What Are the Next Steps for Beg.- Intermediate Home Brewer?

[majorvices]

Its really not as complicated as it sounds and the equipment investment is minimal.  A 48qt cooler and a few bucks at the hardware store (see Denny's site).  The propane burner and kettle and chiller will be a bigger expense (but well worth it).  You can pick up a 'turkey fryer' at Walmart or someplace similar for under $60 - you'll have your burner and kettle to do a full boil.
d kettle will make your job easier on brew day.  The chiller and controling fermentation temperature will help you make better beer.

+1, in fact, brewing all grain will save you lots and lots and LOTS of money over extract. The only expensive part is the kettle, but as was mentioned, you can find turkey fryers with 7-8 gallon kettles cheap right now. Use denny's batch sparge method, get a ball valve for your kettle, and you are there.

I can brew 10 gallons of all grain beer for probably cheaper than what you are paying for an extract batch. I buy my grains all in bulk and it ends up being about 15-25 bucks for a 10 gallon batch, or less!

[pdbreen]

My first big step after extract/grains was a switch to kegging.  I hated dealing with all the bottles and the switch to kegs made me enjoy things again.  Which for me was important, because I may have stopped brewing otherwise.  However, I did learn that I shouldn't have given my bottles away as I now keg, but like to bottle some of the better brews for portability/gifts/etc.

Next step was using starters and a stir plate.  This was followed by yeast washing which has saved a ton of money.

Next big step was to all grain.  I also hesitated with moving to all grain - it seemed so mysterious - but I'm so glad I did.  With batch sparging, it's really not that difficult to setup and get some great results.  It does make the brew day a bit longer, but I'm coming in right at 4 hours from first flame on to everything cleaned and put away.  And, there's lots of downtime during the mash and boil so I get lots of other things done as well.

Next on the list is building a keezer that will take me from 2 to 6 taps (or 4 taps and a lagering chamber).  I'm looking forward to being able to lager and experiment with a whole new set of beer styles and yeasties.