In my younger and more vulnerable years, wait no. That was the Great Gatsby. When I was younger, I once said "Whoever accused a watched pot of never boiling clearly didn't try to pre-heat an oven!"
Guilty on both. I don't see either as being a facepalm moment. I don't mind room temperature beer much to the confusion of some around me. I prefer cellar temperature but on occasion can't transport a cellar with me. It was the moment of discovery about PSI needed and line length to balance that caught me by surprise.
As far as the chamber goes I don't really have room for another appliance. I barely even squeezed in the keezer. Fortunately keezer temp is great for the main ferment of a lager without yielding a sulfur laden brew. Actual lagering around 4C might end up being problematic. Or skipped. A friend of mine has had luck with cellar temp lagering.
Going AG also reduces batch cost which one can hopefully at least break even after paying off equipment. Problem is that we always want the newer faster shinier and buy it - but this is a topic for a different day. It also opens up more possibilities and options to control certain aspects of the brew day. I once thought that extract was synonymous with canned kits, so I went from cans to AG. Looking back that viewpoint may have been worthy of a facepalm.
