# Best $$$ You've Spent



## mondestrunken (12/10/12)

I've slowly been upgrading my set-up over the last year or so.

I've noticed that some purchases practically revolutionise, while others just add incrementally to, brewing quality. 

So, what is the best purchase you've made? What do you wish you'd bought a long time ago?

For me,
$0-10: any sanitiser other than Sodium Met.
$10-50: probably Palmer's "How To Brew"
$50-100: 3-burner gas ring, close second is a bench capper.
$100-500: I don't recall spending this much on any single item...
$500+: (this is serious receipt hiding time for me).


----------



## wambesi (12/10/12)

Now that I've finally got it going the best buy for me has been in the $100-500 range which was my worm drive.
Having a motorised mill to churn through 11kg of grain is bliss, although my right arm is not going to be so massive anymore...

More details here.


----------



## Blitzer (12/10/12)

I just bought a 6'er of 4 Pines pale ale. As I sit here tasting this beautiful malty amber liquid I do believe it is the best money I have spent.


----------



## Spoonta (12/10/12)

refroctormeter and ph meter and my 2 stage water filter my spelling sucks


----------



## Lakey (12/10/12)

Mine is the 1.5L glass v8 juice bottle that I now use to make my yeast starters in, all for $3 sumthing.


----------



## the_new_darren (12/10/12)

Valleymill and counterflow chiller both $180 delivered from the US (that was 15 years ago)

Last 5 years a March pump ($180). Saved my back a hundred times or more since.

tnd


----------



## kymba (12/10/12)

Hookers & blow, my brewing assistants. They haven't done wonders for my back though


----------



## Pistol (12/10/12)

You can't go past an STC1000 for around $20!


----------



## Phoney (12/10/12)

I have to say a $260 40L birko urn has served me pretty bloody well. 100+ brews down and still going strong.


----------



## Maheel (12/10/12)

Pistol said:


> You can't go past an STC1000 for around $20!



your right 


and for me 

$20 19L pot and $4 worth of voil to get me into AG :beerbang: 
it's bloody cost me a lot more now but...


----------



## DU99 (12/10/12)

my Beer fridge,was on the hard rubbish all it cost was thermostat $10


----------



## bruce86 (12/10/12)

$20 odd dollars for my mongolian burner. little rusty but she roars  kudos to bob for that one


----------



## Pistol (12/10/12)

Alright for a brag, 40 litre Birko brand new for $120! Gotta love Ebay.


----------



## Helles (12/10/12)

kymba said:


> Hookers & blow, my brewing assistants. They haven't done wonders for my back though



Hookers and Blow done wonders to my brewing


----------



## yum beer (12/10/12)

A shiny steel beer keg for a keggle, cost me 1 question to the right person.
3 grinding discs to make keggle...ohh I didnt pay for those, it was a mates grinder he got at a garage sale....so it cost him about $3.
$19 Big W pot on sale cost me $9.......this brewing caper is costing me a fortune...... :lol:


----------



## yum beer (12/10/12)

Portable oven with double width cooktop for boiling half price Big W pot...free.......
fridge from old preschool when they got a new one....free...
I'm saving money by the bucket load, SWMBO really has no reason to complain.


----------



## labels (12/10/12)

And me, a fridge suitable for a kegerater for $38.00 from Evans & Clarke online. Even got a German Danfos compressor in it. Now I have a fully fledged kegerator allup about $250.00 inc. SS drip tray and two tap tower.

My BEST buy ever - NINE brand new Italian made Art Deco wall sconces with geniune 24ct gold plating valued at $160.00 each - for $48.00 for the lot, again Evans & Clarke online auctioning, a lighting shop that closed down. And they look fantastic in my Art Deco bar.


----------



## Cocko (12/10/12)

kymba said:


> Hookers & blow, my brewing assistants. They haven't done wonders for my back though




Best. Post. Ever.


----------



## Nick JD (12/10/12)

The gimp in my basement keeping my new liver alive.


----------



## Pistol (12/10/12)

Made it a bit stiff? LOL


kymba said:


> Hookers & blow, my brewing assistants. They haven't done wonders for my back though


----------



## Thirsty Boy (13/10/12)

Good quality camlocks - for five years I reckon 50% of the energy i spent on a brewday was spent tracking down, swearing at and fixing leaks in my brewery.... mostly disconnects. Worth every damn cent to look at the foor and see it bone dry.


