If you had $2,000 to upgrade your brewery, what would you do? (help me upgrade mine)

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commonlaw

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It's been a long time since I've posted here. Mostly I've been happily brewing away and have made a lot of beer I'm happy with. But I'm starting to get the itch to improve my system. It just feels inefficient and kludgy.

My brother (with whom I brew) wondered what we could do if we each ponied up $1,000 to improve our setup. I'm curious what you guys think. My priorities (basically in order) are improved automation (e.g. simplifying the brew process and saving time), cleanliness / sanitation, beer quality, and possibly ability to do new things (like decoction mashing), saving money on ingredients.

Currently we are brewing 10 gallon batches and kegging. We heat water indoors on the stove in a large aluminum pot (and a bunch of other thrown together pots for additional sparge water) and carry it outdoors to mash in. We mash in a Gatorade cooler. We batch sparge. Boil is in a converted keg with an attached ball valve using propane on a turkey fryer. Fermentation is in 6.5g glass or plastic carboys. I have a temperature-controlled chest freezer. I have a stir plate for yeast and a 2L flask for making starters. I usually buy 2 things of yeast to add to the starter.

Problems encountered: not enough room in the mash tun to do 10 gallons of bigger beers. We cool with an immersion chiller that takes a long time and doesn't get the beer all that cold. Various pieces of equipment seem like they could be more sanitary (everything from the boil kettle to the carboys, tubes, airlocks, plugs etc. feel like they are not as easy to clean as they could be, especially the carboys and related equipment). Slow and inefficient heating and transfer of water for mashing and sparging.

Limitations: I rent, so I can't do any radical changes to the space. I will still be brewing in a small backyard with propane. There is access to electricity outside. When I start looking at gear, $2,000 doesn't seem like it necessarily buys that much. But I can't really imagine spending more unless I was going to try to legitimately start a nano-brewery somehow.

In any event, I'd love to hear thoughts on how you'd upgrade a brewery like this.
 
Aside from a rims tube I'm not sure how much automation you can get from your current setup. Bigger mash tun? If it were me I would get at least one more burner and maybe a pump which will eliminate the cumbersome and unsafe task of walking with very hot water. How big is your ferm freezer? If your anything like me I need space for fermenting at least 3 10 gallon batches at a time. Do you brew lager beers? Perhaps one ferm freezer for ales and one for lagers/ cold crashing. I'm thinking burner, pump, another ferm chamber/ carboys or buckets and more kegs. Cfc or plate chiller keep your immersion and use it as a prechiller. Do you have a beer gun of some sort? If not buy a blichmann beer gun. How about water chemistry? Ph meter and an ro setup would be nice.
 
I jumped from a 10 gallon igloo cooler to a 62 qt. walmart cooler with a basic copper manifold in the bottom. Cooler was 30 bucks. Also if you buy a pump you can heat all your mash and sparge water in the keggle, pump to the cooler and drain your first running to a bucket while you pump your sparge water from the keggle to the cooler. That would be a lot more effecient than carrying pots of water out and you could blow the rest of the two grand on accessories...
 
I am about to get two of this, I will add the thermo. I use a 70 Extreme Coleman already, if you get one, just mind the hinges.

http://www.nextwarehouse.com/item/?1355840_g10e

and make one of these. The only thing I plan on doing different is on two pipes in place of the four. With those upgrades you should have plenty of funds left over to spend on pumps, hoses, etc etc

IMAG0395.jpg
 
New Burner and New HLT $300-$400
March or Chugger (with QD's and tubing) $200
New Mash Tun Lots of Options here....$300
New Brew Stand (again Lots of options here) $200
Counterflow Chiller $200
 
HLT, burner and temperature controller
Grain Mill (If you don't have one, You can save money buying bulk grain)
Pump (only about $100 but huge saver on the effort and lifting)
 
With $2,000 I'd go electric. Actually, I haven't priced this out. I'm assuming I could go fully electric with $2,000 if I build everything myself... But I also know it's supposed to be fairly expensive to get started. Well, I'd at least get myself started as far as I could with that money.
 
Speidel Braumeister 2000 dollars. Done.

