What's My Next Upgrade?

[3 Dawg Night]

I'm a 5-gallon all-grain brewer who bottles. I've moved from the kitchen stove to a propane burner. I've moved from ice baths to a immersion chiller. I've moved from a glass carboy to the Fermonster. I've replaced my wing capper with a bench capper. Most recently, I've replaced my swamp cooler with a mini-fridge and temperature controller. I'm pretty satisfied with my setup for now, and I think I'm going to let my credit card cool down for a few batches

What should be my next upgrade when I get the itch again in a few months? Flask and stir plate for yeast starters (I've been sticking to dry yeast up until now)? A grain mill? Oxygenation/aeration system? TILT hydrometer? Kegging system (something I want to do eventually, but probably a lower priority)? Is there something else that should be a higher priority than these?

 

[jrgtr42]

There's a lot of routes you can take to move forward - part will depend on budget; some things you can do for minimal expense, others take a lot of equipment, peripherals, etc.
I would probably say the yeast wrangling set up or grain mill would be good upgrades. With the mill, you can keep stock of grains, and grind them as best for your rig, instead of trusting to a generic crush from the shop. Also, uncrushed grains last longer than crushed before going stale.
Yeast management system allows you to tailor your yeast to the brew - usually ending up with better results. (a stir plate isn't 100% needed - I use an old growler and shake every so often and get good results from making starters.)

 

[3 Dawg Night]

Yeast management system allows you to tailor your yeast to the brew - usually ending up with better results. (a stir plate isn't 100% needed - I use an old growler and shake every so often and get good results from making starters.)

I have a couple of growlers laying around; maybe I'll try a "shaken, not stirred" starter on one of my upcoming brews.

 

[Transamguy77]

I second the mill and stir plate, having grains on hand is awesome, you can brew whenever you want and you will get better consistency. You could also DIY a stir plate for way less than buying one, there are a lot of build threads on here and the internet.

 

[ChiknNutz]

+1 for a grain mill

 

[firerat]

For me it would be grain mill. Stir plate a close second.

 

[rwinzing]

It depends for how satisfied with your current crush is from your grain source. For me I make a starter for every batch and I think it is such an important step. If you don't have enough yeast you are stuck with a problem. If your crush isn't perfect you may suffer from lower efficiency but will make good beer. So for me it is a stir plate first, mill second.

 

[3 Dawg Night]

It depends for how satisfied with your current crush is from your grain source. For me I make a starter for every batch and I think it is such an important step. If you don't have enough yeast you are stuck with a problem. If your crush isn't perfect you may suffer from lower efficiency but will make good beer. So for me it is a stir plate first, mill second.

I've been purchasing crushed grain from Atlantic Brew Supply. As far as I can tell, they do a pretty good job with the crush, so that's not really an urgent need.

I've been brewing with dry yeast so far, just to remove that element of difficulty. I want to try a liquid yeast starter soon, though; although, I'll probably need to wait until the weather cools again to avoid shipping spoilage. When I do give it a shot, I'm going to try making a starter in a gallon growler with no shaking or intermittent shaking. I'll see how that goes before purchasing a flask and stir plate.

 

[SFC Rudy]

I used a corona mill for about 18 years then I got a good deal on a barley crusher. Holy s**t, why did I wait so long?

 

[FleEsq]

Grain Mill. It will really help you dial in you recipes.

 

[bracconiere]

+∞ for a mill....

 

[Cyclman]

Yeast are so important to fermenting, I would start with oxygenation and a stir plate. A mill gets you more efficiency and predictability, but weak yeast makes lesser beer. I would recommend optimized fermentation’s before I even recommend all grain.

 

[duckredbeard]

I'm going to be the first one to say oxygen. Give the yeast everything they need to succeed!

 

[Velnerj]

What kinds of beer do you brew most? I see lots of people here talking about yeast health and such. I don't disagree but if your beers are hop forward beers yeast is not necessarily a big concern as your looking for neutral flavors.

Also, have you tried kveik? It kind of throws everything we know about brewers yeast out of the window. There's dry strands now available too. It can be topped cropped, dried and reused. Performance is quite impressive.

There's also Imperial yeast that supplies enough yeast in their pouch making starters for moderate abv beers useless.

Alll that being said I'd go for the mill, followed shortly by a kegging system.

Obvious price difference there. A good mill costs about $100 kegging system is anywhere between $500-$1000...

 

[3 Dawg Night]

I'm going to be the first one to say oxygen. Give the yeast everything they need to succeed!

I've been reading tons online as I've started this hobby, and I've become open to two things:

1) Dry yeast may do just fine direct pitched instead of rehydrated, and

2) Pre-pitching oxygenation may not provide any benefit.

For this brew, I tried direct pitching US-05 with no aeration (other than pouring through a strainer into my fermentor). We'll see how it goes.

