Next equipment upgrade

[FreshZ]

I told myself and the SWMBO that I would wait until I tasted my last 2 beers (out if 7) in primary before buying some new stuff. If the beers are good, I'm in. If not, I don't know. Assuming they are good, what would be the best upgrade. I have a 5 gallon kettle, 2 6.5 gallon buckets, 2 more 6.5 g bottling buckets, a 5 g carboy, and a swamp cooler that works pretty well down to about 62. The options I was thinking about:

6.5 g carboy
Turkey fryer and larger brew kettle for full boils
Wort chiller
Mash tun for AG
Fridge with temp control
Kegging system
Stir plate
??

 

[onthekeg]

I would go with a turkey fryer for full boils next.

 

[HibsMax]

You will get various opinions, here is mine.

6.5 g carboy - so far I've stuck with 7.5 gallon buckets, I have three 5 gallon carboys to use when I do secondary.

Turkey fryer and larger brew kettle for full boils - I made this upgrade recently and love it. I love being able to do the full boil, outdoors is good for mess cleanup and the propane burner brings water to a fast boil.

Wort chiller - buy or purchase? I made my own and it's a very good investment to get your wort down to pitching temps real quick.

Mash tun for AG - since you're only two beers in I would wait and see how you get on. Walk before you can run. That's just my humble opinion.

Fridge with temp control - did this a few weeks back for lagering.

Kegging system - wait and see if you're going to stick with the hobby before going down this road.

Stir plate - not necessary but people who use them seem to love them. People also report good results by just swirling their starter manually from time to time.
??

 

[Billybrewer09]

Well im sure your first 2 beers will be great so get ready to buy lots of stuff.
as far as your next purchases go, i would suggest all but carboy since you already have 6.5 gal buckets.
Now if you want them in order of importance, i would go with a bigger pot first, at least 9gal. Along with that you will need a burner to heat that much wort to a boil. Then you will need a good chiller. An immersion or counter flow. Then i would get a stir plate for making big starters. After that it is all personal preference.
Good luck!

 

[JonGrafto]

Well im sure your first 2 beers will be great so get ready to buy lots of stuff.
as far as your next purchases go, i would suggest all but carboy since you already have 6.5 gal buckets.
Now if you want them in order of importance, i would go with a bigger pot first, at least 9gal. Along with that you will need a burner to heat that much wort to a boil. Then you will need a good chiller. An immersion or counter flow. Then i would get a stir plate for making big starters. After that it is all personal preference.
Good luck!

^^^^ This ^^^^^

I agree all the way with the order of precedence that BillyBrewer set up..

 

[MikeWI]

Just my personal choice, but I'm in the same spot as you and I'm going for Fridge with Temp Controller next. I think it's the cheapest way ($100-$150) to improve my beer and I'm really looking forward to being able to make lagers.

Mike

 

[FreshZ]

Well im sure your first 2 beers will be great so get ready to buy lots of stuff.
as far as your next purchases go, i would suggest all but carboy since you already have 6.5 gal buckets.
Now if you want them in order of importance, i would go with a bigger pot first, at least 9gal. Along with that you will need a burner to heat that much wort to a boil. Then you will need a good chiller. An immersion or counter flow. Then i would get a stir plate for making big starters. After that it is all personal preference.
Good luck!

Yea, I meant my 2 most recent brews. I'm 7 deep. My last 3 were partial mash BIAB. Given that, does it change anyone's opinion or should I still go with a kettle before a mash tun setup?

I know the carboy isn't necessary, I just want to see what's going on in there. I've never seen krausen. That's probably a vanity purchase.

 

[kh54s10]

This is how I would go:

The options I was thinking about:

Put them in this order:

Stir plate
Turkey fryer and larger brew kettle (10 gallon or bigger)for full boils
Wort chiller
Good digital thermometer
Mash tun for AG
6 gallon Better Bottles or buckets instead of:6.5 g carboyGlass is heavy and dangerous.
Fridge with temp control
Kegging system

??

