I’ve been a gravity-and -manual-lift-buckets-of-water-and-wort kind of brewer for 17 years. I’ve worked with wooden 3-tiers and all ground level sans pumps. Nothing wrong with any of that even for 15.5gal batches. Been using a pump the last three with a few other tweaks. I like the pump but I’d go back to all-gravity in a second if I had a catwalk!
Im A BIAB guy. 20 gal alum pot is all i need. I like simple but am thinking of going the cooler route just to get a clearer wort- besides that im happy with my set up- don’t want pumps that just seems like more stuff to clean! I do love home brewing though its been fun and quite an education.
I’ve bought new gear for various reasons: poor research caused me to get something I didn’t like, moving from 5 to 10 gallon batches, and cool factor. Lately I’ve added the switch to electric to the mix.
I try to keep my actual brewing set up fairly simple.
However, despite my intentions, I have amassed a fair amount of gear. I’d like to not acquire anything further, but I think I need a second chest freezer for meads and ciders.
I have acquired a fair amount of gear over the years and have probably spent more money than most. But, I don’t really have other hobbies that I spend money on. No kids at home. And, it is what I like to spend my time doing. Probably one of the biggest reasons I tend to just buy stuff is I am simply not at all a “do-it-your-selfer.” It is not that I probably couldn’t make things, build a brew system, etc… I just don’t want to. Can’t stand spending my time making things or putting stuff together.
I think you also have to look a little at cost vs. use. I bought a 3 tier gravity brew sculpture from More Beer 17(ish) years ago. Lot of money at the time… $1300 or so. But, I am sure I have brewed 400-500 batches of beer on it - so, I can easily say it is the best money I ever spent. 1000’s of hours of entertainment over a couple decades is simply something I am fine spending money on. Same with other things I have spent money on like temperature control, kegerators, etc. I love brewing beer and I love entertaining friends that come over to enjoy it. Money well spent.
That said - do you NEED to spend money on shiny equipment to brew great beer? Absolutely not. There are tons of people who brew spectacular beer on modest set ups - as evidenced by many of the previous responses from some truly great brewers. Brewing good beer is about process, learning and practice. No equipment will help a person brew good beer if they don’t have those things.
There are a lot of home brewers who really enjoy DIY and tinkering with development of new ideas, improvig old ideas, repurposing, and doing things on the cheap. New, techy, shiny, and expensive gets kind of poo pooed, a little at least. I have a little money in my setup, but its nothing to show off. I’d love to have a big new digital pid setup and I might some day.
The cost issue kind of cracks me up though. Cost in hobbies is relative to the culture of that hobby. If I piled up everything I have aquired for brewing, maybe $3k new. I’ll bet there are plenty of brewers on this forum whose pile would be $300. And some whose pile would be $10k. The majority reaction to $10k tied up in brewing would probably be “Holy cow! You must be filthy rich!”
How many garages across America have $10k worth of brewing equipment in them? Maybe 50? Maybe 500? A safe bet would be less than 5000.
How many garages across America have a $10,000 Harley in them? A safe guess would be that 100,000 garages are home to a harley that hasn’t been riden in over six months. No one blinks an eye at the idea of pouring $10k into a harley. Mine was $25k.
My farmer neighbor bought an airplane this year. He was over having a beer with me and sheepishly spilled the beans that he spent $52k on it. His friends all think he’s nuts. He flies every day off. I told him that maybe he should have bought a $50k class A RV, then everyone would snicker at what a cheap ■■■ he was, cuz their class A cost $150k.
My harley cost $25k. I rode it three times this year. My RV cost $14k. We camped in it 8 nights this year.
I have $3k max tied up in brewing stuff and I used it a minimum of 24 full days this year, not counting a few random hours each week.
Brewing is the cheapest hobby I’ve ever had, per hour enjoyment.
Brewing is a hobby, therefore a luxury, but I think its cool that a lot of us consider cobbled together repurposed mishmash, a luxury. I also think its cool that some of us consider a $350 peice of stainless a necessity!
