Best single addition to your brew day procedure

Aerating my wort with a drill and a paint mixer attachment. Noticeable improvement!

5 Gal buckets from the hardware store!

1 with 5 Gal of Oxy Clean,
1 with 5 Gal of Rinse Water
1 with 5 Gal of StarSans
1 with a water/vinegar solution to clean up the IC before use.

Buckets make my outside, no sink, turkey fryer brewing much more efficient. Don't have to keep going inside to the utility sink all the time.

Need to clean a kettle or some tubing or something... here's some oxyclean
Need to sanitize a thermometer or spoon or something... here's some starsans

Immersion chiller is a life saver

getting a turkey fryer and going full boil. Being able to move out of the kitchen and doing it right outside my garage door has made the experience much more enjoyable for both me and the wife hahaha. Also, going to full boils made the quality of my beer increase exponentially.

I try to make a nice upgrade every year. A pump, SS ball lock QD's, correctly sized 10 gallon vessels... they have all made things a lot easier.

However, my favorite addition may be my most recent and also one of the cheapest.

I ordered a $35 Marshalltown bucket heater and an $11 grounded electric timer from Amazon. The bucket heat is like an out of the box version of the heatstick that has become quite popular.

I set up the rig the night before with 10 gallons of filtered water, and have the heater set to turn on about 4 hours before I am ready to brew. When I am ready to brew, I walk into the garage, pump 4-5 gallons of ~155F strike water over to the mash tun, get the temp set, and toss in the grains.

The remaining 5-6 gallons of sparge water and the bucket heater stay in my HLT with the HERMS coil and continue to slowly heat up to about 170F over the duration of my mash program.

I do not have to use a drop of propane until I am ready to start lautering and boiling.

I love the upgrade because it saves me an hour or two on brew day, required no DIY effort, and doesn't need to be babysat like my propane burner.

Giving away my big pot and replacing it with two smaller ones. I brew with an electric stove and it was all I could do to get the big pot to boil. I bought two cheap 12 qt pots at the dollar store. Now the pots fit the burners better and I get to use two burners. Quicker, easier and better control.

jfowler1 said:

I try to make a nice upgrade every year. A pump, SS ball lock QD's, correctly sized 10 gallon vessels... they have all made things a lot easier.

However, my favorite addition may be my most recent and also one of the cheapest.

I ordered a $35 Marshalltown bucket heater and an $11 grounded electric timer from Amazon. The bucket heat is like an out of the box version of the heatstick that has become quite popular.

I set up the rig the night before with 10 gallons of filtered water, and have the heater set to turn on about 4 hours before I am ready to brew. When I am ready to brew, I walk into the garage, pump 4-5 gallons of ~155F strike water over to the mash tun, get the temp set, and toss in the grains.

The remaining 5-6 gallons of sparge water and the bucket heater stay in my HLT with the HERMS coil and continue to slowly heat up to about 170F over the duration of my mash program.

I do not have to use a drop of propane until I am ready to start lautering and boiling.

I love the upgrade because it saves me an hour or two on brew day, required no DIY effort, and doesn't need to be babysat like my propane burner.

Click to expand...

Love this idea!

The day I got a high BTU double propane burner and had it plumbed to our main tank. It cut my boil times in HALF - and I don't ever have to exchange another propane tank.

I use the BIAB method for all grain batches. Best thing I ever did was take the weber grill grate my kids gave me for my birthday and use it to hold the bag at the end of the mash. I just lift up the bag of grains out of the wort, lay the grill grate over the pot, then lay the grain bag on top of the grate and squeeze away.

I still want a new grill grate for my weber. Guess I will have to pony up for that on my own!

After I make my sanitizer and use it during the brew day, I put a lid on it and keep it around until I bottle that batch. When I need to sanitize air locks, blow off tubes, secondary, etc, its right there. Oh, and I use the 1 oz vinegar, 1 oz bleach to 5 gal water formula-- no rinse and cheap.

jfowler1 said:

I try to make a nice upgrade every year. A pump, SS ball lock QD's, correctly sized 10 gallon vessels... they have all made things a lot easier.

However, my favorite addition may be my most recent and also one of the cheapest.

I ordered a $35 Marshalltown bucket heater and an $11 grounded electric timer from Amazon. The bucket heat is like an out of the box version of the heatstick that has become quite popular.

I set up the rig the night before with 10 gallons of filtered water, and have the heater set to turn on about 4 hours before I am ready to brew. When I am ready to brew, I walk into the garage, pump 4-5 gallons of ~155F strike water over to the mash tun, get the temp set, and toss in the grains.

The remaining 5-6 gallons of sparge water and the bucket heater stay in my HLT with the HERMS coil and continue to slowly heat up to about 170F over the duration of my mash program.

I do not have to use a drop of propane until I am ready to start lautering and boiling.

I love the upgrade because it saves me an hour or two on brew day, required no DIY effort, and doesn't need to be babysat like my propane burner.

Click to expand...

This is exactly how I plan on running my HLT for my HERMS...brilliant!! And one less burner required.