 

[3 Dawg Night]

What kinds of beer do you brew most? I see lots of people here talking about yeast health and such. I don't disagree but if your beers are hop forward beers yeast is not necessarily a big concern as your looking for neutral flavors.
[/QUOTE
I've decided to spend the first year of my brewing life bouncing between an American Amber Ale and an American Pale Ale, to focus on perfecting my process before trying other stuff (although I may try an IPA in a month or so). I've been using dry yeast exclusively so far, but I'm planning to try liquid yeast (with a starter) when the weather cools back off.

Also, have you tried kveik? It kind of throws everything we know about brewers yeast out of the window. There's dry strands now available too. It can be topped cropped, dried and reused. Performance is quite impressive.

I'm really intrigued by Kveik. I want to try it eventually, but that's probably a year or so down the road.

 

[crazyjake19]

Grain mill, then stir plate, then a kegging setup.

 

[Yesfan]

I'm going to go against the grain here (<----pun intended! ) and say go with a kegging setup for the next big purchase.

The grain mill (and scale obviously) is a close second for the reasons mentioned above. The TILT, imo, is more luxury than necessity. Flasks/stir plates are fairly cheap so I don't count those (I made my stir plate), nor oxygenating.

Kegging, for me, has been the most impact. Why?

1) I love being able to clean/sanitize one keg vs 50 bottles.
2) Closed transfers. No more bottling buckets and priming sugar and potential oxidation.
3) You can still bottle from the keg, which is a good thing for hoppy beers (see 2)
4) Kegs make great fermenters
5) Bottling sucks (sorry, I just don't like it).

With the exception of fermentation temp control, kegging has been the best upgrade for me. The biggest con for kegging is up front cost with kegs, fridge (whether bought or DIY route), hoses, taps, and so on. Theres ways around that as well. When I first got into that, I was using a single keg, picnic tap, and co2 tank with my (temp controlled) chest freezer til I was able to add more kegs, a distributor, tap tower and taps later on.

I can't remember the last time I did an extract batch, but I think I could easily be an extract only brewer if I had to choose between a grain mill and a kegerator. Just my opinion.

 

[bwible]

And once you have a kegging setup, you can advance to a kegerator and set it up for homebrew kegs. Have your own beer on tap all the time.

Having you own grain mill will allow you to buy uncrushed grain in 50 or 55 lb sacks. This reduces your cost per pound and as others have said uncrushed grain will stay fresh longer. I keep mine inside 2 large plastic bags inside of a large rubbermaid container.

I started out with a Phil Mill, if anybody remembers those. Its a very small mill with a small hole in the wood top. You are supposed to cut the bottom off a 2 liter or 3 liter soda bottle and turn it upside down and put the neck in the little hole and secure it in there with a wood screw. And that becomes your hopper. Very small mill with slow throughput. Then I got the non-adjustable JSP malt mill and I’ve been using that for over 20 years. I use my drill to drive it and crush the grain .

 

[VirginiaHops1]

Definitely kegging IMO. Not only for convenience but will improve your beer quality as well, especially if you integrate closed transfers and keg purging. It doesn't have to be that expensive. I started with a package from keg connections for like $200 that had a couple used kegs and cobra taps. The only extra thing I needed to pick up was a CO2 tank. I've since built a keezer with taps but I used the basic setup for awhile and it served me well.

https://www.kegconnection.com/homebrew-keg-kits/
Having a grain mill is great but I'd recommend just getting a cheap corona mill for now and moving a nice mill down the list if you decide you still want one later. I've been using a corona mill for about a year and I'm not exactly sure what a more expensive one would do for me. Stir plates are also really cheap and not super necessary. I have one and use it sometimes but I also use dry yeast and harvest yeast a lot so I've been finding lately I don't use it that often.

 

[deuc224]

Virginia man, I love my stirplate just for the fact of making 1 pack of yeast into 4 packs. That to me is priceless when it comes to making beer and not hoping my LHBS or someone online has it, just take it out the freezer a day before and im good. Making a yeast bank is super simple and can be done easy.

 

[VirginiaHops1]

Virginia man, I love my stirplate just for the fact of making 1 pack of yeast into 4 packs. That to me is priceless when it comes to making beer and not hoping my LHBS or someone online has it, just take it out the freezer a day before and im good. Making a yeast bank is super simple and can be done easy.

Since I started harvesting yeast I basically do this by harvesting. 1 yeast pack/jar goes into a batch, 3-4 come out(if I harvest it). I use my stirplate once in awhile but I'm on gen4 of a pack of A38 Juice so I probably haven't used it since spring. I'm glad I have it for those occasions I feel like using it but I also wouldn't miss it that much if it went away. If I was OP I wouldn't prioritize that over the other stuff mentioned.