What made your beer better?

[mongoose33]

Well, I must admit I have been trying to pull the trigger on a Spike conical. I already have two frigs and one freezer in my house and I just don't have the room for another. So, the temp control system offered from Spike is going to be the only way I can introduce fermentation temp control.

Geez, what do you have in them?

I'll bet you have room for another fridge if you have 5-gallon fermenters. Here are a couple pics of my mini-fridge ferm chamber. When you're not fermenting, you have to store that fermenter someplace, right? So store it in the mini-fridge.

Just a thought. I have a Spike conical, love it, so this is not an anti-Spike thing, not by any stretch of the imagination.

 

[Goose5]

Mongoose please describe in detail your setup pictured.

 

[mongoose33]

Mongoose please describe in detail your setup pictured.

Well, not sure what exactly you're looking for. You get a tall mini-fridge; typically it's around 4.3 or 4.4 cubic feet in volume. Here's an example, but you don't have to buy new unless you want; used ones abound on places like Craigslist. I bought mine used for $60, but a local restore/recycle place now has them for $30. Wish I needed more.

Anyway, you bring along your fermenter when you look at it to see if it'll fit. It may not, with door protrusions for shelving and such. Or the bottom flange on the door may bump into the fermenter. Who knows? If it doesn't, you will need to make some adjustment.

Some people cut the formed plastic stuff off the door and just tape up the exposed insulation with tape or whatever. My son did that with his; in my case, I was lucky in that the plastic ridge in the middle is offset, so if I move the fermenter over and put it on a piece of scrap wood, it'll clear the door and the plastic flange on the bottom of the door. Some people have even added a small wooden collar (like a keezer has) to move the door away from the back. Neither my son nor I had to do that. If I'd had to, I would have cut the plastic off the door.

The remaining issue is the airlock. Some brewers have bent down the freezer compartment down and toward the back so it provides more headroom so the airlock will fit. The issue with that is that if you break a line, your minifridge is toast. I wasn't willing to risk it.

So to deal with that, I used a drilled stopper instead of an airlock, into which I put a piece of rigid plastic tubing--a bottle filler cut down is perfect for this, and that's where I got mine. Then I attached some tubing to that and ran it out a hole drilled in the very front top of the fermenter. There are no cooling lines there, so no concern about hitting a line and rendering the fridge, again, as toast.

I also did a second hole through which I ran the power cord for the heat mat as well as the temp probe for my Inkbird.

I run that tubing up on top of the bench, terminating it in a jar filled with star-san; the airlock is on the bench, in other words.

As you can see, I have a larger fridge which is also a ferm chamber. I can run various combinations of the Inkbirds to control ferm temps in both. That also has tubing that runs from the inside to a star-san jar on the bench, and I even added a bulkhead shank to feed CO2 into that larger one for force carbing, serving a keg w/ a picnic tap, whatever.

NOTE: These photos show a fermenter lid into which I permanently epoxied closed the normal stopper opening, and I epoxied a piece of tubing permanently in place; I also have other lids with the normal stopper opening, and into which I insert the drilled stopper with the rigid plastic tube. The stopper-variant works fine. The ones you see below were an attempt to create a dead-perfect closed system. I still smell ferm gases when I open the fermenter, so it's not quite there.

Here's a pic that shows that:

 

[RoseParkBrews]

1 fermentation temp control 2. Going all-grain from extract. 3. Yeast mgmt

 

[Shawnanigans]

For me it was buying a water filter and a fermentation fridge and adding thermo wells to the bungs of the carboys. Those things made an incredible change in the quality of my beers.

 

[gnef]

The thought that keeps coming up in my head as I read through these replies is to think of yourself as a yeast rancher/handler, and to approach your processes and upgrades with keeping yeast healthy in mind.

this really relates to everything that has been said, and you will need to decide what will be most important to you.

The reason why I say it this way, is because ultimately, if you have managed everything well for the yeast to do a good job, you will make better beer. This covers everything from learning how to do starters, or canning starter wort, to your water chemistry, your cleanliness, your chilling method, your grain quality and grind quality, your conversion and efficiency, your fermenter, temperature control, racking method, serving method, serving temperature, etc.

If you want specific recommendations that relate to your particular priorities, why don't you tell us more about your current equipment and process, as well as what in particular you would like to improve?

 

[bracconiere]

not sure if this is off-topic...But the biggest improvement i had is when i found out the brewing book i learned from when i was 18, was wrong and not to use boiling water to sparge! and also that you're supposed to take time with it, not leave the valve wide open and just pour water through the grain! went from like 62% efficiency to 83%. and now with a two step mash i can get 95%, but efficiency is more of price thing not quality...And i'm always looking to make a cheaper beer!

 

[bleme]

I wouldn't say anything has made my beer better because my first batch was AWESOME!

I had studied intensively at least 5 hours a day, 7 days a week, for 3 months before I bought my first gear, so I'm sure that made a difference. All the changes I have made since then have been to make it cheaper or less stressful.

I maintained my temp just fine for a couple years with a rope tub of water, a t-shirt, a fan, frozen water bottles and an aquarium heater, but it was a ton of work and I was constantly stressing when I wasn't home to watch the temperature. My fridge with STC-1000 made all that stress evaporate.

Kegging did fix a problem I was having with uneven carbonation, but that wasn't my main reason for the upgrade.

Going all-grain and buying in bulk allowed me to experiment a lot more but mainly that was to cut my costs to a fifth of what they were, saving about $420/year. That savings made the two $100 fridges and the $300 kegging equipment a lot easier to swallow.

 

[bracconiere]

I wouldn't say anything has made my beer better because my first batch was AWESOME!

I had studied intensively at least 5 hours a day, 7 days a week, for 3 months before I bought my first gear, so I'm sure that made a difference. All the changes I have made since then have been to make it cheaper or less stressful. My fermentation chamber saved me from switching out frozen bottles all the time and constantly stressing when I wasn't home to watch the temperature. Kegging did fix a problem I was having with uneven carbonation, but that wasn't my main reason for the upgrade. Going all-grain and buying in bulk allowed me to experiment a lot more but mainly that was to cut my costs to a fifth of what they were.

Next step, malting! cut my cost from $2+ a twelve pack, to 92 cents...And i swear my homemalt tastes better than store bought! does take time though...

 

[JohnSand]

Study, practice and feedback.
Oh yeah, lots of gear.

 

[OG-wan Kenobi]

For me pure O2 was a big upgrade I have very good water quality and my basement temperature is very stable within 2 degrees 68-70 so maybe I had a different situation than others a stir plate was also a nice add on both were cheap my next upgrade will be stainless fermenters I can tell you the worst upgrade I made was the stainless brew siphon big money no reward

 

[ae4853t]

For me, it was calcing pitching rate and making a starter for yeast health, oxygen using a stone at transfer, yeast nutrient in the boil and fermentation temp control with fridge and stc-1000.

 

[augiedoggy]

For me, it was calcing pitching rate and making a starter for yeast health, oxygen using a stone at transfer, yeast nutrient in the boil and fermentation temp control with fridge and stc-1000.

When I started brewing with a fellow homebrewer he turned me on to making starters and yeast nutrient and it made a huge difference in attenuation and fermentation.

 

[cactusgarrett]

Paying attention to water chemistry; even at the most basic level. No question.

 

[lablover]

Basic temp control
Choose a basic recipe and work to improve it through iteration