Equipment Upgrade coming soon. What is most important?

[suddenlysamuel]

Hello all, first-time poster, all-grain BIAB brewer here. Not super new to homebrewing, but nonetheless have only ramped up my brewing practices over the past year or so. NYC located, hello to any fellow NYC brewers!

I've begun to make some equipment upgrades recently, including a 10-gallon kettle to get back into 5-gallon batches with BIAB. I like brewing high-gravity beers, including Belgians and strong IPA's, so I've been focusing more on proper yeast pitching to hit my ABV's and flavor profiles, and am currently considering 2 other areas I feel are lacking in my brewing practices:

1) Wort Aeration
2) Temperature control.

I have read a lot of boards here about the importance of both of these items, specifically temperature control, though I understand wort aeration is very important especially for high-gravity brews. I am looking for opinions on what should be my next equipment upgrades from those more experienced, based on what I like to brew - should I just go for oxygenation right away to improve my yeast attenuation? Or if it's more important that I move into temperature control, does anyone have any fairly inexpensive and space-saving recommendations to regulate the temp? Our apartment is very very small, and another fridge or chest freezer is not an option.

Apologies as I know temp is well discussed around here, but I also am interested in input from others to my situation specifically, as to what will make a difference in my strong Belgian's and IPAs and APA's primarily, and with space constraints. Almost forgot to mention, I focus on hitting target water profiles already. Thanks all!

 

[beernutz]

IMO temperature control is more important than wort aeration. Many brewers brew good beer with only shaking the fermenter aeration but you have to be really talented or lucky to brew good beer without sound temperature control.

I have a friend in my brew club who uses a $60 cool brewing bag to hold his fermenter and makes good beer with it. I brewed about 10 years starting in the 90s using only a swamp cooler for temp control. Those were not my best beers by any means but they were drinkable ales. My point is that temp control doesn't have to be expensive or take up a lot of space.

/My $.02.

 

[TANSTAAFB]

Find a medical O2 bottle with a regulator. Yard sales, Craigslist, 2nd hand stores. That bottle will last you forever and all you need is an aeration stone and some 1/4" vinyl tubing. A wand is great but not necessary right now. While you're on the hunt for the bottle spend your money on temp control.

There are some cool commercial ideas out there like the Brew Jacket as well as DIY stuff like swamp coolers with a recirculation pump or stainless coils in a Speidel recirculating ice water from a cooler! I know you said you don't have room for another fridge, but an option is a smaller wine fridge. I used one for years with a Johnson controller. Only fits one fermenter at a time but it works and has a fairly small footprint. I kept mine in the closet in a spare room. You're going to need to do some research and decide what works for you. How much do you have to spend right now?

 

[BeardedBrews]

I love my fermentation chamber, not just because I don't have to worry about the ferment temperature, but also because I love clear beer and cold-crashing helps a ton with that.

I still don't use 02, I just shake the carboy.


It's not on the list, but a good chiller can shorten your brew day, which makes the whole process much more fun. I've found that the stuff I am happiest with is the stuff that also makes it easier or more likely for me to brew.

 

[suddenlysamuel]

Thanks for some of the suggestions.

As I just threw in for a new kettle and such, I'm only looking to spend about $100 or so more right now. The Cool Brewing Bag along with a thermometer hanging in the carboy is probably what I'm going to do, and change out ice packs to keep the temp more regulated... seems like this should help?

I do use a wort chiller which helps me hit a good temp initially, but I am worried based on reading these forums that the active fermentations are raising the ales by 10-15 degrees, which seems to be ok or even good for the Belgians, but bad for the ales...

So during peak fermentation for my ales for example, should I try to regulate the carboy in the mid-60s for at least 4-5 days? What about after that? Just wondering what an ideal temp schedule should look like for ales... for some reason I started off with Belgians and have moved into ales, and noticed that the belgians do well without regulating the temp too much, but i predict I need a better understanding of temps for non-belgian ales and IPAs...

 

[TANSTAAFB]

I'll second the chiller. I wish I had just bought a Jaded Hydra. Went with a plate chiller and end up using my old IC because I don't want to bust out the pump!

 

[hezagenius]

...I've found that the stuff I am happiest with is the stuff that also makes it easier or more likely for me to brew.

Damn straight. It took me a while to figure this out. Now, whenever I buy something, the first thing I think about is will this make my brewday shorter and/or easier?

 

[madscientist451]

For cheap fermentation control: You can actually get everything for free if you scrounge around.
Get a sturdy 24"x24" cardboard box.
Use 1" insulating board or Styrofoam to line the inside of the box. Secure insulation board with duct tape, I taped all the corners, to seal it up. I also used the foil faced insulation board and that helped because you are going to get some condensation. Add a cheap thermometer or splurge and get one with a remote display, then you don't have to open it up to check your temp. Put your fermentation bucket/carboy in the box along with frozen 1 an 2 liter plastic water bottles. Check on the ice twice a day and change them out as needed. You can easily keep the fermenter 10 degrees below ambient using this setup, I did it for years before I finally got a chest freezer. So if your apt is 72, you can keep your fermentation chamber at 62. Use more or less ice as needed. Note that the actual temperature of your fermenting wort may be a little higher.
Save your $100 and add another $150 to that and eventually get a small chest freezer and a temp control device. Then you can have better control and will be able to cold crash. But the box w/ice method works just fine.
Instead of the box, you can use a large square cooler from Walmart (about $25) that will hold a bucket+ ice.
There are plenty of you tube videos showing DIY cheap fermentation chambers that use ice:
[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mb226sT6qEc[/ame]

 

[BeardedBrews]

Thanks for some of the suggestions.

As I just threw in for a new kettle and such, I'm only looking to spend about $100 or so more right now. The Cool Brewing Bag along with a thermometer hanging in the carboy is probably what I'm going to do, and change out ice packs to keep the temp more regulated... seems like this should help?

At $100 and without space for a small chest freezer the insulated bag/box and ice packs may be the best bet. Just keep in mind that you will have to be feeding it / adding packs to it, etc, all the time.

Might be worth saving up for something a bit more advanced:
https://www.brewjacket.com/

 

[suddenlysamuel]

Thanks all. For $60 I have gone in on the cool brewing bag. The brew jacket looks totally amazing and it may be a purchase a little while down the line, figure in the meantime I will be able to play around at least a little with temps.

 

[Nagorg]

Temp control is the biggest bang for the buck!