Help with upgrading my brewing equipment

Below is a link to an article which may be helpful to you. You will read that the author states: "I chose to go with a Brewzilla, which is my focus for this article,..."

https://www.morebeer.com/articles/All_In_One_Brewing_Systems

I do not brew using am all in one brewing system so I have no input to provide here.

Best of luck with your research and choice.

Cheers!

 

Depends on what sort of equipment you already have. I don't know what an All in One System is exactly. If you have something from a good retailer that was intended to be all inclusive, it's probably already pretty good. Some of us have been brewing for years, decades even, with the some of the same tools we started with. Buckets, chiller, tubing, all sorts of gear.

Using quality equipment will make your life easier but not necessarily make your beer better. I don't have a pump because I know how gravity works (it's fascinating). But a pump will make moving hot wort easier. You can get a refractometer, but a hydrometer is just as good, and a bit more fragile. A $100 Therma Pen is awesome, but so is a good $25 thermometer.

Get a good wort chiller or better yet, make one.
Get a decent 6.5 gallon kettle with a spigot.
Get a propane burner with 50k BTUs or more... be like @mikehartigan with a billion BTUs.

Others will weigh in too.

Cheers

 

Bill, I would recommend you read the short article I linked above.

Cheers!

 

Occasional threads occur in this forum about these all-in-one systems, so a search using the specific brand of interest might get you some helpful opinions. You'll get some bias too, so beware.

 

Not an all in one system...but...if I were a noob wanting to upgrade my first step would be reliable fermentation temp control. This can be as simple as a fridge w/thermostat override. Second step would be understanding my water profile. Third step would be a grain mill.

Still using the "original" bottle brush that came in my Northern Brewer starter kit.

 

I am pretty much at the same stage as you. Been fermenting in a plastic bucket, which works fine, but I am seriously thinking of moving up to a stainless fermenter. Conicals look to be the way I am going. From my limited research, I've been looking at stainless conical fermenters from: Anvil, Spike, Northern Brewer, SS Brewtech, Blichmann, BrewBuilt, and Grainfather They run the gamut on price points. I am not going the route of an all-in-one system. I like the whole process and the equipment I currently have for mashing, sparging, boiling, cooling, etc. all work well for me. I also have the temperature control dialed in pretty well.

 

I love my Spike conical. I don’t think you would regret that route even though it is a bigger investment. The accessory options are limitless. The Pressure fermentation possibility is the biggest reason I stepped up from an Anvil Bucket. The Bucket is really good for a lot of fermentations though, I definitely still use it as well.