What pieces of equipment next?

I've got the basic plastic bucket fermenter and bottling bucket setup right now and I'm looking to add a few things whilst my 10% for living in NY is going on at AHS.

I want to get a carboy, either glass or a better bottle. If I can only get one (SHMBO) should I go with a 6/6.5 gal primary so I can FINALLY see what's been going on in my white bucket? Or should I get a 5 gal. for a proper secondary? Never really used a secondary until this Okoberfest I'm lagering right now and it's really put a halt to my brewing.....tick...tock...tick...tock

Thoughts?

Don't bother with a carboy. IMHO, I would suggest getting another fermenter or two. The new-school method is to leave your beer in the primary for 3-4 weeks, then bottle it. Also, the two most important purchases I made when starting out were an immersion chiller and an auto siphon. Hope this helps!

Thanks! I got the auto siphon and have been doing the 3 week in primary for all my brews. For lagering (when needed) don't you need to move to a secondary?

Herb ball.$5.

KayaBrew said:

Also, the two most important purchases I made when starting out were an immersion chiller and an auto siphon.

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+2 (1 each). Auto siphon makes life easier and chiller greatly improves your outcome. If you do go with a carboy, get the larger one...it can be used for dual purposes as a fermenter or secondary. If you only get the 5 gallon one, it won't be so good as a fermenter.

-Tripod

+1 on chiller; plate if you can afford it, else CFC, or immersion if you're strapped for cash. But anything is better than putting the pot in an ice bath and waiting. If not for your beer, for your sanity.

Get a second fermenter before thinking of a secondary. If you're making any beers that really need racking to secondary (as opposed to leaving in primary for an extended period), you're going to need to be able to have more than one beer going at a time. In fact, it won't be long before you have two beers going, so stock up now.

For fermenters, carboy vs. bucket is a personal preference thing. I like carboys, but they aren't easier.

LordHedgie said:

+1 on chiller; plate if you can afford it, else CFC, or immersion if you're strapped for cash. But anything is better than putting the pot in an ice bath and waiting. If not for your beer, for your sanity.

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This is what I do to keep my sanity.....




Put a bunch of ice in a giant Hobart industrial mixer bowl and run an immersion chiller inside the keggle, yeah I am spoiled LOL...

If you are going to buy anything buy another fermenter and a immersion chiller, you can have a pipeline going with multiple batches and get the beer down to temp faster as well.

The things that made the biggest difference for me early on were a proper wort chiller (immersion chiller for me) and temperature control during fermentation. The son of fermentation chiller is cheap, easy to build, and can dramatically improve results (in my experience). When it's cold in my basement, I switch to a water bath with an aquarium heater.

The chiller will make your beers much clearer and shave a good bit of time off of a brewday.

I am trying to capitalize on the New York 10% off today also. Getting a bench capper, another Better Bottle and some other crap.
Isn't it cheeper to make an Immersion Chiller with copper tubing from Home Depot?
Dave

Dave258 said:

I am trying to capitalize on the New York 10% off today also. Getting a bench capper, another Better Bottle and some other crap.
Isn't it cheeper to make an Immersion Chiller with copper tubing from Home Depot?
Dave

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Yes, it's cheaper. Get at least 40 feet of copper, if not 60 feet.

Dave258 said:

I am trying to capitalize on the New York 10% off today also. Getting a bench capper, another Better Bottle and some other crap.
Isn't it cheeper to make an Immersion Chiller with copper tubing from Home Depot?
Dave

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Yup. If you have a Menards, chances are it's even cheaper. I got 50' of 1/2" for 38 bucks. Can't beat that with a stick, and it chills 5 gal batches in 8 minutes to 70 degrees.

Don't worry about a carboy unless you really need a secondary for fruit, or mead, or a really big beer like a barleywine. Heck, some people even make barleywines without a secondary!

A chiller is a great addition if you don't have one. Or something to control temps during fermentation. Or if you are still doing extracts, consider the jump to AG. It's not that hard and can be really fun and save you some serious $$ over extract.

shortyjacobs said:

Yup. If you have a Menards, chances are it's even cheaper. I got 50' of 1/2" for 38 bucks. Can't beat that with a stick, and it chills 5 gal batches in 8 minutes to 70 degrees.

