Better Gear Does Help

[John Sand]

Seems obvious, right? I generally favor simpler in all things: my tools, boat, and car are all decades old, or at least that basic. I like it that way. I started brewing with MrBeer and kitchen pots. I moved to BIAB, still in kitchen pots. I used a glass thermometer. And made some really good beer. Then I got an SP10 burner. And I finally upgraded to a 10gallon pot and an electronic thermometer. Easier to hit my mash temp, and no boilovers. I still believe you can make great beer on your stove, and I'm not likely to plunk down thousands for an automated system. But I agree with those who advise moving up by yards instead of inches. Maybe I should have bought a twenty gallon pot?

[FedoraDave]

When I started (also with Mr. Beer), I bought a pot much larger than I really needed for those kits. I still have it, and still use it, but I also have a larger pot, for 5 gallon batches, and a smaller pot, which I use for sparge water. Since I do AG with a mash tun, BIAB, and extract batches, depending on batch size, I use them all.

I don't even want to know how much I've spent on all my gear. But I do believe that, depending on how far you want to go with this, having better gear (and dedicated brew vessels/utensils) is a good idea.

Right now, I've got everything I need for what I want to do, and I can't see it changing any time soon. But if it does, I'm going to make sure I do it right.

[RickBeer]

I agree with not skimping on quality when buying brewing gear, but I also look flexibility. When I went to buy a pot, I could get a 5 gallon for $29.95 (now $19.95). A larger pot, for potential future brewing, with valves and such would have been much more expensive and would have required me evaluating things like valves that I hadn't even thought about.

I also jumped at the beginning on a large siphon that I have never used. I bought it, then read about using a hose to go from LBK to bottling bucket and that was that. I'm sure I will use it at some point.

I keep thinking about moving to an outside burner powered by natural gas, and a bigger pot, but am currently satisfied doing extract recipes and my 5 gallon pot is fine for boiling 3 1/2 gallons which is what they call for.

Probably my next step is moving to more/bigger fermenters and bottling bucket, but have to weigh only using them in the colder weather when the basement is cool enough.

[John Sand]

I have four pots now, though I already had two before brewing. I still use both of the newer ones, to mash, sparge, boil. None were over $50, all are aluminum, no valves or sight glasses.
Rick, I use an Ale Pail now, but no bottling bucket. I bottle prime with Domino Dots, and fill with an auto-siphon and bottling wand. I use a clip to keep the siphon above the trub.

[Chuck N]

In the wood-working world we have a saying that every table saw costs you $700 - $800. You can go out and buy that $150 table saw but a couple years down the road it's gonna break and you'll replace it with another $150 saw and on and on. Or you'll out-grow it and replace it with a more expensive saw and on and on. Or you'll do the smart thing and buy that nice $800 saw and it will last you for the rest of your life.

[Dawg LB Steve]

There was an article that showed up on facebook from a homebrew group around a couple weeks ago addressing this about equipment. In a way in hindsight I would have made less purchases of kettles and burners had I know that it would have blossomed in this manner. How was I to know that I could actually produce at home, beers that rival Craft Brewers and are better than BMC? Certainly not me! I favored Craft Beers, but had never tasted a home brewed beer before I started brewing.

[DaYooper]

I've been pretty lucky thus far. Picked up the turkey fryer kit from my parents when they decided after one use it was just too much work. It will not accommodate a valve, so taking it over to my friend's to have a section torched off to fit the weldless valve I picked up last Black Friday in order to make a mini-mash tun. When I bought my kegging setup a few years ago he threw in a whole much of other stuff as knew I would use it and didnt want to have to spend the time piecing everything out (thus the reason I have three red wing cappers now). Only real major investment Ive made was in my tun. Have been eyeing a 15 gallon pot as of late. The only reason I havent picked it up is not sure if it will fit on my burner.