My $0.02 are DIY. I had a 2 tier DIY that wasn't the easiest thing to use but I made good beer. I decided I wanted something a little nicer and I ended up purchasing one of the rigs you mentioned above and while it is a nice setup I now wish I would've been patient and built the perfect system for my situation. Do you prefer the HERMS or RIMS setup? Single level, 2-tier, or 3-tier? If you acquire 2 or 3 kegs (I don't want to get torched by people so I'll say acquire the kegs legally) you can build a RIMS or HERMS system pretty affordably. The Brutus plans are amazing and some of the Brutus builds that people have done here are truly beautiful rigs; however, you can always move towards the perfect brew rig for yourself and just start with the essentials. Maybe the Brutus design isn't best for your situation, maybe the height of the kettles on the BrewMagic are a little too high to simply lift grain into or peek into during the mash, etc. A large brew kettle and a mashtun and possibly a HLT or a cooler to store hot water in for the batch or fly sparge can get you going and you work out the design as you go. Maybe you want to look at some of the design where people are using steam generators like Yuri Rage's system. One, two, or no pumps might be necessary depending on how you want to move the liquid around If you don't want to build either a RIMS or HERMS system I know that SABCO is now selling a stand alone RIMS system that you simply add to your kettles but with help from people on this forum you could build your own for a lot cheaper. Another consideration is size of the kettles. Do you want to make 19 or 38 Litres? If you opt for the 38 Litres do you make beers in excess of 16 Plato or 1.064 OG. If so then think about the size of the mash-tun as that will become a possible limitation.
That's a lot for $0.02 huh? I guess what I'm trying to say is that I had about $600 tied up in my first brew rig and I spent a lot more than that on my 2nd purchased rig and my beers are no better. More consistent for certain, a little less hands on and attention during the brew day for sure but I'm missing that satisfaction of having built my 2nd system.
Poke around and ask questions because there are a lot of people on this forum that built there own rig and have systems as nice and more often nicer than those offered by SABCO and MoreBeer. Nothing against either manufacturer but neither will likely be the perfect setup for you; the perfect setup will be something that you design and have reviewed and criticized by others.
BrewOn
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runhard, trainhard, raceEZ
Jeffrey
keg 1-Graham Sander's Tropical Flower Wit
keg 2-Yooper's Fat Sam - I highly recommend it
keg 3-Yooper's Fat Tire
keg 4-XXX Stout
keg 5-empty
Fermenter #1-Graham Sander's Tropical Flower Wit
Fermenter #2-empty
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