All grain home brewing

If you have the extra money why not!! But coolers work just fine!!

 

I brew in my apartment so I dont have room for all the kettles and my cooler works amazing, but if its a long term thing then make the investment early on so you dont have to wind up buying equipment like 7 different times.

 

I used to use coolers, and there is nothing wrong with using them, but when I started using kettles I never looked back.

 

i just built a cooler one. Haven't used it yet.

 

I still use a cooler. The only thing you can't do with a cooler that you can with a kettle mash tun is direct fire. If you plan on doing mostly single infusion then a cooler is all you need. You can also add a RIMS element if you want to do step mashes.

If you still want to do the occasional direct-fire step mash you can still do so. You just mash in your boil kettle then move the mash over to your cooler, which at that point is just a lautering vessel. When we do this we just scoop most of the mash out with a plastic pitcher and dump in the cooler then upend the kettle to get the last bits out. Then you just let the mash settle for a bit and start your sparge. It's a bit of a messy job and adds a cleaning step but overall it's not too bad.

Many, if not most of the smaller craft brewers use a single infusion mash in a non-fired MLT. This is basically the same thing as using a cooler.

 

True. I like using a Sanke based MLT, but I have friends who use kettles for HLT and BK and coolers for the MLT. One guy I know makes and sells kettles to sell on Craig's list - but he uses a cooler as for the MLT. His system is HERMS.

Personally I think RIMS is the way to go regardless of whether the MLT is a kettle or cooler. HERMS is an okay concept, but pulling heat energy from the HLT has never seemed to be the most efficient system to me. You have to heat an external system that is eventually going to be used for strike water. This means that you can only heat it to 170-180 unless you plan on cooling it off before using the strike water. Plus, you have to cover the coils with water so your probably using more energy to heat more water than you really want to. Obviously I'm a RIMS guy.

Even though I use a RIMS tube to maintain mash temps. There are times that I need to turn on the gas to get the temperature up (but this is partly due to MLTs lack of efficient insulation.)

 

LOL, good luck with that.

I didn't see you say you got the MLT lined up yet, or not. And you are right about the kettle. I've got about 6 15+ gallon kettles now.

 

First I bought the 5.5 gallon kettle for extract, then I bought the 11 gallon kettle for BIAB/All Grain, now I wish I had a 15G for bigger beers, i.e. barleywines and stouts. When does this all stop?! My one car garage can't handle all this!

 

my brewery has slowly been taking over my woodshop. I was in your boat a year ago. I spoke with a bunch of friends and people in our homebrew club. We don't have kids, and have a little bit of disposable income. The majority of those polled said they would have gone to kettles and some kind of single tier rig from the get go, rather than have to buy it all over again (and have equipment take up space that they would never use again). If you have the cash, and the space, I'd go the kettles route. I have been happy, and never looked back. Mine are all 15 gal ish in size.

 

Can you give a link? I'd go with at least a 15 gal MLT (and the rest of your pots for that matter). Will allow you to make higher OG 5 gal batches. I have a 15 gal Blichman i use for my MLT. Bought it with a bonus check, and before I really found some of these places on the web. That said, i couldn't justify the cost of two more Blichmans, so i went with two Penrose Kettles. They are somewhere on the order of 15.5 gal. Both of them together cost less than the 15 gal blichman. I also built a single tier rig at the same time, and a smoker, so I needed some cost savings here and there. Personally, I don't see the need to drop 350+ for a HLT. Make a site gauge and add a thermo. Otherwise, it's a pot that holds warm water. No need to splurge there. I DO like the FB with the blichman, works awesome. I bought an autosparge, but never installed it. I use a cheap little "siphon sprayer" attached to my pizza tray lid. Have two, one for high gravity/10 gal brews, and one attached to a long piece of tubing for small gravity/5 gal brews. For 3 bucks worth of parts, well worth it.

On my BK I wanted to drill a couple of holes into it. Didn't want to do that on the Blichman, since my preferences might not be the same as someone else's. And try to recoup the price of the blichman with additional holes someone doesn't want, not gonna happen! These Penrose kettles serve the purpose. They are alot cheaper, but present their own set of challenges.

1, they don't come with a lid, and they aren't "round". That means you can't go into a restaurant supply store and buy a cheap lid, it just won't fit. We ended up taking inverted pizza trays, screwing a couple of pieces of SS round stock to it, just to add some weight. Works fine, but doesn't look as nice as it could. Then again, you're brewing, not trying to look pretty..

2, the bottom is not dead nuts flat. There is a bit of a rock to them, so you'll need your grates on your rig to be able to accommodate that. We ended up bending the SS grates on the rig, so that the pot (when full) wouldn't get "tippy".

 

That road can definately take you where you want to go. I took the same one after seeing a friends $10,000 Brew Magic RIMS system. I realized I could achieve the same results or better at a fraction of the cost.

 

I'll probably always use my cooler system, I really don't think I would appreciate the kettle system enough, but your milage may vary.

I am proud of the quality that comes out of my ghetto system and I know the system inside and out, which is the most important thing. I will say to get started with a cooler can cost as low as $25, so it really isn't much waste if you "upgrade" later, IMO.

 

Not to mention you can always use the cooler to, you know, keep things cold and stuff.

 

I've been using a cooler for almost 6+ years. It works best with single infusion mashing. This is by no means a major limitation because you can brew great beer with single infusion mashing. It can be used for step-infusion and decoction mashing, but they are trickier. I've played around with them, but ultimately, I'm perfectly happy with the products I get from my more simplified brew days. Like mnstorm99, I feel like I have a ghetto system, but frankly, I am happy with my beer.

I keep seeing people in this forum asking about expensive kettles and brew sculptures, and I just don't see myself getting value back on those kinds of investments. I joke around with my wife every Christmas about wanting a MoreBeer sculpture or a BrewMagic system - she always responds that it ain't worth it unless they start building them with engines, drivetrains, and wheels, because for that kind of money, you ought to be able to drive it to work.