Equipment / Hardware. Where to get?

[Ozbrewer]

Getting all my stainless fittings from the states was 90US in shipping and 60 euro in duty. It appears that you have a good chance of avoiding the duty if you use USPS for shipping. I used shipito.com, but chose DHL as there was a quicker shipping time for only a few more euro. Should have chose USPS option on hindsight.

However - because I went the route of a herms coil in the hlt, I could not get the size of coil in stainless in ireland or uk for the price I paid in the states. So even with duty and shipping, approx 125euro. It was still cheaper than getting everything here.

Don't be put off the on the herms coil in the hlt. It does work and there are a few threads on the uk homebrew forum where people have done that and got the results they wanted, and certainly in the US they are getting good results. I know of two threads one where the herms was in the hlt but they moved it to the small boiler, even though step temps were working with acceptable times, and one where they went from separate herms pot to putting it into to the hlt. 

It seems to be one of those debates like herms vs rims. I believe a lot rims people will tell you they get no scorching and that it works well and herms supporters will tell you otherwise. I went with the herms in the hlt as it was one less pot to deal with, but I've added a fair bit of power to the hlt, a separate herms pot would probably be cheaper in this regard, but I'm probably only adding 0.70c euro extra to a brew. And a good pump is important as well.

Have a real good think about what you want to brew and how you want your system to work.  Plan it, review it, research again and do it all over a couple times before you start purchasing. Like I said in my brew thread, I could have knocked off a good few euro in shipping costs if I hadn't changed my mind a few times. Give yourself plenty of time, do it slowly, get it right and do it safely.

[Ciderhead]

On the topic of Herms coil each to his own but having researched it extensively my own experience and conclusion on the herms coil in the HLT is not positive, Nigel ask yourself how quickly you can raise the temp of 2-6 litres of water by 1 degree vs 30 and how accurately you can control it, avoiding temp layers like I get in my HLT before it stir it.
I am currently playing around with step mashes, even with modified malts!
This is also relevant if you want to raise temp quickly to say 75 over last 10 mins in mashing out.
Your target for a herms coil should be a system of 1 degree a minute step without dimming the street lights.

[nigel_c]

It's all research at the moment. The chuggar group buy started it off really. Plan on doing the research and start collect parts over the next few months and rebuild my current setup with the intention of upgrading again when space permits.
For that reason I'll be going not welded and just transplant onto larger mash,boiler etc when I can.