Upgrade from mini-biab

[ScottyDoesntKnow]

Ive been doing mini biab with the big w 19l pot, small batches mean I can brew regularly but the downside is a good beer disappears too quickly! Other than a 30l esky and fermenter, I don't really have any other equipment for brewing. If you had another $100-$200 to spend, how would you upgrade? Cheers

 

[crowmanz]

How much do you want to output?

Standard brews of 20-25L, I would get a 40-50L pot, keggle, or urn. You can then either BIAB in the new pot or use the esky as a mash tun, (you can use a BIAB bag in the esky for an easy manifold) and the 19L pot can be a small HLT.

 

[Stouter]

Go a 40L urn and continue your BIAB journey. Best price I can find is around $270 though. Good news is that this will give you everything you need to go, because you must already have most of the other associated gear if you've been doing smaller batches.
If money is tight maybe you can pick up a secondhand one with an exposed element for much less. Gotta be someone getting out of brewing, a sports club, or a C.W.A meet upgrading and looking at selling one off surely.

 

[altone]

If you've got a decent sized biab bag already buy an urn - a crappy old one is fine so long as it works.

I'm currently using a probably 20yo Langco urn with a ss tray in the bottom to keep the bag away from the element.
Works well but I'm building up a biab keggle with a malt pipe to replace it because the urn is too small - about 28l max.

A 35l plus urn will let you make 25l biab brews with ease.

 

[ScottyDoesntKnow]

Cheers guys I was looking at a bigger pot to punch out 20l or so size batches but then I would need a gas burner too. My kitchen stove top is probably at its limit with the 19l at the moment. I saw BCF is having 20% off the entire store this weekend, think one of their gas burners would be a good option?

 

[altone]

Oh. you're in Coffs Harbour - yep a big gas burner is a good option.

I'm in chilly Melbourne so half the year brewing inside (or close to it) is better - hence the electric urn suggestion.

If you have a "Chinatown" up there, check it for the big LPG wok burners.
They heat up real quick and will probably be much cheaper than BCF.

Ahh, Chinatown and a small spattering of Mandarin - amazing what you can get,
Fireworks - no not in Victoria hmmm. Real sharkfin not allowed - hmm.

You get the picture....

 

[ScottyDoesntKnow]

Haha yep. Other option is find a cheap used keg and build my own Keggle.

 

[GibboQLD]

I saw BCF is having 20% off the entire store this weekend, think one of their gas burners would be a good option?

That'd mean you should be able to get something like this for well under $200 -- throw in one of these and you'd have a good size BIAB rig for a shade over $250.

 

[Stouter]

Ahh, Chinatown and a small spattering of Mandarin - amazing what you can get,
Fireworks - no not in Victoria hmmm. Real sharkfin not allowed - hmm.

You get the picture....

"Nǐ yǒu píjiǔ ma?"
"Wǒ yǒu!"