What should my next purchase be?

[Brak23]

Here is a detail of my equipment and setup. I have some extra money and want to know what I should "upgrade" or buy to enhance the brewing experience.

Extract Brewing currently:
-20 QT stockpot (stainless)
-Auto-Siphon
-8Gal Bottle Bucket
-Two plastic carboys
-Entire Keg System (don't need to upgrade any of this yet).

No Wort Chiller, Turkey Fryer, etc. Currently doing everything on an electric stove.

Im thinking that a Turkey Fryer with my current setup would be the best for my current setup. But I'm unsure of where I should put my funds. What does the brain trust of this forum think?

 

[mfitz77]

mash tun

 

[Brak23]

mash tun

I haven't looked into a Mash Tun, so I'm not really sure what it is.

 

[tesilential]

Turkey fryer with stock pot. Theres one online that is 8.5 gallon (34qt) stainless with burner for around $100 or less. You can also get a 7.5 gallon aluminum pot with burner for around $60 pretty easily.

Look up BIAB brewing. It is a simple one vessel method of all grain brewing popularized in Australia. I brew up to 10 gallons using just a 20 gallon pot and some voille curtain cloth.

If you get a turkey burner and pot as well as a couple 5 gallon nylon paint strainer bags from home depot, you can make excellent all grain beer as soon as your ready to brew your next batch!

 

[Brak23]

Turkey fryer with stock pot. Theres one online that is 8.5 gallon (34qt) stainless with burner for around $100 or less. You can also get a 7.5 gallon aluminum pot with burner for around $60 pretty easily.

Look up BIAB brewing. It is a simple one vessel method of all grain brewing popularized in Australia. I brew up to 10 gallons using just a 20 gallon pot and some voille curtain cloth.

If you get a turkey burner and pot as well as a couple 5 gallon nylon paint strainer bags from home depot, you can make excellent all grain beer as soon as your ready to brew your next batch!

What website has the $60 combo? I can't find anything that affordable in my searches

 

[dfess1]

I'm assuming you're looking to stay with extract at the moment. With that assumption, i'd get a bigger pot and an immersion chiller if you can fit the pot on the stove still. Buy the pot, build the IC, look for a turkey fryer on craigslist.

My reasoning is this: The bigger pot allows full wort boils. I did concentrated extract beers for 10 years. The beer was "meh". Drinkable, but nothing outstanding. I moved up to a pot I could do full wort boils in, and my extract beers got remarkably better. Could not believe the difference. That said, once you get to a full wort boil, you need to be able to bring that down temp wise quickly, hence the immerison chiller. Lastly, I bought a 15 gal blichman. I had just gotten a bonus and had some spending money. The pot wouldn't fit on our stove top. I already had a turkey fryer, so it wasn't an issue. Just meant from there on out, I was brewing outside.

 

[LKABrewer]

After you get the bigger pot and immersion chiller, look into getting something to control your fermentation temperatures. An old fridge/freezer from CL and a temp controller will allow you to control fermentation temperatures. You will not believe how big a difference this makes to your beer.

 

[Brak23]

I'm assuming you're looking to stay with extract at the moment. With that assumption, i'd get a bigger pot and an immersion chiller if you can fit the pot on the stove still. Buy the pot, build the IC, look for a turkey fryer on craigslist.

My reasoning is this: The bigger pot allows full wort boils. I did concentrated extract beers for 10 years. The beer was "meh". Drinkable, but nothing outstanding. I moved up to a pot I could do full wort boils in, and my extract beers got remarkably better. Could not believe the difference. That said, once you get to a full wort boil, you need to be able to bring that down temp wise quickly, hence the immerison chiller. Lastly, I bought a 15 gal blichman. I had just gotten a bonus and had some spending money. The pot wouldn't fit on our stove top. I already had a turkey fryer, so it wasn't an issue. Just meant from there on out, I was brewing outside.

Whats a good place to get a bigger pot? Just a brief look for everything I could spend $120 on a pot, $100 on a fryer. It adds up fast. But maybe I'm looking at the wrong place for a pot.

Nevermind, I found a combo Turkey Fryer/7.5 gal stockpot on ebay for $99.

 

[dfess1]

I'd look for a stainless pot personally. I had an aluminum one, and had issues with off flavors. You can always check craigslist for that as well. If you've got some money saved up now, why not put it to the side and save up some more? I'm also a hobby wood worker, and live by an adage: buy once, buy right. It'll cost more in the long run to buy the thing you really wanted, but didn't want to wait for. If you've made it this long, what's another couple of months? Or find a local homebrew club and see if anyone is selling equip. I see you are in OR, there are probably tons there!

I say this because I see you have a keg setup. I know I brew a decent amount of 10 gal batches. For that, you're going to want at least a 15 gal pot. While they can be found for far less than a blichman, they still are over the $100 mark. I understand that. I guess the way I look at it, if there's even the remote possibilty i'd be looking to do a 10 gal batch at some point, get that pot now. Don't buy a smaller one, and then need to upgrade again, and then wonder what to do with a 10 gal pot (or where to store it). Generally, the difference between a 10 and a 15 is fairly small in terms of price (20-30 bucks) on some of the less known brands.

And again, that's just my perspective. I understand the "hole in a pocket" and wanting "new toys". YMMV.

 

[Brak23]

I'd look for a stainless pot personally. I had an aluminum one, and had issues with off flavors. You can always check craigslist for that as well. If you've got some money saved up now, why not put it to the side and save up some more? I'm also a hobby wood worker, and live by an adage: buy once, buy right. It'll cost more in the long run to buy the thing you really wanted, but didn't want to wait for. If you've made it this long, what's another couple of months? Or find a local homebrew club and see if anyone is selling equip. I see you are in OR, there are probably tons there!

I say this because I see you have a keg setup. I know I brew a decent amount of 10 gal batches. For that, you're going to want at least a 15 gal pot. While they can be found for far less than a blichman, they still are over the $100 mark. I understand that. I guess the way I look at it, if there's even the remote possibilty i'd be looking to do a 10 gal batch at some point, get that pot now. Don't buy a smaller one, and then need to upgrade again, and then wonder what to do with a 10 gal pot (or where to store it). Generally, the difference between a 10 and a 15 is fairly small in terms of price (20-30 bucks) on some of the less known brands.

And again, that's just my perspective. I understand the "hole in a pocket" and wanting "new toys". YMMV.

I think i'll be sticking with 5gal batches for the next year at least. When I go to 10 gal I want to do All-grain. So i'll be saving over the next year for that. The price I found was a 7.5gal Stainless pot and burner combo on amazon. I will always buy stainless. Reading here has convinced me of that.

 

[dfess1]

then you should be good to go!

 

[SS_Brewing_Co]

I say you go down to the local liquor store buy a 15.5 gallon keg of you favorite beer pay the 50 dollar deposit or whatever it may be and when you're done with the beer cut the top off the keg and bam you have instant 15 gallon brew kettle.