Investment in Equipment

[deks77]

i bought one of those kits from my lhbs.. then i bought a small fridge (30 bucks on offer up) and temp controller. I live in the south. Ale at room temps taste like crap..Its like smoking meats up north you get a better cold smoke than what we do. Then i Bought a burner and a bigger pot.. I got coolers from work they threw them away cause the spigots where leaky then I bought two bags and its been down hill.. lol

I could totally do homebrew up north without a temp control. it doesn't help here that swamp coolers dont work in the humidity.. how are you gonna evaporate water into saturated air..

 

[ebstauffer]

Temp control. Fridge

+1. You should read "Yeast: The Practical Guide to Beer Fermentation". (http://amzn.com/B00FE0LQ9A) and you'll realize how important the fermentation portion of beer making is. My beer quality took a huge jump after I (1) pitched the correct amount of yeast cells and (2) controlled fermentation temp.

To answer the OP, a big basket and hoist from Harbor Freight made my life oh so much simpler.

 

[fragged]

Well that's not really BIAB specific....I temp control w/ fridge, perhaps ice, or perhaps a month that has an R....

Back at the OP's question, I would have to say a quality BIAB bag.....ok shame me for a self indulgent plug.....
Thanks
Wilser

After using mine for the first time yesterday, I'll say this plug is well earned. The thing that bothered me most about BIAB was apparently the old bag I was using. Being able to fit the bag over my kettle and cinch it down, along with being able to suspend the bag so I can work with it (read: squeeze the hell out of it) made all the difference in the world to my brew day.

 

[user 241726]

Thanks to everyone who has commented on my question.
I have been acquiring what I consider to be the most important pieces for my eventual move to a hybrid extract/grain brew process.
I realize that there are tradeoffs to be considered, but for me this seems to be the best path to take.