In the I-have-a-cool-wife category, I finally have the all-grain equipment that I’ve been wanting for a while now. My birthday was May 21st, and my wife hooked me up with the cash to finally get the infusion mash system that I wrote about a few posts ago. I knew that I wanted to get a 10 gallon Rubbermaid/Gott cooler system, but after a bit of researching, I realized that I didn’t have the patience to save myself 50 bucks by getting the pieces individually.
I searched around, and found the Deluxe All-Grain System at Northern Brewer. It features 10 gallon coolers, a stainless false bottom, and brass ball valves. It goes for about 200 bucks plus tax/shipping. If that’s a bit much, the 5 gallon version goes for 160.
I also received for my birthday a couple of recipes-worth of ingredients from Paul, a new Deschutes growler full of 20K Bourbon Imperial Porter from Jen, Extreme Brewing by Dogfish Head’s Sam Calagione from my in-laws. I think it’s safe to say that it was a beer-i-licious birthday. Thanks, again, you guys.
I’m probably going to do the Cloud Cover as the first beer to dial this system in. I’ll be sure to post about it as I go.
More pictures after the link.
How’d the system work? I’ve been looking at the Northern Brewer system to go all-grain since it’s got a comparably good price. Does it come with a sparge arm?
Worked very well … the Hazy Daze Wit (see link to detailed Brew Day entry in the comment above yours) was the first batch I performed in it, and it wasn’t a good test of the system’s ability to hold temperatures for a simple infusion mash (which I’ll be doing most of the time). I performed several decoctions to hit different rest temperatures, and had never done that before. I’m still getting a mash schedule like that dialed in. I will say that it held rest temperatures very well.
It did not come with a sparge arm, which would have been nice. Still, it went together quite easily and worked exactly as expected. These systems are everywhere for a reason!