Your upgrade that you now could not live without

THIS

 

This!!!

 

Maybe vintners best. Its a 7.5 gallon bucket. I use the shit out of it.

 

I bought a 3/8" x 25 ft copper chiller when i started. Then i made a 1/2" x 20 ft copper chiller. Instead of letting one sit i patiently wrapped both together and run them with two pumps. Cools wort really fast.

 

Blichmann auto-sparge.

 

I've been using an EBIAB for about a year, but to be honest, I miss my homemade made mash tun. Single infusion cooler with batch sparge is pretty damn easy.

 

all electric brewing (HLT, RIMS, and Brew kettle)

 

1. Propane burner.
2. Kegging system.
3. 10 gallon Gott cooler mash tun and stainless steel false bottom.
4. Immersion wort chiller (75 feet of coiled copper tubing)..
5. Chest freezer with a temperature control.

 

The following made a remarkable improvement in brew quality.

- Chest freezer fermentation chamber with home-built network
connected temperature controller for monitor/control
via a smart phone when I'm away.

- Water test kit
- Reverse osmosis water filter
- Counter-flow chiller

Less important but I wouldn't want to live without

- Grain mill
- Stainless false bottom for my 10-gallon Igloo cooler mash tun.

 

Am I the only one who feels like the more trinkets and gadgets I use, the farther from the art of brewing I get?

 

My basic rule for adding/changing components to my setup/process is that I only do it if I believe it will help improve the beer, or at least make some tedious task much easier. So I'd say I still feel pretty connected to the process. But FWIW, I definitely lean more toward the science side rather than the art side. (Not that they have to be mutually exclusive.)

 

Mine is a pump(s). I brewed for years with gravity only. I would not go back. Unless... I can build a more vertical brewery..

 

After a dozen years of 'Homebrewing evolution' (from 5 gal extract through increasing acquisition of trinkets and gadgets to 1/2 BBL all-grain), I'll go with a resounding rejection of the notion that 'gadgets' remove one from the process.

Last week, for the hell of it, I brewed a 5 gallon extract batch on my kitchen stove for the first time in at least 10 years. Equipment was limited to a 20 Qt pot, a bucket fermentor, an O2 bottle, and an ice bath in my kitchen sink.

It doesn't get much simpler than that - but, to me? *That* is far more 'removed' from the science/art of brewing than using pumps and valves, auto-sparge, hop rocket, plate chiller, and other misc. gadgets to make brewing top-notch beer from scratch a little easier and more efficient.

ymmv

 

My Blichmann chiller plate. After a review of my brewday notes from the past 2 years the one spot I was inefficient at was cooling my wort in a timely fashion. Now I cool it in the blink of an eye.

A honorable mention to Beersmith as others have stated.

Cheers

 

My mileage does vary. There is something very zen about not screwing around with pumps, auto sparge set ups, etc. but then again my process is not very science driven, so there's that I guess.

Strictly from a good beer standpoint, there has to be more to it than that. I can go buy some top notch beer. For me, brewing is a release. I would get so bored watching some automated system consume grain and water and excrete wort.

 

Assuming finances will allow, I'm still on my way up, equipment wise. The approach I've been taking is to validate that I know the root cause of the problem especially before spending money on it.

One thing I actually like about this sequential approach is the game of solving the various mysteries, which keeps the art and science in it for me. Plus, it regulates expenditures.

 

Before buying my setup I did brewing courses, read 4 books (still reading others - it just never ends) and saw absolutely EVERY SINGLE youtube brewing video. I started already with a Grainfather electrical systems and a fermenter chamber (I live in Rio de Janeiro - Brazil, no way doing it without a temprature controlled invironment). So I can of started with a lot of gadgets. Still have a lot to improve, though.

The thing I did not have that made a HUGE difference in a SS Roll Mill. Damn, here in Brazil 90% of the people use the disk mill...it is a PITA. So now I get to mill in 5 minutes what i´ve been spending 1 hour and a half to mill.

Now, my next step is a chonical fermenter and then, Kegs.

 

I've had lots of upgrades over the years, all (or at least most) of which have been beneficial. But there are three that have probably contributed most to making (and maintaining) good beer: (1) my stir plate for starter production, (2) my temperature controlled fermentation chamber, and (3) kegging my homebrews. Cheers!