Is All Grain Worth It?

[raven19]

Half the fun of AG is building the equipment yourself.

Plus keeping an eye out for someone elses 'junk' on the side of the road that could be used for an AG frame, old eskys for mash tuns, junk in the folks shed, anywhere really!

For other ideas check out the gallery section at the top of this page. Lots of varied photos of different setups, some budget, some bling, some in between....

 

[bradsbrew]

Plus keeping an eye out for someone elses 'junk' on the side of the road that could be used for an AG frame, old eskys for mash tuns, junk in the folks shed, anywhere really!

For other ideas check out the gallery section at the top of this page. Lots of varied photos of different setups, some budget, some bling, some in between....

Since getting into AG I look at everything(read all junk) to see how I could use it. Basically everthing has its possibilities. I even have people bring me stuff before it gets thrown out. SWMBO thinks its embarressing.

 

[MarkBastard]

Plus keeping an eye out for someone elses 'junk' on the side of the road that could be used for an AG frame, old eskys for mash tuns, junk in the folks shed, anywhere really!.

For the last week I've been thinking my neighbour was annoying for putting their old crappy table and chairs out on the street as there isn't any council collection any time soon.

So the chairs went straight away, but I noticed yesterday someone took the frame from the table but not the table top. It was then I realised that it or even the frame from the chairs would have come in handy haha.

Damn.

 

[bradsbrew]

Which is why a couple of the metal framed double seater desks from my classroom need replacing . They will make a great brewrig, just as the single seater is going to be a great mill stand.

Cheers Brad

 

[Uncle Fester]

So heres my next obvious and probably over-asked question, what sort of equipment do you blokes prefer and wheres the best place to get it?

I watched some youtube vids, but they were all yankie, thought the eskie mash tun looked like a good idea.

Cheers.

All Grain does not have to be an expensive setup. I took 18 months to "collect" my setup. At the end of the day it was sub $100 for the lot, including a $20 no-chill cube. Just look around. 40+ litre kettles (boilers) appear regularly on Ebay. I got mine for $50 and the seller was good enough to drop it off at my Old Man's in Sydney. My mashtun cost $5.00 at Revolve, and I had the bits in the shed to make a false bottom for it for nix. (Some old shelf rails and some Stainless mesh) Kettle doubles up as a HLT. A couple of bits of $5.00 hose and a few garden fittings, and bingo, you're away. Mash paddle is the long plastic spoon that came with my Coopers kit.

This setup has done more than 30 AG's now, although I think I may retire the no-chill cube soon, as I may be pushing my luck with the performance of the plastic under heat.


Can take some photos of this in action when I brew next if you want. Pm me.



Cheers, :icon_chickcheers:


Fester.

 

[Wardhog]

Plus keeping an eye out for someone elses 'junk' on the side of the road that could be used for an AG frame, old eskys for mash tuns, junk in the folks shed, anywhere really!

Driving down a road one day I saw a fridge on someone's nature strip. I pulled over and went and knocked on the door and asked if it was being thrown out and if it worked and if they didn't mind if I took it. 3 yeses later and I've scored a fermenting fridge for $0 I was nearly ready to pay $50+ on ebay for.

Summer lagers? No worries!

 

[McCraggen]

Well thats an interesting idea, i will keep my eye out for bits and pieces, i guess the grain mill is the only really tricky part right?

 

[buttersd70]

Good hbs will mill the grain for you anyway, so it's not really a concern....I have a mill, but for me, it was a non-essential item that I wanted for convenience sake. It's just a small marga mill, which is one of the cheapest on the market (paid $105 for it, about 12 months ago), but with a slight tweak to set the rollers at the right gap, and attach to a drill, and off we go....easy.
What it does allow me to do is buy my base malts by the sack....brings the price down from $4/kg to $2.40/kg (JW Trad Ale)....3 sacks later, it's paid for itself.

 

[Mantis]

I just need the missus to sow up a bag to fit my new 50lt pot. Then a chiller of some sort and I will be trying an AG
Might need some plumbing on the kettle as well.

 

[lagerman]

I personally think it is horses for courses.
I have been doing kits for about 25 years and about 2 years ago ventured in to a bit of mash brewing.
As most of you would know I own a Country Brewer franchise in Bathurst and have access to fresh supplies anytime at all. One of the guys out of our brew club and myself have been doing some mash brews over the past 6 months or so. We decide what type of beer we are going to make and I get all the fresh ingredients and we spend a Sunday brewing. Now we make two brew each and we start around 7.30am and put down the grains to mash and then have a BBQ breakfast. The rest of the day involves the sparging, boiling, etc and we usually finish up around 4.00pm all cleaned up and finished.
My mate has a pretty good temperature controlled 3 tier set up but I just use an esky to mash in and a couple of (acquired) 50 litre boilers with the tops cut out. One to boil in and one for sparge water. I have a very primitive set up but it does the job.
Now I love American Pale Ales and I reckon they would be the easiest beer to make when mashing. Heaps of Amarillo and Cascade hops and you are home and hosed. I have played around with a few others and I have been very happy with the results.
Now as a homebrew shop owner and mostly a kit brewer I can say that a kit beer tickled up can be just as good if not better than a mash beer any day.
My proof of this is that over a 10 year period of running the Bathurst Homebrew Comp. I can say that kits have held their own against mash brews on many occassions. In fact our Grand Champion Beer last year was a tickled up kit. And believe you me we get a lot of mash brews in that comp. every year.
So at the end of the day I think it is a personal thing. I know there would be some on this forum who would say kits are the pits . It can all come down to what sort of money you want to spend and the time factor.
I would say that in Australia the mash brewers would be a very SMALL part of brewers in general.
Just my opinion as I enjoy a kit bitter I brewed about 6 weeks ago.
Cheers and hoppy brewing
The Bigfella