equipment upgrades you wish you had from the start

[Ryan_M]

I haven't started brewing yet, still getting my kit together veeery slooowly. Threads like this great to help someone like me avoid buyers remorse. I got a couple kettles and some random equipment and didn't really know where I wanted to go from there. I found this site I'm setting up a system like this one. Probably should have ran that decision by you guys first but most parts are already en route, well the hardware not the electronics yet. Will be 10gal HLT, 10gal MLT, 16gal BK.

i tried to do this when i built my house. builder said no. might do it and add a cut off in the basement and drain the line....

If you do this I'd recommend using Pex if you can. Bought a new house and saw this stuff installed and cursed the builder for being so cheap... until I did a small job using it. I will never go back to copper. Cheaper, easier, faster, no downsides I can see. Also you can get hose bibs that are ~12" long so the actual valve is inside the house. You won't need a separate shutoff valve inside.

 

[aufgehdraht]

assuming you're in on brewing
1. 15-gallon pot with a port for draining and a port for a thermometer (even if they don't have them in there it's easy enough to screw them in later)
2. fermentation control- get an ink bird or the like. In the winter I use a closet that I lined with styrofoam and throw a tiny space heater in it. If you look and are willing to clean you can find a fridge somewhere between cheap and free
3. kegging-turn 4 hours of playing with bottles to an hour of kegging
4. overkill on the ability to heat- the easiest way to turn 6-8 of brewing into 3 hours

 

[JasonWB]

1. Kegging system. I hated bottling to the point that I didn’t brew as much until I started kegging and built a kegerator.
2. A good burner. Started out with a low end turkey cooker style that didn’t have much power. Got a blichmann Hellfire awhile back and the speed to boil is a huge difference
3. A good chiller. Got a Therminator for Christmas and went to that from my old diy poorly made immersion chiller. The 30min - 1hr time difference to chill is a huge improvement to the day and time saver. Not to mention getting a great cold break.

 

[Cevan65]

I brew 2.5-3 gallon BIAB batches on my stove top. My best upgrades have been getting kegs and my Anvil fermentors with racking arms. Doing a closed transfer to a purged keg is the best. Can't believe I used to mess around with siphons, bottling carboy, bottles, etc.

 

[MMM2]

What I would have liked from the beginning?
1.) 10G ss brew kettle
Yes, I also do my occasional all-grain BIG beer with it. And I do it inside on an electric stove.
2.) BIAB bag (got mine from brewinabag.com)
with pulley and gloves for easier handling
and last but not least
3.) Bench Capper
After 4 years and ~100 5G-batches I still do not use any kegs and I do not regret it!
If well organized with it it IS possible to bottle a 5G batch in under 1 hour!
I worked painfully through 2 hand held cappers before FINALLY convincing myself to get this bench capper, but never looked back!
And I like my low tech beer 'bottled'!
So much easier to age some of the bottles AND drinking others at different times...and even being able to give bottles away!

Let me add these 'for me' important goodies:
I use a couple of big rope handled plastic tubs which come very handy for ALL kinds of tasks, not just swamp cooling FVs, but also by doing potentially spilling jobs(f.e. like bottling) over one of those, thus minimizing clean up time!

And I find it very helpful (besides using a hand pump spray bottle) to use a ~10g plastic fermentor (sitting inside one of those rope tubs!!) to hold ~7.5 (up to almost10G) ready mixed sanitizer solution!
Exchanging the contents when visibly necessary, often after many weeks!! Keeping some tube items(syphon) submerged.
This would have made my attempts of working with sanitized equipment so much easier from the get go...

 

[Jako]

What I would have liked from the beginning?
1.) 10G ss brew kettle
Yes, I also do my occasional all-grain BIG beer with it. And I do it inside on an electric stove.
2.) BIAB bag (got mine from brewinabag.com)
with pulley and gloves for easier handling
and last but not least
3.) Bench Capper
After 4 years and ~100 5G-batches I still do not use any kegs and I do not regret it!
If well organized with it it IS possible to bottle a 5G batch in under 1 hour!
I worked painfully through 2 hand held cappers before FINALLY convincing myself to get this bench capper, but never looked back!
And I like my low tech beer 'bottled'!
So much easier to age some of the bottles AND drinking others at different times...and even being able to give bottles away!

