Customer Reviews

Easy to use. Review by ZBco

Rating

Easy to use but would suggest prewarming the coolers with warm water before use. otherwise you should slightly overshoot your temps to account for storing them in a cool area.(especially in a workshop in the UP) Other than that pretty straight forward. Step mashing is a little difficult considering you cant place them directly on a burner but is doable. Invest in some good brewing software to calculate temps accurately. Only adds approximately 2 hrs onto your brewsession vs extract brewing which is a good trade off in my book. Excellent for beginning all grain.
(Posted on 4/3/13)

Easy, Efficient Welcome to All-Grain Brewing Review by John

Rating

I brewed my first all-grain batch today with this system, using your Cream Ale all-grain kit. The video was easy to follow and the system proved to be as easy to use as the video demonstrated. Mash tun held temp right on 150 degrees for the hour sacch rest, as did the HLT. Sparge and lauter were effortless, and clean up was a snap. I'm very excited to join the ranks of my all-grain brothers and sisters. Thank you, Northern Brewer, for making it so easy. (Posted on 6/2/12)

Great All Grain Setup Review by East of Elon Brew Co-op

Rating

We've been brewing for 2 years now and this past spring we decided to add all-grain equipment to our club's inventory. This kit was nicely priced and is very simple and easy to use. The Northern Brewer DVD goes through all the steps and makes it very easy to do a proper all-grain process. The kit is well constructed and easy to clean. We've had a few stuck mashes but a quick blow or two back up the hose works 90% of the time to get things freed up. Also, during the initial mash out some grains can become lodged in the valve, simply opening and closing the valve slowly fixes this. Great kit, we've brewed 10 successful batches with it so far and everything is still in mint condition. (Posted on 11/2/11)

Nice, simple system Review by Murph

Rating

Nice easy system that works great. Holds temps really well for the single infusion mashes that I do. The only concern I have is that the inner liner warps from adding hot strike water in the liquor tank and also in the mash tun. Probably doesn't hurt anything and is mostly cosmetic, but it bugs me, so I gave it a 4 pint rating. Otherwise, it produces noticeably better beers than any extract method, and at a reasonable price. It's a great way to get into all grain brewing without spending a ton on exotic sculpture systems. (Posted on 2/27/11)

Works well Review by Mike

Rating

I've used these modified coolers for a bit over 30 batches of beer now. They've held up well, with only a bit of scratching at the bottom of the cooler from the metal false bottom and minor warping of the liner. The valves have worked well, with no leaks once installed. My mashing is simple (single temperature, batch sparge) and I've been please with the system and how well it holds temperatures. As Josh mentioned above, the short hose linking the false bottom to the exit valve does move around a bit. However this doesn't seem to have caused any problems and makes disassembly for cleaning easier. (Posted on 1/17/11)

Extract no more! Review by Rick

Rating

For what this is designed for it works great. Very simple to assemble and use. Holds temps very well. Obviously all grain takes more time but I find using these with all grain simple and more fun than any extract brew session thus far. Great way to make the move to all grain...just go for it! (Posted on 10/27/10)

excellent Review by josh

Rating

I brewed my first grain batch with this setup, turned out great. Didnt have any problem hitting my temps. Used the batch sparging method and used the 115 IPA kit from NB. No stuck sparge. If I have any improvements: hose clamps on the ends of the high temp tubing connection between the spout and the false bottom. Would reduce slippage. another option would be to provide a kit for a thermometer conversion. Would be nice to read the temps on the outside. (Posted on 5/17/10)

Works as described but problematic for step mashing Review by Cbath

Rating

Well Basically the cooler all grain system works just fine if you are only going to be doing a 1 temperature rest. Problem is most kits have a mashing schedule that requires a Sacch' Rest say at around 152 degrees for 50 minutes, then a Mashout temp at a higher temperature at around 170 for ten.
Though it is easy to hit the first temperature by adding a proper measure of preheated water to the grains, It is not practical and in my limited experience with this setup simply not possible to reliably raise the temperature almost 20 degrees by adding any reasonable amount of boiling water. You end up with to much water in the mash tun and you still have not hit your target temperature. Then you have to scoop pot fulls of the mash out and heat it on the stove then recombine it in the mash tun repeatedly until you get the temp up. It is a nightmare and if you want any flexibility with an all grain set up, you need a metal mash tun you can directly apply heat to.
Sorry guys, seems like a good rig, but its got some serious design flaws.

(Posted on 4/12/10)