"ill never be one of those crazys that spend thousands on equipment"

[jerbrew]

I got a mr beer thing for the company Christmas giveaway. Everyone laughed cuz they all know (35 person business) how much work (and Benjamins) I put into my brewing system. In it for well over 1k and that's before I started kegging. But hey I'll find a use for the mr beer keg someday. And I'll gladly spend a few more thousands in this wonderful hobby/life/obsession. Besides SWMBO makes more than I do so she'll never care.

 

[Michigan_Wolfman]

"I'll never be one of those crazys that spend thousands on equipment"

Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight! We ALL say that.....

 

[invictusbrew]

You all are so brave... I, however, am not yet willing to admit that I have a problem or how much I've spent on said hypothetical problem.

 

[Magnus314]

12 Kegs, commercial fridge with 4 taps on top and 4 cold crash kegs on bottom, 2 tap kegerator, 6 bucket fermenters for beer and wine, 18 carboy secondaries, Mason jars + spare fridge for yeast slurries + extra beer (0.5 - 1 gallon "overages"), part of the deep freezer in the garage for hops and frozen bottles, 2 mash coolers, 1 110qt cooler for fermenting, miles of tubes, racking canes, spray bottles, etc., 4+ kettles, 10+ cases of bottles...

I told my wife it's about $75. Think she believes me?

 

[Sadu]

We all have been there.

talk to us in a year or two, so you can brag about your fermentation fridge and 5-10 kegs.



Both are more important and will give you a lot more bang for the buck than 40L conical, in my opinion.

heh, yep. Playing with all the cool gear is half the fun. I feel like a rocket scientist with my cool homemade stir plate.

 

[55x11]

heh, yep. Playing with all the cool gear is half the fun. I feel like a rocket scientist with my cool homemade stir plate.

I think building equipment is just as much fun as using it, and more fun than buying stuff. I also use DYI $10 stirplate made from a computer fan with my son's lego pieces as the base. I built my own immersion cooler from 50' of copper tubing. Mashtun is a 70qt Coleman cooler (blue of course) converted with ball-lock and hose shielding as a drain screen. Home-made temperature controller enclosures/cables, home-made collar for keezer etc.

I am now urging my neighbor to try kegging just so I can help him build a collar for a freezer. Those projects are fun.

 

[Kharnynb]

the issue with kegging is that it requires a lot of space and money to really improve upon bottling.

If i had cash/room for around 6-8 kegs in a cool area, several taps, a keezer, and all that, I would love not to have to bottle, but I don't see that happening any time soon.

Plus, pilsners and belgian style beers are just more fun to cellar in bottles.

 

[jleiii]

Looks like you're just getting started.

I'm in for like 10k and i don't even have a fancy conical with glycol chiller YET.

You should consider a Fast Ferment Conical and an air conditioner or dehumidifier for glycol, that won't even increment in the 10k number rounding up!!

 

[Stillraining]

As I moved from 5 to 10 then 20 and now to 30 gallon batches ( First one this week end) I may have to get a bigger John Deere ....... Do they come in SS?

 

[BobOki]

I feel the pain here. I am just 1 year into homebrewing and I currently own:
Deluxe Brewing kit from NB with 2 glass carboys
All-Grain full kit with burners, 3 converted igloos, more glass carboys, grain storage
Perlick professional tap with steel top converted to 4 taps
Multiple wireless temp and brewometers
Grainfather brewing system
7 Ball lock kegs
and another $500 or so worth of random equipment (water containers, refractometers, chemicals, water filtering etc)

So glad I decided I would only buy the one kit and just enjoy extract brewing.. ... ... -_-;;

 

[SGTSparty]

With me it was a slow snowball that then caused an avalanche.

4 years ago: SWMBO got me the Brooklyn 1 gallon kits for Christmas. Did several batches like that, made a huge mess on her white cabinets splashing wort when I stepped up to 2.5 gallon BIAB batches and kept the kink occupied w/ the ice bath. Got a IC from my mother to free up the sink.

3 years ago: I got several batches of gushers in a row and got so put off I didn't brew for over a year.

2 years ago: Then we moved, got an 8 gallon 2 weld kettle w/ a false bottom for Christmas, no more stain cabinets, time to start brewing again... SWMBO gets pregnant, no playing gallons of boiling liquid in the new house while she's pregnant.

6 months ago: Well the little one is old enough/sleeping enough that I could start brewing again. I do have that brand new kettle I haven't used... But all that effort for gushers? Not dealing with that heartbreak again (and SWMBO isn't dealing w/ bear on the ceiling again) Guess I better buy a keg... and regulator... and a krome tap w/ QDs and lines. Stove in the new house wont boil the volume for 5 gallon batches, which I figured out the night before I planned on brewing and I already had the ingredients bought... Well, better go get that turkey fryer burner.

Hmm... missed my numbers, screwed up my H2o needs w/ the new false bottom. Gunna have to go again and figure this out. Wait, need another keg then.. and a tap I suppose... Hey babe, you're ok if I put some holes in the fridge downstairs right? I mean its just full of my beer anyways...

Still missed my OG, but the beer is good even if its 2.8%. No hun, we don't need to buy beer for that party, we have a dark ale and a brown on tap downstairs. Too dark for the summer? I can do a Blue Moon clone wheat for the summer? ok, just need another keg... and tap...