----------



## Wimmig (13/10/12)

My keg system (kegs x 4, fridge, taps, tank etc). $0.00. From the stim payments. Money well spent.
My BM. Brings my brewing to a constant, easy process ***hugs***

Next....

Morebeer ultimate conical fermentor. With a 20l BM & morebeer kit, that's <$3500 for pico scale microbrewing.


----------



## pk.sax (13/10/12)

I was looking the other day, 245 dollars I spent to bring in 3 545pc taps + 3 ss shanks. Best beer dispensing tool ever.

Close seconds, false bottoms for MT & kettle. Also, 30 plate chiller ~109 bux. A lot less stuffing around with the chiller vs chilling cubes and pool etc.

A bit of a third, march pump I bought off bay for $100. Made it possible to brew on the balcony in a 2-tier setup.


----------



## wbosher (13/10/12)

$34 on a huge beer fridge...which after taking a look, wifey decided that it should go in the kitchen instead.


----------



## Stubbie (13/10/12)

Definitely a fermenting fridge, and the fermentation temperature control it provides.


----------



## QldKev (13/10/12)

My kegging system. I got sick of bottling and was going to pull the pin on homebrewing altogether. With a bit of a push from SWMBO I bit the bullet and got one. Made brewing fun again and got me more motivated to get a fermenting fridge and finally into AG. 

QldKev


----------



## felten (13/10/12)

A ballvalve setup for my kettle, saves me from ******* around with boiling wort and tearing my hair out trying to get a siphon going. My previous siphon setup was a little ghetto though.


----------



## MAH (13/10/12)

QldKev said:


> My kegging system. I got sick of bottling and was going to pull the pin on homebrewing altogether. With a bit of a push from SWMBO I bit the bullet and got one. Made brewing fun again and got me more motivated to get a fermenting fridge and finally into AG.
> 
> QldKev



Ditto. Kegging took the hasle out of packaging/serving, which let me focus on the fun of brewing.


----------



## Bada Bing Brewery (13/10/12)

My 3 roller monster mill. I did 2 brews cranking a marga by hand ....... it was a close as I ever want to get to real work, never again.
cheers
BBB


----------



## bignath (13/10/12)

The three things that revolutionised my brewing....'cause i can't just pick one. 

Each one of these radically changed the quality, and ease of brewdays..

1. Grain mill. 
Without it, i would still have to order on line, long distance recipe by recipe to get my grain. Closest decent shop to me (as far as i know) would be Grain and Grape, BrewAdelaide, or Beerbelly.
Currently giving my business to Beerbelly as i have family in Adelaide and am up there fairly regularly, and Amanda has always given my exceptional service.
Having a grain mill allows me to buy in bulk when i travel back to Adelaide, saving me a shitload of coin in the long run.

2. Temp control
Without it, my beers were a bit hit and miss. Nowadays, strict control over temps gives my consistent results, repeatable every time.

3. Refractometer
Allows me to keep an eye on, and track my boil off vs gravity giving me an idea of how i'm going on brewday. Love the small sample, can take a reading any time during the boil to guage progress.
Also use it (with a conversion chart or software) to check specific gravity. Haven't owned a hydrometer for several years now.

These three things literally changed my brewing experience for the better. All of the other brewing acquisitions i have work arounds for if they fail, but without these, i'm pretty much rooted.


----------



## Bizier (13/10/12)

I have chosen to forget how much better life is with kegs.

So I nominate HERMS, because you have to be spectacularly incompetent to stuff up your mash.

Right now I have rye flour in my mash and it is recircing away. That said, not long ago I did implode my FB when I got a bit cocky.


----------



## jyo (13/10/12)

Bizier said:


> I did implode my FB when I got a bit cocky.



Mmmm, that does sound...um...


For me, it would have to be my grain mill. It's great waking up and deciding what you want to brew on the day.


----------



## TedAu (13/10/12)

1. Kegging set up. I wouldn't have got back into brewing without it. 
2. STC 1000 wired up to a free fridge. Ferment temp consistency rocks.
3. Star San. A splash of boiling water and a spray of star San is most of my cleaning theses days.
4. No sugar and no dextrose.

