1st all grain with mash tun!

[Askari Joe]

On it! Going to do a tasty pale ale with chinook and citra. Initially it was to win over my cousin's husband who only drinks lager, but I can't be bothered making something he'll like, so I'm just going to make something I'll like and let him try it! It's too much effort to make something I wouldn't be happy drinking.

After that I'll be a doing take on Badger's Golden Glory.

The possibilities are endless. Annoyingly I have to work and stuff which takes up far too much potential brewing time!

[Shrunken Reaper]

Good call Joe, Golden Glory is a lovely pint!!

I'm sorting my own AG set up over the next couple of weeks, intending to do AG #1 in 2nd or 3rd weekend of March what kind of set up have you both used? I'm guessing coolbox mash tun, but what have you used as a boiler?

[Askari Joe]

Yep, cool box mash tun with a home made copper manifold. Boiler is an oldish Burco tea urn I picked up off a fella who only wanted a couple of cans of Guinness for it. Truly a bargain! I had a bit of bother making my own hop strainer, but eventually got a bit of copper 'T' end fitting that fit into the back of the tap and attached two stripped out flexi tap hoses. They were brilliant. My sparger tank is an old pressure barrel that's perished so won't handle pressure and I've just got a length of pcv hose attached to the tap and a fine sprinkler rose attached to the other end. Worked a charm. Will improve my sparge technique eventually, but it's alright for now. There's tons of options on-line for buliding your own kit. Alternatively you could sell a kidney and buy it all.

One bit of invaluble advice my Dad gave me was to set everthing up and do a dry run as it were to make sure eveything works and you've got room to cascade your equipment and stuff. It was important I did all that as I have a really really small kitchen and I needed to know where everything was going to be at what time. On the day it all went swimmingly. Read up loads too regarding technique, timings and temps so you don't have to have the book in your hands the whole time. I checked out loads of brew day pics on line too. Invaluble!

All the best!

[Shrunken Reaper]

I've been umming and arring about building my own boiler... as with many other things it seems to make sense on the one hand, but then I start to fret about platic grades and potential electric mess-ups... I've spotted a few 2nd hand Burco/Cygnet boilers online over the past few weeks, but they're usually miles away and pick-up only... and I've been told that kidney selling is not a glamorous at it seems

I could make a really low brew length the first time of something like 5 litres I suppose (Nope)

eBay... don't fail me now!!

[Askari Joe]

Hey,

I think I've carried on this converation on another post. I've also PM-ed you with a couple of links to Ebay items. Also, check out the 'for sale' section on Jim's. Stuff sometimes pops up.

Also, about building a boiler from a plastic FV I think that's what Jim uses on his AG technique pages. Plenty of people have them.

Finally, doing a 5litre trial is a bit pointless. It's the same amount of work for a fifth of the product. You can give it a shot, but I'd wait till you have your kit and do a full brew. If you make 5 litres of amazing beer you'll be wanting the other 18litres and kicking youself you didn't make a full load.

[Shrunken Reaper]

Yeah mate, cheers for that!!

I was always kidding about the 5 litre thing I can imagine doing about 15l as a minimum... but I have a history of just going in all guns blazing when i start something, so even that is unlikely (unless it's a coffee stout or summit)

[Askari Joe]

Ha ha, sorry I missed the (Nope) bit after the 5l gag.

'All Guns Blazing' should be the name of your 1st AG brew though!

[Shrunken Reaper]

Hehe, not a bad idea there Joe

[valhalla76]

Hi Joe, went very well and bottled the lot on sat with minimal priming sugar,bitter at 1st with a sweetness hops coming through a lot at the end, light and refreshing ended up bang on 3.8abv so happy Was gonna dry hop but felt it didnt need it. Reaper i use a 28ltr cool box modified with a tap, use a cheap lidl boiler for the hot licor tun sparge and boiler, not the best boiler but works and cost £30. Loving this hobby more every brew me ducks

[Shrunken Reaper]

Boiler from Lidl..?

Explain how?

[Askari Joe]

I think this is it.

viewtopic.php?f=6&t=41823

[Shrunken Reaper]

Hmmm, when did you find this Valhalla? I've had a brief scan on t'interwebs and can find only fleeting mentions of the thing... I think about 90% of the resulkts cam from here

[valhalla76]

I rang around a few lidls and one locally had a few in stock, not the best boil but works for me