All Grain Beginner Kit Questions

[Abbas]

I'm trying to help a buddy who wants to get into brewing and needs to get equipment.

He wants to go straight into 5 gallon all grain brewing. I am trying to find a kit that will have all the items he will need. Does anyone have recommendations?
I started out on a friend's brewing setup so I never had to start from scratch.

The equipment list I currently have is as follows:
-10 gallon brew kettle
-10 gallon igloo mash tun with false bottom or bazooka screen
-5 gallon igloo for sparge water
-turkey burner
-copper coil
-1 fermenter with stopper and airlock
-autospihon
-1 bottling bucket
-bottle capper
-hydrometer
-bottle filler with plastic tubing

Am I missing something or is this list overkill?

 

[kh54s10]

It's easier to piece meal to get everything you need. I haven't seen a really complete kit that fits the need without a bunch of unnecessary stuff.

Depending on size batch to be brewed:
Kettle large enough to hold the largest grain batch that will be brewed and the water. - BIAB
Grain bag - see wilserbrewer in the sponsor section.
Heat source.
wort chiller
Fermenter
Autosiphon
bottling bucket and bottling wand. Attach to spigot with a 1.5 inch piece of vinyl tubing.
BOTTLES - collect commercial crimp on bottles - free
Hydrometer.

Fermentation temperature control.

Start with a quality all grain kit from an online HBS or your local HBS if they have them. Make sure they have good turn over so that the kit hasn't been sitting on the shelf for years.

 

[elgatovolador]

My wife gifted me a NB All-Grain deluxe kit two years ago and I’m happy with it...the only thing “brewing kit related” I’ve added that didn’t come from the kit is an outside propane burner. I also ended up slipping down the kegging rabbit hole and have no intentions of coming back out from it...

 

[CascadesBrewer]

I moved to BIAB 6 months ago, and I really love it over my old fly sparge process. If I was starting from scratch, I would probably go with a 12 or 15 gal kettle for full volume BIAB mashing (I have a 10 gal kettle that I use with a propane burner)...but I am really tempted by the current offerings of the electric all-in-one systems. For $300 to $500, you can get a pretty solid brewing system.

If budget allows it, I would put a grain mill high on the priority list. I also would recommend at least thinking about fermenters and fermentation temp control. If you buddy has a cool basement, that can work. If not, it can be hard to make solid beers fermenting in a 75F closet.

 

[Jag75]

What's your buddies budget, how much room does he have to store stuff and does he want to brew outside or inside ?

 

[camonick]

If he's wanting to go AG 5 gallon batches right from the start, I agree with @CascadesBrewer and would look very hard at a full volume BIAB setup and use the rest of my budget on a quality grain mill and keg system. I too started BIAB at the first of the year and don't regret it one bit... it's made a big improvement in my beer as opposed to extract kits.

 

[cswant88]

BIAB is a good option to minimize equipment costs. You can also get your own coolers and fittings and save money over those pre-built kits. Save money making wort and get a way to control fermentation temps, mini fridge or chest freezer, thermowell and temp controller