Let me add these 'for me' important goodies:
I use a couple of big rope handled plastic tubs which come very handy for ALL kinds of tasks, not just swamp cooling FVs, but also by doing potentially spilling jobs(f.e. like bottling) over one of those, thus minimizing clean up time!

And I find it very helpful (besides using a hand pump spray bottle) to use a ~10g plastic fermentor (sitting inside one of those rope tubs!!) to hold ~7.5 (up to almost10G) ready mixed sanitizer solution!
Exchanging the contents when visibly necessary, often after many weeks!! Keeping some tube items(syphon) submerged.
This would have made my attempts of working with sanitized equipment so much easier from the get go...

my two hand bottle caper last night had me ready to quit brewing. it would get stuck down and took the strength of 7 gods to pull the arms back up and not shatter every bottle. what model caper do you use? and do you mount it to anything?

 

[mongoose33]

my two hand bottle caper last night had me ready to quit brewing. it would get stuck down and took the strength of 7 gods to pull the arms back up and not shatter every bottle. what model caper do you use? and do you mount it to anything?

I use the Super Agata. It can be mounted to a bench, but I never have. That makes it easy to move from basement (where the keezer is and from which I often bottle), to the garage where I can use my poor-man's beer gun.

I have the wing capper like you do, and it didn't take long for me to look for something better. The Super Agata is nice because it doesn't have to be set up for a specific height of bottle; it automatically adjusts.

Here it is: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000Q638P2/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

The reviews are weird--lots of happy campers, and some who broke it. Mine has worked flawlessly and I'd buy it again.

 

[thehaze]

The best upgrades, for me at least, would have been a ph meter, more brewing salts, more than one hydrometer.

 

[user 125772]

Temp control for fermenting.
Honestly, I’m quite sure I could make the same quality beer with a run of the mill beginners kit, and a fermentation temp controller.

 

[MMM2]

The best upgrades, for me at least, would have been a ph meter, more brewing salts, more than one hydrometer.

yes, and more than one thermometer...

 

[Hwk-I-St8]

I'll buck the trend here...kegging equipment (kegs, fridge, regulator, etc.)!

Why? I started brewing in the early 90's. I brewed about 8 batches and grew to hate the bottling process: cleaning, sanitizing, filling, waiting for carb. Ugh...It was 6+ weeks from brew day to drinking beer. At that point I quit.

Fast forward to Feb '17. I had been wanting to get back into brewing but really wanted one or more of my craft beer buddies to dive in too. I couldn't really sell anyone but I got a brew day at a local craft brewery for Christmas from my wife (brew my recipe or style with the head brewer on their pilot system). I had a blast and the head brewer sold me his entire home brewing setup for a few hundred. It included a cooler MLT, 3 corny kegs, regulator, a bunch of buckets, a couple carboys, turkey fryer burner, 7 G kettle, hydrometer, autosiphon, immersion chiller...pretty much a turn key rig. By then I already had a kegerator.

I had a blast with it. Since then I've upgraded the kettle, added a hydra chiller, chugger pump, whirlpool arm, quick connects, valves....a bunch of stuff. I now have a really nice setup that works well, is consistent and I've been brewing really good beer. What really made it nice was kegging. It's fast, easy and I love having my own beer on tap. Had I been kegging in the 90's, I'd probably have brewed all along and I'd probably be a pro brewer who got in during the upswing of craft beer.

 

[MMM2]

my two hand bottle caper last night had me ready to quit brewing. it would get stuck down and took the strength of 7 gods to pull the arms back up and not shatter every bottle. what model caper do you use? and do you mount it to anything?

No, not mounted(yet), my capper is heavy enough to just sit on our laundry drier.
I remember having crashed one bottle in the beginning of using it (Learning curve, I guess) .
Used some silicon spray inside the capper bell in the beginning, two or three times.
For a smooth workflow you want bottles of the same make/size/height!

Btw. my bottles get rinsed right after emptying(!), so never really gunky dirty.
After being sanitized they are sitting upside down until needed for re-using.

As I live in a place where plastic parts age REALLY fast, so I bought this model:
> Steel commercial capper < by Grifo, made in Italy, for ~$120,
( my review @the linked site signed with 'Thomas'... https://www.williamsbrewing.com/STEEL-COMMERCIAL-CAPPER-P3902.aspx)

 

[Hwk-I-St8]

No, not mounted(yet), my capper is heavy enough to just sit on our laundry drier.
I remember having crashed one bottle in the beginning of using it (Learning curve, I guess) .
Used some silicon spray inside the capper bell in the beginning, two or three times.
For a smooth workflow you want bottles of the same make/size/height!

