Advice Please - Equipment for my first AG

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Shinjuku

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Hi all, so I wanted to get into all grain brewing but like all things I wish to start small with baby steps, maybe a SMASH brew?

I basically have all the equipment from PET buckets to Fermzilla All Rounder and a fermentation chamber.

I have ordered a muslin bag (AliExpress, hope it arrives...) and I was thinking maybe to just brew something on my stove.

Now I don't necessarily have to make a big brew, and in fact, starting a smaller batch may be better?

So therefore my questions are;

Should I buy a metal kettle which can be used on the stove? If so, I'd imagine the recommendation would be to buy something which do a 23L batch (future proofing the purchase) but I've seen these size pots go for north of £70 online. Other issues I foresee is that I would have to buy a siphon to move wort to my fermenter. I would also need a wort chiller which are like £30-50 from what I've seen.

Or, do I go for a PET bucket with built in kettle like this deal > BIAB Kit Brewers Upgrade Kit - Get Er Brewed
It also seems to have everything I would need including a chiller. Also has a tap so I can transfer more easily to fermenter and a grain kit to make a start.

Or any other ideas altogether?

Thanks in advance!
 
I was where you are a year ago. I didn't have a lot of money either.. so my other half bought me a 21 litre stock pot for my birthday (imagine if I had bought her one!!!) . I have done upwards of 15 brews in it. I also have a 7 litre pot I hear sparge water in. With this little set up I can get 15 litres in a fermenting bucket. I have managed to get 19 litres in by doing a bit of a weird dual boil in both pans...it did work but I am sure the purists would have something to say! More recently I have been using smaller fermentation buckets so there is Lett head space, and this is definitely better.

The danger I see of going bigger than my setup on the cooker is twofold.
1. The cooker will struggle to get anything bigger to boil
2. Lifting and moving more than 15 litres of hot liquid around the kitchen is not the safest idea.

I am ready to upgrade now.... About po post to this effect as I am after some ideas.. But have definitely enjoyed making smaller batches... It does mean you can Brew often.
 
Many here use a no chill method where you leave it to cool overnight. I'll have to leave advising on that to them as I've never done it

What type of stove do you have? I believe if you try and do a 23L batch on a standard kitchen stove you may struggle. I use an outdoor burner, but I've seen people use induction hobs.
 
Many here use a no chill method where you leave it to cool overnight. I'll have to leave advising on that to them as I've never done it

What type of stove do you have? I believe if you try and do a 23L batch on a standard kitchen stove you may struggle. I use an outdoor burner, but I've seen people use induction hobs.
It would be a standard kitchen top gas burner. And yeah, come to think of it, moving hot wort sounds fun... I'm now edging towards the Peco plastic buckets, at least I can do that on a counter and then transfer to fermenter with more ease.
 
If you're brewing in kitchen can't you just leave it on hob or counter and use sink tap to attach immersion chiller ?

I have no chilled a few times with no problems. Usually though I let it chill to 80c for a one hour hopstand,
then attach chiller to get down to pitch temp. So there's no moving around boiling wort.

Lots of people no chill all the time and sometimes if late it's more convenient and I'll just leave it till the morning.

I prefer using a steel pan than a bucket to brew ( but then put the wort in a plastic fermenter :roll: )
but the Peco has the advantage off better temperature control/timing with an inkbird.
I rather brew with gas though, I also use a double burner camping stove. Takes about 40mins to get a total mash water
volume of 24L to 100c.

I've just got a new ( secondhand ) 70L pan and will be getting one of these 7.5 kw burner ring from Malt miller, about £ 30.
https://www.themaltmiller.co.uk/product/7-5kw-gas-burner-and-stand/
 
One thing to bare in mind with stove top brewing is their is a limit to how much liquid you can realistically boil, I have an induction hob and find it is a struggle to boil more than about 15L. This is fine for me as I mostly do 9-10L batches, but if you are looking to do larger batches you are likely better off just going for a dedicated boiler (Or as Tanglefoot has mentioned go for a dedicated gas burner or similar).
 

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