Any all-grain brewers on here

[Sooner5030]

I've been doing extract kits for a couple of years but now that I moved to the Pac NW I have to drop one hobby and I thought i'd spend more time brewing.

I'm looking at getting the coolers (converted) for both a hot liquor and mash tun. I'm not going to start off with a large investment in a sculpture though. I might look into kegging and I am getting tired of scrubbing/rinsing/drying bottles all of the time.

[olevetonahill]

Ive been known to Brew with CORN in the past :very_drunk:

[GottaHavePride]

Yup. Need to upgrade to a bigger kettle soon, and probably add a bigger propane burner. Have about nine cases sitting in the basement. (so tough to wait on the Oktoberfest to be ready....)

[Sooner5030]

Instead of buying a HLT and MLT I have thought about making my own.

http://www.homebrewtalk.com/wiki/index.php/Converting_a_cooler_to_a_mash_tun

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

[GottaHavePride]

Yeah, I have a pair of those sitting around. :) but my kettle is only an 8-gallon aluminum pot I got from a restaurant supply. I'm planning to upgrade to a kettle from brewhemoth when I have some extra money.

[Sooner5030]

to make things less stressful I bought a complete kit when I first started extract brewing.

http://morebeer.com/view_product/15912/102142/Personal_Home_Brewery_Kit_%234_-_Bottling_Super_Deluxe

Now I am wanting to find a cheap way to upgrade just to try a batch or two of all grain. So I figure I can use my current kettle to heat the water then pour it in a cooler (HLT) then drip it into the MLT to sparge it. I wont have a sculpture so it means I'll boil in the kettle then drain into the HLT then lift that above the MLT which also has to be above the kettle to catch the wort from sparging? lots of moving things

[GottaHavePride]

Dude, look up brew-in-a-bag. Basically you do the mash inside a big nylon or muslin bag in your brew kettle, then just lift out the bag of grains and boil. Like making beer tea.

[rock on sooner]

Ive been known to Brew with CORN in the past :very_drunk:

Vet, why did I know that yew were gonna answer like yew did?:devilish:

[OUDoc]

I started all-grain about a year ago. I bought an Igloo 10 gallon cooler and then bought a conversion kit and false bottom from Midwest and put it together myself. It works great. I'm still trying to get better efficiency as I seem to be stuck at 58% (which is terrible). I think it's more my technique than the mash tun's fault. Anyway, AG is more fun than extract but there is more room for error. In the end you'll still make beer and that's what matters!
My new toy. I used it for the first time yesterday. :)

http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s290/oudoc/109834543_photobucket_113999_.jpg

http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s290/oudoc/109834543_photobucket_114001_.jpg

[Sooner5030]

did you build that?....the sculptures on morebeer.com are very expensive. I've been looking at craigslist to try and find a deal.

[Sooner5030]

Also, lost of good examples can be found at http://www.brewzilla.nl/brewhalla.htm

[OUDoc]

did you build that?....the sculptures on morebeer.com are very expensive. I've been looking at craigslist to try and find a deal.

I wish. I thought about learning to weld but I figured I couldn't make anything that looked that nice. I came across a few extra dollars so I bought it. It wasn't cheap but I think it'll last forever. It seems to be well-made.

[GottaHavePride]

My batch of red for this season turned out dang good, of I say so myself. Can't wait to try out the Oktoberfest.

[prrriiide]

Make your own MT. You can see the conversion thread on HBT (http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/cheap-easy-10-gallon-rubbermaid-mlt-conversion-23008/), but instead of using the SS braid, go ahead and make a CPVC or PEX manifold. My efficiency went up 10 points when I switched to a copper manifold. You can also get a rectangle picnic cooler at Wally World for less than a round 10g, and you can get bigger. I'd go for 20g at least. That way you can do some really big beers without having to do a steep/mash combination.

As stated, get a bigger pot. Once you go AG, you'll want to brew bigger batches. The beer is that much better. Check out http://bayouclassicdepot.com/aluminum_stock_pot.htm

You can get a 15g aluminum pot for $100, then add on a few more $ to buy a sight glass and a bulkhead from http://www.brewhardware.com/. You can get to a 15g pot for under $150.

