Upgrade Recommendations?

Well my birthday is coming up and family keep asking for ideas. I've already begun making the move from bottles to kegging, but I wanted to upgrade my brewing equipment as well to improve my whole process. I'm trying to avoid the Kegging upgrade from breaking the bank.

I guess starting with what I do have would be a good place to start.

I've had and used the home brew beginner kit for several years now. It's been useful in my moves in and out of college, to Hawaii (which added its own unique challenges) and back. I've made a couple small additions, but everything I've got is listed below.

5 Gallon Glass CarboyPrimary Fermenter with Drilled & Grommeted Lid
6.5 Gallon Bottling Bucket with Bottling Spigot
Airlock
Siphon & Bottling Set-up
Hydrometer
Bottle Brush
Twin Lever Capper
Bottle Drying Tower


I had another 6.5 gallon fermenting bucket, but I finally had a brew become contaminated, and had some mold so I tossed it.


Here's a couple ideas I'm already kicking around:
Cooking Process:
Yeast Starter (stir plate, flask, etc)
Propane burner - suggestion for types?
Wort Chiller
Brew Pot - I've already got a 5 gallon regular pot, but I've thought about one of the ones with the thermometer in it? Or other suggestions?

I've thought about adding a second Carboy for obvious reasons, glass or plastic? I haven't had any issue moving the glass one around, but one mistake and it doesn't matter about the track record.

Kegging Process:
2x 5 Gal Ball Lock Kegs - They're in the shopping cart now, I've searched all over the Augusta area trying to find them locally without success.
Fridge - Obviously. Looking into a regular, older fridge with both fridge/freezer parts. It'd be nice to have the extra freezer space for ingredients and food.
The area that I haven't explored much is the gas system. So feel free to rattle off suggestions, but otherwise I'll just dig into this next when I get through the first two steps.


Any other brewing equipment suggestions? Good books?

All in all I'm still relatively inexperienced, but my wife and I enjoy it and do it together which makes it fun. Plus not much resistance when it comes to upgrading or doing more in the realm of brewing. I've been reading Radical Brewing, but I'm open to any other books too.

Seems like you are doing extract brewing from the equipment listed?

Interested in goin all grain? If so consider a bigger kettle and mash tun set up, otherwise I'd highly recommend the yeast starter stuff if you use a lot of liquid yeast


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I'd upgrade your pot and burner as those are easy quality of life issues. Less risk of boil over in a bigger pot, faster heating with a burner.

For quality of beer, I'd recommend tools to control your fermentation temps or starter gear if you can control temp.

The kegs are awesome. Definitely was a huge improvement to convenience when I went that route. While a nice improvement, know it doesn't make the beer taste better or easier to make. As a result, I'd focus on the first two recommendations if you have to make a choice.

Chiller for sure!


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I'm assuming with a 5 gal pot, you are topping up with water after the boil? If so, get a larger pot to do full wort boils. Made the largest difference in our brews at that stage.

Fermentation chamber. Being able to control your temps will have the greatest impact on the taste and quality of your beer IMO. There are several threads around here on that.

If that isn't an option, I'd say stir plate. Pitching the correct amount of yeast cells will reduce lag time and lower the risk of the infection you've already seen happen.

There are many options when it comes to propane burners. I would consider what size pot you will be using. Five gallon full boil batches can be done in a 10 gallon pot, but needs to be watched to prevent boiling over without the additive Fermcap. I purchased a 10 gallon pot, and wish I would have purchased a 15 gallon pot. Many here will suggest using a 15 gallon pot as well. Most 15 gallon pots are 18" or so across. I would look for a burner that supports a pot that size. The bigger the burner you use, the more propane you will go through, even if the heat is set low. I use a 55k BTU burner, and have no problem keeping a rolling boil on 8 gallons of wort. I don't know how long it takes to get the wort boiling, and that is not a factor for me. I average about 3-1/2 pounds of propane doing a full boil and sparge per batch. Just my $0.02.

If I were in your position, I'd get a 15 gal kettle, a burner, and start doing all-grain BIAB batches.

I'd also get at least 1 more 6/6.5 gal fermenter.

