All Grain equipment on a budget

Bones · Post by **Bones** » Thu Mar 21, 2013 11:38 am

Thanks to Brandon for letting me sit in on a brew day last weekend I am on the hunt for all grain equipment.

Budget is a big factor and finding used equipment is harder finding starter extract kits. I have a ton of carboys, kegs, turkey fryer burner, etc. I just need larger kettles and burners which equals $$

I also would like the ability to do 10 gallon batches

Northern Brewer 10 gallon system for $250 or so
http://www.northernbrewer.com/shop/delu ... allon.html

Highlander Brewing has a 10 and 15 gallon that's a bit different and more expensive, but you get more than just a couple coolers and tubing. Although I am not a fan of aluminum for any kettle be it brewing or cooking with. They sell just the cooler, but it's $200

http://www.highlanderbrewingsupply.com/ ... Categories

http://www.highlanderbrewingsupply.com/ ... Categories

brownbeard · Post by **brownbeard** » Thu Mar 21, 2013 12:18 pm

Why buy? Make. My kettles are all re-purposed kegs. You should be able to have two 15gal kettles for less than $100.

Bones · Post by **Bones** » Thu Mar 21, 2013 12:20 pm

brownbeard wrote:Why buy? Make. My kettles are all re-purposed kegs. You should be able to have two 15gal kettles for less than $100.

Yes, I planned on kegs and have a line on one already. Problem is all the stuff that goes with it. Fittings, tubing, pumps, burners and on and on. It adds up fast.

Bones · Post by **Bones** » Thu Mar 21, 2013 1:46 pm

I may start off with the brew in a bag method and go from there. Minimal investment needed other than cutting a hole in the free keg.

brownbeard · Post by **brownbeard** » Thu Mar 21, 2013 2:12 pm

Bones wrote:
brownbeard wrote:Why buy? Make. My kettles are all re-purposed kegs. You should be able to have two 15gal kettles for less than $100.
Yes, I planned on kegs and have a line on one already. Problem is all the stuff that goes with it. Fittings, tubing, pumps, burners and on and on. It adds up fast.

You said you have a turkey fryer. That is all I use. My mash tun was previously the family's oldest cooler. I did buy a weldless bulkhead for the drain on the kettle. That will run you about $35. You don't need a pump, gravity is free. Switching to all grain is cheap. In fact, within a year, it should save you far more than you spend on it. Now, going fancy all grain is a difference story. My system consists of a cooler, a keggle, and a turkey fryer.

Bones · Post by **Bones** » Thu Mar 21, 2013 2:15 pm

Yes I understand I can do it far cheaper and I will. I don't care if I have pumps, gravity is fine by me. Mainly just don't want to buy the wrong stuff once only to buy what I should have to begin with. Clear as mud?

-MG- · Post by **-MG-** » Thu Mar 21, 2013 2:32 pm

I agree on using a Sanke as your brew pot.

If you are going BIAB, the nice benefit here is that it's easy to step up systems as you become more and more experienced you can venture out more and more. Eventually you can have a full setup with a hot liquor tank, mash tun, and bk and all you have to do is get more kegs.

Weldless fittings aren't that bad. At first you really only need to put one port so you can drain the keggle to your fermenter.

I haven't had much luck (although I haven't tried), there is a metal scrap yard in marion and if you call over there they will go look in the yard for some kegs. Last time they had some smaller ones (no not corny kegs), but he said they see them all the time. I think they sell them for like $30-40.

This would allow you later on to just add more to your setup instead of replacing what you already bought.

Glad to see you are getting into all grain!

Bones · Post by **Bones** » Thu Mar 21, 2013 2:34 pm

Thanks Marion Iron is not far from me. I will call this weekend just to see what they say

carrisr · Post by **carrisr** » Thu Mar 21, 2013 2:35 pm

My setup is pretty much the same. I have a turkey fryer propane burner, and I admit that I'm still using the cheap aluminum kettle that came with it (I'm doing small batches so 7.5 gallon BK works well). I added a brass weldless valve to it and a hop screen. I use a beverage cooler for my mash tun, to which I added the same weldless valve and a small "bazooka" screen. You can start out with brass valves to save some $$ over stainless, or opt for SS right away.

I had the same BK when I started doing extract, so the only additions to go all grain for me were the cooler and a cheap grain mill. I started with a corona mill and more recently upgraded to a barley crusher. Over time I've also added a few toys such as a pH meter and a thermapen, but those are certainly not required to make great beer. Many of the accessories that you see added on to kits are not needed, they're more a matter of preference or convenience. For example, many mash tun kits have SS false bottoms. You can skip that fairly expensive item and go with a braid (if using a cooler) which is pretty easy to make yourself.

There really is no wrong equipment though. Mostly it's a matter of preference. Most items can be upgraded incrementally if you want.

