10 gallon batches in a keggle was game changing for me. Since I’m going to go through the same process and cleaning anyway, getting another 5 gallons out of it is way more motivating.
@@tman9338 BIAB in a half barrel keggle over a propane burner on a stand I built tall enough to gravity transfer into the corny kegs I use as fermentation vessels. I'm doing around 9.5 gallons of finished wort and for giant grain bills I'm limited to smaller brews. I don't like lifting more than 5 gallons so gravity transfers and pressure transfers always, and I don't have to clean a pump. Rock on
@@RedGreen1 Great idea! I have extra Corny kegs - possible to send a pic of your setup showing fittings on Corney? Possilbe to send video or pic of your setup next time u brew??
I always shake my head when I see a $700 fermentor in a closet with no temp control 🤦♂️. The fermentation vessel is the last thing we should spend money on. There are 4 things that brought my beer to truly commercial quality. Temp control, yeast starters (or pitching multiple packs), pure oxygen with a diffusion stone, not just shaking the fermentor, and water chemistry. If those 4 elements are on point you will make commercial quality beer in a plastic bucket.
@@ignoranceisstrenght1984 They do not need to be air tight.Beer makes pressure not a vacuum. I never use an air-lock no problems. Besides its homebrew no worries.
In golf we say there are no pictures on your scorecard. If you score well it speaks for itself. So if your beer tastes great who cares how expensive your equipment is!
I’m a self confessed low budget brewer. I use canned extract from Woolworths home brand, buy 20 kg (44lb) dry malt extract, dextrose by the 10 kg (22lb) filter own water, co2 purge kegs from harvesting fermentation co2, buy bulk hops and yeast past its use by date… Yep… I’m cheap.. but the beer is better than the moronic swill from big Aussie breweries.
Very good advice, thanks CH. A buddy asked me which brewing system he should get, and I recommended BIAB to him. It really depends on what you want: - If you want ease of use and automation, get a grainfather or equivalent system. - if you want more hands-on and old-school brewing method, get a 3 pot system. - if you want the least fuss and the cheapest/simplest system, BIAB is great.
If you live in Canada you save money for sure. In the long run of course, because of the upfront cost. Also depending of course on what you're brewing. If its a simple Hefe using dry yeast or a big IPA with 10oz of hops and liquid yeast. Your return on investment will be a lot longer brewing those expensive beers. That being said, people ask me that question all the time and I explain its a hobby so i don't look at it that way. But I tell them generally speaking I'm producing craft beer for at least half the cost of the liquor store and a 1/4 that of pubs. Most hobbies make you zero money and just cost you, so I think its great.
The last time I home brewed was 2005... I'm looking to get back into brewing with a cheap, scalable system and, honestly, there's too much out there. Thanks for cutting through the noise, I'm looking forwards to doing some smooth batches of dunkel in the near future! Hope to see y'all up in vista sometime!
Preach braj! The right way is the way that gets YOU beer YOU love. I started BIAB in my 6gal crab boiler and fermenting in a plastic bucket. I upgraded to ssbrewbucket and kegging, will probably bite the bullet and go Anvil foundry for my bday, then my kit will be complete. Kegging is a gamechanger. 55lbs grain, 1lb hops, lhbs for specialty and yeast for the WIN. Solid advice here braj. Back to writing this weekend's porter recipe...
I love the "nice, but not necessary." I have a friend that's a chemist that struggled with brewing as cheaply as possible so when I decided to get into brewing i listened to where he struggled and bought some upgraded stuff to start. I Bottled once and decided...bump that, went to kegging and that made my brewing much more pleasureable. Bottling is the absolute worst and I have heard so many people struggle with not the. Reading itself, but dealing with so many vessels to clean/sanitize.
I did some of this low budget stuff by accident. Started piecing things together over a few months before I started brewing. I'm curious if I crunch the numbers if I could've bought a all in one system with the money I've spent already. But oh well. BIAB been working for me for 3 brews now. Next purchase will be grain mill so I can do bulk grains.
Really solid advice...so if you're watching this and you wanna start brewing - DO IT! You don't need fancy equipment to make great beer...and it is a lot of fun. I do love CH's content - it's spot on. CHEERS BRAJ!
