if you had a choice...?

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scottab

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If you have a choice to add equipment which would you choose?

I have a 3 gallon pot, better bottle 5gal carboy (secondary), 7 gallon ale pail/bottle bucket/primary, enough bottles for 2-5 gallon batches, and a 10 gallon cooler which i can use as swamp cooler.

Turkey fryer/propane burner large enough for full boil
Immersion chiller and larger boil pot (small enough for indoor cooking)
Kegging equipment

If you had a choice what would you add?
Is there anything else you would add in place of the items mentioned above?
 
Larger pot. You'll save a lot of money over the long run by switching to all grain. If you have a 10 gallon cooler, then you're a few bucks-worth of copper away from a mash tun. Or you can do BIAB like me.
 
Larger pot... I wouldn't advocate for a turkey fryer as I love my new ekeggle :)

Mash tun and the immersion chiller are easy DIY projects.
 
Blichmann propane burner. Damned near silent at the output needed to get 10-14 gallons of wort to a boil (as well as heat up mash and sparge volumes).
Keggles (if you're handy, get the base kegs and convert them yourself). I really like my keg mash tun, and boil keggle (made both myself). :D
I've bottled but now I keg. I like kegging better since I can drink any amount I want. Basically, if I want a half glass, I can pour from the tap. If it's from a bottle, you need to drink it all (or have someone else there to drink the rest). You can bottle from keg/tap, so you don't have to do just one or the other.
I'd also recommend getting more primaries and only use a second vessel when it absolutely makes most sense. There's tons of threads about the entire thing. Happy reading there. :eek:
 
Definitely large pot and propane burner. Since you already have a 10 gal cooler you can convert to a mash tun at some point for very little cost and go AG.
 
I miss spoke, my cooler is a 15gal http://www.igloocoolers.com/Coolers/All-Coolers/60-Quart-Ice-Cube-Roller however i think my wife would not be happy if i converted to mash tun. Could it be multi purposed? I currently use it for a swamp cooler and the few times we use it as an actual cooler. It has a rectangular depression which would probably be perfect to fit the parts to make it a mash tun but i would need it to not be permanent. I'd love to invest in a keggle since there is a guy near me who gets old decommissioned kegs from time to time but without a chiller i can't effectively cool the larger volume of wort currently.
 
Chest freezer with temp controller.I have never used a swamp cooler, but it sounds cumbersome. You could use the freezer to keep beer in when your not fermenting.
 
The larger pot so you can do full wort boils, along with the immersion chiller, will make the biggest difference in your beer for the choices you have listed. After that, temp control (but not listed). Get the larger pot, make sure you can still fit it on your stove top (don't get one that is too tall if you have an over the stove microwave, etc). Then get the propane burner right after thanksgiving when everyone is trying to sell of their extra turkey fryers. Or check craigslist for that, it's just a burner, who cares if it's brand new.
 
I miss spoke, my cooler is a 15gal http://www.igloocoolers.com/Coolers/All-Coolers/60-Quart-Ice-Cube-Roller however i think my wife would not be happy if i converted to mash tun. Could it be multi purposed? I currently use it for a swamp cooler and the few times we use it as an actual cooler. It has a rectangular depression which would probably be perfect to fit the parts to make it a mash tun but i would need it to not be permanent. I'd love to invest in a keggle since there is a guy near me who gets old decommissioned kegs from time to time but without a chiller i can't effectively cool the larger volume of wort currently.

This is what I do. I have a 48 quart cooler and when I want to use it as a cooler, I put the drain plug on it. When I want to use it as a mash tun I remove the drain plug and add the spigot. I made a manifold out of CPVC and I can put that together in about 5 minutes.
 
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