A Newbie to All Grain - Budget Mash Kettle

[Aeropars]

One good thing about the KLARSTEIN FULLHORN that was mentioned earlier by @Rodcx500z , which is currently on offer btw. Is it is an easy way to get into BIAB (worth getting their own bag as an accessory) ther Klarstein has good temperature control with a fairly accurate LCD display and a timer so you can do stepped mashes should you wish to. At the current offer price of £149 I think its a steal and if you ever move on then it will make a great Hot Liquor tank for your sparge water etc

Its just the kettle though isn't it? I'd need to buy a chiller, bag, pump (if i wanted to go down the recirculation route)

 

[AdeDunn]

Yeah it is, a fairly decent one, but still just a kettle.

My system didn't come with a chiller by the way, that didn't bother me though as 1) I owned a copper IC already and 2) wanted to try a plate chiller this time around anyway... Some systems though come as a package for a pretty reasonable price.

 

[Rodcx500z]

Its just the kettle though isn't it? I'd need to buy a chiller, bag, pump (if i wanted to go down the recirculation route)

You dont need a chiller do no chill, although i have one i still do no chill from time to time

 

[-Bezza-]

Nisbetts seem to be selling boilers off quite cheap at the moment, in a variety of sizes.

My brewing progression has been:

- Extract kits
- Large pan on the stove (AG)
- Burco boiler (AG)
- Grainfather (AG)

Whilst the Grainfather is far easier to use as a piece of kit, all have made beer. The three AG methods made good quality beer.

If you have a spare bit of time and fancy reading my thoughts on the Burco approach, read the first post here: Bezza's Brewdays

or here for an overly-detailed write-up on using a large saucepan: Moving onto all grain - some help please

Point being, don't worry about the extras like pumps etc. Beer can be brewed quite simply and you'll be able to make some quality beer on a reasonably unmodified burco (or similar).

Incidentally, the burco boiler now just serves as the sparge water heater for the grainfather.

 

[Crappyfish]

If I can put my two pence worth in I learnt from experience and probably cost without pushing the boat out too far look at what you need then go one step up if you can as when your learning things first bought may be adequate for what you want then as you learn more you maybe want more ie bigger boiler more settings on the mashing part etc. A bit like buying a tele it looks huge at first then seems to shrink as bigger teles come out. If that makes sense.

 

[AdeDunn]

If you're going to take the "I'm just starting out, I want to try with the most basic kit I can get away with." approach, then you'd probably be better off with something like this BIAB Starter Kit (Peco Boiler, Chiller, Mashing bag, Mash Kit) - The Homebrew Company. I wouldn't touch that kind of stuff with a barge pole, as the thought of boiling wort in a plastic bucket always gave me chills been a family man with dogs. Lots of people brew beer with that exact setup though, quite happily.

By the same measure though, you could just do a couple of stove top batches in the biggest saucepan you can find, then cool it off in the sink. You'll get 5 litres that way easily enough, and find out if it's for you just the same, and all you would have spent out on is ingredients and yeast.

I didn't think that this was what you were looking for though, so replied according to my own experience of jumping on the never ending upgrade escalator of this hobby, and honestly telling you that both my wife and myself wish I'd just bought a single vessel system right off the bat and saved a fortune in the process. Heck, after spending about £50 on different bits experimenting with trying to build my own false bottom for my last rig, my wife pretty much made me spend £46 on a ready made one.... My pump was nearly £50, and that's without fittings, SSR, heatsink, cabling, fuses, fuse holders, the stock pot.... Yeah, I spent more on that than I just spent.... I got sick of fumbling with the BIAB bags full of heavy wet grain, trying to get a trivet between them and the pot, getting sticky wort on my phone screen, trailing cables etc.

It's horses for courses though, some enjoy that stuff, heck there are folks out there who think those of use with single vessel systems are doing it wrong, and that the only way to go is cool box mash tun, hlt, boil kettle... Go on US sites and they think you are crazy if you don't use gas burners outside.... I can only tell you how I see things, you may share my view, or you might not. Good luck either way, hope it's for you for sure!

 

[gavp1979]

I use the exact peco kit mentioned by @AdeDunn above. Only done about 5 or 6 brews on it but they have all turned out well, only problem I have with it is sitting stirring the wort for about an hour while waiting for it to go from mash to boil sure there are better systems available but for £125 including the ingredients for your first brew I don't think you can go far wrong

 

[Petrolhead]

This was the one I bought @Aeropars

https://www.klarstein.co.uk/Home-ap...eel-35-Ltr.html?listtype=search&searchparam=*
They regularly have offers which brings this price down.

 

[Drunkula]

If you've got an induction hob see if you can put a pan lid or a steel dish inside with some water and get it to heat up. If it does you've got mash/hlt/boilers with zero mods.

 

[AdeDunn]

I use the exact peco kit mentioned by @AdeDunn above. Only done about 5 or 6 brews on it but they have all turned out well, only problem I have with it is sitting stirring the wort for about an hour while waiting for it to go from mash to boil sure there are better systems available but for £125 including the ingredients for your first brew I don't think you can go far wrong

Yeah, you have to stir the same even with stainless steel kettles. Well, unless you do what I did and build in a self stirring system using a pump that can handle high temps, and careful placement of fittings.... lol Otherwise though the wort ends up scorching, makes a mess and tastes rank. For basic BIAB setups though, like you say you can't go far wrong with that as you get everything you need, boiler, bag, cooler and ingredients for your first brew.... Just add blankets/quilt.

 

[pwhatton]

Loads of good advice above. After brewing with (respected) kits for years, about 3 years ago a couple of friends encouraged me to go whole grain. It's been a great journey and I've enjoyed every moment. Like some folk here, I didn't much like the idea of kettle elements in a plastic bin. I bought a very basic Klarstein kettle, just manual temperature control, and started with brew in a bag. I bought a cooler from ebay. When I opened the first bottle I knew I would never go back to kits again! :-) Later, as other folk have done, I added a food grade magnetic pump for re-circulation. I found a big stainless steel pot in Wilko that fitted nicely in the Klarstein and intended to make a grain basket from it. But abandoned that idea when I found out how difficult it is drilling holes in stainless steel!

Then 18 months or so ago I kind of impulse bought a Bulldog system when I was in my local homebrew shop. I knew by that point how much I enjoyed brewing and that it wasn't a passing fad. So now I have decent temperature control, grain basket, a decent chrome cooler, recirculation and pumping into the fermenting bin etc. One PITA with the Bulldog is that the filter gets clogged and I've ended up a couple of times having to pump the wort into a bin to clean it. So I just leave the filter off now. But you don't need one of these systems, the beer from BIAB with the Klarstein was really excellent if I say so myself.

I knew it was getting a bit serious when, after ruining a fermenting batch in the hot summer two years ago (it was 35C in the utility room, but it is also unheated in the winter), I "made" a brew fridge. A STC controller with a 15W tubular heater keeps the fermentation bin temperature spot on winter and summer.

 

[BlackRegent]

If you go down this route remember that you can always empty the grain basket after sparging and use it as a sort of hop spider.

Why didn't I think of that?! Thanks for the tip

 

[AdeDunn]

I bought a hop spider to use as a hop spider. Arrived yesterday.