All i want for christmas

[GrahamR]

My wife has asked what i want for Xmas. One way or another I'm planning to go AG. I'm torn between the BIAB packages on the various sites at the mo with wort chillers or getting a mash tun and Peck boiler separately. We have a budget of 100 each.

With the water charges coming I'm just wondering will the chiller get use or am i better going the no chill method in which case i would go mash run and boiler route. Sorry about spelling but phone is a nuisance

[DEMPSEY]

Start by buying a pot that is suitable for induction,hell buy 2. Then offer to buy an induction hotplate for the kitchen AS THEY ARE SO ENERGY EFFICIENT  the more you use the more you save. Of course the hotplate does not come out of the brew budget make that understood . Now when it comes time to buy a chiller save the cooling water for washing the baby later or else if not baby ask does she want to practice . that will distract her from using the cooling water for cleaning up.

[Qs]

You can easily make a chiller for €30. Make a mash tun for the price of a cooler box plus about €20 of fittings.

[ColmR]

If you're asking how to spend €100 and if it's worth spending money on a chiller, I reckon it is. At least it gives you flexibility. I'm sure you'll get to use the chiller before monitoring comes in. You may even decide that no-chill is not suitable or you could, further down the line, augment your chiller to move to a recirculation cooling system using pumps, water butts or even wort whirlpooling etc...

For what it's worth, I'd advise to go BIAB. I was brewing fine with a mash tun, but cut it out about a year ago to save time and simplify the process. I've not seen a disimprovement to my beers. Traditional BIAB would say to mash with full volune of water which will result in less wort because of the size of pot needed, but I get full size brews by batch sparging in a fermenter.

[hopapotamus]

+1 on the biab kits atm , best €100 iv spent,and im pretty tight with money also lidl have an induction hob on sale this week for €35 or so

[GrahamR]

I might go with the biab option so

[hopapotamus]

the biab set up i got is now €120 , but has more in the kit . got it from geterbrewed and comes with a mash kit , maybe you could ask santa to bring it now so you can have your own beer for christmas

[GrahamR]

Plenty of beer there already. I made a full batch of stout and a 5 ltr coffee and rum version for my wife before we found out she is pregnant and cant drink until June

[auralabuse]

Congrats on the baby news.  How did you add rum flavour out of interest,  was thinking of doing the same

[GrahamR]

Steeped cacao nibs in a nice amount of cpt Morgans for 48 hours before adding to secondary. Havent tasted in the bottle yet but was lovely from secondary

[auralabuse]

Nice,  shall try this for a few Xmas bottles

[hopapotamus]

coffee and rum stout sounds lovely

[RichC]

@grahamR make sure you get at least a 40litre pot for BIAB so you don't have to pi$$ about sparging