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keggle/picnic cooler/??? Confused
Context: I've done at least 10 partial extracts since July. I'm ready to go AG. I've been studying the mashing process and equipment needs for a while now, but every time I think I've got my equipment needs figured out and get ready to purchase/build, I get confused.
To help you help me, you should know the following:
I brew because I love the process.
I don't work in the summertime and intend to brew like it's my job!
I don't have a "great" space for brewing inside or outside, but I intend to turn a 14 x 10 shed into my brewery (eventually)...until then, I'll be happy to sit outside and brew.
I make 5 gallon batches, but have a couple "house" brews that I'd like to "mass" produce (8-10 gall)
I don't mind making a "sound" investment in quality equipment because I don't have the money to keep re-purchasing/building...or to keep purchasing LME from the LHBS (which I think makes many of my beers taste the same anyway...I refer to this as the "Sierra Nevada effect". )
Here's what I think I need:
A simple 5-gallon bucket/container to hold Sparge water
Igloo cooler #1 as a mash tun with a sparge arm
Igloo cooler #2 will collect the runoff from Igloo cooler #1as well as send the sweet wort from a valve into the brew pot (at least a 32-quart, but preferably larger) with a valve at the bottom that will let allow me to chill and send to the primary fermenter.
Now to the question (thanks for bearing with me, I'm an English instructor, which explains the rambling, right?): To eliminate the the need to have 2-igloo coolers, it seems simpler to buy/build a quality keggle, but what I don't get is how or why people keep saying that you can use the keggle as a mash tun AND a brew kettle. I would envision the process as having a 32-40qt, or converted 15.5 gallon keg as my mash tun, while still needing a 32-40qt boil kettle.
Maybe I'm so confused because when I look on e-bay at mash tun systems, I don't see much savings in buying the 1-2 converted igloo coolers vs. just paying a couple hundred bucks for a quality stainless steel keggle?
Please help me easy my mind...On June 21st, I plan on hitting the ground running.
if you batch sparge, you can just use 1 cooler, and 1 pot, and your fermenter bucket, or a second pot. What I do is put my mash water in a pot, heat it, put it in the cooler mash tun, add grains, get it to desired temp, then close it up and wrap in a blanket. Then I set a timer for 45 minutes. after the timer goes off, I heat my sparge water in a pot. once it is heated, I drain the mash tun into my boil kettle. If your sparge water is going to be a big enough quantity that you need the boil kettle to hold it, you can drain the mash tun into a bucket, until the boil kettle is empty. After running off the mash, I add the sparge water into the mash tun, and let it sit for 10-15 minutes. then run it off into the boil kettle. then boil the wort. Easy, and only 1 cooler needed. I used a 48 qt cooler with a bazooka screen in the bottom, and a ball valve attachment I got at bargainfittings.com. Batch sparging is the way to go, the fly sparge method had me scared of all grain brewing, until I saw batch sparging.
I have a 5 gallon coleman cooler I use for mashing. I don't have the means to boil a full 5 gallons so I do 3 gallon all grain batches. I use 5 gallon paint strainer filters to hold the grains in the cooler while they are mashing. haven't converted the cooler to a mash tun yet.
I then boil the 3 gallon batch. works great and I get about 70% efficiency.not bad for only my 4th all grain batch. It's a start in the right direction without spending all the money on a full blown all grain setup.
DC
shalinsky wrote:
Igloo cooler #2 will collect the runoff from Igloo cooler #1as well as send the sweet wort from a valve into the brew pot (at least a 32-quart, but preferably larger) with a valve at the bottom that will let allow me to chill and send to the primary fermenter.
.
This part confuses me a bit. this seems like an unnecessary step. regardless of sparge technique, the use for a "lauter tun" is not necessary, just runoff directly into your boilkettle from the MT.
If you are cool with spending for quality, I would agree, and do it once. A sound well insulated mashtun is very important, but most of all I would consider a overly large brewkettle. 32qt is only 8 gallons. I have several kettles in my "archives" because I kept stepping up my batch size as my equipment grew. A keggle is the perfect size. If you want to go big batch you can, I squezze a 15 gallon preboil volume in mine, but due to its narrow dimensions you can just as easily boil 6 gallons in it. If you are going to brew as much as you say, you will find out that the only difference between a 5 gallon AG batch brewday, and a 14 gallon batch brewday is ingredients, besides that time and clean up are almost identical. I found out if I am spending the 7 hours start to finish on a brewday, i would rather have 2 fermenters bubbling away the next day then just one.
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