Next Home brew Upgrade?

[Kubi25]

Looking to make an upgrade to my home brew setup. Currently just doing extract recipes, mainly due to time and equipment.
Which would be a better upgrade to my setup as far as final product quality, the Grain Father or a Conical Fermenter?
Thanks and Cheers!!

 

[Murphys_Law]

If you have the cash to spare I would say grainfater and get into all grain.

Another route for about the same money - get a good kettle and go BIAB and use the remaining cash on a Jaded IC, a fermentation chamber, a good fermenter, etc.

 

[LKABrewer]

Fermentation temperature control is always improvement# 1 to make, because it makes such a big change to your beer.

 

[mongoose33]

Wow. How did you narrow it down to only those two options?

It's hard to say what you might do not knowing your current setup, what you find wanting with it, and what you're looking to accomplish.

Frankly, I'd try to do a bit of all-grain with your current setup before plunging into a grainfather. You can do BIAB for $35, you could buy a mash-tun cooler-conversion kit for similar money, and then consider what you might do with the remaining $800.

And IMO LKABrewer and Murphys_Law are dead on with their comments about fermentation control.

Do you keg? Have a kegerator or keezer? If not, I'd be going there instead of what you're looking at. And if you don't have fermentation temperature control, that would be first on my list of upgrades.

 

[FloppyKnockers]

^^ What all these guys said.

 

[Kubi25]

Awesome, thanks everyone for the quick feedback!
I did upgrade to kegging about a year ago, and it was totally worth it!
My goal is to take my beer brewing to the next level, create my own recipes, maybe enter a competition.
I would like to get into all grain, but I would be brewing in my basement, so I am looking to need to go electric.
Thanks for the BIAB suggestion. I did do one batch that way, and it turned out great!
Sounds like fermentation is the key, so maybe will go the conical and focus on temp control.
Thanks again! Cheers!!

 

[yourlastchance89]

What do you currently have? It also depends on the priority of what you want to accomplish. People will knock extract brewing, but there is real potential to brew high quality extract brews. I sampled a fellow member of my brew club's Saison last week. It was virtually agreed that it was the best homebrew of the night and he's won a few medals. He, even with the capacity to do all-grain, predominantly does extract for convenience. I would go with a quality fermenter like the SS pro brew bucket with the FTSs accessories if you can afford it. It'd cost about the same as a quality conical by itself, it'd be cheaper than a grainfather, and you can accurately and precisely control your temperatures which is a huge factor in creating a quality brew. Jamil Zainasheff recommends fermentation temp control as one of the biggest tenets for beginner brewers making quality beer. A future BIAB upgrade shouldn't be far in the future as it is also relatively cheap and easy to accomplish.

 

[Kubi25]

I currently have a 5 gallon brew pot, that I use on the stove top.
I ferment (primary) in a 6 gallon plastic bucket, then rack to a glass carboy.
yourlastchance89 would you recommend the SS pro brew bucket over the "chronical"?
Thanks again!

 

[beergolf]

Another vote for fermentation temp control. It is the best way to improve the quality of your brews. If you are not making starters now, that is another thing to look into.

 

[eric19312]

I can no longer remember why, but when I was about 3-5 batches in I was also starting to plan on getting a conical too.

Instead I built a fermentation chamber an stuck with buckets, carboys and most recently a Spiedel plastic 15 gallon fermentor. Brewed my 137th batch yesterday and have done tons of upgrades but still no conical. My next upgrade may be a second fermentation fridge and another Spiedel fermenter so I can manage some longer fermentatons.

Anyway there is no wrong choice and it is part of the hobby/journey to plan your upgrade path. But I'd also vote fermentation control first...that will make your beer better whether you extract brew, partial mash or all grain.

 

[mongoose33]

Awesome, thanks everyone for the quick feedback!
I did upgrade to kegging about a year ago, and it was totally worth it!
My goal is to take my beer brewing to the next level, create my own recipes, maybe enter a competition.
I would like to get into all grain, but I would be brewing in my basement, so I am looking to need to go electric.
Thanks for the BIAB suggestion. I did do one batch that way, and it turned out great!
Sounds like fermentation is the key, so maybe will go the conical and focus on temp control.
Thanks again! Cheers!!

Unless you know why you want a conical, you don't want one. The only advantage I'm aware of--maybe there are more--is that you can easily harvest yeast from the bottom. Is that what you want to do with it?

I looked at conicals and decided they'd be harder to control temp with, harder to move around into my fermentation chamber and most of all, if I only have one, I can't do anything else while I'm waiting for it to finish.

I have five of Northern Brewer's BigMouth Bubblers; I'm not in the least inclined to trade them in on...well, on anything. They work, they're light, they're easy to clean, I can see what's going on in there, they have spigots.

And I can have more than one going at a time.

If I were starting over, I'd buy the Fermonsters from MoreBeer; but either way, I'd be set.

And w/r/t the Grainfather, I'm sure there are people who find it a nice arrangement, but every time I look at the $800 price, I can't figure out what I'm getting. Maybe just me. You can get a great brew kettle w/ an electric element for use in your basement.

The other question I'd ask is this: what brewing equipment do you have? A good PH meter? Good thermometer? I'd look at upgrading to those (if it were me) before the other upgrades, since you're going to do all-grain.

*****************

In the end, you don't need my approval, or anyone's, to do what makes you happy. Just do it, then report back so we can learn from your experiences. And enjoy, whatever you decide to do. Brew on!

 

[brick_haus]

Get a new Spike Conical...oh thats right, not available yet...oh oh!!, get a new Blichmann pump...oh yea, cant get them yet either...Oh well, the above suggestions are good too.

 

[augiedoggy]

I went the route of buying 3 more affordable stainless conicals... made my own chilling jackets for cheap as well as temp control system. If your not afraid of DIY (and capable ) its a viable solution that allows you to control the temps on all your fermenters independently and you have no need to do any transfers to secondaries and such.

Just my opinion of what I see but I really think in many cases about how pretty you want you fermenter to look in your mancave, since I see a lot of people spending close to or over a grand for one fermenter with temp control for 10 gallons of beer.. Either that of they just have so much money they look for creative ways to spend it faster? homebrewing status symbol for some I guess?

There are options for 7 gallon stainless conicals for about $350 shipped that work perfectly fine http://www.ebay.com/itm/7-3-Gal-Con...836957?hash=item33cba3ba1d:g:~GQAAOSwhMpT0JNO and 12 gallon options for about $450. http://www.ebay.com/itm/Stainless-S...495988?hash=item4afe53f8f4:g:ZBkAAOSwvgdW3drc.
You can buy $70 cool zone jackets or make your own. Heating strips are like $20. For cooling you can buy a premade chiller (on ebay) big enough to control temps on 4-6 conicals at once for $600... If your only going to make one beer at a time a fridge is a better choice. for multiple fermenters the chiller is more cost effective and flexible.

BTW bucket are fine too but I often have all three fermenters going at once and I dont want to keep them all the same temp so... and the advantages to me of a conical are very nice.. its one of those things you have to actually use to really accurately comment on IMO.