And I agree with the above posters about starters and ferm temps, but I think you can do pretty well in that area without any fancy extra equipment.

Marc77 said:

Fermentation chamber. Being able to control your temps will have the greatest impact on the taste and quality of your beer IMO. There are several threads around here on that.

If that isn't an option, I'd say stir plate. Pitching the correct amount of yeast cells will reduce lag time and lower the risk of the infection you've already seen happen.

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+1. Fermentaton temperature control is likely going to have the biggest impact on overall quality and consistency.

+1 ferm temp

Thanks for all the responses. I guess I should clarify a few things.

We've done multiple partial mash brews, and would love to move to all grain brews. Our Partial Mash process is a bit... unorthodox because of the equipment we have, but we've made it work.

I like the idea of the bigger pot and I've been interested in a burner just to be able to more finely regulate the temperature. I forgot to mention I also have a floating thermometer and a digital one. I'll look into the temperature controllers too.

I've seen several burners, and I've considered even just a turkey fryer stand. I'm glad you mentioned the BTU to Propane usage ratio because I hadn't even considered that. Any specific models you guys recommend?

In regards to the kegging, I'm just sick of cleaning bottles and I'd love to be able to store the beer in a dedicated fridge.

bigger pot so you can do AG.
Let me start by explaining where I started...
Stage 1: partial mash & partial boil on stove top
5 gal SS pot ($20 at Amazon)
immersion chiller
6.5 gal primary bucket
6.5 gal bottling bucket
5 gal glass carboy
bottling supplies

Stage 1.5: partial mash & "full" boil on stove top added sparge step; I started wine making so I share a lot of supplies between the two, I also started doing 6 gallon batches when I wasn't making wine and did the full boil across two pots
added:
6 gal SS stock pot ($20 at ocean state job lot)
7.5 gal primary bucket
(2) 6.5 gal glass carboy

Stage 2: All Grain, full boil on the stove top (again across two pots).
added:
8 gallon heavy duty SS stock pot ($60) - thick wall, thick bottom, induction ready

When I went all grain my beer got better, my efficiency went up, but brewing was more difficult (heavy grains, pots etc.) and temperature control is more difficult, not to mention that I'm pushing the limits on my electric range.

Stage 2.5: MILLING & KEGGING. This has to be my favorite upgrade so far, also the most expensive.
CL chest freezer
kegging system off someone here (carb 3 serve 1, picnic tap 5lb)
grain mill (birthday gift)

The advantage is now I buy my grain in bulk during group buys for about $0.80 per pound. I've streamlined my recipes so that I also buy hops in bulk (1lb bags for $10-$20) and I've reduced my yeast usage to a select ale yeast (US-05) and make specialty beers twice a year thus requiring specialty yeast.

Also kegging is waaaay better than bottling; you fill a keg and bam! you're done, no fussing with bottles or bottling buckets. I do brew 6 gallon batches from time to time and bottle a 12 pack, but not that often.

future plans:

Stage 3: All Grain basement/collar build (in progress)
I've built my collar and now I'm in the process of installing it and hooking everything up.
New stuff:
collar materials
(2) 630ss taps (birthday gifts)
to buy:
(2) 630ss taps
misc lines and fittings
universal hinges (my freezer has hidden hinges which are a PITA)
(2) induction cook tops
induction frame materials (to support pot weight)
10gal pot w/ball valve & thermometer
weldless ball valve & thermometer (for 8 gal pot)
mash tun materials
vent hood and related
bench materials

So that's a lot of information there, my suggestion to you is FIGURE OUT where you want to go; I thought I'd always be happy with 5 gallon PM on the stove top and bottling... haha what a fool I was. I almost pulled the trigger on some BC burners and used kegs/keggles because I thought I wanted to do 10 gallon all grain, but I don't want to brew outside, and since my wife doesn't drink beer, 10 gallon batches are a bit much for me, so I redirected my focus. Now that I've spent a bunch of money on equipment, beer is pretty cheap for me to make, because I buy everything in bulk and mill my own grain.

