Ask Denny about wearing out buckets…some of his buckets are probably older than people on this forum…haha
Think I still have that first bucket. My wife had birds back then and the seed came in them. Using it to wash the car now since that was 20+ years ago. Might have gone in the recycle bin actually.
Bought some glass for wine making. Use buckets exclusively for beer. I’m saving my money for another snowmobile
I am mostly done buying actual equipment, I mostly just buy ingredients. I find myself making my equipment more than buying it. It adds more “hobby” to home brewing for me to also make my equipment, and it can save me money. Built a 7 gallon electric brew kettle for about $120 and a chilling setup for about $130. Unfortunately, you can rarely buy the pieces at a home brew shop, I end up buying things at a hardware store or the occasional amazon purchase.
The last piece of equipment I bought from a home brew store were my 10 gallon mash tun and hot liquor tank (fermenters favorites “igloo” style cooler setups). Once you feel comfy in your setup and such, you sorta stop spending money. Maybe a few tweaks and gentle upgrades, but the big changes slow down eventually. That’s the point, right? If you had to keep spending hundreds every time, it becomes much more expensive than just buying the beer from a liquor store. It’s super fun and I love it, but not enough to spend hundreds every time.
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Thats the reason why I do my mods on wheels… The pump is good, so bring the equipment to the brew stand, and wheel it away afterwards… I Like as Go blu sez… make it! I’ve accumulated enough copper now to make a parallel counterflow chiller… I hope to lay myself off in a couple of weeks, then the chiller will get done… Yeah, hind sight is 20-20… But, as I learned and began to understand the process, my system then morphed… I will say… we grew together! … Sneezles61
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I actually made my 12 gallon conical and the stand. Did have the welding done for me. My problem is the brew stand won’t fit in the house so it’s in the detached garage. A long haul to pump so lugging the buckets is the best option to get the wort inside to the conical. I guess I could put them on a dolly to make some of the trip easier.
Bigger door!! 
Sneezles61
This is why I’m thinking electric system. That and pretty soon it’s gonna suck brewing in the single digit temps…
I fix that by driving south.
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The electric system is pretty awesome, I hafta admit. Took a little engineering, but I love it and I’m constantly evolving it. I want to build my own conical like Mark did, but that might be months away right now.