Btw. my bottles get rinsed right after emptying(!), so never really gunky dirty.
After being sanitized they are sitting upside down until needed for re-using.

As I live in a place where plastic parts age REALLY fast, so I bought this model:
> Steel commercial capper < by Grifo, made in Italy, for ~$120,
( my review @the linked site signed with 'Thomas'... https://www.williamsbrewing.com/STEEL-COMMERCIAL-CAPPER-P3902.aspx)

try this:

After your bottles are dry, cover the top of each one with foil, put them in the oven and set it to 350. Let it heat up with the bottles in, leave at 350 for one hour, then turn it off. Leave them in until cool.

Just stick those bottles in a box with the foil still in place and you have sanitized bottles ready to go whenever you need them!

 

[phendog]

Hindsight being 20/20, I never imagined I would have embraced this hobby as fanatically as I have. Wish I would have bought a turn key electric system from the start. Now I only need a control panel w/the necessary cables and elements to make it happen - have a HERMs coil and whirlpool arm inbound to complete my HLT.

 

[Wyphy]

As has been mentioned, threads like this are great for people like me who try to do a fair bit of research when getting into a new hobby and helps us realise what we need, balanced with our resources (i.e. space and capital).

I've ended up with the 6 gallon Fermonster starter kit from MoreBeer (thanks Santa), and a DIY 25' immersion chiller (test run worked great, 200 to 70 in 10 minutes).
Along with Palmer's book, I think I've got a good setup for my available resources.

Apartment dwellers, in the US at least, can't (easily) do propane burners, so a stovetop is what we've got; partial boils (or small batches) are the only option.
Space is also somewhat of a premium, so I don't really have the option of a mini fridge or kegging.
The only thing I do wish the kit had was a kettle with a spigot. Sure, the premium kit has that, but the capital wasn't there.

I tried to be thorough in my research and come up with the best use of my available resources.
In a couple years I'll have a house, giving me more options.

What would you do if your choices were :
Get a reasonable setup now with a couple of upgrades in a year or two
Or
Wait a couple of years to start brewing

I'm happy with my choices.
Next weekend is first batch weekend.

 

[Jayjay1976]

Not really an upgrade, but I wish I could've kept the collar on my dip tube.

 

[Jayjay1976]

Glass carboys are a pain in the butt to clean, terrible to dryhop, are prone to breakage and dangerous. The older plastic ones let Oxygen into the beer and plastic could leach into the beer. The new plastic fermenters with a wide mouth are easy to clean, dryhop and safe. They also have a valve so no siphon is needed. I have a Speidel and a Fermonster now.

Which do you like better? I have two siphon less fermonster and I love 'em but I'm looking to buy two more fermenters and those 7.9g speidels look really nice. Are the handles really strong enough to carry it when full?

 

[thehaze]

Which do you like better? I have two siphon less fermonster and I love 'em but I'm looking to buy two more fermenters and those 7.9g speidels look really nice. Are the handles really strong enough to carry it when full?

I have 5 Speidel fermenters ( 30 L ) and they are great ( have yet to try better fermenters, like conical, etc. ), coming from narrow mouth glass carboys, which break easily, are so damn hard to clean and a paid to carry around, that is.

The handles are sturdy. I usually have around 6 gallons of beer and a good layer of trub, which also weighs something, and I carry them by the handels. Nothing happened. I have not yet try to fill them up and do a test, but I think they would hold just fine. I would however not fill them, as it is kind of hard on the back, if you thought of carrying them around.

 

[PADave]

Which do you like better? I have two siphon less fermonster and I love 'em but I'm looking to buy two more fermenters and those 7.9g speidels look really nice. Are the handles really strong enough to carry it when full?

I have both, and the Speidel is nicer. Yes, the handles are plenty strong. I always had a heck of a time getting the lid off the fermonster. But since then I've gone to a SS brewbucket. Fermonster doesn't get used, speidel is my second choice. Going to get another brewbucket soon.

