Increasing beer quality

[rnobrew]

This year I plan on kicking it up a notch by going to temperature controlled fermentation and moving to all grain. I can't do them both at the same time...so which one would give me the biggest increase in beer quality? The all grain without temp control? Or the extract temp control. I recenlty aquired a fridge from a family member, just have to get a thermostat.

 

[poptarts]

extract temp control hands down. Get a stc-1000 and a ceramic heater and toss it all in the firdge. Pitching enough yeast will help alot as well if you are not doing that. stir plates are not required to make a starter but you can diy one for under 20$ with a thermaltake computer fan and a pack of magnets.

 

[dryboroughbrewing]

Cold side makes the beer. Control your temps, pitch lots of healthy yeast, and aerate properly.

 

[beergolf]

Temp controll wins. Making a proper sized starter is another thing that will greatly improve your brews.

 

[Jayhem]

Temp control for sure but even with temp control I was able to make a nasty, undrinkable beer by under pitching and stressing out my yeast before I realize how important pitching rates were.

 

[rnobrew]

Ok I'm looking at a thermostat right now. The stc-1000 looks like the way to go. I was originally looking at the Johnson Controls stat, but it's about 3x the price and appears to only control either heating or cooling... not both simultaneously.

 

[Clonefan94]

I can't argue with what's already been said. Basically, I'm just chiming in to give you another vote for temp control. Fermentation, imo, is the most important part of making good beer. Mash didn't go perfectly, lower OG than expected, it still becomes beer. Forgot a hop addition, it still becomes beer. Both of these scenarios, it may not be perfect, but more than likely you'll make decent beer, but if and only if you have your fermentation down.

 

[Sir-Brews-Alot]

Agree on temp control and yeast management before diving into all-grain. I use a Ranco Temp Controller, you can choose hot or cold. I have no complaints and the price is mid-range. Though you'll have to wire it yourself, but that's easy enough using one of the multitude of YouTube videos.

http://www.amazon.com/RANCO-ETC-111000-Digital-Temperature-Control/dp/B0015NV5BE

 

[Braufessor]

If you already have the fridge, and the only thing you need to buy is the temperature controller...... you might be able to do both. Start with a good 10-15 gallon pot and do Brew-in-a-bag for all grain brewing. That can get you down the road toward all grain, and all you really need to buy is a quality pot, and a straining bag. You can add components later on if you want to go to 3 vessels set up. In the mean time - you can use the single pot to do extract, partial mash or all grain via the BIAB method.
Also - the importance of temperature control is relative to how bad your temperature issues are. If the ambiant temp in your house, where you ferment is in the 70's or higher- then, temp. control is very important. If the temps are lower 60's...... maybe not so much.

 

[mtnagel]

Just to be different, I say do both!

Temp control is obviously very important, but you can move to AG doing BIAB for ~$20 (custom mesh bag here). I'd add a $10 grill grate to make draining easier, but it's not necessary.

 

[Homercidal]

Temp control and BIAB for the win!

 

[DrunkleJon]

The biggest improvement will be made by controlling your fermentation temps. Second best is appropriate pitch rates.

You can make good beer with extracts, but there is no shortcut to appropriate fermentation temps. After that you can decide on going to AG, or kegging, or what not.

Basically if you can afford it do a ferm chamber, then the stir plate/Erlenmeyer flask, then worry about the higher dollar investments like an all grain system, be it biab or the more traditional cooler method.