The bottom 3 are what I tell anyone that asks about getting into brewing, the top one is just cause I'm lazy.


----------



## bruce86 (13/10/12)

What if you want to brew a big sexy belgian TedAu? you will need to use some sugar of some form.


----------



## 3GumsBrewing (13/10/12)

Can't pick just one, probably in order -

Fridge temp control
Kegs
BIAB bag and Crown Urn
Mash temp control
House with garage for all this stuff....

3G


----------



## Bribie G (13/10/12)

Two kegmates from CraftBrewer. The second one is just plain without fonts etc but is the fridge that God ferments and then lagers in. The thing about kegmates is that they are made for beer, being short and wide and only around $400. They hold 3 kegs, or 2 cubes on top of each other, easily take a 60L fermenter or a standard fermenter plus a cube mounted on the compressor hump.... the combination is endless and with a fridgemate you can run it from -1 up to fermenting temperatures. They are very energy efficient with little wasted headspace compared to tall domestic fridges. 

Walk into the Good Guys with $400 and their bouncers would chuck you out. 

The thing about domestic fridges is they are made tall and thin to fit into fridge "holes" in kitchens and to save your back when hunting for the butter, but the cheaper ones are quite unsuitable for anything we do as home brewers.


----------



## Bizier (13/10/12)

jyo said:


> Mmmm, that does sound...um...


In your endo


----------



## Spork (13/10/12)

Pretty much what Big Nath said.

Temp control.

Grain mill.

Refractometer.

Also keg setup. Couldn't see me sticking with this hobby if I had to keep cleaning bottles.

Extra bonus with the mill - I get to meet other local brewers who don't have a mill yet, and they often throw me a beer / jar of pickles / something for the privellage of using my mill.


----------



## kegs23 (13/10/12)

my esky, fits my 9L keg and gas bottle only 35 bucks ,but now i want a hard shell esky with wheels


----------



## JDW81 (13/10/12)

My miniature schnauzer brewing assistant, not mans best friend, he's a brewers best friend.


----------



## Dan Pratt (13/10/12)

$90 Coopers Home brew kit - fermenter, 30 bottles and a recipe....been on the journey ever since B)


----------



## Blitzer (13/10/12)

Pratty1 said:


> $90 Coopers Home brew kit - fermenter, 30 bottles and a recipe....been on the journey ever since B)



Here here


----------



## bruce86 (13/10/12)

not the best i spent but i just scored this for 100 bucks pending delivery.


----------



## jyo (13/10/12)

Bizier said:


> In your endo



Great work!


----------



## Plastic Man (13/10/12)

$9.86 Big W Kettle Element...


----------



## Ivan Other One (14/10/12)

New keg system, for just under $500, The way to jump back into brewing after a long absence from it saves a lot of time bottling.

That said, a Superautomatica bottle capper for $2 from the tip shop to take care of the rest of the wort after kegging.

Also one year after the keg system purchase, the best $$$ spent was about $200 on a double water filtration system, which made a huge improvement to the tast of the beer, as well as our kettle water for cuppa's and general drinking water.


----------



## mondestrunken (14/10/12)

I forgot to mention my grain bag ($5) was another biggie for me.

Plenty of ideas on my next purchase here. Thanks.

I'm thinking a bigger pot, and grain mill next up. Refractometer? I'm not sure what the benefit of this is over a hydrometer???

I can totally see the benefits of kegs, but I don't really want to get another fridge...

Cheers.


----------



## bignath (14/10/12)

mondestrunken said:


> Refractometer? I'm not sure what the benefit of this is over a hydrometer???



If you're a full volume wort brewer (unhopped Extract, or full blown AG) refractometers offer several huge benefits over a standard refractometer.

1. Sample size - when measuring gravity of liquid, you don't need to float your hydrometer in maybe 100+ml of liquid for it to work.
Literally 3 drops of the fluid is heaps.

2. Practicality - you can't just throw your hydrometer into your boiling wort in your kettle without the risk of it breaking and then ending up in your beer.
Just use a pipette, draw out enough for 3 drops and take a reading.

You can do this as many times as you like throughout the boil.

