$150 to spend

Bubba Wade said:
Yes. Here's a rough schedule.
10 min. Setup, grain milling, mash water heating.
45 minutes. Mash.
15 minutes. Drain and rinse grain bag. Bring wort to a boil.
30 minutes. Boil. This is sufficient to eliminate DMS from most malts. Slight recipe adjustment for the hops.
10 minutes. Transfer to fermenter, set up cooling system.
10 minutes. Clean up.

I have a stainless fermenter with silicone gaskets on the lid and valves. I have a stainless heat exchanger coil. So, I hook up the cooling system, set the temperature and walk away. I come back a couple of hours later and pitch the yeast. One advantage of pouring boiling wort into the fermenter is that it kills any bacteria that you might have missed.

Keep in mind that there is nothing wrong with the standard mash, sparge, and 90 minute boil method. It's just that over the years, I found that I could reduce the time without impacting quality or flavor. And with shorter brew days, I tend to brew much more often.
Click to expand...
Hell yeah youd be like a whirling dervish on brew day. I'm going to give this sorta thing a try having little un now and all.
Cheers
 
Bubba Wade said:
Yes. Here's a rough schedule.
10 min. Setup, grain milling, mash water heating.
45 minutes. Mash.
15 minutes. Drain and rinse grain bag. Bring wort to a boil.
30 minutes. Boil. This is sufficient to eliminate DMS from most malts. Slight recipe adjustment for the hops.
10 minutes. Transfer to fermenter, set up cooling system.
10 minutes. Clean up.

I have a stainless fermenter with silicone gaskets on the lid and valves. I have a stainless heat exchanger coil. So, I hook up the cooling system, set the temperature and walk away. I come back a couple of hours later and pitch the yeast. One advantage of pouring boiling wort into the fermenter is that it kills any bacteria that you might have missed.

Keep in mind that there is nothing wrong with the standard mash, sparge, and 90 minute boil method. It's just that over the years, I found that I could reduce the time without impacting quality or flavor. And with shorter brew days, I tend to brew much more often.
Click to expand...

That’s a nice efficient process. Just curious, what’s your cooling set up?
 
If adding a fridge or freezer is not an option, then I would suggest a grain mill. Milling your own grain gives you some more control over your efficiency, and buying grain in bulk can save money and will offset the cost of the mill. Buying base malt in bulk and milling it myself saves me as much as $6 per batch, which paid for my mill in 20 batches.
 
I was going to suggest a bigger kettle but that GIgawort looks pretty slick. I really like what Sunfire has to say about evaluating your process and deciding where you're looking for improvements. If bigger batches are a priority, then get a bigger kettle. If ease of brew day is something, then get the Gigawort or a wort chiller. If you despise bottling as much as I did, then kegs is the way to go. It's all about priorities.

I don't want to pile on the whole electrical thing but not tripping breakers isn't necessarily a positive/safe sign. And if you have concerns about the tiny draw that a freezer might have, that Gigabrew will be in a whole other league. 1600W draw for getting up to boil is a significant requirement, depending on the amps it needs.
 
mrskittle said:
I don't want to pile on the whole electrical thing but not tripping breakers isn't necessarily a positive/safe sign. And if you have concerns about the tiny draw that a freezer might have, that Gigabrew will be in a whole other league. 1600W draw for getting up to boil is a significant requirement, depending on the amps it needs.
Click to expand...
Since I brew in the garage, I installed a dedicated 20 amp GFCI circuit for the Gigawort. A little over-conservative, but not a bad decision.
 
Want a cheap 15.5 gal brew pot? Buy a keg. Drink said keg. Let them keep the deposit. Use a dremmel with a cut off wheel to cut the top off the keg. BAM! Cheap brew pot (also, most homebrew shops carry the hardwear to drill a hole and "bolt on" spigot, thermometer,etc.)
 
Jagov said:
Want a cheap 15.5 gal brew pot? Buy a keg. Drink said keg. Let them keep the deposit. Use a dremmel with a cut off wheel to cut the top off the keg. BAM! Cheap brew pot (also, most homebrew shops carry the hardwear to drill a hole and "bolt on" spigot, thermometer,etc.)
Click to expand...

Other than the fact that, the reason there is a deposit, is you are RENTING the keg, you're only buying the beer in it.
 
mrskittle said:
I was going to suggest a bigger kettle but that GIgawort looks pretty slick. I really like what Sunfire has to say about evaluating your process and deciding where you're looking for improvements. If bigger batches are a priority, then get a bigger kettle. If ease of brew day is something, then get the Gigawort or a wort chiller. If you despise bottling as much as I did, then kegs is the way to go. It's all about priorities.

I don't want to pile on the whole electrical thing but not tripping breakers isn't necessarily a positive/safe sign. And if you have concerns about the tiny draw that a freezer might have, that Gigabrew will be in a whole other league. 1600W draw for getting up to boil is a significant requirement, depending on the amps it needs.
Click to expand...

I bottled one whole batch before I went out and bought kegs.
 
Jagov said:
Want a cheap 15.5 gal brew pot? Buy a keg. Drink said keg. Let them keep the deposit. Use a dremmel with a cut off wheel to cut the top off the keg. BAM! Cheap brew pot (also, most homebrew shops carry the hardwear to drill a hole and "bolt on" spigot, thermometer,etc.)
Click to expand...
Where I'm from they call that stealing and the reason why deposits and prices go up.
 
Agreed. If you want to make a keggle, buy the keg. Otherwise you're stealing from a business likely having a hard time surviving in the current environment (my local brewery just had to shut the doors for a while because two of their staff tested positive for Covid-19). Or go online and look to see if there are scrap kegs available.
 
Tell me about it.
 
Ok, if you want to stay with the moral majority. Look up used commerical kitchen stock pots. You can get the large pots on the cheap. I found quite a few on ebay (40, 60, and 80 quart pots) under $100.
 
Jagov said:
Ok, if you want to stay with the moral majority. Look up used commerical kitchen stock pots. You can get the large pots on the cheap. I found quite a few on ebay (40, 60, and 80 quart pots) under $100.
Click to expand...
Now that's a much better idea.... But if you look there are new 11 gallon stainless kettles - good quality ones, too - in the $100 range.
 
Jagov said:
Want a cheap 15.5 gal brew pot? Buy a keg. Drink said keg. Let them keep the deposit. Use a dremmel with a cut off wheel to cut the top off the keg. BAM! Cheap brew pot (also, most homebrew shops carry the hardwear to drill a hole and "bolt on" spigot, thermometer,etc.)
Click to expand...
That's what I use;)
I'm in the minority:rolleyes:
 
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