When to make the jump?

[Gerry_P]

God I wish I lived where the tap water didn't taste like dirt,smell like dirt. Leaves me buying jugs of water to make extract batches. Just can't imagine how long it would take to r/o mash, sparge water. Go for it op, I wish I could.

You probably thought of this, but would a carbon filter help? I found this thing by this guy that goes into detail about it: http://brewery.org/library/FiltBrita0596.html

 

[brewshki]

Nah man, you didn't rile anyone up. Except maybe the guy talking about d**cks and stuff.

Glad to hear it haha. Now I'm just running through scenarios about tiering the system with what I have on hand in order to avoid a pump haha. It's a fun problem to have though now that I am leaning towards the coolers and fly sparging

 

[Gerry_P]

Glad to hear it haha. Now I'm just running through scenarios about tiering the system with what I have on hand in order to avoid a pump haha. It's a fun problem to have though now that I am leaning towards the coolers and fly sparging

That's what I would do. You'll get a good feel for the process without having to worry about how to work the equipment. There's a certain satisfaction in knowing that you can brew anything you want with just a stove, pot, and cooler. It's a good idea to have a way to cool your wort quickly, but that can be as simple as a tub/sink and ice water. I don't know if that was covered yet, but that's no different than if you were doing extract.

 

[madman960]

Did one MR. Beer kit and moved to AG. It is a lot more fun and rewarding. Your personal experience may vary.

Here is how I do it. I mash like a traditional AGer except I normally mash with my boil volume. Put my grain bag in the water cooler. Dump mash into water cooler. (Not the safest, but works) Put grain bag in another pot. Dump wort back into the kettle. Put colander in water cooler and place grain bag inside. Put wort on high while grain drains and cools enough to squeeze bag. Dump into the rest of the wort and finish as usual. 80% efficiency and the beer was good.





New method I am trying:



Mashing in a rectangular Igloo cooler. Keeps ice for 5 days and does not drop temp during mash. Still dumping mash into the grain bag. Just did my first sparge. Will let you know how the beer turns out in a few weeks.

Bill

 

[brewshki]

Got the cooler system tonight for my birthday. Wasn't sure and didn't want to jinx it so I bought one more extract kit earlier today. The store also isn't open on Labor Day, so I had to buy it today if I wanted the chance to brew at all. I have an IPA that will be done soonish and then my first all grain batch.