Brew system pics

[MashGordon]

i'm not worthy...

[Wild Bill]

It is amazing how much more fun my brewday is when I don't have to run up and down stairs to and from the sink. I'm still on a crab cooker and have to move things up and down for the gravity feeding, but all will come in time.

I hear you on the gettin all your stuff in one spot thing. I have been loving life since putting a sink in the garage (makes the wife happy too). My fermentors are still in the basement but I can just gravity feed it down there from the garage.

On the note of gravity feeding, after this past weekend I am a fan of it again... Not sure if it was the pump causing suction, my grind, the maxed out MT, or what but a stuck mash seems to suck even worse on a single tier with the pump is cavitating every 2 minutes... I ended up running off into a bucket (via gravity) and then transfering from there into my BK, two and a half hour sparge grumble grumble.

[polski]

okay, these are all bad ass, but i thought i'd seek the wisdom of the group here. After 5 years of extract batches i'm getting the courage up to make the switch (plenty of thoughts on that, but that's a different thread).

here's the rub, i see very few all cooler set ups in this group. i'm still a ways off from some killer pump driven, fancy welded system...but is it smarter to start collecting the pieces (e.g. kettles, cookers, etc) or get a two igloo cooler set up.

any ideas/advice.

[triple-oh-six]

okay, these are all bad ass, but i thought i'd seek the wisdom of the group here. After 5 years of extract batches i'm getting the courage up to make the switch (plenty of thoughts on that, but that's a different thread).

here's the rub, i see very few all cooler set ups in this group. i'm still a ways off from some killer pump driven, fancy welded system...but is it smarter to start collecting the pieces (e.g. kettles, cookers, etc) or get a two igloo cooler set up.

any ideas/advice.

I was fortunate to have 3 kegs given to me by 3 seperate people, so I obviously went the SS route.
Many people go with the coolers and love them, the biggest drawback is that you can't control the temp., unless you add cold or hot water. They do however hold a temp. very well.

IMHO if you can afford, better yet find or barter them, kegs are the way to go. But you will be just fine going with coolers.
Either way, make the jump, you won't regret it.
Good luck,
Prost

[Mylo]

okay, these are all bad ass, but i thought i'd seek the wisdom of the group here. After 5 years of extract batches i'm getting the courage up to make the switch (plenty of thoughts on that, but that's a different thread).

here's the rub, i see very few all cooler set ups in this group. i'm still a ways off from some killer pump driven, fancy welded system...but is it smarter to start collecting the pieces (e.g. kettles, cookers, etc) or get a two igloo cooler set up.

any ideas/advice.

You don't need a fancy welded system. You do need one cooler, two coverted kegs, and two burners. Unless you want to get at least one pump (which I highly recommend - even if it is just for Jamil-O-Chillin')

You can do wonders with a little ingenuity and some bayou classics from Home depot.


Mylo

[Wild Bill]

okay, these are all bad ass, but i thought i'd seek the wisdom of the group here. After 5 years of extract batches i'm getting the courage up to make the switch (plenty of thoughts on that, but that's a different thread).

here's the rub, i see very few all cooler set ups in this group. i'm still a ways off from some killer pump driven, fancy welded system...but is it smarter to start collecting the pieces (e.g. kettles, cookers, etc) or get a two igloo cooler set up.

any ideas/advice.

I would say to get in to all grain on the simple side. If it needs to be a two cooler setup then do it that way. I would also advise a one cooler setup as Mylo stated but I don't think you need three heatable vessels like semaj0006 said. The cooler for a MT is cheap, easy to convert, and holds heat very well.

I used an Igloo 48 quart cooler and two turkey fryers for years before building my sculpture. I installed a weldless spiggot onto the BK, that is a necessity, but the HLT I just popured the water from the kettle directly into the MT (batch sparging) I think you can learn a lot going that route, both about the AG process and how you like to go about working.

[DannyW]

Here are the setups used by a couple of well known, well regarded, very active, award winning brewers. They are nothing fancy and turn out great beer.

Denny Conn is at http://www.hbd.org/cascade/dennybrew/ down at the bottom, and Mike Dixon is at http://www.ipass.net/mpdixon/Homebrew/S ... niques.htm

Doesn't take any more than a couple of burners and a cooler. the sculptures make setup and cleanup easier, and are fun to build in their own right, but the beer doesn't know the difference.

[meisterofpuppets]

Where do you guys get the keggles if you have no welding skilz? I might need to get one. As much as I love my 32 qt SS kettle, I think I need more wort space.