Sister wants to buy me AG equipment...please advise!

[climateboy]

Hey, all. My fabulous sister is super-enthusiastic about my homebrewing, and she has expressed interest in setting me up with an all-grain system for my birthday. I want to make this as inexpensive for her as possible, and as easy as possible--she's not terribly internet-savvy, so I don't want to have her chasing down equipment all over the web.

I've been doing extract and PM brews, so I have fermenters, etc. I only have a 5 gallon pot. I don't have a mill.

What should I tell her? How can I make this happen? Please advise, HBT!


CB

 

[Parker36]

Big pot and a burner. Do you have an MLT? Some kind of cooling system?

 

[JesseRC]

What about some AHS gift certificates. You get what you need from there and DIY the rest. You dont have to tell her exactly what you bought, worse case scenario, you have money to buy some all grain recipes.

 

[Bobby_M]

At the very least you need a 10 gallon pot, a converted cooler for a MLT, and a wort chiller. If your stovetop can't boil 7 gallons of liquid, you'll need an outdoor propane burner.

 

[brewt00l]

Just point her to Sabco

I'm with Bobby...cooler for an MLT and parts, burner & kettle, chiller and all can be thrown together on the cheap. Heck, tell her just to start of with a Lowes or HD gift card!

 

[Monster Mash]

There is no such thing as a cheap all grain set up that you can just purchase off the internet.

I agree with everyone else though, get a bigger pot and a burner then build the rest yourself.

 

[Revvy]

There's this....NORTHERN BREWER: All-Grain Equipment

It's a two cooler setup up with false bottoms, but doesn't include the burner or the kettle. Most of us use one cooler in our setups...and make them ourselves.

Of course you could suggest she just get you a prepaid credit card type gift card like the VISA gift card, for a set amount of money, and let you order it all yourself. That way you can shop for one or two cheap coolers at Homedepot, along with the assorted hardware for the braid and spigot if you go that route, the Turkey Fryer on sales at like Target, and the wort chiller and assorted homebrew gear from an lhbs or onlne...

You can get everything you need to start out pretty reasonable... turkey fryer w/ kettle (between 30 and 50 bucks.)

A 10 gallon cooler 40 bucks plus about 20 for Flyguys mashtun conversion (plans here online)

A wort chiller is about 50 bucks...

You could outfit yourself for about 3-350 pretty decently, cheaper if you shop around.

 

[McKBrew]

Your sister is cool. Is she single, do you have another sister?

I'd agree that the best bet is a prepaid gift card in a set amount. Good luck.

 

[Revvy]

Yeah....I think his sis is pretty cool too....and I was wondering the same thing.

 

[Jaybird]

How much $$$ do you think she is going to fork over for your gift? Why don't we start there?
JJ

 

[ScubaSteve]

For things like coolers,etc.....create a wishlist on Amazon. You might be able to score an instawares pot off there if she's up for it. Or, go with the gift certificate as mentioned above and KISS. I don't suggest buying a cooler from a HBS, though. They like to call them "Mash Tuns" or some other kinda fancy name. Apparently, they're like twice the price of a regular cooler......

 

[BrewinJack]

Your sister is cool. Is she single, do you have another sister?

I'd agree that the best bet is a prepaid gift card in a set amount. Good luck.

Mc, and Revvy beat me to it, i hate being that last one to ask if your sister is single, it means that by the time i get to ask if she was then she probably isnt... i mean i could use sombody to be enthuiastic about me homebrew and other stuff... life just isnt fair.

cheers

 

[ahansler]

The Brewing Network &bull; View topic - How to go from Extract to AG for < $10.00

 

[climateboy]

Thanks, guys! Although, sorry, my sister isn't single, and she's my only sister. But, uh, she thinks you're all hot.

Anyway, the way this all started was I asked for a gift certificate to AHS, and she said, "nah, what do you need?". Some people don't like giving cash (or it's equivalent).

Keep the suggestions coming, though. About the equipment, I mean.

CB

 

[Revvy]

Thanks, guys! Although, sorry, my sister isn't single, and she's my only sister. But, uh, she thinks you're all hot.

Anyway, the way this all started was I asked for a gift certificate to AHS, and she said, "nah, what do you need?". Some people don't like giving cash (or it's equivalent).

Keep the suggestions coming, though. About the equipment, I mean.

CB

Well we don't know what if anything you already have, so it's hard to put together a list for you.

You need a mashtun...many of us use the typical 10 gallon Igloo Cooler Which homedepot has often on sale for 40 dollars.

You need a braid or manifold set up...a lot of us use this.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/cheap-easy-10-gallon-rubbermaid-mlt-conversion-23008/

I think the parts cost me $25.00

You'll need a Turkey fryer...they range from 29.95 to 60.00 dollars depending where and when you are looking for it. I got mine for 29.95 at Kroger's the week before thanksgiving...I think they were getting rid of the square framed ones and replacing them with the round framed one.

Ace - Ace Tree: Outdoor Living: Grills & Outdoor Cooking: Fryers & Fryer Parts: Fryers: Bayou Classic Single Burner Turkey Fryer Kit (3066A)

You can brew with the 30 quart pot included (I do using foam control drops) or you can look for a larger pot, depending on where you shop 10 gallon pots can run anywhere from 50 to a couple hundred bucks.

