An Extraordinary Craigslist Haul | Homebrewing Setup Upgrades

While browsing Craigslist, I came across quite the deal. I met up with the man and acquired more homebrewing equipment than I could possibly dream for... all for $100.

Steal of a deal!

Let's go over what I've added to the collection:

First in the haul is a full sized 15 gallon converted keg boil kettle. With this now I'll be able to put my mash tun to its full potential. However it did not come with a valve to prevent liquid from escaping the welded 1/2" fitting. But that's an easy fix.

Full sized boils, I can't wait!

A quick visit to Amazon and I received two 304 Stainless Steel Ball Valves in the mail. One for my keg kettle, and one to upgrade the one on my mash tun. Those in conjunction with some lead-free brass nipples and I'm ready to go.

I love upgrades!

Ready to brew here

The old valve had started to oxidize, so a replacement is much welcomed

Item #2 from my haul was an appropriately sized propane burner. Based on the price of a new burner of similar style, I saved about $60. However, that money will be needed to pick up a propane tank to actually use this burner.

Fire it up!

With my haul also came an appropriately sized copper coiled wort chiller. Testing it out, I replaced the O-ring on the water supply line and discovered no leaks. Awesome! Compared to a new wort chiller, which is around $50 - $60, I think I'm well ahead of what I've paid so far for everything.

Cleaned off that copper coil. Also some miscellaneous items to boot.

Don't want any leaks happening here.

Next from that haul came 3 glass carboys. I'm not too big of a fan of these as I do not want to deal with a giant mess if one breaks. I gave one away to my buddy hosting my grape vines and sold the remaining two for $30 each. Technically I'm only $40 into this whole haul after that sale!

Sold!

And finally from this same haul came 4 kegs; (3) 5 gallon kegs and (1) 2.5 gallon kegs. I believe 3 of them are ball lock and one of them is a pin lock, but enough fittings came with the haul that I'll be able to customize. New/refinished kegs of this size and style run at about $30 - $50 each so I'll let you do the math on that one.

Oh my goodness that's a lot of kegs

In order to put these kegs to work though, I'll need to purchase a CO2 tank and regulator and build some form of kegerator to make these function. Otherwise, they could be used as temporary beer storage. Expect to see a fun project soon!

Those were the main items that came with this haul, but I also managed to snag some assorted accessories too, such as beer thieves, various siphons, hydrometers, and even some old fashioned homebrewing magazines. This will be very fun to sort through and I cannot wait to start brewing with this setup. Until next time, Cheers!