 

[buzzkill]

fermentation fridge.. best bang for the buck as summer is on its way

 

[FreshZ]

fermentation fridge.. best bang for the buck as summer is on its way

I have heard this, but even in summer, my basement is about 64-66. With the bucket on the concrete or in the swamp cooler, I should be able to maintain 60-64. Is this not good enough? Is it the temp or the fluctuations that matter most?

 

[bad67z]

I would get my fermentation temp under control and pitch the proper amount of yeast (with or without a stir plate) first. Then full boils, find a decommissioned keg and turkey fryer on CL and your in business to make 10 gallon batches.

 

[kpr121]

Im agreeing mostly with KH54s10, with the following adjustments:

This is how I would go:

Turkey fryer and larger brew kettle (10 gallon or bigger - look into DIY keggle)for full boils
Wort chiller
Stir plate
Good digital thermometer
Mash tun for AG
Fridge with temp control
More Fermentation vessels, however you can get them. I like to have a little bit of a variety (5/6 gal carboys, 5/6.5/7 gal buckets, etc).
Kegging system

 

[H-ost]

1) Full boils
2) Stir plates/Temp control
3) Temp control/Stir plates
4) If you want to add to the brewday itself, Mash tun.

Save yourself some cash and skip the chiller for now and do no-chill if you don't like it, then spend money on a chiller. IMO it is not nearly as necessary as many people make it out to be.

 

[JeramyD]

You can make stir plates for pretty cheap. Give a search for some plans on Google if you are a DIY sort of person. Like HibsMax said you can make your own wort chiller too.

 

[Slyko]

My only suggestion is......................... take your time. Think about it. YOU will know what YOU need. Time will tell.

Now my own experience was one where 70% of the hardware was given to me already. I just had to pick up odds & ends.

But the best purchase I made was a wort chiller. I'm not a patient man & that 1 addition saved me HOURS of time.

Good Luck & Happy Brewing!

 

[kpr121]

1) Full boils
2) Stir plates/Temp control
3) Temp control/Stir plates
4) If you want to add to the brewday itself, Mash tun.

Save yourself some cash and skip the chiller for now and do no-chill if you don't like it, then spend money on a chiller. IMO it is not nearly as necessary as many people make it out to be.

I agree here too. No chill is pretty awesome. Sometimes I do it, sometimes I chill, depends on what kind of a mood I'm in and if I have the extra time (or if my yeast is not ready I generally no chill since I wont be able to pitch for another day or two anyhow).

 

[Pezman1]

WORT CHILLER best 50-60 bucks you will spend.

Pez.

 

[Andrew5329]

If your doing a full boil you do need a wort chiller to cool it in a reasonable amount of time.
But before you buy in, ask yourself what you expect to gain by doing a full boil versus a partial boil (many people dont see any real difference), and what your ultimate goals are for brewing. Are you happy with Malt extract brews, or do you want to do part (or all) grain recipes?

If you do want to move forward with a full boil then the turkey friar is a requirement to heat it as well as a large pot, though I'm not sure what you would do with a 10 gallon pot as some posters have suggested considering your fermentation vessels are only meant to hold 5 gallons.
The turkey friar alone for 2.5-3.0 gallon boils isn't strictly nessecary, but it is a quality of life improvement. (you don't have to wait 20 min for 3 gallons of water to reach boiling temperature on a smaller burner)

If your main goal is to transition into all/partial grain brewing then there's a set of equipment required for that (the most overlooked but crucial is a good digital thermometer)

Personally if I were you I'd invest in a refrigerator to control your fermentation temp. Your basement is probably fairly steady, but going into summer that temperature will fluctuate somewhat, not to mention that while 60-70 Fahrenheit is the "okay" range each individual style and yeast works optimally at a different point in that range.
There are specialized "brewing" refrigerators, but any old refrigerator you find on Craigslist will work equally well as long as you have a thermometer inside to confirm the internal temperature.

