Beer Brewing Equipment Types with Chris Graham – BeerSmith Podcast #333

Chris Graham joins me this week from MoreBeer to discuss home brewing equipment types and options for upgrading your brewing equipment.

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Topics in This Week’s Episode (50:25)

This week I welcome back Chris Graham from MoreBeer, a top supplier of brewing equipment and ingredients. Chris is the President of MoreBeer, and has taught at the Siebel Instutute and also served on both the Brewer’s Association Board of Directors and the American Homebrewer’s Association Governing Council.
Chris gives us a short overview of what is new at MoreBeer.
We start with a discussion on Flash Brewing which is perhaps the simplest method for brewing beer and requires the least equipment. We covered this topic in more detail on Episode #309. Chris describes the equipment and basic methods for Flash Brewing.
Next we discuss Extract brewing which gives you flexbility over your recipes, but can still be done with very little equipment. Even a smaller pot on the stovetop, bucket for fermentation and bottles to store the beer is enough.
We discuss the general trend towards smaller batches in brewing and changes post-COVID.
Chris next introduces all grain brewing using relatively inexpensive All-in-one Brew in a Bag (BIAB) systems which have become very popular. These smaller systems in many cases have sophisticated features like temperature control and pumps, but are compact and easy to use. Moving to all grain also gives you full control over the brewing process and enables just about any beer to be brewed.
We discuss some of the pros and cons of a BIAB style all in one system, along with some of the more advanced features on some models.
Chris next moves up to a three vessel system which is used for all grain and mirrors the basic vessels on a larger pro size system. These systems often blur the lines between home and professional equipment, and in fact many small nano-breweries use large homebrew system three tier systems for brewing.
Chris talks about temperature control, pumps and the difference between a RIMS and HERMS system for heating the mash.
We talk about home brewing pumps which are required as systems get larger and some of the features to look for in a home brewing pump.
We briefly discuss pro brewing systems and what might be added in terms of automation as the systems move from large home brewing equipment to commercial sizes.
Chris discusses fermenters and some of the options available from a simple plastic bucket to a pressurized stainless conical. We’ve seen a lot of advancement in this area especially at the homebrew level.
Chris provides his thoughts on where home brewing is going next as well as his closing thoughts.

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