No longer borrowed or blue

I’m wary of thinking more expensive gear, will make better beer. Yes, it can make things easier, but does it really make better beer?
With that said, I’ve made some small investments in my equipment with the intention of improving the quality of my beer, and making cleanup easier.
I’ve been very fortunate, I’ve had to purchase very little of my own brewing equipment. I had keen eye on free cycle and snagged a nearly complete home brewing setup. A 5g pot, 2 carboys, fermentor, funnels, capper, blow off valves, wort chiller, etc. So far my primary investments have been ingredients, books, and a turkey burner.
With the basics taken care of. I did some research into what the experts thought was the next improvement I could make to my equipment to improve my beer. It seems the experts agree that full boils make brewing quality beer easier. You eliminate the need to top off water. I believe you improve the hop utilization* (no real studies have been done). You also are able to limit the melanoidin reactions (browning / caramelization) by diluting the extract. Yes, there are techniques, that many partial boil brewers utilize to limit some of those factors, but truth be told it’s just easier to brew full volume. There is no need boil top up water, no need to mix wort and water in the fermentor. So my first big acquisition, beyond kegging equipment which I’ll discuss later, is an 10 gallon brew kettle.
This is a real deal kettle, with welded port, and spigot.
I’m not really sure what the point of this post, is other than to let you all know, I have a bigger brew kettle, and can now do full volume boils.
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