Stuff you won't easily outgrow - mill, kegging equipment, ferm chamber.

again, figure out where you want to be and focus on it - whether it's 10 gallon batches on propane, or electric (check the forums, there are inexpensive ways to go electric) or 5 gallon induction (where I'm going). I have back to back brewed 5 gallon batches in one day, and although it's a long day, if you need 10 gallons of beer it's worth it. I hope this post was helpful and didn't give you an aneurysm or subconjunctivital hemorrhage.

Thanks for the run down. It's a valid point to look a few steps ahead to make sure I'm not buying myself into a wall that'll just cost more to get past in the future (ie. buying one setup that can't build into the next so taking a loss on the equipment bought). I think I have a good idea of where I'd like to go, and I'm putting my wish list together. I'll post it once I have my direction set up for feedback.

Unfortunately a permanent brewing room won't happen for quite sometime due to regular moves, but that's why I'm trying to direct my upgrade into a realm of small mobility (as in moving from one house to another and setting up again) while still keeping the functionality.

Thanks again, I'll take your advice into consideration.

Thanks for the write up SPR-GRN, that helped me a lot.

FiddlersGreen (first off I love that song, so awesome name), I'm kind of in the same boat you are, just a step of two a head. I brewed years ago only doing extracts. I took a year off which I completely regret now, but I recently hit the brewing hard. In the last month I did my first extract since taking a break, completed my first PM, which I am drinking a bottle of now (Speckled Heifer) and I have 2 more in fermenters right now.

But I'm stuck trying to figure out where to go next, do I move towards AG, do I setup kegging, temp controlled fermentation, yeast growing? Each day that I spend thinking on it I end up changing my mind.

I completely agree with SPR-GRN, you just have to figure out what you are wanting to accomplish. For me right now, kegging would be awesome, but I don't have anywhere to store a keg to keep it cold, so I'm reluctantly putting that on a back burner.

I just finished building a rubbermaid mashtun which I can use while doing PM, but will come in handy during AG (if you don't have one, I recommend building one, was fun, and will be a great tool). So I'm leaning more towards that right now, but because of that, I want to get a mill.

It's hard to figure out, but, you will.

Ha I was curious if anyone would recognize the song name, it's a personal favorite.

On another note, is there a reference around here I could use to translate all these posts? I've pieced together some of them, but the nicknames and acronyms are killing me. I'd love to make more sense of the advice, but since I've been brewing in my own little world for the last few years and not done much interaction with a brewing community such as this, I've got no idea what half of you are saying sometimes.

FiddlersGreen87 said:

Thanks for the run down. It's a valid point to look a few steps ahead to make sure I'm not buying myself into a wall that'll just cost more to get past in the future (ie. buying one setup that can't build into the next so taking a loss on the equipment bought). I think I have a good idea of where I'd like to go, and I'm putting my wish list together. I'll post it once I have my direction set up for feedback.

Unfortunately a permanent brewing room won't happen for quite sometime due to regular moves, but that's why I'm trying to direct my upgrade into a realm of small mobility (as in moving from one house to another and setting up again) while still keeping the functionality.

Thanks again, I'll take your advice into consideration.

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Yeah I've got the space to do it so I'm going to do it - I was doing 5 & 6 gallon All Grain batches in my Brooklyn NY apartment which was basically a shoe box with super low ceilings, hence my vote for a bigger pot.

good luck - I just blew a couple hundey-sticks on kegs last week (got a good deal) it's more kegs than I need, but I couldn't pass it up. I did have a Keg set-up in my fridge, but one keg with a 5lb CO2 tank took up the majority of the room in my fridge, so I would not suggest it unless you have a massive fridge.

Caboose said:

Thanks for the write up SPR-GRN, that helped me a lot.

It's hard to figure out, but, you will.

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glad it was helpful, I'm always changing my setup, but I've been at it for 10 years now. If someone had told me ten years ago that I'd have a stand alone chest freezer with four kegs on tap and several in reserve I would have laughed at them, but back then I thought 5 gallons of beer was "a lot of beer"; times have certainly changed.

Everyone has their own path and goals, it's just a matter of getting there; enjoy the journey.