Poll: which upgrade to pursue?

[Crazy Climber]

I own none of the above.
Which would be, in your opinion, the one that would improve my brewing more than the others, from a cost/benefit perspective?
Feel free to state your case in replies.

Background:
For oxygen, currently I just shake the hell out of the carboy after transferring.
For pH, I know my water's starting pH and guesstimate based on EZWater spreadsheet and adding acid as needed, based on the spreadsheet's calculations.
For chilling, I use an ice bath in a utility sink.

Thanks in advance for your two cents!

[FrozenInTime]

Oxygenation kit I have and rarely use. I pour my wort into the carboy and it splashes pretty good. ph meter, I have never checked, never cared to play water chemistry as my beer comes out great. Wort Chiller, well worth the $$, cuts down the waiting time for me big time. My well water is a constant 50 degrees, even during the dog days of summer. Takes me about 15 minutes to go from boiling to 70 degrees. I used to do the sink/ice chill, it works but takes a little more time but since I started to do 6 gallon batches, the sink chill would not be worth the time to mess with.

[Beer-lord]

I voted for the chiller to because the faster you can chill your beer, the faster you can get yeast into it and start the love going and keep out the bad stuff.
I almost always use my oxygen kit though there are always easy and free ways to aerate it (like you said). Water treatments are great but if you already have good water, start with the chiller now then move to the others later.
Have fun!

[berryman]

Out of them 3 options, chiller all the way....

[Dawg LB Steve]

Chiller. Getting down to pitching temp quickly means less time for nasties to take hold. Always heard with a good hot break and good cold break you get less hazy proteins in the finished product.
My 2 cents.

[ScrewyBrewer]

Definitely get a good wort chiller first, you will thank yourself every time you brew.

[Bluejaye]

Chiller, for sure.

I honestly have ever used my oxygenator (is that a word?) once. I just pour my wort between buckets a couple of times now, seems just as effective to me.

[BlackDuck]

Looks that the Wort Chiller is gonna win this hands down!!!

[brewnewb]

Getting a chiller is like going to bed early, you'll never regret it the next day!

[Dawg LB Steve]

As far as the oxygenator setup I got from AIH, just get the red O2 bernzomatic type cylinders from home improvement stores, I use every brew. Get about a dozen from a tank. Between my water treatment and O2 my yeast lag times are around 6-8 hours now. If I don't use the O2, lag times get into 18-20 hour range.

[Kealia]

I'll be the dissenting vote and say go with the oxygen kit. Since you already use an ice bath the chiller *will* make cooling faster, but I see two advantages to the oxygen kit:
1) Better, happier, healthier yeast (because there is a limit to the amount of oxygen you can get by shaking/pouring)
2) Less work from not having to shake the carboy

Don't get me wrong, I love my chiller. But I see this as shaving some time off your chilling by getting one versus increasing the health of your yeast by going the other way.

Keep in mind, I'm about 60/40 in favor of the oxygen kit, but it is close enough to be swayed. Either way, I think you'll be really happy with your choice.

[MadBrewer]

My vote would depend on a couple things:

1) If you are primarily a dry yeast user, I wouldnt bother with an oygen system just yet if I had to pick between items.

2) A ph meter can be handy, and even using water calcs its good to double check things but not a necessity. It wont improve your beer if your beer is already tasting good. If you are confident in the numbers and like the results then all is well.

3) How big are your batch sizes? If doing 5 gal batches sure, a chiller will be a great time and energy saver and you will have it for years to come.

But my main question is what are you doing for temp control. That is ways my number one recomendation to help make the beer you are brewing even better. But if I had to vote between the 3 items above I also would go with a chiller.

[Crazy Climber]

Wow, I did not expect the landslide that I got! Thanks, all, for the opinions.

To answer MadBrewer's questions - I do have an old fridge that I use with a Johnson controller for fermentation control. And I'm probably about 70/30 dry yeast.

A couple of items make me a little hesitant to jump on the wort chiller bandwagon quite so readily (but I probably will, eventually) --

1- I mostly do half-sized batches (2.5g using a 3g Better Bottle), so chilling the smaller volume is not the chore that it would be at a full 5 gallons. (But it is still a chore, as my ice bath method takes between 30-60 minutes depending on time of year and desired pitching temp. I actually start with just cold water and drain it once or twice before switching to ice, to help bring the temp down a bit without wasting ice.)

2- I perform the ice bath in my utility sink, which is in an unfinished portion of the basement with marginal ventilation, and I suspect the atmosphere in there is crawling with cooties. So, I keep the kettle lid on. The thought of running a wort chiller in that environment, with the lid off, makes me very nervous. Yes, I could run the chiller outside instead, but that doesn't help in the winter where I'd have to haul the kettle through piles of snow to get to the outdoor spigot.

I've got a friend who has a homemade copper chiller; I may ask to borrow it this spring, to give a try and see what I think. You guys have convinced me that it's definitely worth looking into.

And I confess...there's a chance I will end up accumulating all three items at some point over the next few years, so it's really just a matter of which comes first. Thanks again for all the input!

[bpgreen]

When you do the ice water thing in the sink, do you use salt? Salt significantly drops the temperature and a slurry with the water transfers the cold more efficiently than ice alone.

[RickBeer]

I make ice blocks in Tupperware and Cool Whip containers. About 15 cool down 3.5 gallons in 15 mins or so. No cold water first. I put the blue ice blocks in first to get the water pre-cold for the last 15 min of the boil, then remove them and add the ice blocks.

Leaving the lid on is inhibiting your cooling, i.e. keeping the wort moving in a circle and letting heat out. Cooties should die no problem. Or carry it up to the kitchen sink.