Buying Equipment?

Also check your local brew supply store, my guy always has used equipment for sale because he's hooked into the local brew community and people are always dropping out and moving on.

 

For brew kettles I would check ebay. You can get some good deals on brand new ones. Also wholesale clubs sometimes have good deals on coolers that can be used as mash tuns.

 

Brew club members can be a generous lot. You just pay it forward when your situation calls for it.

You do belong to a brew club, right?

 

T dunno if homebrewtalk.com still has an auction link or not. Otherwise craigslist might be your best bet if you're willing to be patient.

 

the answer to your question is, unfortunately, no.

for pro equipment you can go to probrewer.com. eventually all of us homebrewing freaks spend some time dreaming over there. but for homebrewing CL and your LHBS is as good as it gets.

take your time though. with maybe $400 over the course of a year you could really have a stellar homebrewery. sounds like alot but a few good buys every 3 months and youll be surprised.
Cheers.

edit; if you want a used 10-15 gallon all grain set up you are going to be disappointed i think. that is something only the most dedicated invest in; maybe an estate sale and thats all. my guess.

 

I doubt there are many used Blichmann products available. Disgruntled Blichmann consumers do not generally post on the interwebs. Either he has a high-priced squadron of hitmen to make sure this doesn't happen, or else, by and large, Blichmann buyers don't have much to complain about.

 

Well, there was one guy who did on this forum, but he wasn't actually a customer. He had heard Blichmann was bad. Then he claimed he knew it from personal experience. Then he admitted he had never bought anything from Blichmann nor attempted to communicate with them in any way. Though he was still disappointed in Blichmann's imaginary email response time. Good times.

 

I bought my AG stuff at Home Depot and saved some money.

Those round Gott style coolers were something like 45 bucks at HD - they wanted 2x that from the online etailers.

Plus as a vet - I get 10% off at HD. There are alternatives to Blichmann like Spikes and Stout Tanks but I can't talk about them - don't own them.

 

Blichmann's are thoughtfully made and incredibly functional products. They were my first AG system. But they're thin stainless. Other than that, rockin stuff. You can spend damn near the same amount customizing your tanks. Not for those on a budget, and even second hand (ask my friend who got a great deal), they're not budget buys. If you can find them second hand.

So yeah. Not many complaints. But very thin. I'd trade some budget pot for the body in a heartbeat doin it over again. Trade-offs.

 

ow. Blichmann for your first AG system? You do things right. I'm still brewing in the stone ages with the system I cobbled together myself, and I'm not much of a cobbler. I have heard people complain about the price of the Blichmann stuff. Those were always people who didn't buy them. As for thin walls, I wonder if that is a tradeoff that involves the physics of heat transfer (in addition to cost issues). It seems to me that thicker walls ought to slow down heating some (a little?). But I don't know what I am talking about - just shooting from the hip.

 

You are correct, thin wall will transfer more heat as the equivalent thermal resistance is less.

If you get a Blichmann poet and their burner it should be a good system, as the burner is a banjo type that will have good heat distribution.