What's the best addition to your brewery?

[5150]

G'day guys and girls,

I vaguely remember seeing a post like this but I can't find it and it may have been in another forum.

Anyway, I was thinking, what is the best addition you have made to your brewery?

I'm about to be evicted from the garage that I rent as the owner is selling. I'm clearing out all my awesome stuff, (ie. Crap) from my garage and moving it home. In my current location one of the best things I added was a four tap manifold for water, very handy.

Planned additions when it comes home is waterproofing the floor, Big laundry tub with pump, and a diaphragm pump to transfer from fermenters to kegs.

I was wondering what you guys have added to your brewery that makes your brew day better.

If this topic has been raised before could someone point me to it and I'll move my post.

Thanks.

 

[GalBrew]

Grainfather and conical fermenter.

 

[panzerd18]

Temp controlled fridge.

 

[Rocker1986]

+1 on the temp controlled fridge.

It's a tie for me between my urn which facilitated my switch to AG, and the fridge for fermenting. Incidentally, both these additions came at the same time, and the quality of my beer improved immediately.

 

[Danscraftbeer]

yep temp controlled fridge, then again it was the keggle and burner before that and the mash tun esky, and the refractometer too,
oh the hand drill grain mill and the 60lt fermenters before that, and the software too,
but way before that was kegging, 4 taps on a fridge, yeast starters and,,,,,,,,,,,,

 

[Diggs]

Kegorator

 

[Bridges]

Temp control fridge. SS fermenters. Braumeister. As I can really only afford to upgrade a bit at a time everything is pretty well thought out and researched before committing to it. Generally the last purchase is the best upgrade.

 

[CrookedFingers]

A pulley to hoist the grain bag out of the urn. So handy.

I feel old just admitting that, but hey, thats life.

 

[Helles]

Plate chiller by far
Into the fermenter in 20-30 min

 

[breakbeer]

Matho's controller

 

[spog]

A 20 litre wall mounted hot water unit which needs to be moved to a different position as it is in the way since I expanded my brew room.

 

[Cocko]

Star San

 

[The Holy Ale]

A pulley to hoist the grain bag out of the urn. So handy.

I feel old just admitting that, but hey, thats life.

Yes! Sometimes it's the simple pleasures. This addition made my brew days much more enjoyable.

 

[technobabble66]

In chronological order, though of relatively equal value:
AHB
ianh's spreadsheet
Sodium perc + silica met
Starsan
Birko urn
Grain BB + a grain hand mill
Fermenter fridge w temp control

 

[welly2]

Fermenting fridge with STC-1000, without a doubt.

 

[Fat Bastard]

Space. I started AG brewing in a small flat. ( A small, flat what? I hear you ask.) and grew to a small courtyard and a shed filled with crap when we moved to a house.

I've got all the temp controlled fridges, stainless fermenters and HERMS breweries I can fit right now, but I reckon I could use some more space.
Each growth in available brewing space has led to a brew improvement.

I reckon if I had a small factory, I'd get better beer!

 

[Moad]

Just set this weigh/mill/storage station up. Individual item though would be the motor for the mill

 

[Pogierob]

Everything beyond the original coopers kit I bought 20 years ago......

but seriously.

40kg scales, weigh the entire batch in one easy bucket ( or weigh the kids for fun), weigh kegs to see how empty they are getting, cubes to dial in brew house calculations, blah blah blah ((not good for weighing hops so get a small set))
http://www.realsmart.com.au/40kg-kitchen-electronic-digital-scales-black.html

KEGS!!!, obviously with the kegs comes all the other gear you need to have beer on tap.

stc-1000 - once you have at least one of these then you know you are on the right track for controlling fermentation, yeast starters, mash temp blah blah blah.

refractometer - **** yeah!!! this **** is science now baby!!!!

 

[yum beer]

immersion chiller, suddenly proper hop flavour and character.
other items; temp control, mash tun, mill, have all made improvements, but not as noticeable.

 

[Judanero]

Temp controlled fridge(s), starsan & sodium perc, O2 + stirplate, mashmaster mill + motion dynamics motor, erlenmeyer flasks, and last but not least stainless fvs... cleaning is soo easy.

Sorry I can't really nail down one thing.