What else do you want for your extract brewing?

I have a gift card to NB, but I honestly don't know what else to get, equipment wise. Here is what I have: 5 gallon SS pot, 8 gallon Tallboy kettle, Darkstar Burner, 2 primary buckets, 2 secondary carboys, all the cleaning brushes and chemicals, 1L flask, everything that would come in a starter kit, wort chiller, strainer, hydrometer and 7 kits yet to be brewed. What am I missing? I certainly don't feel like I "need" any more equipment, but wondered given what I have, if you see something that would make for better beer. I don't plan on kegging and I don't have a need for a fermentation chamber as I live in a tri-level and temperatures naturally vary in the house, so I have a number of place to put beers at different temps/stage of fermentation.

 

Unless you failed to mention them, some of my favorite items include:

Auto-siphon
Digital Scale
Digital Thermometer

I hope this helps a bit. Auto-siphon is a must have for me..

edit: Maybe a wine-thief as well

 

I see you mention a flask, but not a stir plate. Oxygenation equipment perhaps?

A couple other ideas that wouldn't affect quality, but may be nice "extras", would be a bench capper and a bottling tree.

 

Immersion Chiller. Get a nice 50 footer. No other thought required.


Oops! You have one. Missed that...

Stir plate and a bigger flask. Maybe a 2000 would be good.

Annnnd pretty much everything mdbrewer said...

 

Some ideas:
Vinator - One of my favorite items
Jet bottle washer - really good for washing bottles
Bottling hydrometer - This is not a real common item, but I really like it for checking to see if the gravity is stable for bottling. It is graduated to a half point (.0005 sg) and can be read to a quarter point, so you really know if the gravity is stable. The standard hydrometers just aren't accurate enough to suit me when it comes to preventing bottle bombs.

 

Another idea that wouldn't affect quality, but I like having some flip-top bottles or larger regular bottles to give out to family and friends.

 

I would recommend maybe a bigger flask I would go with the 2000ml instead of the 1000ml and a bigger kettle

 

Good responses all - thanks. Keep 'em coming. I guess I wasn't all that thorough on my gear - left out a few:

1. Auto Siphon - came with my starter kit
2. Wine Thief - I just use a turkey baster
3. Bottling tree - I have one

Now, for the "have-nots"....

Digital scale - haven't ever done my own recipe - still living in "kit land" but maybe one day.
Digital Thermometer - do you guys find them to be a big improvement over a regular thermometer? Mine read temp - isn't that all that matters?
Stir plate - be honest - do they really make a difference? I see NB sells theirs for $99 - not spending that, but I know AIH has one for half that. IF it's worth $50 maybe. Let me know if your beer really is a lot better with a stir plate starter as opposed to my "swirl when I can" method.
O2 System - I use the aeration system with an aquarium pump and diffusion stone. Is it worth it to spend $50 for the O2? I wouldn't think so. I know the O2 is quicker, but I can easily clean up for 30 minutes on a brew day while using my current setup and saving $50.
Vinator - what is this? I have no idea

 

Get the scale... I can't even imagine why you would buy kits when you can get the recipe from almost any kit and buy the ingredients in bulk for much cheaper.

I don't get it. At all. Unless I'm missing something big here, all I see is a nice mark up on the kits.

 

I don't actually own a stir plate either. I just swirl my starters every time I walk by. If I had money to spend though, I'd probably consider it. I can't imagine having one makes the beer any better, it's just one less thing to have to remember.

I didn't realize you were doing oxygenation already. In that case, you are probably fine. I doubt the yeast care how the O2 got in there, just that it's there.

Here's a vinator. It's a quick and easy way to sanitize bottles. I'm getting tired of drowning 12 at a time, so this is on my wish list.

It sounds like you have most of the biggies covered. The next thing I can think of is water chemistry. Do you use tap water? If so, have you ever had your water tested? You might be able to pick up some water additives if necessary.

Outside of that, I think you're down to convenience items instead of impactful ones.

