Next Item of equipment?

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.

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 ).

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.

slykwilli said:

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 ).

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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.

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.

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

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.

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.

DrJerryrigger said:

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.

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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.

DrJerryrigger said:

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.

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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.

I agree wort chiller would be the first thing i'd get. Then the burner.
Other things after that:
brewstand
mill
Yeast starter kit
temp conrtol/ferm. chamber
pump
Another vessle for HLT
Kegging system (If you dont have one)

Seems like a lot but all these things will make it a ton easier. Its hard to decide whats best to get first but I usually go with the thing that makes everything easier. Cost is a big factor (everything is expensive!!) but it'll be worth it once you get setup, grain is way cheaper than extract.

dankev said:

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.

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oh, that would be nice. I've been using various stock pots I have. Basically I make a parti gille which I mix together when my kettle is freed up.

+1 Chiller

Make sure you pick one that you can grow with. You don't want to use it once and say, "Man. I really should have spent the extra 20 bucks."

Chiller maybe look into BIAB til you can get the rest of what you need

Chiller. That was my first item after your list and the best thing.

Reason you can buy one almost as cheap as they were probably done by someone who had purchased a fair amount of copper tubing before the price went up so much. That and they buy it bulk so the price is much, much, much less. Or they get it salvage from the mills or HVAC manufacturer....

I have an SP10 and the guy I brew with has an SP14. I would recommend you get the SP10, if not just for the wind sheild, which the SP14 does not have.

When I started doing 10 gallon batches, I just got a 20" round replacement grill grate for $10.00 at Home Depot and attached it to my burner with stainless steel clamps to increase the surface area. With this mod, the SP10 can handle a keggle loaded with 13 gallons of water with no issues.

Anyway, if you have a smaller cooking pot at home, like at least 12-16 quart, then you could start doing all grain BIAB right now on your stovetop with the equipment you already have. You would just do a partial volume mash then batch sparge with the remaining water volume from the extra pot. Check out stovetop BIAB instructions here:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/easy-stovetop-all-grain-brewing-pics-90132/

Thanks for all the replies. It looks like a chiller will be the next item. I'll see how fast I can put together everything else.

2 people have now suggested BIAB, and I'm curious why. Isn't the primary equipment benefit of BIAB that you don't need a mash tun? That's one of the few things I have. As I mentioned, the first AG batch I did with the tun worked fine, I'm just looking to streamline things a bit. With what I already have, what would BIAB do for me?

Brew in a bag is a little less flexible than three-vessel AG when it comes to advanced techniques, but as long as you are doing standard AG techniques, BIAB will streamline your process and make just as good of beer. You don't need a separate mash tun in BIAB, everything is done in a single vessel.

Basically, you are just using a suitable fine mesh BAG to turn your boil kettle into a vessel that can be used as a HLT/MLT, mash tun, AND boil kettle. All of the basic processes traditionally performed in each of these individual vessels can be performed in the single vessel, which for most people speeds up brew day by about 30-60 minutes one you factor in clean-up time.

I do BIAB and the guy I brew with uses a cooler and a boil kettle that doubles as his HLT/MLT, and I always produce just as good (sometimes better) of a final product but finish my brew day about 45 minutes before he does on a consistent basis.

The other benefits I see is that I can easily fit my whole AG brewing set up in my trunk or back seat when I take it to brew days with other brewers, or in a small hall closet, since the only sizable parts of my rig are one 11 gallon pot and a burner. I also have a keggle that I keep outside for 10 gallon BIAB batches, but I rarely use it.

So that's about it.....let me know if you have any more questions...I'm a BIAB masta'!