Switching Over to All Grain. What to do?

[CABeerMaker]

I've been brewing for 2 years now and have made some tasties with extract brewing. I am looking into switching over to all grain and had someone donate a 36 gal industrial food grade stainless steel tank with a lid. There are 4 ports on the side that are some strange size more than 3/8 pipe less than 1/2 inch pipe. I am drilling these out and converting them to 1/2 pipe so they can be plugged or used for some other purpose. There is also a 1 1/4 inch pipe coming out about 3 inches above the bottom of the tank and another 1 1/4 inch pipe coming out of the bottom that I have plugged for now.

I guess my real question is how can I incorporate this tank into a brew rig and what else would you recommend? I am an industrial maintenance mechanic and have access to numerous stainless fittings, pipe, tubing etc.

 

[Opherman47]

welp depends on how much you are brewing...... i would use it as a boil kettle..... then get academy sports 152 quart (38 gallon) cooler as your mash tun...... then you just need one more of those things and you have a 25 gallon 3 tier...... with no worries of boil over.... but that is a pretty big brew rig for just one guy which is awsome!!!!

 

[BrewBeemer]

You have the start of a great all grain brewing system, congrats on your find.
As with the previous reply next you need to collect other kettles with the proper volume to what I call a balanced system. By this you are able to brew a big maximum volume in gallons with all your ketttles reaching their maxed out volume at the same time. This without any one be it your HLT, MLT or Boil kettle preventing your reaching the maximum volume that the other kettles could handle. It looks like a big fermenter with many corny's or 1/2kegs are in your future plus large spare refrigerators. Brew on.

 

[Homercidal]

That is a very big piece of equipment. How much are you planning to brew at a time??

 

[tipicreeper]

Pics please

 

[BrewBeemer]

I like it, hell brew big or go home. No J/K.

The only problem's I ever had when I was a 3 way partner in a 30 gallon home brewery years ago was when the group could get together at once to help brew plus the cost of those big grain bills. The War Department was pissed one year as I used my Visa card and ordered three different grains for 30 gallon batches each on one order. She pays the household bills, this one came in before I got reimbursed from my partners. My future brewing became a solo brewing thing. The best part was all the help cleaning up and everyone had two corny's full each.
I find it best to brew by yourself no partners to fight over who geets what when we split up or who buys who out and by how much. Feelings and your investment money can get hurt. Trust me on the last two statements.
Get the other kettles to match that volume and go do some brewing.
Cheers, go for it if the wallet can handle the brewery build.

 

[CABeerMaker]

Thanks for the info guys. I am looking at possibly a 30 gal system and am currently trying run down a few more of these kettles. I will upload some pics when I get the chance. I am going to Vegas for the Country Music Awards this weekend and wont have much time until next week. I am also going to plant hops next weekend. 2 Chinook and 2 Centennials, as I have a friend who is currently planting 12 Cascade and we will do some trading.

 

[CABeerMaker]

OK, so I took some pics this morning and uploaded them to my gallery. Still need to figure out how to get them in this thread.

 

[CABeerMaker]

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[BargainFittings]

Fixed that for you. I thought my lawn was getting high!

 

[CABeerMaker]

Thanks, Just got my mower out of the shop and then took off for Vegas. Now that I'm home I will finally get to the grass. Also got a message that my rhizomes are in so I will be planting before the end of the week.