 

[Hwk-I-St8]

This a great topic! Many have said that they wish they purchased the best they could afford from day one...
This seems like a good spot for this newb question-

What should I purchase? (& more importantly why)
Hellfire burner $150 (& stand)
Amcyl 15 gallon brew kettle w/ weldless thermometer & ball valve $190 (or other kettle?)
Total $340
Or
Bayou classic burner ~$60
10 gallon ss pot ~$60
Total $120
I’m new to home brewing & want to move to all grain.
Ultimately I will want the ability to produce 10 gallon batches but have no need to do that today.
The cheap solution will be my next step but the better option will probably be my final kettle & burner..?
Worst case if I never get the hang of brewing all grain & only brew a few batches I should be able to sell the good stuff for $250? Right?
Where the cheap stuff will probably get $20 maybe $40? So the loss of $’s will be comparable...?
Any advise & guidance for this newb would much appreciated. Thanks!

For a burner, I'd go with the Bayou Classic KAB4 or SAB4. Both are listed as 210,000 BTU's. The only difference is the SAB4 is stainless steel. They run about $80 and $120 respectively and either one could be my "final choice". In other words, I'd feel zero need to upgrade either one.

As far as the leg extension discussion, I prefer my kettle low. Easier to stir and see in. When it comes time to drain to the ferm, I use my whirlpool pump and a spray aerator....it's fast, it aerates at the same time. I got my chugger for about the same price as the difference between the hellfire w/leg extensions vs the KAB4. Plus you then have a whirlpool pump.

 

[Hwk-I-St8]

I'm subscribed to this thread because I posted in it, and it keeps showing up--and it keeps bothering me.

Why? Because every upgrade I've made I wish I'd had from the beginning. That's why I upgraded in every case--it was better than what I started with.

Upgrades since the beginning:

Spike 10-gallon kettle for 8-gallon Megapot
Thermapen Mark IV for a cheap electronic thermometer.
Jaded Hydra chiller for a Silver Serpent chiller
Refractometer for a hydrometer
Hellfire Burner for a King Kooker burner
Ferm Chamber for a swamp cooler
Second Mini-Fridge Ferm Chamber...because.
Upgraded utility sink in garage so I could clean out there
pH meter from Milwaukee (MW102)
RO system instead of tap water or buying RO water
Keg system instead of bottling
Keezer instead of using Picnic Taps to serve
Secondary regulators in keezer instead of a manifold
O2 Tank and regulator instead of shaking fermenter
Stir Plate and Flask for starters instead of using dry yeast
BIAB for mash tun (still have the mash tun)

And the newest one is on the way, a Monster Mill 3-roller mill to replace my Barley Crusher.

In fact, about the only thing I haven't upgraded is my long-handled spoon.

I've made upgrades too and I get the "Buy once, cry once" mantra. The problem is that spending big bucks on day one can just mean "cry twice" because you didn't know enough to know what works for you. Say you spend a bunch of money on a premium burner, 10 gallon kettle, nice cooler mlt w/false bottom, cooler hlt, etc. Then after a year you brew with someone who does EBIAB and realize that's what you want to do and suddenly the MLT and HLT are worthless, the burner is unneeded, the kettle's too small for the big stouts you like to brew and, etc.

I say this because I invested in some nice stuff, but this winter, with sub zero temps, I'm really thinking EBIAB (Brew Boss) is the way to go for me. I'll probably make the switch and I'll have a bunch of stuff to unload including a burner, kettle, MLT, HLT, etc.

If I were starting out today, I'd go one of two ways: I'd join a club and brew with others to learn what might work for me or I'd do small batch BIAB on the stove top until I had a better understanding of the methods/equipment that work for me.

 

[Jayjay1976]

I've made upgrades too and I get the "Buy once, cry once" mantra. The problem is that spending big bucks on day one can just mean "cry twice" because you didn't know enough to know what works for you. Say you spend a bunch of money on a premium burner, 10 gallon kettle, nice cooler mlt w/false bottom, cooler hlt, etc. Then after a year you brew with someone who does EBIAB and realize that's what you want to do and suddenly the MLT and HLT are worthless, the burner is unneeded, the kettle's too small for the big stouts you like to brew and, etc.

I say this because I invested in some nice stuff, but this winter, with sub zero temps, I'm really thinking EBIAB (Brew Boss) is the way to go for me. I'll probably make the switch and I'll have a bunch of stuff to unload including a burner, kettle, MLT, HLT, etc.

If I were starting out today, I'd go one of two ways: I'd join a club and brew with others to learn what might work for me or I'd do small batch BIAB on the stove top until I had a better understanding of the methods/equipment that work for me.

OTOH, if you buy the good stuff from the get-go and end up not needing it, quality gear that is in demand will tend to retain its value and can be resold to recoup most of the original investment.