I'd hold out and see what blichmann brings out with their Brew easy first.. and to be honest I'd also look into what max384 is suggesting as far as researching on going electric. I know there are a lot of users on here that are happy with their braumiester' s but personally they don't impress me. Seems like an expensive way to do Biab... and it's not cause I'm cheap I brew on my brew magic.
 
Thanks guys. Some good ideas to look into. I haven't priced out a RIMS system or electric (and need to do some research on these to see what's available and what the current thinking is). It definitely sounds like pump(s) will make a big difference. A larger mash tun is clearly needed. Now to go down the rabbit hole of learning about these new options. Counterflow chiller and a grain mill also seem like good no brainers (tho storage for bulk grain could be an issue).

@doctor m: My chest freezer is only big enough for basically two carboys and a blow off. I wish I had more or could have one fridge for lagering, but there isn't the space (I live in the middle of Los Angeles and my place is not huge and I don't have access to a garage to store things in). Another burner and large pot could be a good idea, or a decent brew stand (whatever that might be).
 
I'd hold out and see what blichmann brings out with their Brew easy first.. and to be honest I'd also look into what max384 is suggesting as far as researching on going electric. I know there are a lot of users on here that are happy with their braumiester' s but personally they don't impress me. Seems like an expensive way to do Biab... and it's not cause I'm cheap I brew on my brew magic.

Certainly not BIAB. This is a fully circulating RIMS type system with high efficiency. It costs less than a brewing sculpture.
 
If u want to go electric all u have to do is get yourself two domestic kettle elements I find they work great
 
Based off of your current design I'd focuses on having everything on one setup, hauling hot water from the home to the brew stand is crazy. I put together an all grain single tier three kettle brew stand for $2500.00. Since you already have most of the equipment the 2k you and your brother want to invest should make a nice set up.

My system uses a HERMS coil in the HLT so only two kettles are heated, the HLT and Boil kettle are heated with propane burners, I use two Chugger pumps to move liquid between the three kettles and then into the fermenter. I used 15 gal kegs for HLT, MT and BK.

ImageUploadedByHome Brew1390572698.900454.jpg
ImageUploadedByHome Brew1390572724.499536.jpg
 
Certainly not BIAB. This is a fully circulating RIMS type system with high efficiency. It costs less than a brewing sculpture.

I'm fully aware what a braumiester is, I'm also aware that in order for the OP to continue brewing 10 gallons at a time he'd have to buy the 50l version which according to more beer is 3 grand http://morebeer.com/products/braumeister-50l.html . From my reading biab brewers can achieve 75% or higher . Even if the braumiester achieves 85% that's a whole lot of batches your gonna have to brew in order to justify its 3 grand price tag. I suppose we will just have to agree to disagree on whether or not the braumiester (and brew easy) are expensive ways to Biab. Aside from the rims aspect your still single vessel brewing with a grain holder (bag, basket it's all the same) and are tied to a single brew before you begin another batch. Some maybe fine with that but I like being able to begin the mash of my 2nd batch while I'm boiling my first.

The brew easy by blichmann so far appears like it will follow a similar concept as the braumiester at a cheaper price https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f11/new-products-blichmann-engineering-450101/ .
 
I brewed like you do now and am building a Brutus 10 clone currently. I am right at $1000 into 3 keggles (bought used and set up with camlocks), silicone tubing and more camlocks, 2 march pumps and 3 banjo burners. From what I have left to buy (steel & plumbing) I am estimating another $300.

I have all the automation items at another $4-500 that will happen next year at least in version 2.0. That alone is $2000 for a complete setup, all new (minus the keggles) and able to do 10 gallon batches and some big beers also.
 
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I'd start with a brewstand like this: ($125)

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00264G584/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20



Then get some new kettles for a HLT and MLT: ($500)

http://www.midwestsupplies.com/15-gallon-all-grain-commercial-quality-kettle-kit-bundle.html



Then I'd just use your current BK and burner and treat this all as a three tier gravity system. Not automated, but only $625 :cool:


Yeah this is a good idea, very simple and easy to manage.

Really your setup is dependent upon how much beer you plan on brewing.
 
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I'm biased but get a tower if power module (skip the stand) and a blichmann MLT, pump and more beer whirlpool chiller.
 
that's about what I spent on a Top Tier system with three propane-fired burners and Tower of Power. Best thing I ever did in regards to quality of brews made.
 
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