New AG Setup - What would you do different?

[eko]

I'm starting to cobble together equipment to go AG. Need an MLT, bigger kettle, burner, chiller, false bottom / screen, valves, thermometer, etc. etc. Basically, it's safe to assume I'm starting with nothing. I was going to go as cheap as possible, but I've decided to sell some other stuff so I can afford to spend a little more where it will help.

I'd like to hear from your experience - if you could go back and start all over again, what piece of equipment would you spend a little more on? What features, brand, etc, would you want? As your equipment has evolved, what addition/change brought the most benefit to you?

Similarly, what's the one piece of equipment, feature, etc, that you could not brew without?

 

[SDCraftBeer]

I originally bought a "cheaper" mash tun...didn't hold temp and was frustrating. Don't skimp on this. Get a good mash tun so you don''t have to worry about it holding temp for an hour. Adventures in Homebrewing is where I got mine...very well built.

 

[eko]

Thanks. I see Adventures in Homebrewing has the 10 gallon igloos for 65, but shipping kills it. But I found TrueValue carries them for 60 with free ship-to-store.

What about chillers - immersion vs. counterflow + pump? I'm not sure I want one more piece of equipment to clean (the pump) but if they're that much more convenient than I'd consider it.

What about burners - I'm considering Bayou KAB4 vs KAB6 vs Blichmann?

Refractometers - any big differences here?

What else is worth spending a little extra on?

 

[dyqik]

QMake sure you get a big enough kettle - I bought a 32qt kettle, and it's a little too small for 5.5 gal batches (to fill a 5 gal keg) of brews where you want a 90 minute boil (anything pils malt, IPAs, etc) or where you'll have a lot of hop absorption. If you're cutting corners to keep the budget down, go for a larger pot, but without the fittings, and plan on siphoning until you can afford to fit a valve etc. I'm going to have to upgrade my kettle at some point. A 10 gal pot would also be big enough for biab, which will save you a lot of cash upfront.

I like my camp chef burner, the one with legs - it's 99 bucks, and puts the kettle at the right height for brewing without having to build a stand. Plenty of power for 5.5 gal batches.

I'd say start with a good immersion chiller. Then you can add a pump later to whirlpool if you want, or you can stir by hand to improve the chilling rate. Even if you later change to another chiller, you can use the immersion chiller as a prechiller your water.

 

[Cyclman]

I would get a good banjo burner, a 20G kettle, and a Wilserbrewer BIAB. Assuming you have a chiller / ferm control, etc.

Simple, makes great AG beer in 10G+ batches.

 

[day_trippr]

If building a stand, make it stainless. You won't regret it. Painted mild steel is a pita...

Cheers!

 

[eko]

Appreciate the responses. I was afraid settling for a smaller kettle would be a mistake, seems like you're all validating that. I'll look for bigger pots, with an eye toward adding weldless fittings down the road. Probably 15-20 gallon capacity depending on cost.

Building a stand is further down the road, but I'll make a note about stainless over painted steel.

Kind of relieved nobody's jumped on CFC + pump for beginning setup. It seemed like more cost and work than I wanted to get into at this point. As I look at ICs, most seem to come in either 25' or 50' with the difference being around $35. I'm tempted to go big here and get 50' under the assumption that'll 'future proof'. (Any kettles I use will likely be 15 - 20 gallons, though for batch size I expect for a while to stay at 5 gallons post-boil target.) Anyone think I'm overkill going for the 50' copper IC?

That leads me to the burner. Here's where I've been tempted to spend more and just get the Blichmann. Most of the banjos people recommend are typically between $80 - 100, or more. The love affair most Blichmann burner owners seem to have is tempting, along with claims of lower propane use, easier conversion to natural gas down the road, high re-sale value. There seems a lot of personal preference to burners, but I'm open to opinions.

I wouldn't say I have great fermentation temp control. I get by right now with a swamp cooler, putting the fermenter in a container with ice, wrapping a towel around it and turning the box fan on high. Less of an issue when ambient temps will hang around 65F (fall) and move down to 55 (winter). I've been trying to study the DIY fermentation 'chamber' threads. If anyone thinks this is something I should tackle sooner than later, please let me know.