Since your only 2 brews in, I wouldn't complicate the process too much yet, maybe try a partial grain recipe next, but IMHO spending a few hundred bucks on equipment just so that you can boil 5 gallons instead of 2.5 at a time seems a waste.

 

[eppo]

The two most important things you can do for your beer is sanitation and temperature control. That being said.....
Fridge with temperature control. hands down.
you can make great beers with partial boils, you cant make good beer with poor fermentation temperature control.

 

[FreshZ]

The two most important things you can do for your beer is sanitation and temperature control. That being said.....
Fridge with temperature control. hands down.
you can make great beers with partial boils, you cant make good beer with poor fermentation temperature control.

So a cheap used fridge and a digital temp controller? Do I need anything else to hook this up/get it working? How does the temp control work with the fridge?

 

[Andrew5329]

So a cheap used fridge and a digital temp controller? Do I need anything else to hook this up/get it working? How does the temp control work with the fridge?

You dont need a fancy temperature controller for your fridge, just adjust the dial until you reach your target temp, and confirm it with any old thermometer that you can tape to the inside.

What you would need the digital thermometer for is when your doing a mash since you need to know and maintain an exact temperature within a few degrees as you steep your grains.

 

[FreshZ]

You dont need a fancy temperature controller for your fridge, just adjust the dial until you reach your target temp, and confirm it with any old thermometer that you can tape to the inside.

What you would need the digital thermometer for is when your doing a mash since you need to know and maintain an exact temperature within a few degrees as you steep your grains.

No I understand the digital thermometer and have one already for partial mashes. I'm asking about the item that brewers use in conjunction with their fermentation fridge to maintain a consistent temp, while not having the compressor cycling on and off constantly.

 

[Fennis]

I'd also go with a bigger, 10 gallon, pot and propane burner. I think those two items were the single biggest upgrade for me as far as being able to produce better beer.

I went from doing 3 gallon or so boils on an electric stove to full 5 boils on the burner. Now I do all-grain brew in a bag, usually starting with around 7 gallons of water, and I get it to a roaring boil faster than I could get 3 going inside on the stove. I can regulate the temperature a lot better when mashing the grains, and I've done a few extract batches and never had it caramelize on the bottom like I did on the electric stove. It was the best purchase I could make for brewing. I got my burner on Amazon for around $40, and I found a 10 gallon aluminum pot online from some kitchen supply store for $38.

After that, I would look up on these forums for a DIY chiller. For about $30, you can make your own copper chiller. Its really easy to make.

 

[eppo]

For my keezer i have one of the analog controllers and it works fine. Although, i also have 2 love controllers, one single stage, and one dual stage. Personally, unless your short on cash, i would pick up the dual stage love controller with a temp probe. There is a wiring guide on here for it, its pretty easy. Then you can use it to cool your wort in the fridge, and you can pick up a ferm wrap so you can heat up your wort ( you can use this for belgians, or if your fermentation area gets too cold.

 

[FreshZ]

For my keezer i have one of the analog controllers and it works fine. Although, i also have 2 love controllers, one single stage, and one dual stage. Personally, unless your short on cash, i would pick up the dual stage love controller with a temp probe. There is a wiring guide on here for it, its pretty easy. Then you can use it to cool your wort in the fridge, and you can pick up a ferm wrap so you can heat up your wort ( you can use this for belgians, or if your fermentation area gets too cold.

Wiring sounds fine. No soldering?

 

[bniesen]

here is my $.02
#1: Turkey fryer with large pot + wort chiller. I have made IC and CFC wort chillers, they are easy to make and are very much worth it.

#2: Mash Tun. After you have done a few extracts you will start getting the AG bug.

#3: Pump. It is inevitable that you will get sick and tired of transferring hot liquids or just moving all that liquid around by brute force. Work smarter, not harder.

you don't need a 6.5 gal carboy when you have the same size buckets. I have a couple of 6.5 carboys and when it comes time to replace them, I will be purchasing buckets.

