Starting Over/Catching Up

[Belmont]

Hey guys. I'm returning to brewing after a 3 year sabbatical. I lost just about all of my equipment over the moves and such so I'm starting from scratch. I won't be a beginning brewer and have used most advanced techniques and equipment. I'm looking to save space and more importantly make for the easiest/quickest brew day possible. I liked the speed and ease of batch sparging when I was doing it before. Should I spend a load on a sculpture, sabco, RIMS, the new EasyBrew from Blichmann, or just piece things together? What have I missed in terms of equipment and or process over that time? If you were to start from scratch and could spend a decent amount without being wasteful how would you build your brewery?

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[kh54s10]

If money was not a concern I would assemble an electric brewery inside. I have a 3 tier gravity set up on the porch. It is too cold for me (glad I don't live in Minnesota) during the winter so I have done a few extract brews this winter.

I prefer doing all grain.

 

[Belmont]

I live in Texas where the weather is very hot most of the year. Standing around a boiling pot for hours with an open flame is far from an ideal experience. I thought I remembered there being drawbacks to electric heating but I dont remember now. I wonder if it alters the wort in ways that direct flame does not. Seems like it would certainly be more efficient.

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[Airplanedoc]

I went electric BIAB. It doesn't get much simpler than that, One Keggle is all you need. With electric, and a recirculating pump, there is no need to hover around your beer while it is brewing. I just set 2 timers , one on my control panel the other on my iphone, and go do something else.

 

[63belair]

+1 for electric BIAB, especially if space and ease of use are your top criteria

 

[Belmont]

One more thing guys. It may not be a problem but I remember in the early days being surprised by timing and almost screwing things up because I didn't sanitize something before it was supposed to be used for example. Does anyone know of a step by step walk through including specific gear used to make sure I don't forget anything my first time back on it? I'll probably start with one all extract batch and one mini mash before trying biab.


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[Hello]

One more thing guys. It may not be a problem but I remember in the early days being surprised by timing and almost screwing things up because I didn't sanitize something before it was supposed to be used for example. Does anyone know of a step by step walk through including specific gear used to make sure I don't forget anything my first time back on it? I'll probably start with one all extract batch and one mini mash before trying biab.


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BeerSmith will allow you to print your brew steps. Within that, you could write "SANITIZE" where you should sanitize. It does give you a first step of cleaning everything first, but if you think you need a constant reminder, get BeerSmith, print the brew steps, write the word big and bold and continue. That would be my recommendation for you.

 

[Setesh]

One more thing guys. It may not be a problem but I remember in the early days being surprised by timing and almost screwing things up because I didn't sanitize something before it was supposed to be used for example. Does anyone know of a step by step walk through including specific gear used to make sure I don't forget anything my first time back on it? I'll probably start with one all extract batch and one mini mash before trying biab.


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Although I highly recommend buying the print version, this will walk you through your extract batch:

http://www.howtobrew.com/intro.html

 

[Belmont]

I know I have a copy of how to brew somewhere. Need to look that up.


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