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Greetings from Washington State

doehlecker

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Oct 1, 2013
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New to the brewing community here, still getting my equipment and processes in order.  I've brewed 3 batches so far, and was pleasantly relieved when my first attempt didn't send my brother-in-law to the ER.  It was actually fairly good.  Never tried an extract, figured if I was going to do this I'd go straight to the all grain method, and I'm happy to say it's actually getting easier.  Just really getting to explore the BeerSmith program, and so far it's really helping out.  Hello to all!
 
Hi Scott and thanks Robby for the welcome.  I'm in the Seattle area ....... so to speak.  Actually in Sammamish which is somewhat east of Seattle.  I've gutted the garage in the house we bought about a year ago, since it was too small to even park a compact car in, and I'm converting it into a small "brewery".  I've been through Vancouver numerous times, back and forth to Portland.  I've brewed 5 gallon batches up to now, and plan to double that to 10 gallons this weekend. After three times of doing the immersion chiller and gravity feed I decided to go with a plate chiller with the cooling water pre-chilled with the immersion chiller and pumps to eliminate the height issues with gravity feed.  Fun?  Yeah ....... Obsession?  Getting that way.  ;)
 
I just wish more of them were within say 30 miles of me.
It would be nice to have someone to brew with and sample beers with without having to drive for hours.

I guess I am the Pacific county brew club! 
My brother brews but only on a very rare occasion and then it's extract recipe kits.
 
I guess the one thing that is somewhat frustrating is how quickly I feel that I am going to outgrow my equipment.  Of course I'd like to eventually have a small "neighborhood" pub with a few seats and just enough room for a few people to stop by and tell me how they like the beer ...... and make a couple of bucks on the side.  Ah yes, dreams of wealth and a fun retirement.
 
Outgrowing your equipment is a very real occurrence that happens to just about all of us!  If I could go back about 25 years and start over, there are some purchases that I never would have made.  Especially when it comes to my boil pots.  I just upgraded from a 5 gallon system to a system capable of making 5-10-15 and even 20 gallon batches.  The 13 gallon brewpot that I figured was large enough, isn't even capable of 10 gallon batches.  I'm now purchasing a 15 gallon keg that is already drilled and coverted to a boil pot.  I'm getting it for $60, which is a killer deal.

I will rarely, if ever make 20 gallon batches.  When I make 15 gallon batches, they'll most likely be parti-gyles and will require two separate boils anyhow. 

If I do brew a 20 gallon batch, it will be a back to back boils.  Although, I do have my original 8 gallon brewpot too.  My 20 gallon batch could be broken up into boils of 10 gallons, 5 gallons and 5 gallons.  All I need now is two more burners.  I only have the one burner for now, so I'll eventually need at least one more.

As you can see from my rambling, no matter how long you've been doing this, it always seems that you're planning ahead and still not sure, even then, if you're making the correct purchases.

The best part is that there will always be people looking for equipment.  So, when you outgrow something, you can usually find someone to sell it to or trade it to, to offset the cost a little bit.
 
One other thing.  The more you grow and add on to your brewing equipment, the more you'll discover that you don't have enough fermenters!  I now have 7 fermenters, and I'm constantly having to plan ahead, so that I don't run myself out of fermenters.

If I'd quite making wine, it would be plenty of fermenters.  Unfortunately, my wife likes wine more than she likes beer.  So it seems like I always have one or two carboys filled with wine.  The two wines I'm making right now are long term projects.  One is a banana wine that takes about 7 months to get to bottling stage.  The other is a plum wine that will be 4 to 5 months in the carboys.  I should have them both bottled by January though, freeing up those two carboys for beer!!  ;D
 
Realizing the potential to out grow your gear is smart.
Keggles are on the small side to me now.
Buy what you can and bigger than you think you'll need.
my kitchen is full of large stainless pots that became too small for brewing.
I agree about the fermenters also.
I really like the speidle (sp?) fermenters that morebeer carries.  15 gallon capacity is nice.

 
I remember when I first got the idea to do this.  I went to the local brew supply store with my wife and started to explore the possibilities.  I immediately realized that putting the money out for a "starter kit" would be a complete waste for me, and looking at the extract kits kind of reminded me of going to McDonalds ....... limited options.  Not to slight those of you who are into the extracts, please don't take offense.  So I started reading, read some more, and read some more.  I ordered a 15 gallon brew pot, picked up a 10 gallon all grain mashing cooler set, 4 6.5 gallon glass carboys, and a seemingly endless array of various toys and gadgets.  Every once in a while my wife will venture out to the garage/mini-brewery that I am creating, stare at the small fortune that I have spent on "stuff" (at least to her it's a small fortune), shake her head and walk away.  So while I do know I will outgrow that, at least I'm not looking at the Mr. Beer kits stacked up in a closet, and a lot of what I do have will at least carry over with any reasonable expansion.  However I have already caught myself drooling over the thought of getting a 27 gallon fermenator.  :p
 
If you have hobby money and you enjoy the whole brewing thing, you can say goodbye to $1000 in a hurry.
Always something new to get, something to be upgraded.  You can make $1,000 seem like child play also.    It's all in what you do with it.
Myself, I would say that a keggle is a great starting point for pots if you aren't going to be doing it on the stove top.
You can get a very tough and very good 15 gallon brew pot pretty cheap that way.

I myself feel that the keggle is small for a brew pot now.

 
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