BeerBorg

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?

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.