Adding whirlpooling into my post boil process...don't know why it took me so long. My cooler MLT lid has LocLine as the return manifold so to whirlpool I just put my MLT lid on my keggle, adjust the LocLine a bit and it becomes my whirlpool oulet...run in about 20 min, let it rest about 20 min then use my pump to pull the wort out from the top, leaving all that trub behind.

mattfmoore said:

After I make my sanitizer and use it during the brew day, I put a lid on it and keep it around until I bottle that batch. When I need to sanitize air locks, blow off tubes, secondary, etc, its right there. Oh, and I use the 1 oz vinegar, 1 oz bleach to 5 gal water formula-- no rinse and cheap.

Click to expand...

No rinse? Everything I have read warns the chlorine might introduce off flavors. I guess if it's working for you, then that's all that matters.

It seems like every upgrade makes life much easier and the beer better.. It's hard to pick just one, because each upgrade makes a big difference...

Adding an Immersion chiller to my 5 Gallon setup...

Going from 5 gallon batches in a turkey fryer to 10 gallon with a keggle

Adding my custom flat CFC built into a wooden brew stand

Doing mash the afternoon before the brew.. I collect into three buckets, put lids on them and let them sit overnight (don't refrigerate.. it's all gonna get boiled)...

refractometer

Building a dedicated fermentation chamber...

Moving the whole shebang from the service porch to the newly screen patio off the living room, with quick hose disconnects and a permanent hose into the sewer line....

Adding Wye's and quick hose disconnects to the hot and cold water for the washing machine.. Just run a hose through the house to the patio (will add full time hot and cold water supply out there later)...

Next addition will be a sight gauge so that I can direct fill hot water (via the hose from the laundry room) into the keggle .. no more lifting heavy buckets of hot water over and over...

Then will be adding a RIMS system so that I can ditch hauling heavy buckets of wort up the step ladder too.... Won't be doing all that bucket cleaning anymore either...

I use a venturri tube to aerate my wort.

No sloshing from pot to bucket. No rocking and rolling carboys. No drills or whisks.

Just a short length of racking tube, with a paper clip sized hole, inserted between the pot and carboy. Lots of aeration.

I haven't done any big equipment or fancy upgrades since I'm new to the hobby, and I'm only on my fifth batch. I've let my younger brother start helping me out the last two or three and it's been fun just hanging out talking and shooting the S**t while we make some beer!

kpr121 said:

Interesting about the puppy pads. I seem to eat through paper towels, its one of the things I have been looking at resolving (expensive approach is to tile/waterproof/enclose my entire brewing area and then just shop vac'ing spills). So I have been thinking about alternatives. Are they much cheaper than paper towels?

Click to expand...

Seems like you get 100 for $10-15. I only use one or two at a time though, so it depends on how many paper towels you go through. So far I've brewed six batches and I'm still on the same box of pads.

No-chill plus ferment in BK.

After the boil is done, the lid goes on the BK and a layer of saran wrap is added. After an hour or so a gentle fan is placed next to BK. In 8 hours BK/fermenter goes into the fermentation chamber. Pitch the next morning. No racking, no IC, nothing to clean up. Easy, easy easy.

This is on top of no-sparge BIAB (I do use a second BK with valve for the MT).

A brew buddy.

Electric BIAB, hands down.

rens said:

Electric BIAB, hands down.

Click to expand...

That's where I want to go eventually... Computer controlled.. nice easy single vessel rig.....

Pull the grain basket out after the RIMS/Mash, dump it in the compost pile...

start the boil with the click of a mouse...

Open valves and add oxyclean to clean up afterwards.. My goal is to not have to use buckets at all on brew day....

KavDaven said:

I use a venturri tube to aerate my wort.

No sloshing from pot to bucket. No rocking and rolling carboys. No drills or whisks.

Just a short length of racking tube, with a paper clip sized hole, inserted between the pot and carboy. Lots of aeration.

Click to expand...

Can you post a photo? Sounds simple and fast!

arturo7 said:

A brew buddy.

Click to expand...

Haha I've tried this upgrade multiple times with little to no effect. They either are in the way, too busy drinking, or too busy watching...oh well, I guess the quest continues.

I'd have to say right now my favorite is my therminator. Takes 6 minutes to chill my wort vs. watching the hose on my 25ft immersion chiller for 45+ minutes. All it needs now is quick disconnects. It's a huge pain trying to get all those fittings on and not twisting a hose or having to spin that big metallic brick.

mattfmoore said:

KavDaven said:

I use a venturri tube to aerate my wort.

No sloshing from pot to bucket. No rocking and rolling carboys. No drills or whisks.

Just a short length of racking tube, with a paper clip sized hole, inserted between the pot and carboy. Lots of aeration.

Click to expand...

Can you post a photo? Sounds simple and fast!

Click to expand...

Issue with using ambient O2 is you'll never get above 8ppm that way. Might be fine for low OG brews, but you'll need another method for anything bigger.

