Please help me make some decisions!

[Bezland]

Hello all!

So, I'm looking to get rolling with an AG set up, but as per usual for me, I've done a lot of research and ended up having too many options floating around my head with too little knowledge to make a well informed decision!

So, let me try and get everything down in some kind of order on here and see if you kind and knowledgable folks can help me get my head around a few things!

Lets start with the all important budget. I'm ideally looking to get set up for approximately £100 or less. I know this is a tight budget, but from what I've read, as long as I'm willing to do some DIY (which as an engineer I certainly am), I can be making pretty darn good beer for this money reasonably easily!

I'm looking to brew small batches of around 1-2gallons (I've read that 1 gallon beer tends to be a bit of a challenge to get good consistency with so most likely 2 gallon batches) for recipe testing and creation, but then I'd also like the ability to brew longer lengths (I'd guess 5Gal or there or there abouts would be enough) for sharing with friends and family as sharing is caring!

My first dilemma is the choice between BIAB and a Mash Tun/Boiler set up. the simplicity of BIAB appeals to me, but then I am also concerned by maintaining mash temperature and the difficulties should I want to start sparges etc. I don't have room to set up a pulley system either as this would all be happening in my kitchen which would realistically drive me to build my own electric boiler.

A mash tun and boiler set up feels more appealing to me as it will allow for greater control over mash temperature as well as allow for easier sparging etc. Also - it feels more like "real" brewing which is a massive appeal to me as my only brewing experience outside of a handful of kits at home has been doing a handful large scale brews at my local brewery.

Is there any opinion out there as to which method would be best for me looking at a combination of my desired brew lengths and budgetary restrictions?

I have a million more questions in my head, but hopefully they should halve if I can settle on at least a brewing method at first!

Thanks for hanging on this far, and I look forward to hearing what everyone has to say!

[Sadfield]

For £100, I'd get a 30-40l boiler and make a wort chiller, and go BAIB. This would give you scope to go up in batch sizes in the future and also leaves the option of a separate mash tun as and when more funds are available, if you prefer that route.

[AnthonyUK]

I agree with Sadfield. A BIAB system to start which you may find you are happy with and if not your equipment ban be used in a 2 or 3 vessel setup.
BIAB would be more suitable for your smaller batches IMO.

[Kyle_T]

I use a 2 vessel system and it works fine. One pot does the job of hot liquor tank and copper. Mash tun allows nice strong beers or I can BIAB for a simple house beer.

[Bezland]

Whilst I'm okay with BIAB on principle, but if I'm only doing a 2 gallon brew to test some things out, I would be worried about keeping the heat over the mash due to the huge amount of headspace in a 30-40L pot. I know I would have a similar issue in a mash tun, but I'm guessing the insulation there would help me out a lot more?

[Sadfield]

Whilst I'm okay with BIAB on principle, but if I'm only doing a 2 gallon brew to test some things out, I would be worried about keeping the heat over the mash due to the huge amount of headspace in a 30-40L pot. I know I would have a similar issue in a mash tun, but I'm guessing the insulation there would help me out a lot more?

Fair point, although there are ways to fill out the headspace with some insulating medium. I run 2 pot myself, however BIAB is probably cheapest route to brewing in this case. And in my opinion, the best way to work out what equipment you need, is to get brewing. I personally wouldn't drop below 2 gallon, as it is very tempting when first starting, to drink beer too early (also good learning experience) and end up very little when its at its best.

[sbond10]

Get er brewed do a kit fir about 120 quid

[Fil]

fwiw im with the first few responders, get a nice pot and go biab. You can relly on insulation with biab just as much as you acn with 2 or 3Vessel brewing you just need to insulate the pot.. a 20l (for 2-3 gallon brews) stockpot is simple to insulate, just lid and drop it in a cardboard box and fill with packing beans (just dont open half way through to measure the temp WAIT the full 90 mins and then measure the temp drop (if any). and simply adjust your strike temp for the next batch if needed

brewing with the basic equipment will provide all the insight you need to tell you if you will enjoy a bigger brewday and if so which direction would suit you best, biab can be a bit of a pita when brewing 5+gallons simply due to the weight of the damp grain but at 1-2 gallon batch size a little ol lady will have no trouble lifting out the grain bag..

get stuck in and most of the answers your lookin for will come to you

[daf]

50 litre pot with hop strainer and tap from Maltmiller, about £70 or £80
Bag £5 from Wilko
No-chill cube (25 litres) £7 delivered OR homemade immersion chiller £25

That's all you will need.

