Help upgrade my home brewery, lets make better beer.

[Jupapabear]

I have a small budget to upgrade my homebrewery. Help me spend wisely. Critique away. Advise on. Learn me something...

So I just aquired $300 from my brew buddy for some new equipment. He basically said 'Here I trust you to buy what we need'. =) Sweet of him, right? No homo...

So down to my current set up;
-10.5gal Polarware SS kettle with ball valve and weldless blichman brewometer
-Large coleman chest mash tun with ss toliet braid
-10gal HLT igloo with ss ball valve
-'jet/torch' turkey fryer from Acamdemy.
-25' copper immersion chiller
-Temp controlled ferm chamber
-stir plate and flask.
-venturi aerator method.

I have only ever brewed all grain, but always buy milled grain. I would like to get a mill. I was thinking that, for the money, AIH's Cereal Killer would be great. http://www.homebrewing.org/Cereal-Killer-Grain-Mill_p_2310.html

Also, I would love to quiet that jet and stop getting soot everywhere on my kettle (and hands while cleaning). I haven't seen much about it, but he likes the Edelmetall Brü burner. Same burner as the blichman only flashy it seems. And 10 bucks less. http://www.northernbrewer.com/shop/edelmetall-bru-burner.html

After that maybe a refractometer, or anything similarly useful to make me more efficient and have a better overall brewday.

That was just my first thoughts and I'm open to ideas and thoughts about where to go next. That is the point of this little write up after all. Thanks for reading if you've make it this far! Cheers.

 

[jgarretson]

How do you ferment? Temp controlled chamber? You could put together one hell of a temp controlled ferm chamber for $300 that will make the biggest change to your beer quality.


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[Jupapabear]

I have a fridgenstein side by side. (Half kegerator, half 2 bucket fermentation chamber) both sides controlled by a seperate stc1000.

 

[tally350z]

Do you have the equipment to make yeast starters? I would say get a grail mill, and some yeast equipment, stir plate/bar, flask.

 

[Jupapabear]

Aye. I built my own stir plate, and I have a 2L flask.

For some reason I cannot upgrade my original post on this app. I believe that covers all my brew gear, aside from my journal, beersmith, hydrometer, wine thief, tubing. I use the venturi effect for aeration and am pleased with that.

 

[FatDragon]

How efficient is your chiller? A counterflow chiller or even another IC fed with your current IC in a bucket of ice water for a pre-chiller would shave some chilling time off your brew days. My woefully-inadequate 25'/8mm chiller takes 45 minutes to get 5 gallons of wort within 4-5 degrees of tap water temperature.

A grain mill is a good idea if you want to start buying your grains in bulk, in which case you might also look at storage options not limited to buckets, bins, and/or vacuum sealers. Depending on how you like to roll, motorizing that might be a good idea as well. I love hand-cranking on my corona mill, but most people seem to gravitate towards powering their mills to save time and effort on their brews.

 

[Jupapabear]

Storage is a great idea. Ill look into that now. Need this be air tight, like a ale is?

I stir my wort as it chills and hav3 it to temp in 20-30. But another for a prechiller doesn't so bad. I just want to get this budget spent right. So I may put the pre chiller off for a while.

 

[CastleHollow]

Since your fermentation & yeast management seem to be taken care of, the biggest changes you can make will be in the efficiency of brew day: I'd go with a pump, plate chiller, and refractometer. Once you pick up the tubing & fittings, that should use up the $300.

Outside of equipment, you could invest in a brewstand. For less than $300 you can build a sturdy set-up out of strut channel.

 

[brettwasbtd]

What is your biggest complaint on brew day? Mine is that I have to setup and break down all my equipment every time. For me the next best purchase is a brew stand. We can give you a bunch of different ways to spend $300 but it may not help you out.

Fwiw I have a grain mill but my brewing has become a once every few months type of thing and I find myself having to run to the brew store for specialty grains all the time anyways. Or trying to make random recipes with what I have in hand. Sometimes I wish I just purchased grain batch per batch.

 

[kombat]

Since your fermentation & yeast management seem to be taken care of, the biggest changes you can make will be in the efficiency of brew day: I'd go with a pump, plate chiller, and refractometer. Once you pick up the tubing & fittings, that should use up the $300.

I was going to suggest the same thing. It'll take your chilling time from 20-30 minutes down to literally 5 minutes. Waiting for the wort to chill was the most tedious part of my brew day, I love my plate chiller and Chugger pump. It's insane how fast it works.

 

[PeteNMA]

I like my counter flow chiller very much. A huge upgrade over the immersion chiller, I went from extended chilling times to hit 70f to one pass into the buckets at 60f.

I'd highly recommend a pump to go with though. It does work under gravity but once the majority of the kettle has drained it slows right down


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[tally350z]

I would say use the 300 to buy a mill and refractometer, than some ingredients and experiment with different techniques. You know as they say practice, practice, practice.. Seems like you have pretty much all the equipment needed.

 

[Lopsy]

You will moan in boredom when I say it, but $100-150 should instantly go towards an acceptable pH meter. In this day and age of home brewing if you're doing all grain without a pH meter, you're wasting your time.

Everybody, including my prior self, gets hung up on the equipment. Become the beer for a moment and travel along a brew day and decide what it really cares about... One of the first things that the sweet wort/wort will notice is the pH. So get it right and move on from there. What pump, pot or mash tun it's in are all secondary factors.

 

[Jupapabear]

Oh lord! Here we go with that no fun ph gear. .. jk. It's on my list, just not sure about it for this purchase.

 

[63belair]

I respectfully disagree with ph gear (at this moment in time), provided you are satisfied with your current brews.

+1 for grain mill + refractometer. This will help you to dial in your system and get things very consistent. Also a mill will let you mill your own grains and opens up the potential for participating in group buys, thus reducing the overall cost of your batches.

A note on the Edelmettal burner. Even though it is 10 bucks cheaper than the Blichmann, you have to factor in 7.99 in shipping. Rebel brewing ships Blichmann gear for free, so basically the cost difference is a wash, get which ever one you guys like better. The Blichmann also gives you the option of adding leg extensions down the line, if that's your thing.

http://www.rebelbrewer.com/shop/diy-all-grain/propane-burner-floor-standing/

 

[PeteNMA]

I'd also second the Blichmann. I love mine. I do have a set of the leg extensions available after building a brew stand if you're interested


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[Goolsbymd]

I also recommend the blichmann its is so quite. I ran a test on it i filled my kettle up with 8 gallons using 90* tap water; after 10 mins it raised 60* to 150* 10 more minutes I was at 200* and took 3 additional minutes to hit 212*. So 23 minutes to go from 90* to boiling at sea level. I don't use the legs as I have the burner set up on a freestanding garage shelf with fire resistant concrete board rated to 1200*. Not fireproof but it doesn't even get hot when I put my hand under the burner. If you get a floor burner get some sheet metal and make a heat shield. Ill eventually get the legs if the price is right.

Edit: rereading i would recommend a ferm chamber. Temp control is critical.

 

[Jupapabear]

I have a ferm chamber built and running with beer inside. =)