fermentation control…or switching to all grain?
or both!
I brewed my first batches of all grain with an experienced all grain brewing buddy yesterday. It was far easier than I thought and his beers are amazing. I cannot imagine going back from all grain.
Unless the cost of some form of temperature control system and getting all grain equipment is too prohibitive. If so, perfect your fermentation process first.
Good luck,
Bill
Fermentation temp control and full boils will make the biggest improvement on your beer. As I mentioned in your other thread, going to AG can be pretty darn cheap. Use denny’s batch sparging technique or even the Papazian double bucket zap pap method. No real money involved there, unless you don;t have the outdoor burner and pot big enough to go full boil.
Not having done all grain myself I would have to say all grain! I’m dieing to make the switch myself.
You can start with a killer AG recipe, the freshest, best quality ingredients, and a big slurry of healthy yeast, but if you can’t control the fermentation, you won’t make great beer. If you do go AG, you’ll need temp control anyway…why not take care of that first?
Both can be done for $500.
Craigslist freezer for $150, Johnson controller for $75,
camp chef burner $75, and this https://www.pelicansky.com/productdetail.aspx?id=118&cat=66
all prices are rounded up, for easy math.
Fermentation control is key - hands down.
As far as AG, you probably have everything you need if you can perform a full wort boil. If you are planning on buying or building some elaborate piece of gadgetry equipment, you can make the same or better quality beer using an old cooler, a drilled copper coil and some tin foil. 
beerocd, that is a great looking 20 gallon stainless vessel for a decent
price. the site is a little vague about it’s details. do you have one of those?
Is the bottom heavy duty heat spreading style or is it bare thin ss?
Dude, your thread titles are a bit ponderous
Include a little more in them please.
Just buy a big cooler and use it as a mash tun and a swamp cooler. You can mail me the other $460, if you want…
I’m curious about that stockpot too. That perforated basket just screams “mash tun”.
I would say fermentation control now.
But when I made my switch I went to All grain first with round cooler and false bottom and then temp control.
Alright, I’ll ask - what’s the tin foil for?
There’s way too many titles like that - it’s like they’re writing teasers for the GLOBE or for the nightly news.
Some guys over on HBT are turning it into an electric BIAB/“that german system” sorry can’t think of the name now. So I don’t have anymore details on it, other than yep it looks great and some other homebrewers have determined that it’s a great pot.
Yeah, I like the one kettle in that image but you would never catch me using the one with the holes… makes it hard to keep the burner lit.
Right on the money, Denny, as always.
Well, since you asked…
When most people sparge they invert a plate, use a pie plate, float a tupperware lid or perhaps a flip flop on top of the mash to disperse the water and avoid disturbing the grain bed. Many purchase the whirlygig or some other such nonsense. I was of the floating tupperware lid/flip flop variety until one day it dawned on me to simply perforate some foil and put the sparge water on it. I’m so frugal I rinse off the foil and reuse. ;D
Here’s a vorlauf photo:
When sensible people sparge, they batch sparge and dispense with all that nonsense! ;)
First things first. One needs to master ferm control before one can make quality beer. That’s the first order of business.
With that being said…when I made the switch to all-grain…there was no looking back. 8)
When I switched to all grain my quality went up beyond my expectations not counting the possibilities it opened up by being so versatile.
But I still didn’t realize how sub-par they were until I got temp control.