What to buy next - Keg or New Brew Stand?

Hey guys! The weather just changed and I'm excited to brew some dark, winter beers. I'm looking to expand my setup this year.

Currently I have:

• 2.5 gallon SS pot
• 15 gallon SS pot w/ ball valve
• Cooler mash tun
• March Pump and Counterflow Chiller
• 1 6 gal Glass Carboy
• 1 5 gal Glass Carboy
• Fridge with basic temp control for fermentation

I have a really bad, old turkey fryer burner. It takes forever to heat up my all grain batches and it rusty and generally not performing well. If I upgraded this I was thinking I would go all in and get a top tier stand with a shelf and the top tier burner from blichmann ~ $700 - not cheap, but I would hope this would last me for a full brewing career.

I also have no kegs and I'm fed up with bottling. I dread every bottling day. The cleaning, the tedium...it's lost it's allure, big time! To do this I would likely get a 5gal starter kit with CO2 tank, reg and all. I would also get a chest freezer (like this one) from home depot or somewhere. ~$480

If you had to get just 1 option, which would you go for? Or maybe you see another big gap in my current equipment that is more pressing? Thanks in advance guys!

I would definitely go with a keg setup with about 4 kegs. I wouldn't buy a CO2 cylinder though. At least around me it is a PITA to get mine filled. Just put a deposit down on an exchange tank.

+1 on the kegs. So much easier than bottling... so much so, that you'll brew much more often, and then... you'll end up buying the brew stand too.

But is my beer suffering because my burner takes so freaking long to heat up? It winds up being on that burner WAY WAY longer than 60mins, because it takes so long to get to a boil.

Kegs...More carboys...Burner
Get a SQ10 or SQ14 for $50.. free shipping of Amazon.com

Technically, it won't cause any problems with the beer. I normally take about 20-30 minutes(depends on the wind, ambient temp) to come to a boil and boil for a full 90 minutes. Then I whirl pool for another 20. I've never had any problems (beyond adjusting my recipes/ BeerSmith to adjust for boil off).

But I do hear you. How about a compromise? Instead of buying a brand new chest freezer for 150-200.. search out craigslist/ebay for a used one. I have an Android phone with a really nice app on it called CraigsNotification. I put in Chest Freezer the other day and I must get 10-15 posts per week of people selling off their old freezers all for around $50! You just need to be a bit patient. Take the savings from that and buy yourself a new burner for about $60.

That'll get you through until your TOTALLY hooked like the rest of us and buy a full brew stand.

Move to kegs? Why? Because you may get so sick of bottling you may give up the hobby.

Sounds like kegging is the way to go. Craigslist notification is pretty genius actually! Very cool.

Instead of getting the full brew stand, I might get the top tier burner: http://www.williamsbrewing.com/TOPTIER-FLOOR-STANDING-BURNER-P2428C87.aspx and then I can just buy the adapter for the stand once I'm ready for it I guess. That stand looks so nice, but it's just too expensive to get it all in one swoop for me right now.

I think that going with a new burner (I like the banjo/hurricane style) and kegging is a great idea. You can always use cobra taps on your kegs to save money as well. Not as spiffy as a collar with taps, but a lot cheaper! And make sure you get at least a 10# co2 tank. Many places charge almost the same to fill a 5# as a 20#!

Cheers,
Dave

Thanks for the answers guys.

Yeah, I could get a 100k BTU Banjo at my LHBS for $84, so cheaper than the Blichmann Top Tier burner and 30k more BTUs. But, I really want to "future proof" my purchases as much as possible, so going with the blichmann now, would mean I could just pop it on the top tier stand in the future.

But maybe I can integrate a banjo burner into a stand of my own devising as well?

+1 on kegs

Work in some of your burner issues with bdays and xmas if money is a real factor. You can get a solid burner for under $50.

I think a brewer's stand, while aweseom, should be towards the end of your priority list until you get kegs, etc. I am building a tiered system right now, but I amde sure I had the other stuff first. THere are always banquet tables

jerseybrewer said:

technically, it won't cause any problems with the beer. I normally take about 20-30 minutes(depends on the wind, ambient temp) to come to a boil and boil for a full 90 minutes. Then i whirl pool for another 20. I've never had any problems (beyond adjusting my recipes/ beersmith to adjust for boil off).

But i do hear you. How about a compromise? Instead of buying a brand new chest freezer for 150-200.. Search out craigslist/ebay for a used one. I have an android phone with a really nice app on it called craigsnotification. I put in chest freezer the other day and i must get 10-15 posts per week of people selling off their old freezers all for around $50! You just need to be a bit patient. Take the savings from that and buy yourself a new burner for about $60.

That'll get you through until your totally hooked like the rest of us and buy a full brew stand.

Click to expand...

+1

OK, I was in your same boat recently and I did a few things and spent very little money doing it.

1) Craiglist chest freezer = $50-100. I got a 7.2 cu-ft model that will hold 3 kegs and a CO2 easily. I can eventually add a collar and fit in another keg and move the CO2 to the hump. You don't need a collar if you just serve out of picnic taps, which is what I am currently doing. Again, one step at a time.

2) Start small with kegging. It is easy to add on additional kegs to your system. But a simple kit that comes with a CO2 tank, regulator, and hoses and just get a picnic tap. (roughly $100-150 I believe). You can always upgrade over time by adding a tower or a collar and more kegs, etc. But a simple kit will get you going.

3) Don't buy a brew stand. Build one! I got some wood and built a work bench to the right height to create my own 3-tier system for about $30 in materials. I put it on casters so I can roll it too. And the keggles and everything stores on the bottom shelf.

4) Get a new turkey fryer. No need for some super expensive burner or stand. Just get a burner that works, $50 - $80.

Add that all up and you accomplish both of the things you wanted for $250 - $400.

Since you hate bottling so much, I'd focus the expenditures on kegging equipment. You can pick up a good banjo burner that will hold a keggle for about $50.

I was tired of using our burner on ground level, so I made a wooden brew stand that would hold our burner / keggle about 27" off the ground. 27" stand + 13" burner + 23.3" keggle = about 64" height for the top of the keggle - short enough for me to look into the keggle without needing a step stool.

"A wooden brew stand? For propane?!" Yes. I bought a couple of layers of 28 gauge sheet metal to line the top. The sheet metal held up fine on last test brew day. I don't think the metal got all that hot. Cost of the brew stand equipment - about $50.

Maybe you guys are right - get a better, but not crazy expensive burner. Recycle a chest freezer and a keg kit. Build up slowly.

Thanks - can't wait to keg my first batch!

Keg setup and one of these
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0009N0PIA/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

move into kegging and buy this burner http://www.agrisupply.com/bg-high-pressure-cast-iron-burner-/p/64494/cn/5400000/ for $30 its hardly breaking the bank and should work 10 times better than your old rusty turkey fryer burner.

-=Jason=-

Awesome. Just ordered a fully keg setup with one keg, picnic tap, co2 tank, etc. I also bought a new burner. Decided to go for it without the stand and all that.

Now I have to find a chest freezer...craigslist here I come. Thanks for the advice.