1000$ worth of equipment

Hey guys - I have a question for the experienced brewer with vast knowledge of equipment prices and needs.

I build stuff for people for extra cash on the weekends (Carpentry) which floats me some extra cash and luckily i live at home with my parents still so rent is cheap! I want to take the earnings from my side jobs and float it toward my hobby which is brewing beer. Currently i have the basics which is some buckets and a 5 gal kettle. I also enjoy and take pride in building my own things.

Things i will build myself:
Wort chiller (40$)
Brew stand($?)
And ill be buying a propane burner from Home depot (65k BTU for 50-60$)


Things ill buy:
Keging system (200$?)


What I need advice on is what else should i be primarily looking at buying?

Thanks in advanced for the help!

Edit:
Would like to move into BIAB and then All grain brewing.

 

Some Blichman bling would be nice SSBK with site glass,temp guage,the works.HLT,MLT,hoses & march pumps. And a control panel to top it off!

 

to many abbreviations for me to follow! Care to explain in further depth?

 

Before anything else buy/make some sort of temperature controlled fermentation box/room/fridge!! After that get your burners and wort chiller.

 

Agreed. Temp control is first priority. Fridge/freezer on Craigslist, STC-1000 controller off e-bay (search threads). This comes before a keg setup. Would you rather have good beer in bottles or bad beer in kegs?

I would also highly recommend a stir plate and flask for yeast starters. Healthy yeast is critical.

 

Blichman Stainless Steel Brew Kettle,with site glass (tube on the side of the BK to see how many gallons are in it at the moment. Hot Liquor tank,Mash Lauter Ton ( two other kettles to heat water in & mash in). Hoses & march pumps connect throuh ball valves between kettles with march pumps to move it all back & forth. No heavy lifting on your part.

 

If it were me, I'd save up for a security deposit and last month's rent...

 

awesome, looking at temp control right now, seems very easy with a chest freezer.

 

Agreed. Save it and move out of your parent's house.

 

Decide which aspect of brewing bothers you the most and then look into equipment that will decrease the frustration. This way you'll have more fun brewing!

Personally, I hate cleaning bottles so I went straight for kegging equipment. If you're a neat-freak, perhaps glass carboys. Or if a control-freak, temp control equipment.

 

The only thing I'm sure I wouldn't like is all the extra stuff to clean with kegging equipment. Bottling seems like less work by comparison. But to each their own...I still vote for the Blichmann kettles.

 

My current problem is finding enough Pry off bottles for my batches. I think a mix of 2 5-gal kegs and the occasional pry off cases will be enough for me

 

Seems to me we tried to put together a sticky of good pry off bottles to use in home brewing. Try searching for the thread anyway,there should be a couple of them. Here's a few off the top of my head;
DFH
Left Hand Brewing
Thirsty Dog
Paulaner
Franziskaner
Great Lakes Brewing
Sam Adams
Michelob
Harpoon
Stone brewery

 

Have you ever kegged beer? Don't knock it till you try it

I also vote for moving out first and then building your brewery. Dad might want to park in the garage where you're AG brew rig is going to sit.

I moved back in with the parents after college and saved some money. Glad I did. Now I have my own house, my own rules, and a whole basement dedicated to brewing. Life is good!

 

You don't have to try something to know from others experiences that there's more to it than pulling a tap after filling a keg. After listening to so many of you guys about cleaning lines,broken connections leaking gas &/or beer,etc,etc...I think not. At least not for a while.

 

+3 on the get your own place! After that I recommend looking into the yeast viability and control. I by-passed this at first and went right for kegging, bigger kettles, etc. but why bother kegging when your beer is sub-par? Make good beer with strong yeast and then move into kegging/fancy equipment phases. Besides, if you're living at home with your parent's I would assume you don't have to many buddies coming over to share fresh pints with off the keg. (No offence).

 

Not quite sure what yeast starters do or how they work. However building a stir seems pretty easy.

 

Most packages of yeast do not have enough yeast cells to properly ferment a batch of wort. By building a starter you increase the amount of yeast pitched. It also allows you to ensure that the yeast are healthy and viable before brew day. It does a bunch of other things but that's the main reason.

 

Dry yeast packets have more yeast cells then the liquid ones. So they need starters to up the cell count.

 

Are they easy to use? and learn how to use? Might make one tommorow.

 

The "get your own place first" is no joke! The good and bad of this hobby is that it can be as simple or as complex as you want. If you start by building brew stands, kegarators, fermentation chambers, etc and your own place ends up being a one bedroom apartment.....your tapped (not the keg). Not to mention pops liable to see all this new found wealth taking up his garage and raise that cheap rent!

