[red-beard]

Geez you guys are high tech compared to my setup. I used a rectangular cooler and developed a triple infusion mashing system.

I crushed my grain with a Schmidling mill the night before and put it in the cooler. I "doughed in" with hot tap water, about 5 am, and went back to sleep.

I would then do a protein rest with boiling water.

A conversion rest with boiling water

And then mash out with boiling water.

I also tried a few other methods, a decoction mashout and a "steam" mashout. But the easiest was the above system.

Drain and recirculate a few pints until the wort ran clear, and then hot sparge water on top. Drain until sg was about 1.1, although you could go lower with acidified sparge water.

Several guys were building RIMS systems with PID controls and circulation pumps.

I used a large stainless steel pot (used cooking store) for my wort boiling and a propane burner. I was trying to find a really big Gasoline fueled Coleman type stove, since gasoline was about 1/3rd the price of propane.

Primary fermentation in 6 gallon acid carboys, secondary and tertiary in 5 gallon glass water bottles. I mostly kegged in 5 gallon corny kegs. I found several junk yards with lots of kegs, and picked them up for like a $1 each. I had about 100 at one point, and sold almost all of them. I think I still have about a half dozen.

I brewed about 50 batches with this setup, pretty much made 5 gallons a week for a couple of years.