Set up cost of biab

[buckerooni]

once you taste the wort from an AG boil you'll got nuts! I'd recommend a cheapy test-the-waters approach too, but then as others have recommended think a bit more long term for the sizing and system.

Larger volumes also go better with kegging systems, but that's all part of the evolution if you can survive the learning curve.

If you haven't got temp control sorted that's also a must-have for good tasting beer.

 

[madpierre06]

I picked up a swiss voille bag and hop bag for IIRC around $15 bucks off a AHB'er, two of the BigW 19L pots (1 for mash/kettle, other to spaarge into as I already had a S/S wok strainer which sat in the top of pot perfectly and I could sit the bag into it to squeeze out) and did it all on the stovetop making 20L batches using this link as a guide. To drop to pitch temp, I sat the pot on ice in the sink, and used large (perfectly cleaned and sanitised) soup cans to kmake ice which served double purpose of lifting volume and dropping temp post-boil.

http://aussiehomebrewer.com/topic/55617-step-by-step-biab-lcba-clone/

Trouble is then I wanted a setup that let me use 8kg grain bills

 

[takai]

This is my budget BIAB setup that gets used for experimental brews:

$20 for the Big W 19L pot, $4 for the voille bag, and there im using my hop spider from the bigger rigs. I siphon out of that for transfer, and use a colander for sparging (plus it comes in handy for passata and soups)

This is my urn setup, based around a '48L' (actually 43L) eBay urn:

$100 for the urn, $50 for the controller, and then it uses either a voille bag or another BigW pot for recirc.

I also am in the middle of making a FauxFather for longer term usage, see the DIY section for that.

So in the end, as i said a while ago its really as expensive as you want to make it. I reckon i could build a recirculation system for about $70 using food grade polyethlene plastic buckets, a kettle element and a LBP, with a PID for temp control. Sure it would be crude, but it is 90% of the Grainfather for under 10% of the cost. Just needs some ingenuity.