@@HOMEBREW4LIFE For all you guys who might be looking to acquire a Vittle Vault - it's a pet food container with a gamma lid seal that keeps your grains safe, dry and no bugs...but they are expensive - take a look at Marshalls stores...they have these sometimes for CHEAP! BRAJ ON!
I've just had a look at my equipment tracker... sitting at about £1700 spent on equipment, never mind ingredients. Have I made a lot of beer - yes Have I had fun making lots of beer - yes Have my friends, who thought I was mental for converting the garage into a microbrewery and taproom been proven wrong, because lockdown closed all the pubs for nearly a year - yes Conclusion - totes worth it.
i time travel......and go back to 1970 and my favorite pub where a glass of draft is 30 cents and a pack of smokes about $1.25..time travel is great,other than that a six pack of colt 45 is awesome :]
Great video, and 100% on point, especially #5. You know what I bought after using my CF5 for a while? An anvil bucket, because it's easier to use. Also, way to shout out all the fellow brewtubers, cheers to that!
If you live in a climate where you can grow hops, you can get a really good return on investment. Also buying used is good 2...i got a kegerator with a keg n. O2 tank for 300, some people buy the stuff and get bored
Loving the straight forward advice on equipment. You’ve convinced me to buy a vacuum sealer. Haha! I’ve actually been meaning to find a more efficient ways to store hops. Any tips of buying fruit on a budget? Love your input! Cheers fellow homebrewer!
I did a first (saison) and third place (ipa) on a national, pro and amateur competition. Both in buckets. The first place was a split batch freak accident. My cellar is at 17C - I can increase with a heat pad where needed. Still like the shiny stuff though. Lol
Saving money by homebrewing? That's the kind of thing you tell the girlfriend after unboxing your new toys! But I get your point. It does not have to be expensive. Great video and great tips, most of them I do. I have the foundry 10.5 and a mash king cooler and I started to think about how I can scale up. Mash more, take 6.5g, batch sparge and collect a weaker wort.
Bro I had the same shock when I did my first hazy. Problem was the home brew shop was only doing phone call orders and you pick up. Saw my 65 dollar receipt lol
Good tips. I don't mind using hop extract for bittering and saving pellets for flavor and aroma. A 5 mL syringe is about the equivalent as 4ish ounces of hops and a fraction of the cost.
One vessel to brew them all, one vessel to ferment them, one vessel to carb them and one vessel to crack them all, In the Land of Mordor where the Brajes lie...
I've been doing some lagers for the summer and those beers are coming out really cheap! Less than $20 for 5 gallon batches. Keep brewing Braj! Check you on the Hoppy Hour....MBC!!!
I wish I would have had this advice back in 2010. But I have lived and learned, and spent money on different things. I think as long as you keep at it and brew enough good beer, the cost of equipment is nothing in the long run. But it's a matter of buying the right shit to begin with
Interesting that you come out with this as I'm currently moving off my 10Gal 2 vessel system to 1BBL 2 vessel system. Mostly because I want to brew less often so i have time to get thigs done . Brewing every other weekend is taking up too much time... Now i can brew about 8 times a year and have the same volume of beer. I was on the 10gal system for 7years.
Excellent advice but I do reuse yeast just because I like to have a few strains on hand. I love brewing but I do use a brewzilla 65l and it's awesome. No way I'd buy grain by the pound and hops by the ounce at the brew store anymore. I get a 55 lbs of rahr pilsner and pale malt for 46 bucks at my local store. I love my local shop but I gotta feed my kids and put gas in the old dodge truck that gets horrible gas mileage. Cheers man I appreciate your videos
@@HOMEBREW4LIFE we use a 2 pulley system to cut the weight in half. Hook it to a piece of rebar straddled on the last 2 rungs of a ladder. Work smarter, not harder!
@@tman9338 I don't, but it's a pretty simple setup. Make sure your burner is 16"x16" a 15 gallon keggle fits perfectly on it. I strap an 8 gallon kettle with water heated to 170 degrees high on the ladder steps and rinse off the grain slowly as the bag is hanging & draining. Make sure you give the bag a good squeeze & be careful it's hot!
Great advice watching from the Uk here keep it simple I brew my own beer so that I can have the beers me and my friends like you don’t have to have all the latest shiny all singing all dancing gear. You can make great beer with some pretty basic equipment keep it sanitised follow your recipes and you’ve cracked it cheers everybody.