I use a pure O2 system to oxygenate my batches. This is comprised of an O2 wand (stone on a 22" stainless wand) from William's Brewing along with a 20 cubic foot O2 tank (from a welding supply shop) and actual O2 regulator with a flow meter. I can set the O2 LpM (typically 1-2LpM) rate via the regulator and then just let it infuse for the amount of time I wish (usually 60-90 seconds). I'm planning on getting an actual tester for amount of dissolved O2 so that I'll KNOW how much O2 is in my wort prior to pitching. I also plan on building a chart/table so that I'll know how much LpM to use and for how long to hit my target infusion level.

The autosiphon definitely made brewing easier for me. Not have to start siphons the old fashioned way.

Turkey fryer and IC to do full boils. Also my stove can boil a full 6 to 7 gallons of wort.

Also getting brew times down by cleaning up during the end of the boil.

5 gallon cooler for HLT. makes it easier to hit water to grist ratio.

Bottling bucket and bottling tree. Makes bottling less of a chore. I use the bottling tree everytime I brew to dry thing on after washing them.

Haven't even done it yet, but I'm about to keg for the first time with my latest batch - I -know- this will be my favorite addition to homebrewing so far!

I honestly have a bunch. The one of the biggest was moving outside (I brew just inside the garage). My camping chair is more comfy than anything in the kitchen, I'm not in the way, and my pegboard is right behind me. All I have to do is move one car, set up a table and I'm ready to go. The other is my keezer. I don't have to turn the alarm off to grab a beer at night.
Jumping to all grain has really made my brewday more fun. I've only done one batch so far but with all the different things going on makes it much more enjoyable. Also I feel comfortable formulating an all-grain recipe so the beer was 100% mine. A bigger pot has been a godsend. 15 gallons gives me flexibility for 5 or 10 gal batches and not having to worry about boil overs.
Also I find a brew buddy to be wonderful. My wife's cousin is very helpful and she doesn't mind cleaning while I cool and transfer wort.

Time savors are good, but quite honestly I just enjoy allowing myself more time. That way I never rush, and think about everything.

hard liquor

spearko520 said:

hard liquor

Click to expand...

+1

I like a smooth buzz and then I level things out with a few beers.

Immersion chiller for sure - used to take 2-4 hrs to cool the wort enough to pitch the yeast - now its a half hour. Plus we can use it outside with our propane burner - super nice combo. Oh - getting a second propane tank made a huge difference - we had just been using the one from the grill, which precluded us from grilling while brewing - now we can do both makes for fun brewdays! One more thing - beersmith - made a huge difference when we switched to making our own recipes and figuring out our efficiency.

OoH and this isn't really relevant to brewday - but kegs - they made life SOO much easier. no silly bottles to clean, no time spent bottling, etc.

After some thought: composure.

The last upgrade is always my favorite. Of course, I always study every part of an upgrade before I get it to make sure I'll love it. I joke with my wife that it takes me a month to decide to spend $100 on brewing stuff but I'll go buy $100 worth of beer at the store for a party on a whim.

mforsman said:

Time savors are good, but quite honestly I just enjoy allowing myself more time. That way I never rush, and think about everything.

Click to expand...

Exactly why I split brew day in two.. I do the mash the afternoon before brew day...

Now it doesn't feel like I'm working my butt off and the whole day from morning to evening is gone...

It's all nice and leisurely and a lot more fun and mistake free...

And I still work at adding equipment and improved techniques to streamline each part...

It just keeps getting easier and smoother, and as a result, more and more enjoyable....

Golddiggie said:

Issue with using ambient O2 is you'll never get above 8ppm that way. Might be fine for low OG brews, but you'll need another method for anything bigger.

I use a pure O2 system to oxygenate my batches. This is comprised of an O2 wand (stone on a 22" stainless wand) from William's Brewing along with a 20 cubic foot O2 tank (from a welding supply shop) and actual O2 regulator with a flow meter. I can set the O2 LpM (typically 1-2LpM) rate via the regulator and then just let it infuse for the amount of time I wish (usually 60-90 seconds). I'm planning on getting an actual tester for amount of dissolved O2 so that I'll KNOW how much O2 is in my wort prior to pitching. I also plan on building a chart/table so that I'll know how much LpM to use and for how long to hit my target infusion level.

Click to expand...

where did you find a reg that has LpM? i can't find anything with volume (cfm- etc) - only Pressure.

spearko520 said:

where did you find a reg that has LpM? i can't find anything with volume (cfm- etc) - only Pressure.

Click to expand...

Search on Amazon and eBay, they both have them. Like here: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B002ZLNSU6/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

I'm curious as to whether or not you could connect that regulator to one of those disposable tanks from home depot

Erroneous said:

I'm curious as to whether or not you could connect that regulator to one of those disposable tanks from home depot

Click to expand...

No and trying to is almost at the top of the list of colossally stupid things to try. Just get a 20 (or 40) cubic foot welding gas tank and be done with it.

No chill is what I consider my "best" change to my brew day. Without it I would not have been able to afford to go to 10 gallon batches and probably would have held off from doing AG for quite some time because of it.

The keggle, the homeade chiller, the keezeer, all that is good, but I'm going with a smoker.

Smoking meat takes about the same amount of time as brewing, so, smoked brisket at the end of a brew is quite enjoyable.