What piece of equipment improved your all-grain brewing for the positive the most?

[BVilleggiante]

I'm at a point in my all grain brewing where I'm wondering what else I need that can have a big impact on my final beer result. Here's a general list of what I have:

More Beer All Digital Brew Sculpture
Chest Freezer
Glass Carboy's
Standard Hydrometer
Kegging System
Plate Chiller

Things I don't have:

Grain mill
Refractometer
Conical Fermentors
Yeast Starter Equipment

So...what piece of equipment improved your beer the most?

 

[mux]

Books.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0937381985/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20
http://www.northernbrewer.com/shop/books-media/yeast-the-practical-guide-to-beer-fermentation.html

 

[drhookmec]

You see my conical in my avatar, this thing makes good beer and gives you the option to
harvest yeast off every batch thet you do.
Then you can use that yeast for another batch.

Also a grain mill is a must i don't trust mills at LHBS stores.
I also love my Blichmann 10gal mash tun IMO thay are the best.

Tim

 

[Brewskii]

Quality of the beer... Only one on the list is stir plate and flask for startets

 

[Waynep005]

Yeast starter equipment. By far the cheapest and it does help so it would be the best bang for your buck.

 

[ayoungrad]

I use my refractometer at least twice every brewday. It helps problem solve any issues and also allows you to accurately adjust your boil (if necessary) to hit your target OG.

I agree about the yeast starter equipment. If you use liquid yeast, it is a necessity unless you want to spend $15.00 for yeast on each batch.

 

[Beardsly]

You should definitely go for doing yeast starters. That is the most important thing that I have done to improve the quality of my beer. Having a proper pitch rate does wonders for the final product. Mr. Malty has a yeast calculator to help you determine the proper pitch rate, and I've used it several times it's great. Starters are pretty inexpensive to do as well. I just use a 1 gal. glass apple juice bottle from Whole Foods, some DME with a 40 min boil, and then just pitch a white labs vial. You want to make a wort that is about 1.040. Letting that go with occasional shaking or a stir plate 1-2 days prior to your brew day will do amazing things for your beer.

Moral of the story:
1. Costs next to nothing
2 Kills off flavors
3. There are a zillion threads on how to build a cheap stir plate if you are feeling extra scientific. (I use one, but I'm just a geek with a Bio degree so I use one but the occasional shake does alright too.)

 

[beergolf]

Without a doubt.... Stir plate to do yeast starters...

 

[duboman]

Starters and grain mill absolutely

 

[WhiteDog87]

On my first all grain batch I learned that I needed a mash paddle! big time! burning my knuckles trying to stir the deeper parts of the mash with a spoon was painful!

 

[Snafu]

I would have to say my fermentation chamber, the ability to have complete control of the temp has made the biggest impact on my brews.

 

[mikeysab]

Fermentation chamber and stir plate for me. Also, the knowledge of knowing why I needed those things

 

[hillhousesawdustco]

Fermentation chamber was the most helpful upgrade for me

 

[ajf]

My best upgrades as far as quality was concerned were:

1. Replacing the plastic bucket I used as a MLT with a cooler. Accurate mashing temperatures
2. A chest freezer with temp control for use as a fermentation chamber.

I have a grain mill. It saves me a bunch of time and money as I buy my grain in bulk once every 6 months instead of having to make a 65 mile round trip to the LHBS for each brew.
I have a refractometer. It saves me money through not having to replace broken hydrometers all the time, and it saves me a lot of time in monitoring the gravity of my runnings when fly sparging. I don't think it would be so useful with a batch sparge.
Never used a conical.
I have a stir plate, and it lets me make starters quickly and easily, but I made starters for over 30 years without a stir plate. It just took a lot longer.

-a.

 

[turkeyjerky214]

As others have said, obviously pitching rate and temp control are the two things that have the biggest impact on your beer.

I'd also recommend getting the 02 kit from William's Brewing. Refractometers are also very handy to have.

 

[jagg]

I would have to say my fermentation chamber, the ability to have complete control of the temp has made the biggest impact on my brews.

I would have to agree.:rockin:

 

[dukes]

beersmith

 

[itsme6582]

I think the biggest overlooked step on this site is fermentation control. There's nothing wrong with blinging out but if you want great beer you need to look at your yeast. Grain mills, conicals, stainless, and pumps don't make better beer. Keeping your yeast happy does.

Look into aeration, ferm temp control, and starters. You'll be better off with extract and happy yeast than all grain and an overlooked fermentation.

 

[rvklein]

So if you brew in your 65 degree (year round) basement with stainless conicals ( surface area allows for god heat transfer ) would a fermentation chamber be redundant for brewing ales?

 

[turkeyjerky214]

So if you brew in your 65 degree (year round) basement with stainless conicals ( surface area allows for god heat transfer ) would a fermentation chamber be redundant for brewing ales?

Nope. Even if your basement is 65º, your fermentation temps could still get into the 70s.

 

[Pilgarlic]

Fermentation chamber. Hands down.

 

[old_tx_kbb]

I vote for stir plate and O2 oxygenation....I likes my yeasties happy

 

[hafmpty]

You mention a chest freezer. I'm assuming, you have temperature control on it for fermentation. If not that would be the single best option for you. Temperature controlled fermentation is a must for consistently good, predictable fermentation. You don't need a conical for that. Just a nice dual-stage Ranco temp controller or one of the aquarium temp controller mentioned all over HBT. I just got mine setup and it is already making a big difference. If you've already got that, then I'd go with the stuff that's fairly cheap and that can actually help you make better beer.

1. Starter Equipment (helps better beer)
2. Grain Mill (helps better beer)
3. Refractometer (nice to have but doesn't make better beer)
4. Conical (expensive...but can help with making better beer)

 

[erikhild59]

starters and grain mill absolutely

+1

 

[rvklein]

I have a 3/4 hp glycol power pack I use to cool my draft lines. I was thinking of putting a second pump on it and using a coil to cool a conical.

 

[inda_bebe]

I just use a 1 gal. glass apple juice bottle from Whole Foods, some DME with a 40 min boil, and then just pitch a white labs vial.

do you boil the starter with the jug? just wondering if its strong enough cause it isnt a pyrex

 

[magnj]

Temp control for mash and ferm, looks like I should look into yeast starters though. Also finding a sparge methods that works with my hardware, went from fly to batch and we are locked in at 70-75 efficiency

 

[Beardsly]

DO NOT! DO NOT! DO NOT! boil the starter in the jug! Terrible things would happen. Just boil the starter on the stove, cool it in a sink full of ice, and use a sterile funnel to pour it into the sterilized jug.

 

[Petho]

The answer is: An IPOD with 5 hours of ROCKIN' music!!!

 

[afr0byte]

My pH meter and water spreadsheets.

 

[itsme6582]

the answer is: An ipod with 5 hours of rockin' music!!!

+1