Fermentation Fridge only necessary if you plan on doing lagers, I would wait until you are at the point when you are thinking of getting into kegging (two birds with one stone)

Stir plate, some people swear by them, others say that they have made great starters without them. I personally have just started to use starters and don't see myself having to use a stir plate, but who knows, in a year I might change my mind.

 

[eppo]

the one i made required no soldering, basically its just one of those project boxes from Radioshack. you make a hole for the love controller, and one for an outlet. cut the end off an extention cord, and wire that to the controller, and the outlet, and wire the controller to the outlet. i had some romex cable laying around and an extra outlet.
Personally i think its worth the extra money. i bought the single stage, and if I would have just gotten the dual to begin with, i wouldnt have to have bought another.

 

[kpr121]

If your doing a full boil you do need a wort chiller to cool it in a reasonable amount of time.
But before you buy in, ask yourself what you expect to gain by doing a full boil versus a partial boil (many people dont see any real difference), and what your ultimate goals are for brewing. Are you happy with Malt extract brews, or do you want to do part (or all) grain recipes?

If you do want to move forward with a full boil then the turkey friar is a requirement to heat it as well as a large pot, though I'm not sure what you would do with a 10 gallon pot as some posters have suggested considering your fermentation vessels are only meant to hold 5 gallons.

OP said that he does some partial mash brewing already. If you think you are going to someday go to AG, you are going to need a pot that can handle the full-boil volume of your batches. People frequently use 10 gallon pots so they can prevent boilovers (A 5.5 gallon batch will need upwards of 7 gallons pre-boil because of evaporation). I suggested OP look into a keggle, since it can be found relatively cheap, and has the potential for larger batches (I do 10-12 gallon batches in my keggle and split the batches between multiple fermentors. This is also a good opportunity to experiment with different yeasts and/or dry hopping or other post boil additives).

The turkey friar alone for 2.5-3.0 gallon boils isn't strictly nessecary, but it is a quality of life improvement. (you don't have to wait 20 min for 3 gallons of water to reach boiling temperature on a smaller burner)

If your main goal is to transition into all/partial grain brewing then there's a set of equipment required for that (the most overlooked but crucial is a good digital thermometer)

Very good point, a good accurate thermometer is absolutely necessary for making good repeatable all grain batches. I suggest looking into Thermopen, but there are other models that will do the trick.

Personally if I were you I'd invest in a refrigerator to control your fermentation temp. Your basement is probably fairly steady, but going into summer that temperature will fluctuate somewhat, not to mention that while 60-70 Fahrenheit is the "okay" range each individual style and yeast works optimally at a different point in that range.
There are specialized "brewing" refrigerators, but any old refrigerator you find on Craigslist will work equally well as long as you have a thermometer inside to confirm the internal temperature.

He said that his basement stays pretty consistent, even during the summer. If you plan on brewing normal ales for the majority of the time, then by all means hold off on a fridge for fermentation control. It seems like OP does understand that yeast health and fermentation control ARE TWO OF THE MOST IMPORTANT THINGS YOU CAN DO TO MAKE GOOD BEER. If he didn’t, theres no excuse now! 

Since your only 2 brews in, I wouldn't complicate the process too much yet, maybe try a partial grain recipe next, but IMHO spending a few hundred bucks on equipment just so that you can boil 5 gallons instead of 2.5 at a time seems a waste.

Agreed. But an even bigger waste is spending a couple hundred bucks on a 10 gallon pot, only to realize a couple months down the road you want to do larger batches and realizing you could have had yourself a nice keggle for less than $100 in the first place.

You dont need a fancy temperature controller for your fridge, just adjust the dial until you reach your target temp, and confirm it with any old thermometer that you can tape to the inside.

What you would need the digital thermometer for is when your doing a mash since you need to know and maintain an exact temperature within a few degrees as you steep your grains.

If you decide to go a fridge for fermentation control you absolutely will need some sort of external temperature controller. How many fridges have you seen that let you set the temp to 66F?

