Equipment: moving from partial to All grain

If I read your post correctly, you're doing a vorlauf, followed by a lauter and single batch sparge. This will work fine for large amounts of grain. But you won't be able to fit all the water into your 5 gallon pot.

I can't think of a really good way for you to go all grain (and still do 5 gallon batches) with a single 5 gallon pot. You'd have to 'no sparge' with a very small amount of water. Efficiency would be horrible. If you can't afford a bigger pot and the firepower to boil it, the only suggestion I have is small batch sizes.

 

What VikeMan said, but also...

You absolutely need a bigger pot if you're going to make 5 gallons batches...if you can't afford one, you shouldn't be considering all-grain 5 gallon batches at all.

Just wait until you have the money to purchase the equipment you need.

 

This is the method that i use and have pretty much the same equipment. However, my brew pot is 6 gallons which does the trick. i'm using a turkey fryer setup. You should be able to get one with a 6 gallon brew pot for $50-$75. this one is $60 with a 7.5 gallon pot...

http://www.amazon.com/Brinkmann-815...8&qid=1380566846&sr=8-1&keywords=turkey+fryer

 

Your 10 gallon mash tun will handle 14 lbs of grain (http://www.rackers.org/calcs.shtml).

I don't see how you can make a 5 gallon brew kettle suitable for 5 gallon batches. Typically you will be boiling a minimum of 6.2 gallons up to 7.2 (possibly more) and you want to end up with ~5.2 gallons in your primary. If you are adding wort mid-boil you are not getting a full boil . . . as others have said, don't see a work-around on this one.

But, your 5 gallon brew kettle will make an excellent hot liquor tank for 5 gallons batches. This will be for your strike/sparge additions which are typically in the 3-4 gallon range. A common approach when going all grain is to convert the kettle to HLT and just get a new kettle (minimum of 8 gallons, 10 is better). This doesn't save you any money but keeping your old equipment in service rationalizes spending more (at least for me). Plus, having a dedicated HLT makes brew day easier.

 

Wait until just after Thanksgiving and grab a turkey fryer on Craigslist for like $40 from they guy who thought a fried turkey would be awesome this year and now wants to get rid of the fire hazard for cheap before his wife kicks him out of the house. Should be about 7-7.5 gallons. Then you can do full boils for 5 gallon batches. Or just do 3 gallon batches in your 5 gallon. Nothing says that all batches have to be 5, 10, or 15 gallons.

 

When I moved to all-grain I bought the mash tun, then a month later bought a 7.5 gal pot, then bought the propane burner a week or so after that. It took me a little bit longer to go all-grain than I wanted, but I got all the equipment and it worked out great.

 

My first few batches of all grain were 3.5 gallon batches. I didn't have a big enough pot, and I was in an apartment with a wimpy stove, so it made sense (and worked fine). You should consider this if you're not able to get a proper pot right now. You'll need enough BTUsBaz to heat it too, keep that in mind.

As for a mash tun, a cooler can be easily converted with a little hardware and a bazooka tube. I made a five gallon water cooler into a mash tun and it's worked great. There's a limit how much grain you can use and still get five gallons out of it (but I have only reached this limit twice, and if I'm only over by a little bit I've just "fudged it" with a little sparging magic). The practical limit for a five gallon cooler used as a mash tun is around 13 lbs of grain (which will make a fine beer, BTW). I have done as much as 15.25 lbs of grain, with a somewhat edited mashing/sparging schedule. Much beyond that and you'd have to lower your total volume.

A ten gallon cooler is even better. If you're making five gallons of beer with a ten gallon cooler, and you're going OVER the system's capacity, well, you're making rocket fuel, and might want to think twice about drinking it.

So if you can get a cooler cheep, perhaps $30 investment in hardware and a bazooka tube would be enough to fashion a mash tun. They're very forgiving, btw, it doesn't have to be perfect, not by a long shot.

Do try to get a bigger pot tho. You can't make five gallons of all grain beer in a five gallon pot. Or at least you shouldn't. Go big or go home, you know, do it right or wait till you can do it right. I've been brewing all grain for a couple years now, and I am now going back to making little test batches of extract/partial mash just because it's fun. Patience is a virtue when it comes to beer.

 

I moving to all grain as well but only going to do 2.5 gallon batches simply because I know ill prob have a few not turn out right... and I would rather dump 2.5 than 5 gallons. I also want to do a few batches in one day and storage becomes a problem with too many carboys and bottles lying around. I will move to 5 gallon all grain but not until I get really good .. maybe you should consider the same path.

 

Actually, your probability of making tasty beer after switching to all grain is likely a lot better than you think, especially if you use the KISS protocol. Conversely, your probability of making drainpour ale increases proportionately to how complicated your recipes are. Start with IPA, pale ale, wheat beer, hefs, brown ales etc... probability of success is high (especially since you're already aware of many important brewing principles from doing extract batches). Start with 2xDIPA, RIS, 14% barleywines etc... well, keep a clear path to the sink. And don't forget to factor in your force multipliers of how many homebrews did you drink whilst brewing, and the Ima Noob factor.

Ahhh, Aspirations. I too have had aspirations of doing "a few batches in one day."

Aspirations... They don't as easily convert to achievements as one might hope.

*there's a strongly negative correlation between the number of homebrews consumed variable and the tasty beer outcome.

 

How little space do you have? My 10 gallon pot is only 14.5" tall.

 

This will work, but for a smidgen more you can make life easier (and won't need two chillers, pumps, hop bags, etc). And check out some dimensions before you think an 8 gallon'er is too big . . . my 8 gallon pot is same height as my 5 gallon. Search Amazon for "winware stainless pot" and many of your questions will be answered (capacity, dimensions) . . . also check their "used" pots (usually open box or return) if after a bargain.

 

I got this exact one at either Home Depot or Lowe's last year after Turkey day and it was half the price. If you are considering, maybe wait and see if they go on clearance again this year after the holidays. (much like someone mentioned about Craigslist) BTW, I love mine.

 

CSB time. I got mine during the summer. It was at a home depot, and i noticed they had 2 left in stock. of course, on a brew day i went over to pick up the new rig. spent like an hour searching for it with HD staff. i noticed it finally on the top of one of the racks. they had to get out the scissor lift to bring the pallete down, but when i told the guy we were going to make beer with it, he was like "awsome." no discount tho, but it does have a more sophisticated temperature control and flow rate valve than the link...

 

Yeah, after looking, I think you're right about the flow/temp control. Also, the auto shut-off is a real pain in the ass...

 

the older one i had, i just taped the auto shut off to keep it open. i always envisioned our brew days ending in a "middle ages storming of the castle" like scene where they drop the pots of boiling oil onto the siege below and my brew partner and I would be running around with boiling beer all over us.

 

Even if you could fit the larger pot on the stovetop, you might not have the BTUs neede to boil it with a single burner (though depending on configuration, you might be able to straddle two burners). But two kettles is definitely a viable option for stovetop brewing.

 

Two pots is a possibility (for a time, I did this). Just make sure that you split the hops proportionately to the amounts of wort in each pot. It's easy if you split the batch in half, but not quite as easy if your pots are different sizes (tho it's easily do-able). And you need to get it fairly close, but not down to picogram quantities... close enough will do. And as vikeman said, your stove probably won't have enough power to heat an eight gallon pot.

Turkey fryer - I've been using one for a while and it works like a champ. Fidy bucks in november at home depot. Just don't fry turkeys with it.