 

I don't know man, I say enjoy cheap rent while you can. Save like crazy.

 

Best advice I've ever gotten: start by learning to ferment. Don't waste your money on Blickmann kettles. They are for down the road once you can do a triple decoction mash in your sleep. For now, get a 9gal or so stainless economy kettle so you can do full boils. Build your chiller. Build a mash tun. Go all grain. Get a chest freezer and temp controller. Learn to ferment. You could brew a perfect beer but if you ferment it wrong it'll taste bogus. Learn to ferment.

 

Things that will help you make better beer (IMO) and are eventually a "must have" if you want to consistently turn out quality product with time/effort savings. Not necessarily in order of importance.

1.) 10 gallon kettle for full boils, and ability to go all grain, Brew in a Bag, whatever. Make sure kettle has spigot for draining so you don't have to dump. A good, quality kettle is something you can use for ever. Don't skimp on this - you will regret it. If you decide brewing is not for you, you will easily be able to sell a good kettle. You will never sell a crappy one.

2.) Temperature control - small or medium chest freezer and a digital johnson controller. You cannot make consistent beer if you can't ferment at consistent temperatures. And, most styles really benefit for temps in the low to mid 60's for ales and you will need 48-50 to lager if you want to do that. (I would actually put this #1 after you have your basic gear).

3.) Yeast starters - definitely - although, you can really do this with simple tools - gallon glass jugs and a small funnel. Stir plates are probably better, but, I am a gallon jug guy myself.

4.) Wort Chiller -I like immersion chiller personally - but a chiller is a must.

5.) A brew stand is hard to beat if you are going all grain - if you are handy you could build one, a three tier gravity stand like Blichman stand or the 3 tier gravity stand from more beer is great and has a small footprint (I have this one - http://morebeer.com/view_product/8914/103468/New_B3-500_5_Gallon_Gravity_BrewSculpture ) It is maybe the single best purchase I have ever made in my life. Got it about 15 years ago and it is as good today as the day I bought it. There are lots of possibilities, but some sort of stand really is nice.

6.) Kegging - Kegging is easier for sure. It has been mentioned that there is other work that goes with it, and that is true. But cleaning one keg is WAAAYYYYYY easier than cleaning bottles. The lines and the tappers were what always took time in my opinion. I actually went back to the basic plastic cobra head picnic tappers. I have about a half dozen of them and just hook one up to each keg and clean the line, tapper, etc. when the keg kicks and it is time to fill it up again. And, I am someone who also bottles - I don't mind bottling at all. Actually, I have gone to more 3 gallon kegs so I can keg 3 gallons and then just wash up a 12 pack of 12 ounce bottles and a 6 pack of 22 ounce bottles for the rest of the beer. If you are only dealing with 12-18 bottles plus a small keg - it really makes it a breeze. But, kegging is nice, no doubt.

7.) gear to go all grain if you haven't.

Those are the things that pop out to me as some of my top purchases over the past 18 years or so.

 

thanks for the suggestions fella's you make this quite a bit easier.

Buying a temp control and a chest freezer first.
Then i'll go for a yeast starter
then a 10g kettle + mash tun
then keg set

 

As stated before:

1) Temperature control - Most important aspect to your beer.

2) Stir Plate - If you use liquid yeast this is a great tool for making starters.

3) Adequate kettle - you can probably spend some serious cash here but get one that has the volume you need with the necessary bells/whistles.

4) Wort Chiller - Different options.

5) Burner - Different options as well from basic to Blichman.

6) Kegging - Honestly, one of the more enjoyable aspects of brewing for me. Cleaning one container, hooking up the CO2, and walking away for two weeks is super easy. Much of the trouble shooting threads about kegging are because people do the shake burst CO2 method. It works but not if you don't know what you're doing. Also, as a carpenter you'll likely have an awesome keezer build in your future.

Anyway, that's the priority list that I would focus on. If you're curious about all grain I would include a mash tun as well. A mill isn't necessary but it might nice.

It's your money though so spend it in a way that you'll enjoy it.

 

I have a question: if i were to buy a temp control for a chest freezer, the only thing it could do would be to make it colder right since its a ffreezer? (from what i understand, the control would turn the freezer on/off at certain temperatures). Ive been checking the temp of my freezer and its below 60F, how would i increase the temp inside my freezer making the temp control useful?

 

It would depend on the temp controler, but to do both heat and cool you would probably be looking for a dual stage controler. That would allow you to turn on one item (freezer) if above a set temperature to cool things down, or turn on a different item (heat lamp or light bulb is most common) to warm things up if the freezer is too cold.