Yep, You nailed it Jim. Everyone “wastes” money on something. But, if it is making you happy… that is what it is all about. And, brewing pales in comparison to most hobbies. I look around our neighborhood and see RV’s, snowmobiles, motorcycles, $50k vehicles… and feel a lot better about my spending on brewing.
I am 46 and still driving the second vehicle of my life - a 9 year old Ford Ranger with 33,000 miles on it - I will still be driving it 10 years from now too:)
Would love to spend more money on brewing in my life than I did on vehicles ;D
I do 5-gal BIAB outside with propane burner in a 10 gal. Spike S/S kettle. An inexpensive grain mill, 25-ft. immersion copper chiller, plastic fermentors and bottling bucket are the rest of my basic stuff.
Fermentation is in a water bath with ice or hot water added as needed (at least in the best case scenario) and I bottle all my beer.
I would like to get a small chest freezer with a temp controller so I could brew lagers; currently, I’m limited to ales.
However, the biggest PITA is I don’t have enough room to store all my brewing equipment together. Its all over the house and garage and has to be assembled on brew day, then put away again after cleaning,
I’m not sure the OP was asking about cost so much as he was about equipment options that would KISS.
For example, I’m “downgrading” in a couple days when Santa brings me a Grainfather. It’s simple in concept and application, but at $900 not necessarily cheap (although that’s relative to a person’s disposable income as previously pointed out).
I see it as a simplification because I’m coming from a cobbled-together 10 gal single-tier 3v propane-fired RIMS, whereas the Grainfather is a comprehensive electric appliance not much bigger than a 6.5 gal carboy. I’m not sure the extra volume per session is worth the cost and complexity to get there. If I want more beer, I can just brew more often.
I’ve always thought that, had BIAB been around when I started, that’s probably what I’d be using today, and I view the Grainfather as a variation on the BIAB theme since you mash and boil in the same vessel. I think small-batch BIAB is probably about as simple as you can get, and if you put it together yourself rather than buy a turn-key solution like I did, also probably one of the cheapest. I’m looking forward to trying it out in a couple weeks.
Just a thought experiment really. I fall into the small batch minority (< 1.5 gal) and it’s much easier for someone like me to KISS.
I was just curious to know people’s setups, how they arrived there and if they feel as though things have become a bit convoluted.
I have a very complex brewing system (theelectricbrewery.com model) but it is exactly what I need/want and to be honest, once I worked all the kinks out, I’ve not made an equipment purchase in over 2 years.
I made great beer with my cooler setup, I just wanted to be able to move inside to make summer brewing a bit more tolerable.
I have a 10 gallon kettle with coolers, it simple, cheap and effective. Though I did build a brew pi for fermenting and that was money well spent.
I have a 3 vessel Blichmann Toptier setup with pump and Therminator. I built my own RIMS controller. I probably have about $3000 total invested. Do I need it? Nope. But it is my only hobby. I was one of those that had a HD Road King in the garage that I never rode so I got rid of it. Same thing with the 5th Wheel Travel Trailer. By far the cheapest hobby I’ve ever had, but also the most enjoyable. I don’t have to look for “nice” days or weekends to ride or go camping. I brew in my garage, day or night, independent of any weather (except maybe a hurricane, but I haven’t been interrupted by a hurricane in many years).
Cereal Killer mill mounted on bench with switched hammer drill
2 double burner Camp Chef with chugger pump
15G boil kettle with copper curl pickup, 60’ 1/2" recirculation IC
15G MT/HLT domed false bottom
8G MT/HLT uses same false bottom. I switch from 8G to 15G MT depending on grain bill size
All kettles have Brewmometers
6 30L speidels 4 dedicated to wild beer
Red bottle o2 regulator with stainless stone
Fermentation chamber is 14cf chest with dual stage control
Lagering/conditioning chamber is 7cf chest with dual stage control
Two tap frat fridge kegerator
Red winged capper
Green farrari floor corker
~12 cases of belgian 750ml cork n cage bottles
8 cases 12s
7 corny kegs
Autosyphon
Wine theif
Hydrometer
Ph meter
Digital thermometer
Stuff I’ve tried and dont use anymore
Floaty thermometer
Hop spider
Mesh bags
Stirplates (though they have a new pupose stiring DME and agar)
Corona mill
Bazooka screens
Buckets (except for bottling bucket)
Vented silicone bungs (speidel airlocks take forever to evaporate to empty)
Brown malt, victory, honey malt, American base malts (just dont care for the flavors)
Stuff I am adding
Yeast Banking lab
More corny kegs
Blichmann beer gun
Larger lagering/conditioning freezer
2 more speidel 30Ls (I really think 4 speidels is not enough wild beers)
I think not in terms of desired capacity but in terms of what I can consume. I’ve also brewed too many batches in the 5+ gallon size that I’ve eventually tossed, and so I have two setups.