Those are the two basic things you need for AG on top of your "regular" brewing kit of fermenters, hydromter, racking setup bottle capper.

Some people get fancier and rig up a second cooler as a water tank (HLT) but I do fine with just pouring my heated water in the cooler.

But that's basically it...Like we said you really can't find a "kit" that has everything, and buying the cooler/mashtun and turkey fryer through a homebrew shop or online will be ridiculously overpriced...they charge at least, I've seen" 80 bucks for the unmodified 10 gallon cooler...but you can always catch a sale.

 

[climateboy]

Hey, y'all, is an 8 gallon pot big enough to do a full wort boil for a 5 gallon batch? And, is a ball valve strictly necessary? Pros and cons?

 

[climateboy]

Oh, and, I have a full kit otherwise for the extract and PM batches I've been doing...5 gallon pot, siphons, buckets, hydrometers...no wort chiller, though.

 

[Anthony_Lopez]

If you already have a 5 gallon pot, and you've decided that you'll need a larger one for going all-grain (you DO need a larger one) I'd suggest going with a 10-15 gallon boil pot so you never had to upgrade. Going with a larger pot will also allow you to collect more runnings which will aid in efficiency. I did a lot of reading and searching before I chose what I was going to use for my step up to all grain.

I use:

1x 15.5 gallon sanke keg converted to a boil pot:
$35 - Keg
$32 - Weldless keggle conversion kit @ Bargain Fittings

1x SQ14 Propane burner @ Home Depot
$20 - Got a deal at home depot for buying one with a torn up box.
($40) - Original Price

Mashtun -
$40- 1 x 10 gallon igloo round cooler @ Home Depot
$40 - Stainless steel false bottom from Morebeer
$34 - Stainless steel cooler conversion kit from Bargain Fittings
$4 - Couple feet of silicone tubing

Immersion Chiller -
$32.50 - 50' of 1/2" Refridgeration tubing @
CopperTubingSales.com :: ICS Indsutries ::
~$5 - 1/2" copper elbows at ace hardware to complete the build...


This is EXACTLY what I bought...

 

[Laughing_Gnome_Invisible]

Price is important to me. I like saving money. I seem to be buying a lot of stuff on Amazon lately for good value.

Grizzly grain mill $29 delivered
Bayou SQ 14 burner $50 delivered (I think)

The easiest thing she can get you is the cooler for the mash tun though.

 

[Revvy]

Hey, y'all, is an 8 gallon pot big enough to do a full wort boil for a 5 gallon batch? And, is a ball valve strictly necessary? Pros and cons?

Like I said in my post, you CAN use a turkey fryer pot if you use ferm cap foam control drops, that's what I do, or you can go larger...

A ball valve on the kettle is a nice option but not necessary. I use my immersion wort chiller to cool then rack to my fermenter with my auto siphon...More than likely when I get a larger pot, I would put a ballvalve on it...but I may not either...My way works fine for me right now.

 

[mmb]

I've got a 15G pot and I rack after cooling. *shrug* It allows me to get the wort above the cold break and keep that stuff out of the fermentor.

I'll change that when I build my single tier system, but as is I pour my batch sparge water into the tun. Easy enough doing double batch sparge and when I do 10G batches I get someone to help pour and lift.

 

[climateboy]

Thanks for all this, guys. One more question...in looking at a cooler conversion, is there an advantage to using a stainless steel ball valve and barb over a brass ball valve and barb?

 

[Boerderij_Kabouter]

There's this....NORTHERN BREWER: All-Grain Equipment

I would suggest the above or a three keggle, three burner system. That is what I started with and have been very happy with it. Could be done easily for under $400.

 

[climateboy]

...and, has anyone used a stainless steel wort chiller? Do they work as well as copper?

 

[Boerderij_Kabouter]

I am going with stainless for the chiller. It has been debated a lot and the consensus is that it does not make much difference.

 

[mmb]

Thanks for all this, guys. One more question...in looking at a cooler conversion, is there an advantage to using a stainless steel ball valve and barb over a brass ball valve and barb?

It's STAINLESS! *BLING*

Brass used to have issues with lead content, but now they have so called "lead free" brass. Nothing to worry about anymore. I use a brass ball valve, pipe nipple and barb without issue.

Depending on the material of your pot you *MIGHT* have a possibility of galvanic corrosion but it would be very rare for the quantities of fluid a home brewer uses.

If someone else is buying it, go stainless. These look perrdy!

 

[climateboy]

So, this is what I've got put together. I used Midwest Brewing Supplies because they had everything in stock, and the prices were decent:

10 gallon Polarware pot.

stainless steel wort chiller

Barley Crusher Malt Mill

Single infusion mash tun (10 gal cooler, with ball valve)

Kewler thermothingy and dial thermometer, for installing thermometer in mash tun.


Total $516.15

Whaddya think?

 

[Boerderij_Kabouter]

I think you will be very happy! I would add a ball valve to the boil kettle because moving that amount of liquid can be very difficult. Or you can just use a siphon and upgrade later.

You are a lucky dog!!!!

 

[mmb]

Looks like a great gift!

She looking for a brother from a different mother? I think I got socks from my sister this year.

 

[climateboy]

I know, seriously. All I asked for was a gift certificate.