Oh, you like IPAs? Sure I can clone 2 hearted, I just need this stir bar/flask set up to harvest the yeast, don't worry its not that expensive. Oh,

The tap is sticking? Probably because we don't drink enough, I guess next time I could get a Perlick? Might as well get flow control and creamer function right? No sense wanting to replace it in a few months, better to pay for what we may want up front.

Still not hitting my numbers... Gunna need a cooler to convert into a mash tun, hey so about that birthday coming up...

Is there a word for when you're proud and ashamed at the same time?

 

[JPHussey]

Is there a word for when you're proud and ashamed at the same time?

verklemmt?

 

[ThePope]

https://imgflip.com/i/15eqdv

 

[bendog15]

4 years ago I started making cider cuz I wanted to get the girl I was dating drunk on the cheap
3 years ago I started making extract kits cuz a friend told me i already had pretty much everything I needed to make beer.
2 years ago I moved to all grain.
1 year ago I built my dream keezer, have beer, cider and all kinds of stuff on tap. Couldn't be happier. Oh and as far as hobbies go, I think we're on the cheaper side compared to my friends who are windsurfing, kitesurfing, remote controlled cars and planes, dune buggy-ing, jet skiing, or any other crap we get into...View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1465297640.428709.jpgView attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1465297652.781511.jpg

 

[philipCT]

Yeah, but how did that work out with the girl?

 

[Huntmang11]

Right now I don't have the money or space to step up my equipment. I've done 4 beers to date all 1 gallon batches. I recently got a 3 gallon carboy so I will be getting a little more beer. I'm still doing extract, but plan on doing all grain when I have a bigger place. I'm not gonna lie though I do plan on spending some money on equipment I already have it picked out for when my wife and I get a house. I want the brewha biac 5 gallon set up.

 

[mongoose33]

I do shift work. I also swore I would never ever be one of those guys. All my brew gear is modest but nice. Well after one very long and very hard shift, I bought a 14 gallon SS Brewtech Chronical. I was briefly ashamed but man it sure is fun to use.

Ashamed? Geez, man, you're my hero!

 

[ThatVideoKid]

I've still only spent a few hundred bucks...biggest expense was the 11gal ss bayou pot.

I'm dropping the kegging hint every time SWMBO complains that she "likes" my cider but wishes it could be sweeter and wants sparkling. I know I can pasteurize but that doesn't get me approved to spend 1-2K on a dream kegging set up. And I don't feel comfortable doing it anyways.

 

[jddevinn]

Thousands you say?!?!?! Good thing I stopped tracking cost a long time ago...

 

[GilaMinumBeer]

Me neither!


Well, never again.

 

[Egmonster]

Ashamed? Geez, man, you're my hero!

Thanks!...... It was the Brewmaster one too.

 

[scallopking]

Thousands you say?!?!?! Good thing I stopped tracking cost a long time ago...

very nice! Love all the room you have there!

 

[beernutz]

After 25 years of brewing I'm finally mas o menos at the point of being satisfied with my brewing set up. That's right dear, I wrote that, don't feint.

 

[UndeadFred]

Hmm. I like building the equipment and being somewhat delusional in that it is saving me $$$.

Otherwise, I tell myself, I'd be brewing to drink and not making the brewery, and that can be construed in a bad (and mostly inaccurate) way.

I'm presently making my third wort chiller because I wanted to make a better design than I did the last two times. I suppose us Engineering types simply do that.

Maybe the multi K stuff is worth it to avoid the work.. but I like the long projects.. it's really why I do this. I like making the equipment.. and I'm in the 10 corny keg range, too.. So you really can go on forever.

Any good hobby is this way, however... And honestly this is the cheapest of the few I still have.

 

[bruhaha]

Damn, I love brewing no matter the cost.

Unfortunately I haven't decided if I am....

"Brewing to drink, or drinking to brew"

I guess it really doesn't matter as long as I keep looking forward to brew days.

 

[m1k3]

"I would never spend thousands on brewing... just $200 about a dozen times."

 

[shadow160]

Not me, not gonna be one of those crazys.....Just bought a 21 cu ft freezer, told SWMBO we needed a bigger freezer for meat. Now the 15 cu ft is becoming a keezer. With the new one coming it was just going to sit around and collect dust.

How is that for justification....LOL

 

[jddevinn]

Not me, not gonna be one of those crazys.....Just bought a 21 cu ft freezer, told SWMBO we needed a bigger freezer for meat. Now the 15 cu ft is becoming a keezer. With the new one coming it was just going to sit around and collect dust.

How is that for justification....LOL

But what do you do with your kegs that are conditioning????!?!! Definitely need a second keg freezer for aging

 

[shadow160]

hehe, well the keezer is going to be the fermentation chamber for the first batch. My next concern is for the fermentation for the following batches. I might need to upgrade my garage fridge so we can fit more leftovers in it....

 

[jddevinn]

hehe, well the keezer is going to be the fermentation chamber for the first batch. My next concern is for the fermentation for the following batches. I might need to upgrade my garage fridge so we can fit more leftovers in it....

Yea I started with one freezer as a fermentation chamber... then served the beer using picnic taps for two or three batches... then go a second freezer for a dedicated keezer and fermentation chamber... then bought conicals and made a glycol coolant system