 

Bench capper. If you are set on bottles maybe reusable labels. Hop sock. If you like your beer Chrystal clear instead of natural maybe a beer filter for that. Water filter system. Books - " the complete joy of home brewing " by Papazian. 7 kits to brew maybe grab another fermenting bucket or so. Still recommend kegging. Just saves so much time and energy.

 

Yeah, that could cut my bottling time in half maybe! Right now I dunk each bottle in a bucket of Star San and wait a minute and then dump them out. However, I can only fit about 12 bottles in that bucket at once so just getting them all sanitized and on the tree takes a while. This might be $20 well spent with my NB gift card. Thanks for the idea! I used to really enjoy bottling, but now it's just kind of a task. I don't "mind" doing it, but it's not nearly as fun as it was when I first started...

 

Get another ingredients kit

 

I tend to agree agree here. I buy some kits from windriver brewing beer of the month. He sends 2 at a time but I do have to pay shipping. It's still about the price I can pay buying separate ingredients depending on the kit.

I found a lhbs that sells LME for $2 per pound so I just have them put togethera kit for me. I buy hops now by the pound. I make session beers for around 30 cents each. That's what I call savings.

Going to start doing BIAB soon and that'll really cut down on ingredients. This summer I plan to grow hops as well.

 

Yeah, maybe after this batch of kits is done I'll look more at getting the ingredients in bulk and crafting my own recipes. I'm sure there is a savings there too. I have a friend who grows his own hops. I heard though that the thing is with that idea is that unless you pay a pretty penny to get your hops tested, you don't really know the alpha acids in them, so you might be kind of brewing "blindly" not knowing the strength of the hops - at least that's what he told me. It was cool to see these huge plants along his house though

 

All NB kits have online instructions... with the recipes, Lol.

 

I know, and I've bought a ton of NB kits this year (my first year brewing). I've never really looked at buying the ingredients individually. I guess there could be savings if I bought grains and extract in bulk and then got a scale, yes? Maybe this fall...

 

That would be part of the beauty of making beer! I just tasted my first recipe last night and it's delicious. I already have some ideas about how I'm going to tweak it.

From what I've read about hops the biggest thing is just making sure they're at peak ripeness.

I do like kits also but I like saving money and drinking great beer more ☺

 

To me, hands down the best equipment improvements from a standard kit are 1) a chiller and 2) vinator. I would recommend the vinator and buy a kit with whatever you have left over.

 

My motto: when in doubt, buy ingredients.

 

Love my vinator! My kids love it too, always eager to help with that step.

I think buying kits is smart if you want to make a bunch of different types of beers. Buying in bulk is great once you find some recipes you want to keep in a rotation.

But I think a lot of people who buy in bulk end up with a lot of extra ingredients that somewhat tie their hands when it comes to figuring out their next brew. Instead of being able to make exactly what you want, you end up instead trying to figure out what to make from the ingredients you have on hand.

 

Dumb question here - can you buy ingredients in "kit sized portions" so you don't have "leftover ingredients" that COULD be troublesome eventually. If you can buy ingredients in 'kit sized portions' does that not save any $ over just buying the kits outright?

 

In my experience, if you try to recreate a recipe by buying in kit sized portions you end up paying more than the cost of the kit.

 

I think this is probably true in many cases. I do this all the time, brewing extract w/ steeped grains. What happens is I end up buying 1lb of a specific grain, but only needing half a pound, or something. Same with hops, & extract.

So, by weight I might be getting better value, but I end up with a bunch of odds and ends (bit of this grain, bit of that grain, little bit of extract, some small hop quantities) that I paid extra for.

In a month or two I'm going to try to put together a "leftover" brew... Should be interesting.

 

I'm good to go

 

Just Start brewing and then you will figure out what will help you with the process. Don't forget to have fun and don't stress out if something doesn't seem right. If you can keep control of your fermentation temps and keep thing Clean you will make good beer.