Equipment upgrade recommendations?

[stfinder]

I've been brewing all-grain for going on six years. I brew 2.5 gallon batches using a pretty bare-bones system and am looking for some advice on upgrading some of my equipment. Here's my set-up/process; if you see a place for improvement, let me know! Also, I'm operating on a bit of a tight budget so bonus points for recommendations that have a high quality increase to cost ratio

I brew in my kitchen on an electric stovetop.
I mash in a 5 gallon converted Igloo cooler with a false bottom and cooler bulkhead/ball valve.
I usually do infusion mashes with 1-3 temperature steps. I recirculate the first two quarts or so of wort by pouring them back into the cooler through a pasta strainer. I batch sparge. I usually achieve extraction efficiencies between 75-80%. The wort is drained directly into a five-gallon stainless steel pot.
I chill the wort using a copper immersion chiller and pour the wort through a funnel into 3-gallon Better Bottles. I then ferment in a converted mini fridge with an STC-1000 temperature controller.

Ideas?

 

[IslandLizard]

I'd say, answer some of these questions first:

1. Do you want more beer from each batch you brew?
2. Are you sick of bottling / do you want to keg and pour beer from taps?
3. What is it that you hate most on a brew day?
4. Are you happy with the beer you're brewing now?
5. Or do you want to improve certain things?

 

[stfinder]

1. I'm pretty happy brewing 2.5 gallon batches. I've only done double batches once or twice and that is pretty exhausting.
2. I absolutely want to switch to kegging. Right now I'm in a pretty small apartment and have no room for another mini fridge, but I'll be moving in a year or so.
3. Clean-up is a pain (of course) but I'd say my number one complaint is with transporting hot liquids.
4. I'm pretty happy with the beer I've been brewing. My one complaint would be that the hoppier beers I make usually come out a bit one-dimensional. I don't often do hoppy beers as my wife doesn't care much for them and it's not easy drinking 2.5 gallons of beer you're lukewarm about.
5. I suppose given my answer to #4, my main goal is to streamline the process.

Thanks!

 

[IslandLizard]

1. No need for larger brewing system.
2. Kegging is a good option. You can get 2.5 or 3 gallon kegs, perfect for your batch size. A small kegerator or keezer could work fine. Use picnic taps first, save up for good stainless ones.
3. Moving hot liquids during infusion mashes? You could look into using an eRIMS or eHERMS. Or simply mash in your kettle, using direct (low) heat with constant stirring.
4. If you follow kit recipes they're going to be lackluster. That's an easy fix: Look for better recipes. For example, IPA recipes that use more hops at the right times, such as hop stands and large dry hop additions. Also find better, proven recipes for styles your wife prefers. Don't compromise on recipes you like by making them drinkable for your wife. Neither of you will be pleased. Brew her a beer she loves and one for yourself that you love. That's win-win for both of you.
5. Brewing IPAs is somewhat different from brewing maltier, or roasty ales. The processes, although similar, use different key elements or approaches that are needed to make each as good as possible. Not sure what you mean by streamlining, please elaborate.

 

[Jakfri]

Given you original post and replies so far I would say either hold on to you money and assess your needs/ posibilities once you move, or set yourself up for kegging. It is so much easier than bottling. You could use your fridge as a fermentation and serving fridge for now. The only downside is there would be some time in between batches that you'd have no home brew. Unless you were fermenting at room temp for some batches.

 

[stfinder]

I think I like the idea of moving towards kegging the best. I can start saving and planning a kegging system now.

There's so many things I've heard about from brewing blogs/forums/videos that seems to make the process incrementally easier: kettles with thermometers and ball valves built in, tiered brewing setups, quick disconnects, pumps for recirculation/whirlpool, etc. Some of these things would require a hefty investment of either time or money - so while I'd like to eventually have all these things as a part of my brew setup, it's hard to prioritize.

Thanks for the input!

 

[IslandLizard]

I think I like the idea of moving towards kegging the best. I can start saving and planning a kegging system now.

There's so many things I've heard about from brewing blogs/forums/videos that seems to make the process incrementally easier: kettles with thermometers and ball valves built in, tiered brewing setups, quick disconnects, pumps for recirculation/whirlpool, etc. Some of these things would require a hefty investment of either time or money - so while I'd like to eventually have all these things as a part of my brew setup, it's hard to prioritize.

Thanks for the input!

Actually the kegging part is the expensive addition. I recently priced one out from scratch for someone, with 4 taps, 4 new corny or torpedo kegs, and it comes in at around $1000-1300 depending on components chosen. Taps, shanks, kegs, freezer, temp controller, lines, regulator, CO2 tank, sundries, it adds up. The 2.5 and 3 gallon kegs are $75-100 a pop new, same as 5 gallon ones, but hard to find used or for much lower. I'd look at those torpedo kegs Morebeer and a few others (RiteBrew?) sell. There's always Craigslist where certain things can be scored for very decent prices.

Wort recirculation, whirlpooling, etc. are nice but for a 2.5 gallon brew overkill, and more things to clean and sanitize. Not much a brew spoon or 18-24" wooden cooking paddle can't do at that size. Nothing wrong with a barb connection, although 1/2" High Flow Camlocks are pretty decent priced at around $5-7 a piece, ~10-16 for a complete coupling (both sides).