I started all-graining by batch-sparging. I've made manifolds and tried out more ideas than most blokes, probably due to some grave psychological disorder - ATD perhaps? (Attention to detail.)
I have a great mill, which I built a long time after I started BIABing. The pics of it will be on here somewhere but...
I'd never advise a new all-grainer (BIAB brewer or trad brewer) to buy a mill. Here's
one post I found on why buying and then constructing a mill is a major decision. In other words, it requires a bit of thought.
This thread gives new brewers a way of making all-grain. I think the thread was originally pure BIAB (single vessel, full-volume brewing) and was aimed at allowing new brewers to at least try all-grain. All of them liked it. Some then, through necessity, added a second vessel (and often heat source) to their equipment. This means they were no longer 'pure-BIABing'. They actually were batch-sparging.
My personal preference would be to see the new brewers buy a decent size kettle and stay single vessel rather than go three-vessel. Most do. And, there are actually a lot of brewers who have been brewing three vessel and changed to single vessel. Good on them! It's not an easy decision to choose to abandon equipment you have spent years developing for a ridiculously simple method.
Whatever method people choose to employ, it would be nice to see them encouraged and given quality information. Finding quality info is by far, the hardest job, for a new all-grainer. Hope some of the above info helps. Gotta go but good on you to the guys asking great questions and those giving sensible answers :icon_cheers:. By the look of the last ten or twenty posts here, I think finding good answers here must now be almost impossible.
