Someday you will have all the stuff that is needed. Then you only spend $100 on supplies per trip. It may take a few years. Maybe many years. But trust me, you get to the point where you don’t get much more than supplies. Says the old guy!
I got to that point in a half a year… After spending a grand and some change… I bought 4 bags if base from a brew pub, hops in pound bags and re pitch a lot of yeast. So now all I need is specialty grains. And maybe that N2 setup and a stout tap… OK never mind… :
I do buy a lot of supplies. Another keg the last time was in the $80. Then there was the Blichmann hop-rocket last fall. And the chest freezer last summer with the Ranco to control it.
Enough with the confessions. Yeah it is addictive.
Do you ferment your ales in the chest freezer? I’m looking into getting one for when I move in August. I’ve read about people using heating elements and whatnot, seems like the temp controller would take care of that part.
Sorry, am I reading this right? She’s encouraging you to get more stuff? I have the opposite problem. Why did you buy…? Do you really need…? How much did you spend…?
So what you’re telling me is one temp controller won’t keep the freezer at a constant 62 degrees? You’re keeping yours in your garage by the looks of it, though, so I can understand the heating part. But if my freezer is inside my house, why wouldn’t one temp controller do the trick?
As long as your house is always above 62F (or whatever temp you want to keep it), you only need one temperature controller. But some of these crazy people let their houses get down into the 50s for the winter.
Yeesh, thank you for easing my mind. I was having second thoughts about buying a chest freezer for temp control. Silly me. I don’t let the house ever get below ale temps. I fermented many of my ales in the basement this winter and the ambient temp was somewhere around 57, which produce some nice clean beers. Fermentation was never too vigorous, but the beers turned out great and didn’t over attenuate.
But as I may not have mentioned, I’m moving to a new place in August where there isn’t central air and no basement. So I’ll need to be taking control of my fermentation temperatures.
I just got the green light to buy a third chest freezer for lagering. The key is to keep beer on tap she likes (Stouts and fruit flavored wheat beers). I had to explain that lagering requires colder temperatures than we need for our serving fridge. She said OK. This will be the fourth beer related fridge/freezer for my brewing hobby (addiction). I have an old freebie upright fridge for fermenting ales, a small chest freezer used to ferment lagers in a sanke keg, and a chest freezer currently used for lagering and serving soon to be just serving.