HOWEVER, refractometers aren't without disadvantages either. 
The most common one by far, is that when measuring fluid that already contains alcohol, you need to use a conversion chart, which isn't hard at all once you get used to it.

I gave my hydro to a mate several years ago, and have switched exclusively to my refractometer. Absolutely love it.

By the way, if you use brewing software (like i and many others do) most programs have built in converters anyway so it really is very easy.


----------



## Midnight Brew (14/10/12)

Pulley system - worth its weight in gold for ease and effort. Thinking of upgrading it with more pulleys so less weight.

Grain Mill - about half way to paying its self off out of only two bulks buys ive been in

Mother of Rambo - paid $80 for a demo model that is powerful and economical (worth $495)

2L flask & stirplate - economical re-use of yeast has paid both of these off 8x over.

Kegs - filling one keg vs 30-60 bottles. Enough said.

A noteable mention to my vac sealer too. The hops I've bought in bulk has paid for that 3-4 times over.


----------



## breakbeer (14/10/12)

SWMBO bought me a Kegerator last Christmas, best money *she's* ever spent


----------



## jkmeldrum (14/10/12)

Of all the money I've spent (and it's been a bit!!) my favourite would have to be the March pump paired up with my Blichmann Therminator (plate chiller).She rocks!

Within 15-20 mins I can chill a 10Gal batch from near boiling to low 20's and then transfer to the fermenter and pitch the yeast.

It just makes the end of my brew day so much easier than it used to be.

Here's a picture of my pride and joy:


----------



## jkmeldrum (14/10/12)

For some reason when I upload my photo in the previous thread it has flipped it upside down. But when you click on it, it's back the right way.....mmmmm...strange!


----------



## felten (14/10/12)

What did you use to attach it to the ceiling?


----------



## Black Devil Dog (14/10/12)

Definitely my keg set up, as others have also said, without it I wouldn't be brewing.

Good to read what others think has been the best money they have spent. 
As I research and expand my knowledge and eventually progress from k&k to AG, it helps to understand what benefits there could be in doing something one way or another.


----------



## Bada Bing Brewery (14/10/12)

felten said:


> What did you use to attach it to the ceiling?


I'd expect a rig like that from Batz .....
Cheers
BBB


----------



## QldKev (14/10/12)

Molly said:


> Of all the money I've spent (and it's been a bit!!) my favourite would have to be the March pump paired up with my Blichmann Therminator (plate chiller).She rocks!
> 
> Within 15-20 mins I can chill a 10Gal batch from near boiling to low 20's and then transfer to the fermenter and pitch the yeast.
> 
> ...




I like how you've paved the ceiling, very different B)


----------



## WarmBeer (14/10/12)

felten said:


> What did you use to attach it to the ceiling?


It's a 3-vessel anti-gravity fed system.


----------



## Cocko (14/10/12)

SOO easy to clean the mashtun out!


----------



## yum beer (14/10/12)

Molly said:


> View attachment 57799




That would be ideal for low gravity beers....


----------



## kenlock (14/10/12)

Molly said:


> Of all the money I've spent (and it's been a bit!!) my favourite would have to be the March pump paired up with my Blichmann Therminator (plate chiller).She rocks!
> 
> Within 15-20 mins I can chill a 10Gal batch from near boiling to low 20's and then transfer to the fermenter and pitch the yeast.
> 
> ...



I've seen that rig before...............I know, it's Lionel Ritchie's



:lol:


----------



## Batz (14/10/12)

the_new_darren said:


> Valleymill and counterflow chiller both $180 delivered from the US (that was 15 years ago)
> 
> tnd




Oh the Valley Mill, there could not be many of us still using one Darran.
Mine is over 10 years old and still going strong, one driven roller (not geared), 3/8" shaft (not 1/2") two rollers (not three), hardened steel (not stainless). 
How many tonnes of grain have I crushed with it? Heaps! Believe me this beast is wonderful and my best $$$ so far.

Batz


----------



## MAH (14/10/12)

Batz said:


> Oh the Valley Mill, there could not be many of us still using one Darran.



Mine's sill going strong. Have thought about buying a new mill several times, but it would be about the bling not the beer, so I just keep cracking grain with one of the original HBer mills.

Cheers
MAH


----------

