Returning after a 7 year break.....what did I miss?

[FunCat1828]

So brewing has been on hold for me and has been in storage for the most part since 2017 for various life reasons. I've finally got it all back out and have mostly gone through what I have on hand and am looking to downsize my 3-vessel HERMS rig from 50G/30G/30G to something more in the 20G range to match my BIAB rig. I'm looking for what you think are the must have changes in that time frame?

So far in no particular order I've got the following that look to be potential steps forward for me since my hiatus that I want to at least start to evaluate:

• Duofit and Nukatap/Intertap look to be the way to go for the 6 Tap kegerator I am about to build, Perlick seems to be holding it's own still. Any reason not to go duofit if I am starting fresh here?
• Steam Condenser lid for my boil kettle and not having to put up a hood in my garage!
• BruControl for brewery automation as I finally put together my electric brewery
• Spike's Tank - Mash Tun with a door?

What am I missing that I need to take at least a look at?

 

[Broken Crow]

You have the BIAB and Duotight/Nuka already down and since you're kegging, here's a less-obvious bit you'll want several of:
https://www.brewhardware.com/product_p/carbonatorredduotightstem.htm
Though seemingly just a cheap plastic minor thing, those @KegLand carb-caps are IMHO one of the most significant and useful homebrewing accessories to have on hand to aid in cleaning/purging/sanitizing, fermenting and dry-hop devices... If you decide to use 1/4"ID EVABarrier line for transfer hoses and gas supply, you can make your own hose couplers, put a universal ball-lock pigtail on your CO2 manifold..and anything else you can think of.

 

[Broken Crow]

Hmm.... No one else has weighed in so let's bump this with a few more thoughts;
7 years ago puts you in the range that you probably already know this one as the last echoes of the death knell of Secondary Fermentation were so faded as to only resurface when a new brewer followed out of date instructions on their first beer-kit signed up to ask a question... but JIC: The old myth of osmotic pressure fracturing cell walls and creating off-flavours from sitting on the trub is a total non-issue for the volume/mass that homebrewers deal with and only a concern for commercial breweries that have fermenters the size of grain-silos. The item in a similar vein in which the science and practice slowly spreads through the community is that you don't need to heat your sparge water. With single-vessel BIAB, some folk downsizing had elected to keep their HLT for sparging, but you don't really need it...That said; I have myself been wondering about underletting a BIAB rig so; there's something to research and think about.
There was a quasi-revolutionary development brought to us by our single-vessel BIAB Champion @Bobby_M a while back, but I can't find the original thread and I don't even remember if it was a 'post RIMS' thing, or used the BK heating element: Split the heated recirculation output to send a portion of the heated recirc through a port beneath the bag (or false bottom in a mash tun) to provide a more top-to-bottom uniformity of temperature.
I'm not familiar with the BruControl, but just how much automation are you looking at? In the last several years we have been priviledged to have Aubers's DSPR 120 and 320 temp control units that have more features than I can properly describe (or even use!), so take a look at them:
https://www.auberins.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=53
...and in case you might be intrigued, here's some actual use stuff:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/threads/understanding-the-auber-ezboil-dspr-320.699459/
Hope I at least gave you a bit to contemplate. I'll bump again if I can think of anything else and nobody has weighed in yet.

 

[Bassman2003]

In the last seven years I discovered low oxygen brewing. Completely changed the quality of my beer and process. Most importantly, closed transfers on the cold side. Keeping oxygen at bay on the cold side I would say is the single most important thing.

 

[beersk]

I can say that low oxygen brewers are less annoying and there's less tension as there used to be. I mean, I was probably one of those annoying low o2 advocates back in 2017 at times. But I really tried not to be because I saw it in everyone else and it drove me crazy. It maybe seems to be more accepted now? I really don't know, I really don't care. But I guess in case you know who the guy in my avatar is...maybe I draw from him a little bit too much at times
Otherwise, there's more thiolized yeast, which brings out fruity flavors. To me, it's crap unless you like fruit juice beer, it's stupid and pointless and doesn't make beer taste like beer. But unless you live under a rock, that's what people want in their beer these days. There's also sour yeast that doesn't contaminate all your equipment. And lazy sour making practices have taken over the brewing industry (kettle souring, don't get me started on it...).

So, not much has changed brewing-wise. Beer-wise, lots has changed, and for the worse.

 

[day_trippr]

And "Get off his lawn!"

 

[beersk]

And "Get off his lawn!"

Yeah yeah, I know. I tend to take things I care about a bit too seriously.

