale and Dunkelweissen fermenting.(Blonde Ale, anyone?) Cheers!

 

[DrinkNoH2O]

If you can't find a turkey fryer on clearance anywhere, this is about the cheapest everyday price you can find on the burner/32qt. aluminum pot combo:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0000BXHL0/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

Also I highly highly recommend this timer/thermometer. It's the single best piece of equipment I've purchased for home brewing and makes my brew days go so much smoother:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000P6FLOY/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

 

[sportscrazed2]

If you can't find a turkey fryer on clearance anywhere, this is about the cheapest everyday price you can find on the burner/32qt. aluminum pot combo:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0000BXHL0/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

Also I highly highly recommend this timer/thermometer. It's the single best piece of equipment I've purchased for home brewing and makes my brew days go so much smoother:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000P6FLOY/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

is that a good burner? that's actually one i was thinking of getting. i'm thinking of waiting until spring to get into all grain though because it gets super cold here in winter and my garage is basically a storage unit and i don't want to clean it out

 

[Yooper]

You can brew indoors, if you want. My first AG set up was in the kitchen- a cooler MLT and a couple of pots on my stove. The key for me was a great stove- I could either boil two pots of 3.5 gallons each (until I got a bigger pot) or 6.25 gallons on one burner on my stove. Without a good stove, though, it'd be very difficult to do a 5 gallon AG batch. It'd be easy to do a 2.5 gallon AG batch on the stove, though.

 

[sportscrazed2]

You can brew indoors, if you want. My first AG set up was in the kitchen- a cooler MLT and a couple of pots on my stove. The key for me was a great stove- I could either boil two pots of 3.5 gallons each (until I got a bigger pot) or 6.25 gallons on one burner on my stove. Without a good stove, though, it'd be very difficult to do a 5 gallon AG batch. It'd be easy to do a 2.5 gallon AG batch on the stove, though.

i could do a 2.5 gallon batch. don't want to invest too much on initial learning process on beers that might not turn out too good. better to have a small batch to start out with. what would i really need besides a second pot?

 

[Yooper]

i could do a 2.5 gallon batch. don't want to invest too much on initial learning process on beers that might not turn out too good. better to have a small batch to start out with. what would i really need besides a second pot?

A big grain bag, unless you convert a cooler. I can't think of anything else, unless you want a wort chiller.

 

[sportscrazed2]

allright cool think i'm going to go for it looks really simple. mash the grains for an hour at specific temperature in 1 pot then remove bag and place in sparge water for 10 minutes or so then dispose of grains and mix the sparge water with the original mash. does that about sum it up?

 

[lumpher]

i brew in my garage. i use a sanke as a hlt, a rectangular 58 qt igloo as a mlt, and a sanke as a boil keg. i have the third keg for my masher, but haven't converted it yet. looking to have a herms within 2 months

 

[Yooper]

allright cool think i'm going to go for it looks really simple. mash the grains for an hour at specific temperature in 1 pot then remove bag and place in sparge water for 10 minutes or so then dispose of grains and mix the sparge water with the original mash. does that about sum it up?

Yeah, that'll work. Make sure you have some DME on hand, because this may or may not give a decent efficiency the first time. If you get good efficiency, that's great. If not, you can add some DME to bring up the gravity. The first couple of times are a learning experience!

You can do this with your computer on, and we can be here to coach you, so don't worry about it too much!

 

[lumpher]

allright cool think i'm going to go for it looks really simple. mash the grains for an hour at specific temperature in 1 pot then remove bag and place in sparge water for 10 minutes or so then dispose of grains and mix the sparge water with the original mash. does that about sum it up?

for most extract/partial-mash brews, you mash for 20-30 minutes, then dump the liquid (called tea) in the brew and boil for an hour, but ask yoop when questions come up. i'm using generalities.

 

[andyherrick]

The only thing I bought was parts for my MLT. I had the cooler. I also bought parts for an immersion chiller. I probably spent about $40 on all the parts. I had 5.5 gallon pot and a 2.5 gallon pot. I do split boils. If you do anything, I suggest building everything yourself. I have only done 3 all grains, but it all gets the job done. I bought the bare minimum of everything just to cut cost. Example 25 feet of copper coil or 50 feet. I chose 25. It works fine. Hope everything turns out fine.

 

[Challenger440]

I am too cheap to spend the bucks for a cooler, so I mash in my pot. I hit my strike temp, dough in, adjust the temp, then stick my pot into the (preheated) oven @ 200 degrees.

 

[McTarnamins]

Brew in Bag. I ditched my nice Igloo cooler mash tun for a $6 nylon mesh bag (Austinhomebrew.com) that goes in my 11 gallon brew pot. Definitely easier, cheaper, and makes great beers.

Make sure you do iodine starch test to insure full conversion with brew in bag. The only downfall I have found is the lack of a Vorlof step with the grain bag......I'm working on building in a recirculating pump to get this back in the process.

 

[HH60gunner]

I picked up a 52qt Coleman Xtreme on sale from Kmart for 28.99. From there it cost me about 12-15 bucks to buy the fittings and what not to turn it into my mash tun. After that I found a 15 gallon keg and a 7.5 gallon keg combo for 30 bucks. I haven't put any fittings on the kegs yet and plan to do so in the future.

 

[TANSTAAFB]

You can start simple and get more complex as you see fit, as money allows, and as you collect experience and equipment. I moved quickly from extract kits with specialty grains to partial mash to all grain. Deathbrewer's PM set up is freakin awesome and easy. I just kept the tutorial up while I brewed and had no problems...brewed a fantastic pale ale based on a Widmer Drifter clone recipe that is one of the cleanest and most complex brews I have ever done. I just cant stand payin $5 a lb. for DME, so I went all grain after 1 batch.

