What equipment should i get?

My wife has asked me if i want any brewing kit for my upcoming birthday or Christmas.

I do small volume (10l) BIAB on the top of our kitchen gas stove, mash in a 15l stockpot in the oven, chill in an icebath in the kitchen sink and have just set up a fermentation fridge to try to get a better handle on temp control. Im fairly happy with my process and dont really want to brew bigger batches as i enjoy the brewing process and only get through it so quickly.

So far i have thought of an autosiphon and a party star dispenser as i want to start using mini kegs a my primary method of dispensing.

Is there anything that any of you would recommend to improve my process, or just equipment that has changed the quality or your beer / brewing experience?

Cheers
Chris

Kegging has been the single biggest improvement for me as far as enjoyment. Might not be as much so for a smaller batch, but for 23 litre batches, I found the cleaning and sanitising of 40-50 bottles each time a right pain! This would take several hours and was not particularly enjoyable. Add to that the time to fill the bottles.

Now I just need to clean a few bottles for whatever does not fit into the keg. I am using the Corney kegs which are 19 litres. You can get half sized ones I believe which are around the 10 litre mark, so this might be ideal for you, an example is here: https://www.brewuk.co.uk/cornelius-keg-new-mini.html (other retailers are available). With the keg, you would need a CO2 bottle of some description, some gas and beer lines and tap.

This might be overkill for you, but generally the beer will stay pretty good for a while as no oxygen can get in.

Otherwise, you might look at the 5 litre mini-kegs. BrewUK have a starter kit: https://www.brewuk.co.uk/mini-keg-starter-kit.html
* Disclaimer: I am not associated with BrewUK and I have not used these kegs, so cannot speak for them! *

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Jerry

JerryP said:

Kegging has been the single biggest improvement for me as far as enjoyment. Might not be as much so for a smaller batch, but for 23 litre batches, I found the cleaning and sanitising of 40-50 bottles each time a right pain! This would take several hours and was not particularly enjoyable. Add to that the time to fill the bottles.

Now I just need to clean a few bottles for whatever does not fit into the keg. I am using the Corney kegs which are 19 litres. You can get half sized ones I believe which are around the 10 litre mark, so this might be ideal for you, an example is here: https://www.brewuk.co.uk/cornelius-keg-new-mini.html (other retailers are available). With the keg, you would need a CO2 bottle of some description, some gas and beer lines and tap.

This might be overkill for you, but generally the beer will stay pretty good for a while as no oxygen can get in.

Otherwise, you might look at the 5 litre mini-kegs. BrewUK have a starter kit: https://www.brewuk.co.uk/mini-keg-starter-kit.html
* Disclaimer: I am not associated with BrewUK and I have not used these kegs, so cannot speak for them! *

:
Jerry

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Cheers Jerry, I'm certainly tempted by the mini kegs. Cornis might be a little overkill for me at the moment given the need for a superset co2 bottle, beer lines etc, but it is really useful to hear your experiences.

I'd be looking at an immersion wort chiller to speed up cooling times. I found chilling in my sink really boring. A proper wort chiller really sped things up.

Simonh82 said:

I'd be looking at an immersion wort chiller to speed up cooling times. I found chilling in my sink really boring. A proper wort chiller really sped things up.

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Good shout - this is the part of the process that i find most frustrating

Chrislane said:

Good shout - this is the part of the process that i find most frustrating

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If you want to reduce the cost you can go with 10m of 8-10mm soft copper pipe and make it yourself. I paid for min and when it arrived I realised quite how easy it would be to make.

Mini kegs were a life changer for me. I do 2 MKs and 20 bottles per brew, and it saves so much time. And when I brew a beer that can't really be minikegged (mainly due to the carbonation levels, like my current American Wheatbeer) the bottling feels like less of a chore because I won't have bottled a full batch for a while.

MickDundee said:

Mini kegs were a life changer for me. I do 2 MKs and 20 bottles per brew, and it saves so much time.

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This is the same for me, I love mini kegs. They're really well suited to a lot of beer styles and I find they pour a better pint than from a bottle...only down side is having to drink them in 2/3 days. :

DoctorMick said:

This is the same for me, I love mini kegs. They're really well suited to a lot of beer styles and I find they pour a better pint than from a bottle...only down side is having to drink them in 2/3 days. :

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Not with a Party Star tap - they claim the beer will keep fresh for 2 months, but the longest I've ever made a keg last is 10 days.

I'd agree with the wort chiller - did my first stove-top BIAB yesterday since the summer break and I'd forgotten what a pain cooling in the sink is.

Simonh82 said:

I'd be looking at an immersion wort chiller to speed up cooling times. I found chilling in my sink really boring. A proper wort chiller really sped things up.

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That, too, is a good shout. I found that a wort chiller is essential.

Thanks guys, some good tips there.

I will definitely take a look at making an immersion chiller. One question though, does it use a lot of water?

Chrislane said:

Thanks guys, some good tips there.

I will definitely take a look at making an immersion chiller. One question though, does it use a lot of water?

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I don't see why it would use a lot more than chilling in a bath, especially in winter when the groundwater is cold.

Slid said:

I don't see why it would use a lot more than chilling in a bath, especially in winter when the groundwater is cold.

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Ok, cheers

Chrislane said:

Thanks guys, some good tips there.

I will definitely take a look at making an immersion chiller. One question though, does it use a lot of water?

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You can run the water through the wort thriller and into a spare FV or builders trub etc. Then use this collected clean hot water (and it will be hot) for cleaning at the end of you brew day

Chrislane said:

Thanks guys, some good tips there.

I will definitely take a look at making an immersion chiller. One question though, does it use a lot of water?

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I have a large (200+ litres) water butt in my back garden. I attached a quick release hose connector to the tap, then hosing from that to a small 12V DC pump (like this: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/322279286021 ) . From that it goes to my immersion chiller. You can then let the water go down the drain, or even dump it back into the top of the water butt. With that large a volume, the amount it will heat it would be minimal. As this water should never come into contact with the wort, there is no risk of contamination. Just make sure that your copper bends down when it comes out of the kettle and the host connectors are below the level of the kettle rim.

I have not found any issue with this, although in theory in Summer, the water may be a little too warm to effectively cool the last few degrees. You can always do what people often do in California where the tap water is warm - have two immersion coils, put the water into the first coil which sits in a bucket of ice water to cool a little more, then from there to the one in the kettle.

I have not had any need to try that yet though.

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