 

[Hwk-I-St8]

OTOH, if you buy the good stuff from the get-go and end up not needing it, quality gear that is in demand will tend to retain its value and can be resold to recoup most of the original investment.

That may work out or it may not. I had a discussion with a guy about a particular brand of car that "held it's value better" than what I was looking at. His proof was that it was worth quite a bit more on NADA after 5 years than what I was looking at. The problem with his logic was that a buy would have paid that much more at purchase, so the increase value at resale was absorbed by the increased cost when purchased.

I'm not necessarily saying that's the case here as I really haven't tried to sell any brewing equipment...high quality or budget stuff. Just that it's important to keep that in mind. A $200 burner sold at $150 or a $50 burner given away is a wash. Sure, you had a nicer burner, but it may have kept you from buying a pump or mill.

 

[Jayjay1976]

That may work out or it may not. I had a discussion with a guy about a particular brand of car that "held it's value better" than what I was looking at. His proof was that it was worth quite a bit more on NADA after 5 years than what I was looking at. The problem with his logic was that a buy would have paid that much more at purchase, so the increase value at resale was absorbed by the increased cost when purchased.

I'm not necessarily saying that's the case here as I really haven't tried to sell any brewing equipment...high quality or budget stuff. Just that it's important to keep that in mind. A $200 burner sold at $150 or a $50 burner given away is a wash. Sure, you had a nicer burner, but it may have kept you from buying a pump or mill.

That's a good point.

 

[Jako]

As has been mentioned, threads like this are great for people like me who try to do a fair bit of research when getting into a new hobby and helps us realise what we need, balanced with our resources (i.e. space and capital).

I've ended up with the 6 gallon Fermonster starter kit from MoreBeer (thanks Santa), and a DIY 25' immersion chiller (test run worked great, 200 to 70 in 10 minutes).
Along with Palmer's book, I think I've got a good setup for my available resources.

Apartment dwellers, in the US at least, can't (easily) do propane burners, so a stovetop is what we've got; partial boils (or small batches) are the only option.
Space is also somewhat of a premium, so I don't really have the option of a mini fridge or kegging.
The only thing I do wish the kit had was a kettle with a spigot. Sure, the premium kit has that, but the capital wasn't there.

I tried to be thorough in my research and come up with the best use of my available resources.
In a couple years I'll have a house, giving me more options.

What would you do if your choices were :
Get a reasonable setup now with a couple of upgrades in a year or two
Or
Wait a couple of years to start brewing

I'm happy with my choices.
Next weekend is first batch weekend.

sounds like a great start to me! no need for a huge set up! i brewed just fine on a electric burner. you should look into BIAB after a few brews. this is what i did and its a very compact set up.

 

[Northern_Brewer]

those 7.9g speidels look really nice. Are the handles really strong enough to carry it when full?

You might want a read of the comments below http://brulosophy.com/2018/01/01/fe...-vs-plastic-speidel-tank-exbeeriment-results/ - one issue is staining over the long term.

 

[Bubbles2]

Conical with a Trub trap, looks pretty nice and would cut some messy steps to clear the beer.

 

[zonkman]

Wish I skipped extract brews. Go straight to Brew in a Bag. Save on extract, get a bag. That's where the learning really gets going. It's not difficult. Don't upgrade any equipment until you've gone all grain.

 

[Jayjay1976]

Wish I skipped extract brews. Go straight to Brew in a Bag. Save on extract, get a bag. That's where the learning really gets going. It's not difficult. Don't upgrade any equipment until you've gone all grain.

100% agree. I started off with all-grain BIAB after watching my brother go from extract to 3-vessel AG; it's not really any harder than extract brewing just a different process. Also it's far cheaper per batch. I've only brewed 6 batches so far and was only expecting to end up with mediocre but drinkable beer, but they came out far better than that.

 

[bleme]

Agree with that one. Here's my brewing shelf, but have a couple more that I'm currently reading. Many more on the want list.
View attachment 551175

Sorry to go off-topic here, but this is driving me crazy. Those books aren't ordered alphabetically by Title or Author, or even by size so what is the order? Purchase date?

On topic, I doubt there are 2 identical systems out of the 50 in my brew club but I don't think any of them would dispute an electric fermentation chamber of some sort. I am so glad to be done with the days of ice and swamp coolers and checking the temperature every half hour.