I'm interested in the 10 gallon BIAB system you end up with. I'd love to have a 20 Gallon Spike Solo, but can't $$$wing it, so I want to build my own version of it.
@@AlexMoss002 Thanks for the tip. I've seen their stuff, and it looks great. But, their 20 gallon kettle, (10 gallon batch) system is $1800, which is similar to the Spike Solo.
Struggling with the last one. "Nice is not necessary." I still do Partial Mashes with extracts (The homebrew shop by me has bulk Pilsner extract for similar prices to gran. Like $1.50 per lb) because I don't have a ton of gear, and it works totally fine. I still want a nice Anvil Foundry. But is it necessary? Probably not. Kinda like you've said before, it's all about nailing down your system and making it work for you.
You can save a lot of money over building a yeast starter and reuse the yeast! I’ve made over 50 gallons for beer with one thing of yeast. Highly recommend
@@tman9338 white labs 001 has been my go to for a lot of brews, along with Imperal yeast juice. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE--qv_HF-YDQQ.html this video explains how to build your yeast up and save a little to use for your next batch.
The biab method is what I do, if you still have your keggle there's a company that makes a biab for keggles. Morebeer.com also has some cheaper ones which fit keggles. I use 2 1 for grains, then one for pellet hops. As for 6pk of good beer price where Im at its $10, but I hate paying that price for beer so I make my own.
Well you guys lucky . i buy extract beer cost 18$ and few other things like corn sugar for 40$ + 450$ for DHL shipping alone from USA to Saudi Arabia lol . so just 1 extract for 5 GL batch cost me more then 500$ . so is it worth it ? well if you live in a country not allowing alcohol then yes at least for me
I have been propagating my own yeast for a few months now. I've been using imperial the most. What is your favorite brand of yeast to use? Thanks, Keep up the great work Braj's
@delreydavid that's what I meant by propagating. Just doing an over build on the cell count and keep the rest to make a starter again and keep overbuilding enough to keep it going. Although I only do it about 5-6 times from the original yeast packet.
I saw the video and nearly creamed my shorts. Been looking for a basket that will fit in my keggle and won’t break the bank. Got sharp edges on my keggle and afraid I’ll rip my bag.
1. SMASH - Single Malt And Single Hop. 2. An Anvil pump is like $50. It makes gravity a thing of the past. (Queue floating dog) Simplifies the day so much! I love mine. I had a cheap $18 solar pump but it kept getting clogged and hops debris ruined it. Wished I went to the expensive one first. 3. Splatches. Nice. I love split batches. 4. Dude. I wish I could find $40 55# bags of grain. :mindexplodes:
I would have to brew for the rest of my life to break even. I like to compare it to fishing- could a fisherman ever break even catching their own fish vs buying it at a seafood market? Some of those fisherman have an easy $50K in the boat alone. The fact is, fresh caught fish taste better because you caught it yourself and it's more fresh. Same idea with homebrew I would think!
Is it dry or liquid extract? Dry lasts waaaay longer. 5 to 9lbs a batch probably, so you have extract plus steeping grains and hops. So what...25-30$ a batch. Not terrible
@@bobbob-ze9zo for me I still do both. I live up in Alaska though and it's harder to get fresh ingredients. A lot of people crap on extract but I've made awesome beers and in less time than all grain. With all grain you have more control over your beers I feel but either will produce awesome results as long as you are doing everything else right
@@HOMEBREW4LIFE yeah, Amazon doesn’t look so great for selection. Yakima valley looks great! Have you noticed differences with 2017, 2018/19,2020 batches? Think it’s better to buy 2020/2021 hops instead?
Fuck the math. My daily beers are clewrly making their beer with cheaper ingredients. Im out. Ill just make my own. Already did the same with most of the food in the store, may as well make my own beer
@@HOMEBREW4LIFE BTW: I only recently found this channel as I have wanted to brew for over a decade but it never made it to the top of the list. It's on now though. I also enjoyed kickin it with you all in the Hoppy Hour. Keep doing your thing man!
I just want my beer to not taste like Amstel! They own my country and I think its nasty! And all the competition just seem to be clones IMO. How can you compare a basic bitter nasty beer to a beautiful craft haizy😂😂😂 thats why I brew!
