Eventually I want to upgrade from extract to partial mash. What other equipment do I need to upgrade from extract to partial mash. I want to continue doing extract brewing until I am comfortable with the process. My first step will be from partial boils to full boils on an outside burner. Which I will need to upgrade my 4 gallon pot to at least a 10 gallon pot correct? When I upgrade to full boils I don’t want to have to upgrade something again when I switch to partial mash. If that makes any sense.
The only thing extra I got when I started partial mash was a 2 pack of five gallon paint strainer bags from Lowe’s. They fit nicely in my 5 gallon brew kettle. When you switch to full boils, the 10 gallon pot is a good idea so there’s little to no danger of boil over. You could probably get away with a 7.5 or 8 gallon kettle, but might as well get the 10 and not worry.
I just recently got an immersion chiller. It is as good as everyone says for chilling the wort. When you go to full boils, an immersion or counterflow chiller would be a good investment, if not a must.
Just did my first partial mash a couple of weeks ago. The only extra thing I bought was a grain bag that’s big enough to fit in my mash/boil kettle and hold several pounds of grain. I already had two kettles on hand, a larger one (4 gallons) to mash/boil in and a smaller one (3 gallons) to heat the sparge water. I also already had a big strainer that I could set on top of the mash/boil kettle, place the grain bag in and drain the sparge water through. Really, depending on what you already happen to have on hand, it’s not too big of a step up to start in on partial mash.
I agree that an immersion chiller is probably the next step beyond that…well, that and a propane burner, but those two kinda go hand in hand in my opinion (if you’re doing full boils on the burner, you’re gonna need a chiller to cool the wort). I’m still doing partial boils on the stovetop and cooling with an ice bath in the sink, so not quite there yet.
