Move To All Grain For Thirty Bucks

[S R F]

The thing I like most about this site is the sense of humour. So we drink about 30 bottles of beer a week here. Can I do one pot and add it to another or would I be better to do 2 pots at once and join them in the fermenter? I have to save my pennies to get to the good gear

 

[Nick JD]

You can do whatever you want, as long as you have the ability to bring the volume you want to drink ... to the boil. That's your limiting factor in stovetop brewing.

But I strongly suggest getting gear that reflects your consumprion levels, or you'll soon become frustrated.

 

[NewtownClown]

So what happens next? Do you add yeast and brew it in the pot?

Didn't get as far as page 4, eh?
Yeast pitched here

 

[NewtownClown]

But I strongly suggest getting gear that reflects your consumption levels, or you'll soon become frustrated.

... and sober.

 

[Bribie G]

Interesting that those butane camping stoves can boil that much liquid. I use them all the time for my curry and Asian cooking - as opposed to my lame ceramic electric cooktop - but never thought of using them for a bigger boil.

I BIAB in an urn but, without reading through 40 pages, how about going out and getting:

2 Big W stockpots $36
2 butane stoves $28
2 squares of voile $10

And you can full batches in parallel for initial outlay of $74 plus a dollar per butane canister. Doing simple recipes like Nick's and buying in bulk, the system would pay for itself very quickly compared to K n K.

Beats paying hundreds of dollars upfront for urn or nasa burner and big pot or a Braumeister (thousands).

 

[Lord Raja Goomba I]

The thing I like most about this site is the sense of humour. So we drink about 30 bottles of beer a week here. Can I do one pot and add it to another or would I be better to do 2 pots at once and join them in the fermenter? I have to save my pennies to get to the good gear

Do a search for the 2 pot stovetop method with ghetto lauter. That will give you an idea of how it can be done without a bag (but buckets instead). My 2nd big w pot cost me $12 on special, so less again.

And it worked on the stovetop (ceramic thing, when I was in Brisneyland).

 

[motorhead]

Great guide Nick, you've encouraged me to try BIAB.


- I've got a gas stove and am thinking of buying a pot. If I want to do a full batch, would my gas stove top be enough to heat that much water in a reasonable time? Probably looking at a 50L pot. Big enough?

Sorry if that's been answered before...

 

[Bribie G]

If you can straddle two burners it could get you there, for a full volume BIAB you will need around 33L initially, then after hoisting the bag and draining you'll be left with about 27-28 L to boil down to 23L .

 

[mikec]

It can be done on a single burner, just depends how good the stove is.
When I was doing this, I also bought a cheap (<$20) over-the-side element on ebay. Drop it in for the ramp up, once you get a boil going you can take it out.

 

[wbosher]

Great guide Nick, you've encouraged me to try BIAB.


- I've got a gas stove and am thinking of buying a pot. If I want to do a full batch, would my gas stove top be enough to heat that much water in a reasonable time? Probably looking at a 50L pot. Big enough?

Sorry if that's been answered before...

I think you will really struggle to bring a pot that size to the boil on a stove top. I use a 50L pot on a 3 ring gas burner, the outdoor type, and it takes about half an hour to get to mash temp and then about another 20 minutes to get to the boil.

 

[Bribie G]

You can get fairly inexpensive gas burners that attach to a bottle (not the portable butane ones) at Asian supermarkets.

 

[motorhead]

Thanks guys. I've got a gas bottle, so I could try a little stove system.

Just looking at the specs of the pot, it's apparently 40cm wide. I think I could get it on 2 gas jets of my stove top.

As little new equipment as possible (For now )

 

[Nick JD]

This guide's purpose is to let a person new to AG brewing decide if it's something they would like to do without costing a lot.

I strongly suggest doing a few small batches to get your eye in and become familiar with the process - and if it's something you can see yourself continuing (seriously, I've not heard of anyone going back to kit brewing, so you need to be aware that you are opening pandora's kettle here) then go out and spend a couple hundred on a system that'll keep you beerishly satiated.

 

[Byran]

This is a great beginners guide Nick.

Just a shame that some people tried to shut you down because they were tired of hearing about other peoples opinions about brewing.............

 

[Rowy]

This guide's purpose is to let a person new to AG brewing decide if it's something they would like to do without costing a lot.

I strongly suggest doing a few small batches to get your eye in and become familiar with the process - and if it's something you can see yourself continuing (seriously, I've not heard of anyone going back to kit brewing, so you need to be aware that you are opening pandora's kettle here) then go out and spend a couple hundred on a system that'll keep you beerishly satiated.

I couldn't agree more with Nick here. Doing a couple this way lets you know if your up for it or not. The lessons learnt doing stove pot carry over to other methods so nothing is lost. The theory is all the same just the gear / bling differs down the track. The first part of this thread should be a wiki article on the site.

 

[Drew CR]

Thanks guys. I've got a gas bottle, so I could try a little stove system.

Just looking at the specs of the pot, it's apparently 40cm wide. I think I could get it on 2 gas jets of my stove top.

As little new equipment as possible (For now )

I've just gone up to a 50L pot (40 cms wide) and it gets over two burners on my stove top no worries. Takes roughly 25-30 mins to get to mash temp and about the same again to get to a boil - maybe a touch less.

 

[Lord Raja Goomba I]

I'm currently using a 36L heavy bottomed pot, borrowed from jlm.

It fits sort of over a front & back burner.

This stove is significantly worse than my previous stove despite appearing to be newer.

It is still adequate for making beer, and saves me buying a gas bottle for a few weeks (which I will when I get a BBQ, finances permitting). I have a borrowed 3 ring burner.

But, I don't need the burner or gas, though it does make a brew day look lots easier.

Again, concur with Nick's comment, this allows the brewer to start AG with minimal equipment and gives some practical side to basic theory and the ability to practice.

However, 9L batches on a permanent basis is enough to book a one way ticket to the nuthouse, and stove top will not get you around learning to brew - you still NEED to build your knowledge, and regardless of equipment, poor brewer's knowledge and poor yeast handling will make good beer less likely to ever happen.

 

[MattyFin]

Just sat down a pale ale on my cement balcony to cool. All I had to buy was the grain and swiss voile had everything else at hand (the missus saw her stock pot disappear). All in all I can say this is a awesome guide to just start with the basics, and is very well explained. Now lets hope that ale turns out to be tasty , I would have to say that I'll be doing it this way for awhile.

 

[jimmyfozzers]

Another satisfied customer here. Did my fifth BIAB using a 19L Big W pot last night and managed to get over 11 litres into the no-chill cube. This was with 18 litres pre-boil and about 2.5 litres lost to trub. This volume suits my consumption and allows me to brew every fortnight - but horses for courses and all that.

Can't thank Nick enough for this thread. If I hadn't stumbled upon it a few months back there's no way I would have ever contemplated going AG this soon. I'm sure there will be a lot more guys making the move to AG on the back of this. So happy with the way my first few brews have turned out.

Unfortunately I've now caught the bug and have started building Matho's Braumiser, but that's for another thread!

 

[r055c0]

I'm revisiting this thread as a mate is keen to get into all grain and I wanted to show him how I got started. I used this thread to do my first batch of all grain beer about a year ago and it has turned my brewing world upside down. I managed to get out 4 batches of beer on my stove top before piecing together enough equipment to move to 25L batches, and have now brewed a couple over 20 batches of delicious all grain beers, and have gotten into things I would never have tried with K&K (Saison, kolsch, witbier, irish red ale etc).

So thanks Nick, you've improved me as a brewer and now you'll be improving my mate :beer: