Moving to all grain with a couple questions

[prince87x]

I am in the process of planning my move over to an all grain setup. I plan to make my mash tun from a Home Depot 10 gallon cooler.

I've been looking around at kettles and this one has shown up at $115 with free shipping. The problem being is it's only 8 gallons. It seems like some people do 12 gallon batches to take into consideration the losses you incur from boiling and trub and such.

Doing upwards of 12 gallons I can understand being just fine with the 10 gallon mash tun because of the methods of sparging you don't have all 10-12 gallons of water in the mash tun at the same time. The problem would be with once you drain it all into the kettle to boil it you're going to have all 10-12 gallons in there right so an 8 gal kettle doesn't seem like it's going to cut it for me. Even a 10 gal kettle seems like it wouldn't do the trick.

On the other hand I do see a 15 gallon kettle for $185 and free shipping that doesn't seem like a bad deal either. Those Blichmann kettles are very nice but they're upwards of $295+ and don't think free shipping so that's a bit out of my league and probably not necessary for me. These other options seem like they'll do the job just fine.

Some thoughts from you guys would be appreciated!

 

[WoodlandBrew]

I would recommend starting all grain using your largest spaghetti pot and the Brew in a Bag method. However, if you really want to do large batches you may need a larger burner. The gas range I have (which is middle of the line when it comes to stoves) will get four gallons of water to a boil and keep it rolling, but not much more.

In terms of which pot to buy, any of those should be equally fine.

 

[prince87x]

I've been extract brewing in my 5 gallon kettle and it does take my stove a decent amount of time to get that up to a boil. I just may try the BIAB method a time or two before making the large investment up to a full setup. You're right that I'm going to need burner to handle a larger setup as that 15 gallon kettle is going to be pretty big and my stove is not going to handle 10-12 gallons.

In the mean time there's no reason not to do a BIAB or two with my 5 gallon kettle to get started with all grain. That way I'll have a little experience with it before going full steam ahead.