Thanks again for all the advice.

 

[blizz81]

I would probably say start with the burner, larger kettle, and better fermentation control if you can / if you want to piece the expenses out.


One thing I would check on a 50' with a large kettle would be how much copper you're going to have in contact with the wort if you do 5 gallon batches. Some are taller than others, efficiency might suffer as a result. A 25' with recirculating ice water by means of a submersible pump is pretty good for at least 5 gal batches, but if you find a 50' that can still fit most of its copper lower (to some degree you could stretch or compress the coils), could be even better.


Something like this ( https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/50-dedicated-herms-468563/ ) could help if you get a cheaper mash tun and / or one that doesn't hold temp well and / or if you want to stay dialed in on temp and recirc. Not too pricey. We bought a pricey ($250) GOTT-style mash tun "made for homebrewing" that lost about 10-15 degrees in an hour on the mash. Do some reading around, enough people have cheaper Igloos and the like that work a lot better than that.

 

[kh54s10]

My cheap rig is a wooden 3 tier setup.

10 gallon pot on a turkey fryer burner for my HLT. I have a filtered water line installed so filling it is just opening the valve. It has a thermometer and sight glass and ball valve.

Next is my mash tun. Home Depot 10 gallon water cooler, water heater supply line braid on a ball valve. Batch sparge needs less expensive equipment. No false bottom.

This drains into my 10 gallon boil kettle on a Bayou Classic SP10 burner. It has a ball valve to drain to my fermenters.

Each station is positioned so that it will drain to the station below. No pumps and no need to lift large amounts of liquid.

This has since been turned around so the BK is next to the sink for chilling.

 

[benm1024]

My main advice would be to think about what you want to do in the future, and buy accordingly so you're not re-buying stuff when possible.

 

[ndinh]

Like everyone mentioned above, get a large SS kettle. I'd go either 10 or 15 gallons for 5 gallon batches. That'll also prevent boil-overs. I'd recommend spending the cash on a large kettle, a smaller kettle for your HLT and a 10g round igloo, with the pieces separate. Spend the money on a welded one because drilling SS is a pain. Buy a pump. Best investment ever. Buy brass quick disconnects because they work and they're much cheaper than SS. You can go cheap and use a SS braid instead of a false bottom. Pay a little more and get a plate chiller instead of an IM. If you decide to ramp up, the IM won't do the trick. I started with a turkey fryer from Wallymart because it's cheap and works. When you get a stand, you'll buy new burners anyways. When that time comes, look into SS. I made the mistake and saved a bit by buying a painted steel single tier stand. Pealing paint looks like crap.

 

[eko]

Well I got my hands on a keggle for a decent price. Which I suppose is going to influence the burner I get, if I recall some of the fryers can't hold the size of the keg.

ndinh, I'm curious about the SS braid. Are you talking about for the kettle or mash tun? I'm assuming you meant for the kettle because a SS braid in a mash cooler would be more likely to get stuck sparges, wouldn't it? I was thinking of building a hop-spider for the kettle. For the mash, I now have a 10 gallon igloo cooler, I assumed I'd have to get a false bottom.

kh54s10, that's a nice setup. Unfortunately, I don't have the space to make mine permanent. No garage or other near-outside space. Brew days are going to be carry equipment outside from the basement, setup, brew, clean and tear down. Looking forward to AG so I'm at least outside and not working in an already cramped kitchen.

 

[blizz81]

You could do something like a slotted copper tube (or manifold) with or without a SS braid over it to prevent the SS braid from getting smushed, which was really the main problem I had with them re: stuck runoff.

 

[DurtyChemist]

Is skip the turkey fryer burners and go to the Blichmann. I might go with a 20 gallon kettle if you want to be able to BIAB and do 10 gallon batches of big bees (1.070+). If you go BIAB just remember you'll have to lift that 25lbs of grain out and it won't be dry.

 

[LandoLincoln]

Avoid using the SS braided hose in your mash tun. They have a high failure rate. They work for a lot of people, but they don't for a lot of people as well. I was one of the "didn't work" crowd.

If you're looking to save money, build one out of CPVC pipe. That works really, really well.