Kegging is def the way to go. Here's a tip though: get your kegs from a local supplier. Unless you're going to shell out some buck$ for new cornys, they'll be reconditioned. If you buy local you can exchange leaky ones easier. And some of them WILL leak. You can get all of your lines and taps and CO2 tanks online and save some dough, but get the kegs themselves locally.

Also, be sure to get a refractometer. Being able to check your grav at various points makes a big difference in the quality of the brew.

OUDoc...are you milling your own grains? If not, have the LHBS run them through the mill twice. Boosted my efficiency by 15% when I did that. The quality of the crush is one of the biggest determining factors in efficiency. So if you're keeping score, I went from 50% efficiency to 75% just by switching to a manifold and crushing the grains twice.

This web site is by a friend of mine. There's some really good info there, as well as a great primer on making an inexpensive HERMs: http://handsonbrewing.com/

[OUDoc]

OUDoc...are you milling your own grains? If not, have the LHBS run them through the mill twice. Boosted my efficiency by 15% when I did that. The quality of the crush is one of the biggest determining factors in efficiency. So if you're keeping score, I went from 50% efficiency to 75% just by switching to a manifold and crushing the grains twice.


Yeah I have a Barley Crusher and it seems to me that my crush is good. I almost worry it's too fine. Maybe I'm wrong and should try to crush finer. I haven't had any stuck sparges but I also use rice hulls to try to keep that from happening. I may try tightening the rollers on my next batch.

[prrriiide]

Yeah I have a Barley Crusher and it seems to me that my crush is good. I almost worry it's too fine. Maybe I'm wrong and should try to crush finer. I haven't had any stuck sparges but I also use rice hulls to try to keep that from happening. I may try tightening the rollers on my next batch.

It's worth a shot. Worst case is you stick your mash and have to back-blow the manifold. The BC has a .039 factory setting. I've seen where people think .033 is too fine, but .035/.036 should be a pretty good crush. My LHBS uses the factory setting, and running the grain through twice was the ticket for me. So dropping the gap might help a bit.

I don't know if you've seen this or not, but he gives some really good pointers on efficiency...

http://www.suebob.com/brew/Bobby_Mallgrainprimer.pdf

[OUDoc]

It's worth a shot. Worst case is you stick your mash and have to back-blow the manifold. The BC has a .039 factory setting. I've seen where people think .033 is too fine, but .035/.036 should be a pretty good crush. My LHBS uses the factory setting, and running the grain through twice was the ticket for me. So dropping the gap might help a bit.

I don't know if you've seen this or not, but he gives some really good pointers on efficiency...

http://www.suebob.com/brew/Bobby_Mallgrainprimer.pdf

I don't think I've seen that, I'll check it out. I do know Bobby M from HBT though, he's a pretty good source of information.

[delhalew]

Yeah I have a Barley Crusher and it seems to me that my crush is good. I almost worry it's too fine. Maybe I'm wrong and should try to crush finer. I haven't had any stuck sparges but I also use rice hulls to try to keep that from happening. I may try tightening the rollers on my next batch.
I got a rebel brewer mill. I'm convinced I could run tree limbs through the damn thing.

The summer heat, and my now ex wifey taking my work table, has kept me from brewing in months. I need a sculpture of some sort. I've got 50 lb sacks of Maris Otter, pilsner, and American 2 row that need to be used.

[GottaHavePride]

I just dropped a deposit on a new 15gallon kettle from Stout Brewing. Looking forward to breaking it in when it gets here. Think I'll do a quadruppel and a decocted Marzen first. :)

[delhalew]

I love my 15 gallon kettle, but I should have gotten a lid.

[GottaHavePride]

One of these days I'll have to rig up some temperature control, but I've had good luck so far just tailoring my brews to the available environment.

[Sooner5030]

update

my kegging equipment should arrive today. I'm sick of cleaning bottles. I also ordered a kegerator that can hold two corney kegs.

I bought all the stuff needed to convert a cooler to a lauter tun. So not only will I start kegging but also will be full grain soon.