Then there's the electronic thermometer, hydrometer and all the other gubbins of course.

[daf]

Lifting 10kg of wet grains isn't that difficult either!

[sbond10]

Powell brewing pans are the cheapest I found. Also ebay has copper chillers for 34 quid. I've been having this debate with SWMBO about whether I should my own or get a pre built with no kinks. For the extra 9 quid SWMBO wants me to buy prebuilt

[daf]

10m of 10mm copper tube is down to £21 in Wickes now on special offer. Might be harder to coil than my 7mm though.

[Bezland]

It would appear that BIAB is a winner whilst I develop some brewing skills! Two follow up questions then. For a 5 gal brew, what volume pot would I need to mash and boil safely whilst minimising extraneous headspace on a 2 or 3 gallon brew? As I plan to build plastic, if I decide to grow my set up in the future, I can buy a bigger tub and just swap over elements etc. Secondly, how important is the post boil chill? Can I simply put my FV with a couple gallons of hot wort in a bath of cold water to chill it? Will I get any bad tastes by just leaving it to air cool?

[Fil]

for a budget placky boiler for a 5 gallon brew look at ex mango chutney hdpe blue barrels (£11 delivered via ebay)

full with a preboil volume for a circa 5gallon final volume brew..

but for a 2-3gallon brew i would look at using a simple stove top stockpot circa 20l in capacity,
Its wise imho to mount elements in a plastic boiler higer up to avoid overheating the base with radiant heat from the elements, this can limit the minimum boil volume ..

other alternatives are the 60-66l PP buckets from the copperkettle online brewshop (element and tap holes cut to spec for free)

more expensive but PP wont soften with boil heat like hdpe can.

and slightly more expensive still is the best option imho a 50l SS stockpot via the ebay.fr german seller bergland circa £50 delivered..let me know if u need an email addy, tho the tools to cut element and tap holes could add another 20-£25 if you cant borrow them.. (1 x 20mm qmax punch and 1 x 38.5mm qmax punch)

google the aussie technique of 'NoChill' - without the fast chill down normally promoted you cant pitch the yeast and get the brew going asap, AND you may not get the coldbreak forming in big clumps that will fall drop out in the kettle or fermentor as trub so you can end up with a slightly less clear pint, but no detriment to flavour.

Much better to have a tad too much heardoom than a tad too little, a boil over is messy and a waste of valuable beer and if done in the kitchen can lead to an instant life banishment to the patio for brewing..

[Bezland]

Hi all,

I'd just like to thank you all for your input on this thread. Over the past couple of days with a bit of logical thinking and a touch more research. I think I've decided on converting a 33L FV into a boiler with a couple of morrisons elements and using this to create "tester" beers. I purchased Greg Hughes book as it's on sale on Amazon right now, and the reading has inspired me to want to try a million things, least of which is about 5 small variations on a SMaSH to really understand what effect on taste slight ingredient changes have. And lets face it, if I was doing 40 pint brew lengths of these, I'd have to get through 200 pints which I feel would stunt my ability to experiment! In the future if I decide I want to brew longer lengths once I have a better grip on things, I'll be looking to use a cool box mash tun so that I can start utilising a sparge and if necessary I'll transfer electrical gibbons to a 50/60L bin.

One more question if anyone has any advice though, any clues on a good tap set up for a BIAB plastic boiler? I figure I can use a second BIAB bag when boiling hops to remove that gunk, to perhaps bypass the need for a filter, but I still don't fancy potentially syphoning the hot wort out if I choose to go no chill!