 

[beersk]

I'm also glad that I haven't lost my thread-killing abilities. I should become a badass professional sewer and call myself The Thread Killa!

But, welcome back to homebrewing, OP. We're still here and enjoying it at much as we can.

 

[MaxStout]

Welcome back to brewing!

For me, LODO techniques and an almost total switch to dry yeasts. The latter came about mainly due to the pandemic and no longer having a LHBS. There are so many new dry yeasts available now. This is certainly an arguable point, but you can create a lot of styles with dry, and get close to, if not as good as, with liquid.

For LODO, I don't employ all the tricks (I still bottle, after all), but the changes I've deployed have yielded better beer.

 

[Velnerj]

I actually started brewing in 2017. So for me I would note these changes over my brewing career.

People are looking for ways to streamline their brew day. Three vessel systems are on the out and all-in-one systems are all the rage these days. Though I'm not sure about a 20 gallon model...

Look up the short and shotty series on Brulosophy. Many people are cutting their mash times and boil times significantly.... There's even raw beers now too.

Have you heard of kveik yeast? Ferments clean at 90F (not a typo).

Speaking of fermentation, have heard about fermenting under pressure? Look it up...

While we're at it, what about pseudo lagers? Beers made with lager yeasts but treated like ales in terms of their fermentation temperature and length.

Most brewers these days have almost abandon kettle hops during the boil. Many put 90% (or more) of their hops in at whirlpool and dry hops. If they remember their hops, they'll put in a bittering charge at the beginning and the rest at the end.

There are also a ton of hop products now. Cryo hops, hop oils and a bunch more I've never used or heard of.

I don't know if you have kept up with the beer world but Australia and New Zealand are producing some great hops and styles that weren't too popular 7 years ago. Worth looking into.

 

[beersk]

I think another notable change is the fact that you don't need to boil beers made with pilsner malt for 90 minutes, 60 minutes is plenty, even 45 minutes. DMS just isn't an issue with boil times anymore. I've shortened my brew session by mashing for 45 minutes and boiling for 45 minutes. It's quite nice.

@Velnerj pressure fermentation has been around for 15+ years in the homebrewing community, probably longer in the commercial setting. A member on here, can't remember his name, had a post from waaaaay back about pressure fermenting in a half barrel keg with a spunding valve. It didn't catch on much until more recently though.

 

[FunCat1828]

Thanks everyone for the suggestions!

I’ve been busy with getting the brew area cleaned and all my equipment ready to go.

I’ll be doing my first brew this weekend.

I sold my old kegerator in 2020 so I did buy the home a new freezer so I could repurpose the old one though and put the duofit and nukataps in place!

 

[jdauria]

I would say the big things in the last 7 years are:
1. The rise of electric all in one brew systems.
2. DuoTight fittings for beer lines/kegs.
3. Continued improvement in dry yeast options, included a few from White Labs.
4. The death of many local homebrew shops around the country.
5. The rise of BrewFather as the most used (I believe) brewing software.

 

[Willy]

With the advent and growth of all in one electric brewing and BIAB, many Brewers, including myself have moved to mostly all grain in lieu of DME and LME. With that came a much wider understanding of how each grain tastes and contributed to the final product. Same can be said of SM&SH brewing - also kind of a new thing. In short - the average home Brewer has learned a lot.

Hops varieties exploded and Australia has lots of good ones. Speaking of Australia, thanks to KegLand, the Aussies seem to be on the cutting edge of home brew innovations.

Finally - lots more people are fermenting in corny kegs under pressure. It was always there, but many more people are doing corny keg fermentation that previously.

How to Brew book has been updated with lots of good info.

 

[FunCat1828]

I would say the big things in the last 7 years are:
1. The rise of electric all in one brew systems.
2. DuoTight fittings for beer lines/kegs.
3. Continued improvement in dry yeast options, included a few from White Labs.
4. The death of many local homebrew shops around the country.
5. The rise of BrewFather as the most used (I believe) brewing software.

I was planning on still using Brewersfriend, what are the advantages of Brewfather?

 

[bike2brew]

Brewer's Friend meets all of my needs

 

[jdauria]

I was planning on still using Brewersfriend, what are the advantages of Brewfather?

Brewers Friend is decent too...I am a long time BeerSmith user, but have dabbled with BrewFather over the last year. Brewfather, whether on your computer or the app on your phone, is constantly integrated. If you make a change to a recipe on one, it's automatically there on the other. The other thing I like about it is that it's constantly being updated, they even list a Change Log on their website and there is a issue tracker where users can post issues or things that seem to be missing which lead to future updates.