dankev

Recipes 

I just did my first batch of all grain, and it went well enough that I see myself doing a lot of it. Now I feel like I'm lacking some equipment, but I'm on a budget, so I have to prioritize what I need.

What I have:
7.5 gal SS pot
Electric stove (in my kitchen)
10 gal cooler with SS braid for mash tun
Buckets, fermenters, siphons, funnels, etc
Big sink for ice bath
Currently (but slowly) building a stir plate

What I want:
Bigger pot (something like the bayou classic 44qt for $85)
Propane burner (ie BC SQ14)
Wort chiller
I feel like I'm forgetting 1 more thing...

My stove was able to get 6.5 gal up to a boil, but it moves at about 1 degF per minute, so it takes a while. My pot felt too full, for sure. It took forever to get 5 gallons of wort down to 70 degrees with the ice bath. I also had to drain the mash into a bucket while I heated my sparge water in the pot. It was all doable, but I felt like the process would be easier with more things.

If I were to get just 1 of those things right now, which would you recommend? Is there something I'm overlooking? I don't plan on doing anything bigger than 5 gal batches, so I'm not overly concerned with buying big to account for 10 gal batches.

slykwilli

Recipes 

If I had to choose just one thing... probably would be a chiller. Also, you may want to add a grain mill to your "want" list (the sooner you get it... the sooner you can start saving on grain ).

__________________
Dissent Brewing

Cromwell

Recipes 

I agree, a chiller is next.
I wouldn't get a mill myself, since you can buy grain milled from Rebel pretty cheaply.
If you want to heat water faster, you can make a heatstick very cheaply.

__________________
Primary: Beer / Secondary: Beer / Lagering: Old beer.

dankev

Recipes 

I thought about a mill, but there's a fairly close shop to me that sells 2 row for $.072/lb. Unless I'm brewing a lot, it seems like it would take me quite a while to make up the cost of the mill.

chapa

Recipes 

Chiller and burner would be good, so you can get a good boil and chill faster. Those are 2 hugely time consuming parts of the brew day, other than setup and cleanup.

A pump would be great too, so you don't have to lift up any hot/full vessels.

Grain mill is a good suggestion.

Fermentation temp and yeast health is vital. While the stir plate isn't necessary, some kind of swamp cooler or temp controlled fridge would be something to consider. Also getting an airstone and an o2 tank so you can aerate the wort before pitching is a good idea.

__________________
Fermenting/Conditioning: Casc/Cent APA, Hoppy Birthday Amarillo/Simcoe IPA(6g American/5g Belgian), Chappist Belgian Dubbel
Bottled/Kegged: Red Rye IPA, Wesside Trip(Westmalle Tripel clone), ESB, Lil Trap (4% Trappist Starter Batch), Robust (Pumpkin) Porter, 3% Little Hopper, "Slick Rick" Old Engine Oil Clone(oaked w/ vanilla and balvenie scotch), Imperial RyePA,
On Deck: Quad, Belgian IPA, Orfy's Mild, Scotch Ale

Seven

Recipes 

How about a stir-plate and a nice 2L Erlenmeyer flask from stirstarters.com ?

DrJerryrigger

Recipes 

Some sort of wort chiller can be made rather cheap, which I agree should be the next thing for you to get.

I have a cheap frier burner (about $65 at HD with a 7.5gal al pot). I've been using the pot on the stove top a lot, but tried the burner for the first time about a week ago. Brewing outdoors is quite different. I like it in many ways, but it's a big change you should consider.

A frem chamber would also be a really good thing to have. I don't have one yet, but it's top of my list. This is one of those things you might want to put off until you find a cheap A/C or mini fridge.

A grain mill would always be nice, but I'm doing okay with out one, and it sounds like you are too.

If I were you I'd hold off on the pot. You've got a pretty good one, might as well get some use out of it.

__________________
making (C6H10O5)n- into C12H22O11 and then into C2H5OH, and then getting drunk

DrJerryrigger

Recipes 

oh, and a bottle tree would be really nice. I need one of those, or I need to start kegging, haven't decided which way I should go.

__________________
making (C6H10O5)n- into C12H22O11 and then into C2H5OH, and then getting drunk

dankev

Recipes 

I'd love a fermentation chamber, but I think it has to come later. I've been doing an ok job keeping my temps where I want them for now, so it's not my highest priority.

I may make the wort chiller, but right now it looks like you can buy one pre-made for about what it would cost to buy the materials. Copper is just so expensive. I can't figure out why the pre-made ones aren't more expensive, honestly.

As far as the pot goes, I'd still be putting the old one to use for heating the sparge water. I'd much rather be able to drain the mash right into a pot, rather than have it sit in a bucket while I have sparge water in my only pot.

dankev

Recipes 

I've been doing my bottle sanitizing in the dishwasher (clean bottles, and no dish soap, of course), so they just sit on the rack until I fill the bottles. As an added precaution, I've been running the last load before the bottles with PBW instead of dish soap.