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How in the heck do you get to 70 in 8 minutes

With my IC, I am 20 minutes hooked to my garden hose to get me to 110, then another 20minutes on my pump (pumping ice cold water) to get me to 70.

This is with 50' of copper coil in a 5 gallon batch in a keggle.

You must be doing something entirely different to get it to 70 in 8 minutes! Please help

phatuna said:

How in the heck do you get to 70 in 8 minutes

With my IC, I am 20 minutes hooked to my garden hose to get me to 110, then another 20minutes on my pump (pumping ice cold water) to get me to 70.

This is with 50' of copper coil in a 5 gallon batch in a keggle.

You must be doing something entirely different to get it to 70 in 8 minutes! Please help

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Whups, typo...meant 80 in 8 minutes. 70 takes a few minutes more.

I just use my garden hose. Hose water is around 60, I'm guessing, but I've never measured. I don't know why it works so well, as I see other people boasting about 20 minutes to cool....and here I am at 8-10 minutes. I left it for 20 minutes once, and it went down to 62.

I do have great hose pressure, (actually, I blew up my hose by leaving the water on a few days ago, so I gotta buy another this weekend ), so I have good flow

And I have a 1/2" chiller....is your pipe smaller diameter?

And I am doing it in a turkey fryer pot....so less thermal mass in the aluminum than in your steel keggle.

But I do leave it on the burner as it cools...and the burner still has tons of residual heat.

Lucky, I guess?

phatuna said:

How in the heck do you get to 70 in 8 minutes

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He lives in Pennsylvania. I wish I had 60F tap water, too.


TL

I'm 1/2" too, I'm thinking that it must be your hose pressure. My pressure is very low especially when I'm hooked up to the aquarium pump.

Oops, I forgot to actually answer OP.

If you want to brew more, go with the 6 gallon Better Bottle. If you want to brew better beer, go with a chiller. Frankly, an immersion chiller works just fine. I've used one for well over 10 years, and I imagine that's all I'll ever use.


TL

If you intend to keep a pipeline going you need more fermenters. Of course I wouldn't do that until I could chill my beer fast, and control fermentation temps.

TexLaw said:

He lives in Pennsylvania. I wish I had 60F tap water, too.

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Not to nitpick, but PA is a fair distance from MN , but yeah, I'm guessing I'm around 60F from the hose.

phatuna said:

I'm 1/2" too, I'm thinking that it must be your hose pressure. My pressure is very low especially when I'm hooked up to the aquarium pump.

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Yeah, I have ridiculous flowrates....water flow is just as big a factor as water temp and pipe diameter/length...I'm betting that's the biggest reason for my good chilling.

Can't wait to try it in winter.....water is cold cold COLD then!

Sorry about that! I was looking at someone else's post.


TL

phatuna said:

How in the heck do you get to 70 in 8 minutes

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I've never measured my hose water temps, but it takes me about 5 minutes to get 5 gallons to about 73 degrees... and I live in the freakin' desert. Plate chillers are the bomb... :rockin:

shortyjacobs said:

Not to nitpick, but PA is a fair distance from MN , but yeah, I'm guessing I'm around 60F from the hose.



Yeah, I have ridiculous flowrates....water flow is just as big a factor as water temp and pipe diameter/length...I'm betting that's the biggest reason for my good chilling.

Can't wait to try it in winter.....water is cold cold COLD then!

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The big factors are 1) temperature differential, and 2) surface area exposed, and 3) exposure time. In the case given, the colder intake water is probably the biggest factor. It's pretty obvious that someone living in the South who has 80F city water in Summer is NEVER going to get their wort to 70F. The second thing is probably the use of 1/2" tubing. I don't know the math for determining the difference between the area of the 3/8" tubing I use and the 1/2" used in the example given, but it's considerable.

I use MW's entry level 25' x 3/8" copper chiller, and our 55F well water will take 5.25 gal of wort from boiling to <70F in about 20 minutes. Works for me. If it didn't, I'd probably go with a duplex chiller setup with an ice bath, as some people do, or just set up some kind of nuclear-powered counterflow unit and cool instantaneously. As it is, I have plenty of time, and my brewing philosophy is pretty much K.I.S.S.

I got another plastic bucket fermenter and of course another beer kit! I think once I get moved into our house I'll start working on an immersion chiller.

Thanks for all the advice!