all grain equip

[Bruno_78]

I'm looking at buying this setup from morebeer.com. Does anyone have an opinion on this type of equipment, is this a good buy? Any ideas would be appreciated. Thanks

http://www.morebeer.com/detail.php3?pid=B3-200B

[tallmikeG]

i purchased the B3-150 system over the holidays, and i would probably urge you NOT to purchase the B3-200. it has nothing to do with the quality of the equipment, but if you're anything like myself you'll be itching for stainless kegs/kettles as soon as you finish your first batch with the coolers (so you can add heat directly to the HLT and Mash Tun). it may be worth the extra money/time to buy/make a converted keg setup right off the bat. i wish i had. :)

[toneyc]

$485? Wowsers! I was looking at www.kegs.com this morning. They have 15.5 gallon converted Sanke kegs with a 12 inch hole cut in the top for $59 each. $69 if you want a pair of threaded fittings in it. You could get three for $180, add a turkey fryer, a wort chiller, and a bazooka screen for probably less than $280. Am I missing something? That seems kind of expensive for two 10-gallon plastic coolers, a 14 gallon kettle, fryer, chiller, and spigots. But I guess it *is* ready to rock out of the box.

:eek:
Toney.

[Bruno_78]

Well now you've got me thinking. Maybe I should just save up longer and go with something more like this from St Pats. Might I be a little more satisfied?

http://www.stpats.com/3levsys.htm

[Tweek]

Originally posted by Bruno_78
Well now you've got me thinking. Maybe I should just save up longer and go with something more like this from St Pats. Might I be a little more satisfied?

http://www.stpats.com/3levsys.htm

Yup, that is the right idea, but in my opinion still the wrong price. You can piece out similar systems for a fraction of the price. The hardest part is finding a guy that will build the stand for you and picking a inexpensive and light material. I am still working on that part. I can get it built for cheap out of square steel, but then the thing would be massively heavy and that would suck. Also I want it to be able to fold in on itself for storage so my design is a little diferent.

I guess the take home part is that if you look around at seperate parts it can be done way cheaper.

Cheers

[tallmikeG]

i think you'd be sufficiently satisfied with that. :)

[chris1kanobi]

I guess you would have to look at how much time, money, space and knowledge about brewing you have. I use a round cooler ($50) a stainless mesh filter ($20) a converted keg ($50) and a small brewpot to batch sparge. Throw a burner in there and your at a whopping $150. I can do multi step mashing (decoction) and even make 15 gallon batches with my system. It takes up hardly any room, and if I did want to get automatic with a RIMS or HERMS etc. almost everything I use could be incorporated into the new system. The cooler method is versitile and cheap and is a good way to get into all grain brewing without spending a ton of $. Just my opinion. :D

http://www.freewebs.com/homebrew/index.htm

[Fast_Eddy]

I would love to get one of morebeers sculptures with the dump tun. Too bad you can't test drive one to see if you like it :(

[Stumptown]

I'm with Chris on this one. You can easily spend $3500 on an amzing brewing set up. If you have the money and enjoy tinkering with things, go for it.

But for about $150 or less you can put together a hell of a system that will produce beer every bit as good (some experts I have read will say better) than those 3 tier ones.

Don't get me wrong -- if you have the cash and the added complexity of those types of systems, definitely go for it.

[BucksBrew]

That is my thinking....Build a 3 tier stand out of angle iron or wood. Buy 2 more burners from King Kooker for 15.50 each. I have a 170K BTU burner already. Connect the three burners to a single regulator each with it's own needle valve. And buy 3 kegs with ball valves.


Stand $ 50.00
Burners $ 35.00
Plumbing $ 40.00
Kegs $ 210.00
S&H $ 40.00
--------------------------
$375.00 plus or minus

I'd hook up a push button igniter for each burner!

[Moondoggy]

I just bought a cooler for $18 bucks and tommorrow I plan on getting a screen and the proper connections for another $20 bucks or so and I am good to go.

I am going this route so I don't spend a fortune for all grain brewing equipment.

The article in Jan-Feb BYO "Cheap And Easy Batch Sparging" makes good cents to me. Pun intended!