AHB Articles: What gear do I need to make AG beer?

[The Mad Hopper]

This is the discussion topic for article: What gear do I need to make AG beer?

 

[RetsamHsam]

You would also need a chiller of some sort/no chill cube.

Oh and don't forget the PVC Silicon hose for hot side transfer if you are no chilling

 

[raven19]

A Recipe is usually required.

Said recipe grains required.

Access to a grain mill.

Manifold - you can get away with no manifold believe it or not!

Slightly :icon_offtopic: In my recent wheat AG - I forgot to add my false bottom (which is only a SS piece of mesh in the bottom of the esky). The grain does the filtering nicely on its own, just a matter of recirculating the first runnings with some bits of grain in it...

 

[Cocko]

A Recipe is usually required.

Said recipe grains required.

Access to a grain mill.

Manifold - you can get away with no manifold believe it or not!

Slightly :icon_offtopic: In my recent wheat AG - I forgot to add my false bottom (which is only a SS piece of mesh in the bottom of the esky). The grain does the filtering nicely on its own, just a matter of recirculating the first runnings with some bits of grain in it...

:icon_offtopic: Really? Thats awesome Rav...

What are you running out of your tun though? I assume a standard 1/2 inch tap... where did it become a filter, at the barb?


BACK OT: There is no mention of a Bag in the article h34r:

Well its All Grain!

 

[Wolfy]

I feel a little pedantic and know I have not made the effort to write a FAQ myself, however the documented linked needs a great deal more substance to be useful.

Just a few minor notes for a start:
There are so many ways to create an AG beer, but the article really only concentrates on one, it should be more general. As an example my simple AG setup has almost nothing in common with what you've outlined, but it works mostly fine.

As for some more specific points:

Depending on the design of your mash tun insulation may or may not be important (think of an electrically heated container for example, no insulation is needed), what is most important is the ability to keep the mash at the required temperature for as long as required.

I'd have thought that cut copper pipe was a more popular choice for a manifold than a false bottom, even if steel braid is becoming probably more common now days.

You've focused almost exclusively on the fact that the boiler will be a externally heated pot, many people use Urns, kettles or other apparatus that are heated in other ways.

As someone has already mentioned you need to cool your hot liquid before you can pitch yeast.

There are also a stack of other things not even mentioned in the article that are required for 'general brewing' so unless you renamed it 'extra items required for all-grain brewing' you'll need to detail those too.

 

[paulwolf350]

Mash tun, does not need to be an esky, you can use a metal vessel, but you need to supply continuous heat via herms or insulate the tun during the mash, (which is what i did yesterday). As wolfy stated above it needs to stay at mash temp for required time, insulated tuns may do this with no extra heat, metal tuns may need an injection of heat to combat heat loss.

there are many ways to skin a cat

there are also many other things left out of your article

Paul

 

[HoppingMad]

I like how simply this has been expressed. This is a big topic to bite off, and there are many variables here but summarises well.

Couple of suggestions:

1. Heat method could include "Stove" as well - you don't necessarily need a burner to heat water and boil (as shown in John Palmer's book), but it certainly gets you there faster.

2. Manifold could include "Food grade plastic bucket drilled and placed inside another bucket". This is called the Charlie Papazian's 'Bucket in a bucket method' and is detailed in his book. Plenty of info on the net about this one.

Both the above are cheap, low-tech ways to get into AG. This might help some newbies understand that AG is actually simpler to start in than they might have thought.

Hopper.

 

[kevin_smevin]

I mash in a 36L stainless steel stockpot, insulated with a thin rubber mattress (one of those cheap ones that are really uncomfortable to sleep on). I brew in my kitchen and my mash temp might drop 2 degrees over an hour. Sometimes the temp doesn't drop at all. The advantage of mashing in a pot is that you can use it as a kettle for your boil and you can can use direct heat to raise temp for mash out or anything else you want

 

[reviled]

You dont need all that rubbish All you need is a big pot, a burner, some swiss voile, and some grain!

 

[The Mad Hopper]

Thanks, I liked this article. I haven't done an all grain yet, but I was planning on doing one for my next brew. It was good to have a simple explanation of what I need, and along with John Palmers book, I think I get it now. I know there might be many ways of going about the same thing, but as someone who's just starting out, a simple explanation is sometimes the best.

I think I'll go with one of those gatorade cooler things as the mash tun. I was just wondering, do those things keep a stable temperature for an hour?

 

[manticle]

I'm a little confuse about the size of the mash tun. If, as I understand, you need between 4 and 6 kg of grain to make a 23 L brew why does the mash tun need to be 30L?

I use a 10L and a 5 L esky I currently use for partials. Say I use 4kg of grain (3L water: 1kg grain), that's 12 L give or take (some absorption, some volume displacement from the grain). Drain approx 8 L in the pot, batch sparge, another 8 L, batch again, 24ish Litres for a 20 L brew, done in 2 containers totalling 15 L.

Have I missed something? It's more than possible I have - just trying to get it right before I go down the slippery slope.

 

[white.grant]

I'm a little confuse about the size of the mash tun. If, as I understand, you need between 4 and 6 kg of grain to make a 23 L brew why does the mash tun need to be 30L?

I use a 10L and a 5 L esky I currently use for partials. Say I use 4kg of grain (3L water: 1kg grain), that's 12 L give or take (some absorption, some volume displacement from the grain). Drain approx 8 L in the pot, batch sparge, another 8 L, batch again, 24ish Litres for a 20 L brew, done in 2 containers totalling 15 L.

Have I missed something? It's more than possible I have - just trying to get it right before I go down the slippery slope.

You don't have to have a 30l eskytun, it's very useful to have the extra room so that you do not have to stuff around with multiple batch sparges and multiple recirculations. You can generally get the whole 24l sparge into a 30l. You also have a bit more space if you want to make a stronger beer, or a larger batch size.

You will never regret having a bigger tun

cheers

grant

 

[hatchor]

I think I'll go with one of those gatorade cooler things as the mash tun. I was just wondering, do those things keep a stable temperature for an hour?

I have this type of cooler, Coleman brand, using it as a mash tun. Depending on the ambient temperature it is pretty good at holding the heat (as long as you use the accompanying lid!).
Mashed at ambient temperature of 11 degrees the other day with no additional heating after the mash in. Temp dropped from 67 (dough in) down to 65 after 1 hr. So yeah I reckon that is a fair effort to hold temp fairly well.

good luck mate, All Grain is as easy or as hard as you want it to be!

cheers