Looking for recommendation on new brew kit 2k budget

You have $2,000 to spend on homebrewing brewery equipment? What equipment do you already have?

 

Welcome to the Homebrewing forum of the BA Site.

"Experience" in the context of your post is kind of nondescript. Can you elaborate?
What did you have when your setup was in it's prime, and what challenges stick in your mind about that equipment (or lack thereof)?
Do you have an idea of where you're headed? Buckets, all stainless, all-grain, Mash & Boil type stuff, keg, bottle, barrel-aging, jockey-box (), temperature control, etc.

 

After rereading my post I’m wondering if it came across as terse. If an apology is in order it’s on my end.

A 15-gallon boil kettle would be good for most 10-gallon batches. Might be a stretch for some higher gravity brews depending on your boil-off rate. Do an interweb search for 15-gallon boil kettles. Stainless with aluminum sandwiched in the bottom is a plus. Don’t skimp on the kettle, treat it properly and it’ll last long enough to add it to your will. SS Brewtech, Anvil, Blichmann, Spike are examples of higher-end kettles for homebrewers. There are others, and the features of those listed will give an idea of what to look for. Click here for an old thread about kettles. (in that thread is this kettle if you're good with aluminum....looks like a decent buy)
You’ll need an appropriate heat source. When weather permits I use a propane burner and brew outside. If you have a covered area that can be protected by the wind, so much the better. When weather doesn’t permit, it’s sad for me. My anemic smooth-surface stove struggles to eek out the heat needed to boil enough for a 5-gallon batch.
Some folks tout all-electric brewing with heating elements inside the kettle. Maybe someone will chime in on that.
Check out Mash & Boil or RoboBrew (~ $450) and Grainfather (~ $1K) and see if those interest you. Williams Brewing has descriptions.
Mash tuns (for extracting sugars from the grains) can be made from Igloo/Coleman coolers, either round or square. You can buy them ready-made, but significant savings can be had if you DIY. I built mine from a 10-gallon round cooler.

Regardless of if/when you move to 10-gallon batches or if/when you move away from extract brewing, investigate temperature control. It will be important enough for kegging (deserves its own thread) but having the ability to control fermentation temperature will lead to better tasting beer and enhance your ability to replicate previous results. (control for serving kegs and control for fermentation are two different functions).
Unfortunately for me, I’m not speaking from wide experience on ferm temp control but have toyed with it. True ferm temp control is on deck to be my next significant outlay for equipment. To rephrase about my experience, I’m not speaking from my own experience but am relying on the experience of others in this forum that fermentation temperature control is pretty darned important.
InkBird and Johnson Controls are common manufacturers of temperature controllers. This is the InkBird I have.

Have fun!

 

Too late to edit
Do you have space to store all this crap and brew as well?.....it's only gonna get worse.

 

Welcome back to this great hobby, and also to the BA site, EGBIII. You've found a great source here to get you back in business again. Also, if you've never read it, HowToBrew.com is a great book to read, and it's free online. (The newest edition is available for purchase online or in good bookstores too.)

I'm going to ask questions about the end usage of the beer you brew. Can you drink 10 gallon batches before getting tired of that beer, or at least have enough friends to help drink it? If you think you'd get tired of it, would you brew another batch for variety and have two beers on tap and 20 gallons to drink up?

Possibly since you were last active at homebrewing, small batch brewing has become popular so that the homebrewer can brew and drink multiple beers in a short time span for the variety and experimentation that it offers. Experimentation would allow you to find a small-batch recipe that you really like, and then you can upscale the ingredients to a 10-gallon batch, kind of like a pilot system. Small batches would mean that you'd have to bottle the beers rather than keg, but not many bottles are involved with a 2-3 gallon batch. Your proposed budget actually would allow you to afford equipment for a large and a small system.

Just some questions for you to consider, and no reply needed.

 

If you got that kind of money, definatly go stainless for the kettle.

Buckets work great for me on fermenting and if you are thinking about trying all grain I'd suggerpst first making a mash tun out of a cooler. There are plenty of how to articles on making one and it is less money wasted if you prefer. Extract brewing in the end.

15 gallon kettle will need a lot more heat than an 8 so size it right. Again lots of info here and other spots.

Can't help with kegging, I bottle.

Good luck and welcome aboard.

 

I think piecemeal system is cheaper than “kits” in my experience.

Equipment I’d recommend:

15 gallon SS kettle w/ spigot ($350)
15-20 gallon cooler mash tun ($150)
Chugger Pump ($150)
Burner ($100)
Silicone tubing ($50)
Quick disconnects and valves ($150)
Spiedel 15 gallon fermenter ($100)
Refrigeration for fermentation ($250)
Refrigeration for kegerator ($250)
Inkbird external thermoregulator x2 ($75)
CO2 tank ($75)
Kegs x4 ($250)
+ beer, gas tubing, taps, etc.

This is right about $2000.
This assumes you can DIY some stuff and find some decent used refrigeration on Craigslist.

Best of luck!

 

Also, chiller. Either plate, counterflow, immersion. Should run you about $100-$200 depending on which one you choose.

 

SS Brewtech kettle and stainless conical fermenter with temp control unit, plus a cooler mash tun. A nice burner like the Blichmann Hellfire. A kegerator DIY or prebuilt. A beer gun comes in handy to bottle with. Under 2K with room for all the extras. I’d use a brew bag in the mash tun BIAB style to take sparging out of the equation.

 

Presumably I can thank you for your service as well as all of your buddies. Good luck to you in your brewing efforts. Be sure to hang out here and let us know how it's going, problems included.

 

Actually, you can sparge with BIAB, and many people do. And you can do "no-sparge" without BIAB, and many people (including me) do. So I don't see how using a bag in the mash tun is needed to (or does anything to) "take sparging out of the equation."

 

I find it easier to use a bag in a Home Depot cooler mash tun than in the kettle.
You have more control over the temp obviously, but also keep the tun grain free.
I suppose you can attach a filter hose to the bulkhead or use a false bottom.
But I like a bag. Simple. Cheap.
And you don't have to sparge. You can, but you don't have to.
BIAB with better temp control and just dump the squeezings into the kettle.

 

I have a feeling you went a bit over that $2k budget eh? Haha