On 03/21/2013 03:12 PM, brownbeard wrote:

Bones wrote: brownbeard wrote: Why buy? Make. My kettles are all re-purposed kegs. You should be able to have two 15gal kettles for less than $100.
Yes, I planned on kegs and have a line on one already. Problem is all the stuff that goes with it. Fittings, tubing, pumps, burners and on and on. It adds up fast.
You said you have a turkey fryer. That is all I use. My mash tun was previously the family's oldest cooler. I did buy a weldless bulkhead for the drain on the kettle. That will run you about $35. You don't need a pump, gravity is free. Switching to all grain is cheap. In fact, within a year, it should save you far more than you spend on it. Now, going fancy all grain is a difference story. My system consists of a cooler, a keggle, and a turkey fryer.

You can't get with this with a bad hip - Matt

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carrisr · Post by **carrisr** » Thu Mar 21, 2013 2:43 pm

Oh, I forgot to say that I don't have a separate vessel for an HLT either. I use my BK to heat the water. I do batch sparge though so I don't really need an HLT.

On 03/21/2013 03:37 PM, carrisr wrote:

My setup is pretty much the same. I have a turkey fryer propane burner, and I admit that I'm still using the cheap aluminum kettle that came with it (I'm doing small batches so 7.5 gallon BK works well). I added a brass weldless valve to it and a hop screen. I use a beverage cooler for my mash tun, to which I added the same weldless valve and a small "bazooka" screen. You can start out with brass valves to save some $$ over stainless, or opt for SS right away.

I had the same BK when I started doing extract, so the only additions to go all grain for me were the cooler and a cheap grain mill. I started with a corona mill and more recently upgraded to a barley crusher. Over time I've also added a few toys such as a pH meter and a thermapen, but those are certainly not required to make great beer. Many of the accessories that you see added on to kits are not needed, they're more a matter of preference or convenience. For example, many mash tun kits have SS false bottoms. You can skip that fairly expensive item and go with a braid (if using a cooler) which is pretty easy to make yourself.

There really is no wrong equipment though. Mostly it's a matter of preference. Most items can be upgraded incrementally if you want.

On 03/21/2013 03:12 PM, brownbeard wrote:

: Bones wrote: brownbeard wrote: Why buy? Make. My kettles are all re-purposed kegs. You should be able to have two 15gal kettles for less than $100.
Yes, I planned on kegs and have a line on one already. Problem is all the stuff that goes with it. Fittings, tubing, pumps, burners and on and on. It adds up fast.
You said you have a turkey fryer. That is all I use. My mash tun was previously the family's oldest cooler. I did buy a weldless bulkhead for the drain on the kettle. That will run you about $35. You don't need a pump, gravity is free. Switching to all grain is cheap. In fact, within a year, it should save you far more than you spend on it. Now, going fancy all grain is a difference story. My system consists of a cooler, a keggle, and a turkey fryer.

You can't get with this with a bad hip - Matt

Randy Carris
Cedar Log Brewhouse
CR Beer Nuts Event Coordinator

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Steven P · Post by **Steven P** » Thu Mar 21, 2013 3:58 pm

I have a 10 gal Igloo with a false bottom (used to be a braid) and a 7.5 gallon BK with a ball valve. I generally batch sparge as well.

IIRC the total setup cost maybe $300 and I bought it all new bit by bit. Added a barley crusher and immersion chiller as things progressed.

It's hobby money right?

I justify it by telling myself that people spend way more on a Harley as a hobby, and beer drinks better than motorcycles do.

Bones · Post by **Bones** » Thu Mar 21, 2013 4:32 pm

I get that. I've had hobbies that cost me 10's of thousands of dollars. Just wanting to make some some sound decisions is all.

bf514921 · Post by **bf514921** » Fri Mar 22, 2013 9:07 pm

go for the gold, rocket powered anti gravity brewing equipment.

Ok on a serious note, great for the all grain, can go wrong with kegs if you can find them, hopefully the brew session was nt to boring, i messed up a bunch on this batch. pumps are nice, but they came way later gravity was my friend for a long time, and a bucket

whitedj · Post by **whitedj** » Tue Mar 26, 2013 4:10 pm

I started on a budget brewing system. Basically I took a 7 gallon cooler, made a CPVC manifold for a mash tun. I had 2 3-gallon pots used as my HLT, and used 4-4.5 gallons in a 5 gallon kettle AND a second boil in one of my 3 gallon pots my kitchen stove. (combining them as the boil goes on) The draw back is calculating hop utilization....

With that being said, I love my keggle and the massive propane burner in my garage.

Bones · Post by **Bones** » Wed Mar 27, 2013 11:50 am

So I have one keg donated to the cause and already own a turkey fryer burner.

Should I simply:
-Use keg as my HLT
-get just one 10gal cooler, false bottom for a mash tun
-get a larger boil kettle since the one I have is only 5 gallons and my larger turkey fryer is aluminum which I am not a fan of.

Am I stupid to think I could use my HLT as my boil kettle as well or is that simply not possible due to timing.