As for all grain, I found a 10 gal Gott cooler at a yard sale for $3, about $15-20 to install a stainless braid, fittings, and plastic ball valve (BTW, found all the info right here for conversion). This holds my temps perfectly through 1 hr mashes. I use a cheap 20 qt (5 gal) stainless pot I got from Big Lots for $10 (reg $20) because the lid had a broken handle, easily fixed w/ a couple stainless screws. I can boil 4.5 to 4.75 gal batches, just have to watch VERY carefully until hot break falls and @ hop additions. I have another 3 gal stainless pot I picked up at a community thrift store that I use for heating sparge water and collectin runnings from cooler. I have a gas range and my pot will straddle both burners so I brew in the house (much to SWMBO's chagrine--she hates the smell of wort but loves the uber clean kitchen!!!)

Coppper is crazy expensive and I'd rather buy more ingredients than an immersion chiller right now. Soooo, I boil water, let it cool aqnd precipitate out all the minerals from our hard ass Texas water, and rack into sanitized rubber seal tupperware containers and stick em in the freezer--sterile ice blocks that crash cool a batch and get me up to 5-5.5 gal batch size. I still use an ice bath in a big utility bucket to speed things along, but my sterile ice blocks work great and I have NEVER had a problem with infections, just be crazy anal about sanitation.

Finally, I dropped my cost by harvesting and washing yeast--which I also learned from these forums!!! I can design multiple recipes that use the same yeast strain and get 5-8 brews from 1 smack pack or vial. I harvest from the primary for original strain and found that harvesting from the secondary selects for a more attenuative strain that gets me a dry finish for say cream ale or dry stout. I built a stir plate (from these forums!!!) and make starters for every batch...use a blowoff tube or be prepared to cuss and clean =]

BUY BEERSMITH!!!!! It will save you a ton of guesswork and make your life way easier than trying to make mash calculations, conversions, and adjustments by hand.

Bottom line, you can save a ton by scrounging and building. And don't worry about making bad batches while you learn...I have never made a beer I wouldn't drink and learned very quickly from reading everything I could find in mags, books, and online. My father in law and I made our first beer drunk off our asses, made every mistake in the book, and the beer tasted great...a little like nanners, but great!

 

[mikeho]

Brew in a Bag is definitely the cheapest, maybe not the easiest. I got a 5 gallon pot off of freecycle, and a big mesh bag ($5 from morebeer), and I can mash up to 12 lbs of grain. Check http://www.rackers.org/calcs.shtml to see if you can fit your grains and water. The only hitch is I need to drain the wort into a different 2 gallon pot so I can batch sparge in the 5 gallon, so I sit the grain bag in a colander over a mixing bowl. Probably should get a cooler mash tun at some point, but this works for now.

 

[DrinkNoH2O]

is that a good burner? that's actually one i was thinking of getting. i'm thinking of waiting until spring to get into all grain though because it gets super cold here in winter and my garage is basically a storage unit and i don't want to clean it out

Yes, it's a good burner.

The included 32qt. (7.5 gallon) pot is a hair small though. You can only do a 6.5 gallon boil which isn't a problem for smaller (< 1.065) beers, but for larger beers you need to sparge off more water to rinse all of the sugars, and the extra sparge water won't fit in the pot so your efficiency suffers a bit.

My next upgrade will be moving to at least a 10 gallon pot for my 5 gallon batches or even bigger if I move to 10 gallon batches.

 

[sportscrazed2]

that burner looks like it will only fit a certain sized pot. will it fit anything bigger? also with brew in the bag do you need to recirculate hot water over the grain bag to get all the sugars out?

 

[Behemoth]

Brew in a bag. I went from extract to BIAB. Been making great beers there after. Read alot online and watch alot on you tube. I try to simplify everything I do, including Brewing Beer and this is the easiest and least expensive. After all, we want to drink beer.... not spend forever making it!

 

[sportscrazed2]

I have a 13 gallon cooler that seems to hold temperatures well (see other post). If I can get the parts go convert it for the same price as another pot would cost what would you recommended?

 

[JonK331]

For MLT, the bucket in bucket method works great and is very cheap. Most people on here use coolers but the bucket in bucket is what I prefer. The buckets are also rated to 180f while cooler manufacturers don't recommend putting hot liquid in them. I started out using the bucket in bucket thinking I would eventually upgrade to a cooler but I like it so much I have stuck with it, easy to clean, stackable, easy to make, efficient, and long lasting. BIAB might be a great place to start though. An outdoor burner is a great addition and at least an 8 gallon pot (10 is better) for 5 gallon batches.

 

[sportscrazed2]

I might start with brew in a bag because I don't want to be outside in the winter. I will try and find a turkey fryer with pot I can use on my stove. should i wait until after thanksgiving to look for a turkey fryer on sale?

 

[jaja]

Mine was done on the cheap but works a treat. Got a second hand cooler for $10, put in a $5 braid and tubing with $2 garden hose valve. Runnings go into a fermenter and get boiled in a 40L electric urn..

 

[Behemoth]

I use a 10 gallon pot and an outdoor burner. I dont use a MLT at all and my temps stay where I need them. Get a good bag. I use a nylon bag and clips to hold in place. Make sure you keep the bag off of the bottom to resist burning. An older stainless colander works great. Just hold your grain at the temps for this method, check for conversion with iodine then remove your bag, add hops and boil. Its easy....