Going to All Grain Soon

[Hulud]

and I'm stressing out with all the reading I'm doing so I am obviously not reading right.

So right now I extract brew and I know I need a bigger pot (or kettle) cause right now I have a 5 gal and I am reading that I need atleast a 10 gal. So then I read I need a mash tun (which i see is easy to make out of a rubbermaid cooler). Then I also need a Hot Liquor Tank? Also the whole thing about false bottoms is that only in the mash tun? As for a brew kettle I was looking at the Bayou Classic with a spigot on it. Would I need to alter that in any way?

Thanks I know its a lot of questions but I have seemed to confuse myself...

 

[Hulud]

oh and i forgot that i would need a wort chiller

 

[Face Eater]

I use a 9 gallon pot and it works well but bigger is better. The false bottom is in the mash tun or some people use a stainless braid or manifold of some type. Hot liquor tank is basically just a cooler with a ball valve (similar to the mash tun without the false bottom).

 

[Face Eater]

Wort chiller definitely. I made a immersion chiller from about 30 ft of 5/8 copper tubing and I can chill from a boil to pitching temps in about 10 minutes. My water is cold so that is a factor in chilling time.

 

[Hulud]

I use a 9 gallon pot and it works well but bigger is better. The false bottom is in the mash tun or some people use a stainless braid or manifold of some type. Hot liquor tank is basically just a cooler with a ball valve (similar to the mash tun without the false bottom).

so do i need 2 diff coolers one for mash tun and one for hlt?

 

[brandonhagen1]

you dont need a hlt you can heat your sparge water in your kettle and run your first runnings into a bucket and still get the same effect as long as you batch sparge

 

[Face Eater]

you dont need a hlt you can heat your sparge water in your kettle and run your first runnings into a bucket and still get the same effect as long as you batch sparge

Yea I am a fly sparger so I do but with batch sparging you won't. I always forget about that since I have never batch sparged. So depending on which process you want to follow that will determine of you need a hlt or not.

 

[Hang Glider]

Yeah, don't stress out.

Mash Tun - rubbermaid (or other) cooler with a manifold or false bottom - you don't want the grains after it's done, just the sugary sweet wort.

Hot Liquor Tank - something to hold hot water. like for sparging (rinsing the grains in your mash tun).

You heat water to 170-ish, and pour into the Mash Tun. 1.25 quarts of hot water per pound of grain to be used.

Put your 9-13lbs of grains (recipe dependent) CRUSHED, into the mash tun. An electric drill and a clean paint-stirrer work great. After adding grains, the water temp should be about 154. Adjust if necessary. Do you have a good thermometer? You'll need one.

Now, let it sit an hour.

Good? okay, heat some more water (3 -4 gallons) to about 195F, store in your Hot Liquor Tank (once it's mixed with the slightly used grains, it will hit about 168F).

Drain your Mash Tun into your boil kettle - catch the first runnings, (they'll be full of husks) and return them to the Mash Tun (this is vourlaufing). Do this until it's clear.

after the Mash Tun is drained into your boil kettle, add your hot liquor tank water (sparge water) and stir the sugars off those remnant husks...and vourlauf and drain into your boil kettle.

Top off your boil kettle to 6.5 gallons (or stop sparging at 6.5 gallons) and go boil that sweet stuff. (a full rolling boil will get you down to 5.5 or 5.0 gallons in an hour)

proceed to add hops, etc per recipe.

Okay, was that so hard?
Welcome to All Grain!!!

 

[stux]

Actually, you don't need an HLT or an MLT

You just *need* a boil kettle, 5 gallons will work, 10 would be better

Look into BIAB - Brew In A Bag

 

[Rev2010]

You only need the HLT if you plan on fly sparging. I batch sparge so I just have a 10 gallon Rubbermaid cooler as the MLT. With batch sparging you add the sparge water directly to your MLT. It basically goes like this:

Let's say you have a 9lb grain bill for something like a hefeweizen. You mash with about 3 gallons of water. While you are mashing you heat your sparge water in another pot - it helps to have another pot for this, I use my original 5 gallon kettle. My brew kettle is a 10 gallon Blichmann. After the mash time is up you vorlauf to clear the first runnings (would do this as well with fly sparging) then you drain the first runnings into your boil kettle. Then, depending on how many sparges you plan to do, I do two typically, you take your first sparge water, say for this instance 2.3 gallons, and add it to the MLT. You stir it up and let it sit for 5-10 minutes. You then vorlauf again and drain into your boil kettle. You then do it one more time.

At the end you have your pre-boil volume. You use a batch sparge calculator to figure out your sparge volumes and also your strike temp. It might sound complicated but it's so ridiculously easy I can't begin to tell you. These numbers are rough examples, it would differ depending on how much water you are mashing in and pre-boiling with. Just wanted to help explain it.


Rev.

 

[wilserbrewer]

Actually, you don't need an HLT or an MLT

You just *need* a boil kettle, 5 gallons will work, 10 would be better

Look into BIAB - Brew In A Bag

Yep...I agree with the above...w/ your five gallon kettle and a two dollar paintstrainer bag you could do a 4 gallon batch w/ your kettle. Start simple and build as you see fit

 

[Rev2010]

Yep...I agree with the above...w/ your five gallon kettle and a two dollar paintstrainer bag you could do a 4 gallon batch w/ your kettle. Start simple and build as you see fit

How do people BIAB with a 5 gallon kettle? With BIAB don't you start with your full preboil volume + what is counted for grain absorption? I would think that would be well over 5 gallons


Rev.

 

[EdWort]

Actually, you don't need an HLT or an MLT

You just *need* a boil kettle, 5 gallons will work, 10 would be better

Look into BIAB - Brew In A Bag

I agree. It's very easy to do with a turkey fryer. I use a pizza screen to drain, but I would not hesitate to do 5 gallon batches with this. Then can spend money on a chiller.

 

[1MadScientist]

Agree with stux,

...No stress, you can make small batches with your existing pot, just buy a 2 pak of the 5 gal paint strainer bags from lowes or hd and look at guys like C-Rider are doing. An immersion chiller is a nice to have. This will get your feet wet instead of 2 feet on the ground running...

 

[Hulud]

thanks guys!

my fiance bought me some stuff from HD to build a MLT so I am gonna put that together and getting a few other things for xmas, now just need to find time to sit down and actually do this

 

[ghpeel]

Frag all that noise. You need neither a fancy mash setup, nor a chiller.

I mash in an unmodified 5gal cooler($10) lined with a paint strainer bag ($3-4). BIAB style, but with standard mash volumes. Usually 14 qt mash and about the same sparge.

I have a big pot (7.5gal) and a small pot(4gal). I heat up the mash water in the big pot, and the sparge in the small. I drain from my mash tun into the big pot, while I finish heating up the sparge in the small. Bag-mashing means NO STUCK SPARGE, EVER. Even with 2lb pumpkin in the mash.

After the boil, I drain into my No Chill Tank (see threads on this site for info).

I could re-create my setup for about $30 from scratch, not counting the propane rig.

My beers routinely get destroyed at parties, and I won a little mini-contest among a few brewing friends with my Pumpkin Lager. Scored a 40 in a comp with one of my first No Chill brews, a Scotch Ale. Brewing is a fantastic hobby, and you can have a blast working on all kind of crazy gear, but you do NOT NEED a fancy rig to make awesome beer.

 

[Drunkenfool]

Lots of good info. Good luck. Use half barrels and go for 10 gal for sure