Newbie equipment setup

[Nickedoff]

Hi all

Looking for advice about startup equipment. I've got a budget of about $500 for equipment. Could possibly stretch a little but don't want to go crazy. Having said that, I'm of the opinion, 'buy once, buy right' so I want to get something decent that I won't need to upgrade in the foreseeable future. For the fermenter I definitely want stainless. Just don't like the idea of plastic.

I've been looking at the Brew Buckets and Chronicals. Jeez they look nice.

Just wondering what your learned opinions are? I'll probably start with kits but I can see myself getting into BIAB reasonably soon. I'll also stick with bottling for the time being. I can't see myself harvesting yeast, just trying to figure out if the extra cost for the chronical is justified for my purposes?

Anyway, interested in your thoughts. Cheers!

 

[Nickedoff]

Anyone? Bueller? Anyone?

 

[Coodgee]

With a budget of $500 a stainless fermenter is a real luxury. I would get a fridge with temp controller first. Then work the rest of your budget around that. U can get some very cheap fridges. I see hoppydays.com.au has a special on robobrews for 300 i think. That would be a great investment with the change from your fridge.

 

[Blind Dog]

I’d also be looking at spending some of the cash on a decent temp control set up. $ for $ it’s probably the best investment I made.

Save the rest for when you’ve worked out how and what you want to brew.

S/S is shiny and all that, but hdpe plastic is perfectly fine for fermenting. To be honest, my s/s brew buckets sit largely unused, but the $20 hdpe fermenters are in almost constant use.

 

[phildo]

One of my fermentors is a ss brewtec brew bucket, worth its weight but it's true that it is a luxury. The main benefits I get from it is the complete blocking of light, lower surface area of contact with trube (spelling?) and closed transfers to kegs.

I wouldn't rule out stainless but I would definitely prioritise temperature control. I was lucky enough to get my brew fridge and my keg fridge for free and for the fridge size required you may get lucky too.

I still use plastic fermentors even though I have a stainless in the brew fridge but If I had 500 right now I would buy a Fermentasaurus with a temperature controller and a heat belt to stick in a fridge.

 

[koshari]

Gotta agree with the previous 4 posters. Frig with temp control 1st priority.

 

[Nickedoff]

Thanks guys. I already have a fridge, inkbird looks good and cheap paired with a heat belt or reptile heater. Given I don't need to shell out for a fridge, does that change anything?

 

[Mattyh777]

I have a SS conical, only because I got it cheap second hand.
If I need another fermenter I'd go the fermentasaurus, you can at least see inside to make sure it's fermenting away which I think is important for a new Brewer.

 

[Bonenose]

Check out the new Robobrew nice looking bit of kit, would love to of had one when I started. No association or whatever we need to say but if you have $500 to spend...
Beware that I think most people get into this thinking they will just spend a couple hundred, I did at first.

 

[Schikitar]

Fridge temp controller, 40L crown urn, pulley & rope, two plastic fermenters, grain/hop bags, bottle tree, storage tubs, accurate to-the-gram scales, flask for yeast starters, hydrometer, digital thermometer, cleaning essentials such as pbw and starsan - geeez, that's just a few random things to get you going with BIAB and that'll add up pretty quick!

 

[wide eyed and legless]

A big enough flask, 2 litre, that will save you some money

 

[phildo]

Thanks guys. I already have a fridge, inkbird looks good and cheap paired with a heat belt or reptile heater. Given I don't need to shell out for a fridge, does that change anything?

Once you have temperature control then I guess that it is up to you what direction you go. Ss definitely has some advantages over plastic and I think that the main advantage of conical is the reduced surface area of trube that the beer will be in contact with. Some conicals will allow you to remove the trube all together for yeast harvesting or eliminating the need to rack to a secondary vessel (I don't secondary).

You could look at a kegging set up if you don't have one already. With 500 you can get a kit to convert an old fridge or even get a kegerator.

You could also look into these single vessel breweries if you are interested in all grain.

 

[Nickedoff]

I would love a keg, but I can't see that getting approval

Thanks all, plenty of food for thought

 

[Andy_27]

Thanks guys. I already have a fridge, inkbird looks good and cheap paired with a heat belt or reptile heater. Given I don't need to shell out for a fridge, does that change anything?

Yes. Get a Robobrew and a coopers (or similar) kit which includes bottles and you're good to go! Inkbirds are great, I have 2 x temp controllers and a 2 probe bbq thermometer. All excelllent. A heat belt can be got on ebay for about $10. I just got a robobrew for $420 which includes shipping, moving on from BIAB with an urn.

 

[pirateagenda]

For 500 I'd spend the money on setting up a kegerator and get a food grade bucket + temp control for fermenting and start off with some kit + mini mash brews on the kitchen stove. Bottling sucks.

If you like the process spend a few hundred (or thousand) more down the track on a robo brew or whatever all grain setup you decide to go with.

 

[Mr B]

When you get to the stainless fermenter I would recommend an aginox olive oil drum. I think I like mine better than the chronical

 

[DrewCarey82]

Before spending $500 I'd spend $20-$30 second hand kit on ebay, bang out a brew and see if I am happy to do all the cleaning, sanitising, brewing and bottling to see if its something time wise I'd be willing to permit too.

Better than flogging off $500 worth of equipment in the selling section here for $50 2 months later.

 

[Wobbly74]

Best investments I've made to ensure I enjoy the process I'd say is temp control and kegs. Manual temp control can be stressful and bottling can be a real grind. Itndoes require a couple of fridges to suite or, alternatively, a couple of mini kegs you can refill from a 19L corney and dispense thought a party tap and a mini reg. That would probably be regular fridge friendly for dispensing at least.

If I were to start again I'd probably do things differently. Skip kits and go to full volume extract to start with. Would let you buy an urn or RB off the bat and get in to all grain in a couple of stages. Then use residual money for temp control fridge using 25L hdpe cubes for fermentation with a blow off tube. But that's based more on where my own process has moved to, so ymmv.

 

[Nickedoff]

So despite what I said earlier, I think I'm pretty much convinced to go with a fermentasaurus.

I really like the idea of pressure fermentation. Just wondering, has anyone added a thermowell to theirs?

 

[brewgasm]

I'm not so keen on the pressurised fermentation as I am true closed transfer. At the moment I transfer to a closed keg but I have to open the lid of my SS fermentor both the watch the level of beer and to let the beer flow into the keg. My first priority is to get a single vessel system then grab a fermentasaurus