Extract to All Grain

Well, if you have an 11 gallon kettle, thats plenty big enough for 5 gallon batches. I'd keep it your kettle.

Id go buy two 10 gallon igloo coolers myself. Find a false bottom, or a bazooka tube set up, add the ball valves to the coolers and make them your HLT and MLT.

Heat strike water in kettle, dump into MLT, dough in. Heat sparge water in kettle, add to HLT just before you drain the mash tun. Drain into your kettle, and then scoop, or pump, or whatever you want to do, to get the water from the HLT to your mash tun.

Not sure what you are asking about pump or gravity, but I personally like to use a pump to move the wort from my kettle to my fermenters, but I also use it to whirlpool after the boil, to help chilling, to do hop stands, and to pump it through my hopback.

 

I did exactly this and just brewed my first all grain batch, which turned out great!

This comes with everything youll need to convert to all-grain

http://www.northernbrewer.com/shop/...-all-grain-brewing-starter-kit-10-gallon.html

 

I would buy one 10 gallon cooler, if you shop at Lowe's or HD they are under fifty bucks. Another fifty bucks gets you a false bottom/valve and your MLT is in business (that is if you like the color orange). These coolers have a spigot pre-drilled so conversion takes all of ten minutes (search Rubbermaid 1610).

I'm not a fan of using a cooler for a HLT. I've done it, but prefer another kettle for my HLT. For five gallon batches any type kettle at 6 gallons or above will work . . . it will need a ball-valve and while the step-bit is out why not add a thermo/sight-gauge? If you ever plan on doing step-infusions and/or mash outs (I regularly do both) it is helpful to have the additional kettle to have different temp water available.

Gravity seems to always be around when you need it, no problem making transfers using natural forces. That said, a pump to whirlpool late hop additions is mighty nice. You didn't mention cooling, but an immersion chiller is so necessary I would go ahead and look at plate chillers and skip the intermediary step.

Temp readings in your mash are very important . . . the more accurate your thermo, the better tasting your beer. And how 'bout those Irish . . .

 

for batch sparging a five gallon kettle is fine for heating water for both dough in and batch sparge. Not that I recommend 5 gallon pots for brewing, but they are pretty common and you might already have one. I just use one of my two turkey fryer pots as the HLT. or I also have a five gallon stock pot which is fine too.

for a mash tun a cooler and bazooka tube with valve setup is perfect. A five gallon water cooler will work, but you are limited in batch size for beers much above 7.5%. For standard 5-6.5% ABV beers, it's fine tho. Better to get a ten gallon cooler if you're buying one new tho. Shape doesn't matter much.

on thermometers... best to have two of them. if you only have one, you'll soon discover why it's better to have two. Also expense and thermometers are not necessarily directly related to quality. The thermometer that came with my turkey fryer works amazingly well and is spot on with respect to calibration, and the entire turkey fryer cost fidy bucks (the day after thanksgiving). You could easily spend that much on a thermometer that wouldn't work any better.

 

5 gallon cooler can handle all grain 5 gallon batch and keep you in budget, rounded one is my favorite.
You can go straight to all grain and mash in your 44qt brew pot, just do BIAB

 

This looks like a good setup for fly sparging. The price is steep, but if you're going to do a lot of brewing, then I suppose it's worth it.

 

I'll provide another voice advocating a simple cooler mash tun, skip the expensive false bottom set ups and build a toilet braid cooler mash tun;

https://byo.com/stories/item/448-cheap-and-easy-batch-sparging

 

The Rubbermaid orange coolers at Home Depot have served us well (and its a cheap build).
Although, keep in mind you will eventually want an actual kettle with a ball valve for a mash tun. If you ever want to venture into step mashes or decoction, or want the ultimate control over temperature, you probably won't have a lot of success putting a plastic cooler on a burner
Also, I've been told that dumping really hot sparge water in the rubbermaids will warp the walls and leech plastic out over time. We've done probably 10-15 batches in ours without seeing that happen, but I dunno. it may be possible.

 

I like my gravity system.

 

I just made the jump from extract+specialty to all grain...gonna take it easy and use the 5g cooler option for awhile to get the hang of AG, then probably worry about getting a kettle with ball valve and prop burner.

I scored 2 coolers from work that I'll be converting soon, if anyone wants to buy one let me know!

 

I too am relatively new to all grain brewing (only 6 batches under my belt so far). I went the BIAB route with my 10 gallon kettle, thinking it would make for a nice transition into proper AG brewing. So far all 6 of my batches have had a brew house efficiency between 75% and 80%, and have tasted great. At this point, I can't help but think that there is no need to switch to a MLT and HLT!