Have I accidentally started the process of upgrading my equipment?

[akdunbar]

I think that I may have accidentally started the process of upgrading my brewing equipment...

Opening Ebay earlier today I saw a plate wort cooler. I throw on a high bid of £15, not expecting annoying of it only to find out a few hours later that mine was the winning bid... (£8 + £4.95 postage)

At the moment I have no way of using it as I'm just using a cheap, £30 20L stockpot from Amazon to brew.

So I guess it's time to upgrade to a "proper" brew kettle. But now starts the process of deciding do I with to electric or stay using my gas cooker and/or propane if I decide to move it into the garage.

I'm thinking of maybe trying a three vessel setup rather then an all-in-one, and I want to increase my capacity, 10L is all well and good, but you do tend to run out a bit soon...

 

[Clickeral]

I think that I may have accidentally started the process of upgrading my brewing equipment...

Opening Ebay earlier today I saw a plate wort cooler. I throw on a high bid of £15, not expecting annoying of it only to find out a few hours later that mine was the winning bid... (£8 + £4.95 postage)

At the moment I have no way of using it as I'm just using a cheap, £30 20L stockpot from Amazon to brew.

So I guess it's time to upgrade to a "proper" brew kettle. But now starts the process of deciding do I with to electric or stay using my gas cooker and/or propane if I decide to move it into the garage.

I'm thinking of maybe trying a three vessel setup rather then an all-in-one, and I want to increase my capacity, 10L is all well and good, but you do tend to run out a bit soon...

I have a lot of kit, and am constantly upgrading :p

my 2c is I would say if moving up from a stock pot go for a 1V ie Brewzilla, Braumeister etc I can knock out a 22L batch (I use 11L cubes) in about 4hrs on one and its pretty easy to do multiple days with it in the back ground.

I use it for all my pilot brews and recipe building/tweaking

I also have multiple options for a 3/4V setup with a 50 or 70L MLT and a 170L kettle (I generally do doubles 44L in in the 50L MLT and use my 70L MLT to boil)

My HLT has a herms coil in it as well

I've managed a 132L batch (12cubes) with my 70L MLT maxed out and using some dextrose, I can also use both my MLT together for more volume if need be

The 3/4v is useful if I want to knock out volume of one beer, though I do have a recipe that I brewed on it that made me a mexican lager, a cold IPA and a WCIPA so there is options but with compromises

I am currently reducing my production and trying to have more 9.5L kegs of a range of beer so it depends how much beer you go through

The 1v can also be expanded upon, you can use your existing stockpot for sparge water and always get another kettle later (ie Converted Keg) on to use the 1v as the MLT

The Brewzilla as an example can have an extended malt pipe and boiler extension added to increase capacity, you can also go to a stronger false bottom to make it more dedicated as a MLT having an element in the Brewzilla effectively is the same as having a RIMS system

Personally I wouldn't get a 65L 1v due to manual handling (unless you have a winch/hoist/rope & pulleys etc) but I know people that it works well for

Hope this helps :)