Cheap and Easy All Grain Start

[Matty A]

Alot of brewers including myself start of brewing using the easy kits that Coopers make.

 

I had often read about all grain and thought, how hard is that and how expensive will that be. After doing a little reading and looking on other forums to see about procedures and costs involved I thought it was going to be way too hard to do. That is until I found an article on AHB which has shown me how to do it fairly easily and really cheap. I had all the equipment I needed to use for roughly $20 (without the grain or the fermenter).

 

The article is here (I think you need to become a member to see the images). I hope this just sheds some light especially to those who think that they need to fork out alot of money to start or those who think they need huge amounts of space to brew in.

 

I purchased a 19L stock pot for $12 at Big W (they are normally $20 but are often on special for $12). and some fabric (can't remember the name of it but it is a real fine mesh) from the fabric shop up the road for around $5.

 

I used this recipe which I halved so it would fit into the pot. It is a great beer, and after making it I brew alot of all grain. Remember to set aside a big chunk of time (from memory it took me roughly 5 hours to be sitting on my garage floor to get to temperature).

 

Obviously I will be sticking with Coopers for alot of my brews because I don't have the time for all grain most of the time but its a good starting point for those looking to get into it.

[LordEoin]

That's a good read and enteraining.

You can see he's having more than just teh one neer he mentioned, his posts get funnier as it goes along [biggrin]

[Guest]

and some fabric (can't remember the name of it but it is a real fine mesh) from the fabric shop up the road for around $5.

Swiss Voile is the fabric and yes this is a cheap way to experience if AG is for you or not. The real value comes into it when the time you spend creates a much larger volume but that isn't the purpose of that thread.

Like anything, you get out what you put in. K&K for 20 minutes work or AG for around 5 hours. It is nice to have a choice.