The first is 1 to 2 gallon stove-top BIAB, for anything experimental. No more large batch recipe experimenting. It includes a wort chiller using a 12v pump meant for CPU cooling.
The other is for 8 to 11 gallons. I keg 5 and then bottle the remainder for giving away, or possibly split and ferment/dry-hop differently. I’m not going for a lot of different styles but only a few recipes that I try to do well. Gravity fed with a 10 gallon cooler as a mash tun. If I were to upgrade, I’d consider an RO water system or possibly getting off of propane. I also make a point of BBQ’ing when I use this one and consider that part of the setup.
Also, I unload any brew equipment if I don’t use it within the last six months.
I found an amazing deal on a complete Brutus 10 that I couldn’t pass up. It is very nice and I’m happy to have it, but I would have to say it isn’t any easier to use than my former cooler/gravity setup.
I have a lot of the same items Jim mentions. For all the years I’ve been AG, my system has been a simple gravity fed one. Aluminum pot HLT, cooler mash tun and beat up keggle, set up on saw horses and cinder blocks with a step ladder on the side and a home made ghetto immersion chiller.
I recently got some extra spending cash and “splurged” on an SS Brewtech 15 gal. boil kettle with false bottom and thermomoter and a JaDed brewing immersion chiller. I also bought a bunch of 6160 aluminum angle, hardware and casters to build a dedicated brewstand that I can pull out on brew day and wheel away after clean up. I’ll be in for ~$850.00 when it’s all done. But I think it will be money well spent. I thought about going single-tier and getting pumps, but every time I have been at a fellow homebrewer’s session that had a pump, the pump was a PITA - there was always some issue. So no - I’m sticking to gravity fed.
My other hobby is model railroading. I’ll be starting a new train layout soon. You want expensive? Here’s the hobby for you. $200 for one new HO locomotive is not uncommon these days.
I have equipment that I don’t use and could sell, but I always think I may use it someday…usually, though I add things that help in some way. Recently I added check valves on all CO2 QDC’s to prevent any back flow on over filled kegs. Not needed, but helpful as a precaution. A new (my third) 60 liter fermenter, so I can dedicate 2 of them to lagers and the third to ales for my typical 10 gallon batches. The new antimicrobial beer line as an upgrade since the old tubing is heavily discolored and I wanted to replace it anyway. A new 1.75 gallon keg for those occasional larger than 10 gallon batches that exceed a growler in extra brew…it adds up, but still is way cheaper than my other hobbies of fishing, hunting and golf - and my wife loves that I am home on most Saturdays - to brew or do beer related stuff like cleaning things or racking beers.
I have a false bottom cooler mashtun setup and basic gravity process but have newer and nice gear doing so. I built a small, simple brewing rig, I have pretty much all the equipment I need and a tool box full of gizmos/gadgets I have aquired over the years. I do not need or own my own malt mill, but I have a nice burner, kettle and HLT, I use pure o2, I keg my beers and have a fridge with 3 taps. I’m quite content with my brewing and process. I have always thought about intergrading a Herms temperature and recirculation into my cooler mashtun setup but it’s really not something that is going to make or break my brewing. One of the things I can see me upgrading to in the future is a wort pump to use for ciculating the wort while I use an immersion chiller.
This is pretty much the only hobby I have. My wife is supportive of it, I don’t splurge but she understand some of the things I need/want cost some money. A big part of where I am with my setup is space, I brew out in my attached garage for the most part and have a small section of it for my setup. I don’t really have any room for anything more at this time but that will come.