AG Brewing from scratch

[Mike1981]

Hi, ive been reading on here about the AG brewing and how much everyone says its loads better than kits. Ive only ever done kits but im thinking about coming over to the dark side :twisted: . Ive read the 'How To' guide on here and all the equipment you need is listed. My question is because i would be starting from scratch, how expensive is it to get all the equipment together to get started??
Also is it definately worth it??

Cheers
:

 

[Sean_Mc]

It really is worth the effort and can cost very little if your okay at basic DIY jobs.

HERES, the link to my plastic build, hope it helps a little.

AND HERES my first brew

HERES a youtube link that I found excellent

 

[Mike1981]

Thanks Sean_mc thats alot of help mate :thumb:

 

[Sean_Mc]

No problem, be careful though the kit tends to expand, turn into stainless steel and takes over the shed

 

[Mike1981]

Lol ill take note.....The missus wont be too happy

 

[evanvine]

No problem, be careful though the kit tends to expand, turn into stainless steel and takes over the shed

SM is essentially right!
On the other hand I've been using plastic since 1983 and am now building a plastic HERMS with a plastic pump.
Good luck for your kit and first brew :thumb:

 

[Sean_Mc]

You see other peoples kit and you start getting baaaaad ideas, like your big brass pressure gauge Jim :mrgreen:

 

[keith1664]

Or you start to wish your boiler was a bit bigger, but then you'd need a bigger mash tun and a dedicated HLT would be nice. A fermenting fridge so you could do some nice lagers for the summer. A bottle tree makes bottling a lot easier... but cornies would be lovely, what about a kegerator?

Someone stop me!

 

[bigdave]

I built my boiler and mash tun for under £60.

If you have a plumber friend pester them for an old hot water cylinder. I got one free from a mate and its made a brilliant boiler and will hold 100 odd ltrs if need be.

Heres a link to the trials and tribulations that was my boiler build

and a link to my mash tun build

Its not the most attractive setup ever but it works as well as anyone elses kit.
The mash tun loses about 0.1 - 0.2º over a 90min mash which is about as good as it gets especially when you think I brew in the garage in sub zero temps.

 

[evanvine]

like your big brass pressure gauge Jim :mrgreen:

That was aquired many years ago from work when the central heating system updated.
It just happens to be fairly accurate.

 

[robsan77]

depending how thrifty and handy you are you are looking at between £50 - £100 :thumb:

 

[dan_loves_beer]

I've been slowly putting my first ag brewery together over the past couple of months, my theory was to not start cheap because I did that with mtb riding and it was kind of wasted money. So this time I went straight for it. Full ss herms with gas burner, stand ,march pump. It really snowballed, but its an investment right ? As long as I don't want bigger later :whistle: :whistle:

 

[bigdave]

I've been slowly putting my first ag brewery together over the past couple of months, my theory was to not start cheap because I did that with mtb riding and it was kind of wasted money. So this time I went straight for it. Full ss herms with gas burner, stand ,march pump. It really snowballed, but its an investment right ? As long as I don't want bigger later :whistle: :whistle:

If you've got the money then great but the truth is that a £1000 home brew set up can't really do anything better that a £100 setup.

 

[dan_loves_beer]

That's True, I didn't really mean it to sound like that though. I was just using a jam pot till now. And all this extra stuff for me really stemmed from being kicked out of the kitchen. And me being too obsessive.

 

[stephent]

Do you need anything extra to brew a true lager?

 

[micmacmoc]

If you can't be bothered with all that DIY there are a number of places that'll do a plastic set up. Thats what I did, almost immediately wishing I had bought 60litre instead of 33lt boiler. I would go as large as you can afford to or you'll have to get more time off to brew, I do 46 litres at a time in my 60 litre boiler, thats a brew a month which I can easily get past the wife!
So 60litre dual element boiler: £110 ish
Mash tun:£70 ish
Immersion cooler: £33ish

so around £200....but if you make it all yourself half that, theres a load of folks on here who will be happy to help you through the process, plenty of good advice too. Its so addictive though, cornelius kegs are the next 'need' for me but really I'm trying hard to be good!
Or a bigger mash tun.....brew fridge.....Herms...STOP IT!

 

[Sean_Mc]

I know I'll go 'doh' when someone tells me, but for a very tired Sean, could someone tell me what's CIP?

 

[tubby_shaw]

I know I'll go 'doh' when someone tells me, but for a very tired Sean, could someone tell me what's CIP?

Clean In Place :thumb:

 

[Sean_Mc]

Ahhhhh...not seen that acronym before, Thanks T_S :thumb: