All Grain Advice

He's got a $100 gift certificate for starters...although I am a definite sucker for local garage sales (even though I've never been lucky enough to find homebrew equipment)

 

No one has brought up the topic yet about your heat source for cooking. Are you planning to use the kitchen stove, or can you cook outdoors? If you plan to use the kitchen, there are limits of what a domestic range can do, especially if it is electric.

If you can cook outdoors, then you need to put a gas burner and LP tank into the budget and on your list of equipment needs.

 

Functional two-tap kegerator for $135 at an estate sale, but I've digressed away from the OP's intent.

The $100 is a gift certificate to Northern Brewer. He didn't indicate what he's comfortable springing for out of pocket, but did ask for input on what he should get from NB that's in line with his certificate and that he might have trouble sourcing elsewhere (sans another certificate).

@mtp81 I think @Mothergoose03 has hit on something by suggesting a list. If you're not in a "gotta do it now" mode make a list of the suggestions; cull what you can on your own then solicit add'l feedback based on what it is you want to accomplish in the short term.
Take my input with a grain of salt. There are folks here much more knowledgeable than I am about what the minimum requirements are for all-grain brewing.

 

I have a 10 gallon igloo cooler I converted to a mash tun for cheap through my hardware store. I also have two 8 gallon brew kettles. One kettle has a spigot and the other does not. In hindsight, I wish both did, but its not necessary. I heat all the water for the strike and sparge in the non-spigot kettle and use the spigot kettle for the brew kettle. Luckily I’m young and lifting multiple gallons of strike water into the mash tun is an easy task; but I can see myself upgrading quite soon. I never brew more than 5 gallon batches and the system is perfect for me.

Probably spent about $400-$450 total on all equipment, including a false bottom for the mash tun and all tubing.

 

Long-term investing...buy and hold...if you can manage.

 

Even the second 8 gal kettle is not necessary, imho. Valves hide mung that will eventually result in an infected/contaminated batch if your CIP cleaning habits are less than stellar. I have never brewed a grossly contaminated batch with either my 8 gal. kettle + 5 gal HLT (no valves)...come to think of it, not even with my 15 gal. gross keggle 10 gal setup...but then again I'm more careful with it.

 

I think cleaning a valve on hot side kettle is overrate as it all gets boiled. I run hot pbw through the valve every other brew and take the valve totally apart once a year as part of my spring cleaning. Never had an infection at my house and the only infection I ever had was at my buddies house. My practices are pretty sound being in the medical field but a ball valve is pretty helpful for me since my autosiphon is just another thing I have to actually make sure is clean. I do agree a thermometer on a boil kettle is pretty unnecessary. I use an instant read thermometer a few times throughout brew day but never really kettle thermometer.

 

I bought my system off NB. It was the 10 gal FF coolers. I think it ran about $250 with all the bells and whistles. Ready to go. But I’ve made a few tweaks here and there. Outa the box it’s legit though. Put $100 towards that’s. One thing I will say is that this hobby is a never ending money pit into beer!

 

I would say BIAB'ing is going in all the way. All the benefits of all grain with a much shorter brew time.

 

I guess "all the benefits" depends on what you consider important. A couple things that some people consider important that BIAB does not offer...
- Vorlauf for clear wort into the kettle
- Most precise control/stability of mash temps possible

I'm not saying good or great beer can't be made with BIAB. Just wanted to point out a couple of advantages to mash tuns for people who consider them important. I would say BIAB has most of the benefits of all grain.

 

My original post felt a little "trollish" to me and expected I would get challenged on it...

Absolutely some specific benefits fall into BIAB and some fall into 3 tier and some are shared by both...

 

Sous vide sticks and similar heating elements have helped narrow the gap here. As for still having a lid on the mash, though...

 

I actually use a sous vide stick from time to time! Didn't want to have this turn into a BIAB vs 3 vessel debate...

 

That’s good cause 2 vessel is actually king