 

[FreshZ]

OP said that he does some partial mash brewing already. If you think you are going to someday go to AG, you are going to need a pot that can handle the full-boil volume of your batches. People frequently use 10 gallon pots so they can prevent boilovers (A 5.5 gallon batch will need upwards of 7 gallons pre-boil because of evaporation). I suggested OP look into a keggle, since it can be found relatively cheap, and has the potential for larger batches (I do 10-12 gallon batches in my keggle and split the batches between multiple fermentors. This is also a good opportunity to experiment with different yeasts and/or dry hopping or other post boil additives).

Very good point, a good accurate thermometer is absolutely necessary for making good repeatable all grain batches. I suggest looking into Thermopen, but there are other models that will do the trick.

He said that his basement stays pretty consistent, even during the summer. If you plan on brewing normal ales for the majority of the time, then by all means hold off on a fridge for fermentation control. It seems like OP does understand that yeast health and fermentation control ARE TWO OF THE MOST IMPORTANT THINGS YOU CAN DO TO MAKE GOOD BEER. If he didn’t, theres no excuse now! 

Agreed. But an even bigger waste is spending a couple hundred bucks on a 10 gallon pot, only to realize a couple months down the road you want to do larger batches and realizing you could have had yourself a nice keggle for less than $100 in the first place.

If you decide to go a fridge for fermentation control you absolutely will need some sort of external temperature controller. How many fridges have you seen that let you set the temp to 66F?

Very helpful. A few questions.

1. What size keg for a keggle? Where do you find these?
2. I've got a good thermometer now, so that's covered.
3. Basement does stay pretty cool even during the summer, so it sounds like skip the fridge/temp control setup until I want to lager or keg
4. So I was thinking 7.5 gallon pot, but 10 sounds like the bare minimum? With that much liquid, I may need to get one with a valve to transfer into primary, yes?

 

[kpr121]

Very helpful. A few questions.

1. What size keg for a keggle? Where do you find these?
2. I've got a good thermometer now, so that's covered.
3. Basement does stay pretty cool even during the summer, so it sounds like skip the fridge/temp control setup until I want to lager or keg
4. So I was thinking 7.5 gallon pot, but 10 sounds like the bare minimum? With that much liquid, I may need to get one with a valve to transfer into primary, yes?

1. 15.5 gallons. Half bbl keg size.
2. Good, money for other stuff!
3. Even more money for other stuff!
4. Yes you will probably want a valve. Bargainfittings.com is awesome for that. You can get a stainless valve with dip tube for less than 50 bucks.

 

[bniesen]

+1 on going for 10 gal or larger

 

[MotorcycleMatt]

I would do a fermentation chamber first, get set up to do starters, then go to a bigger kettle. Doing a full boil will make a difference, but if you cant pitch the right amount of yeast or keep fermentation temps down, then a full boil does you no good.

 

[H-ost]

Very helpful. A few questions.

1. What size keg for a keggle? Where do you find these?

Check on SpikeBrewing.com in their "bargain cave" I saw last week they had a 15 gallon SS kettle for 100$ and I think their site says free shipping above 50$ so 100$ shipped for that is bada$$

 

[FreshZ]

Check on SpikeBrewing.com in their "bargain cave" I saw last week they had a 15 gallon SS kettle for 100$ and I think their site says free shipping above 50$ so 100$ shipped for that is bada$$

I found that site today when searching for keggles on company time, but alas, they are all aluminum now in the bargain cave. Still, seems like good deals on their normal stuff. 140 for a 12 gal SS with 1 coupling. Are the couplings for inserting a valve or thermometer? Horizontal or vertical?

 

[FreshZ]

I found that site today when searching for keggles on company time, but alas, they are all aluminum now in the bargain cave. Still, seems like good deals on their normal stuff. 140 for a 12 gal SS with 1 coupling. Are the couplings for inserting a valve or thermometer? Horizontal or vertical?

Bump for answer?

 

[H-ost]

It depends on the placement of the coupling. If it is on the bottom of the kettle it is intended for a ball valve, slightly higher is for thermo/sightglass, and if it is on top then it is meant for recirculation.

Someone might say I'm wrong but that is the gist of it...