Seeking Enablement

[Culinary Otter]

Between this forum and targeted ads on Instagram I can see my Mastercard taking a pounding.

I see that Dry Ager has extended their holiday sale until the middle of the month. I've been eyeing one of these up for years, and also looked at the DIY route, which I'm afraid is going to be more trial and (more importantly) error than its worth, especially at today's meat prices.

Does anyone here actually have/used/sampled the goods out of these units? I did a search and saw one member unboxed one but that's about where the thread ended. I love the idea of doing my own 45-60 day dry aged beef and pork as well as trying out some fermented sausages. But the unit is... rather spendy.

Was hoping for any first (or even second!) hand opinions on them.

 

[normanaj]

But the unit is... rather spendy.

Just looked them up,spendy is an understatement to say the least!

I say go for it

 

[Steve H]

You're better off researching some of the people here that made homemade units for far less. And have the same. If not. Better results.

 

[BGKYSmoker]

Build your own and same a boatload of $$

 

[02ebz06]

Check out SteakAger. Still pricey, but cheap compared to the DryAger. They have a 10% off right now.
SteakAger

 

[Culinary Otter]

Check out SteakAger. Still pricey, but cheap compared to the DryAger. They have a 10% off right now.
SteakAger

I was also eyeing that up. The only issue I have with it is it doesn't get warm enough to do fermented sausage from what I understand.

Although the price point is certainly more palatable.

I'll see if I can find some DIY builds here but I think a used commercial display fridge may work better than what I'm attempting now. And certainly cheaper.

 

[jcam222]

Perhaps indaswamp has some insight

 

[Meatetter]

Between this forum and targeted ads on Instagram I can see my Mastercard taking a pounding.

I see that Dry Ager has extended their holiday sale until the middle of the month. I've been eyeing one of these up for years, and also looked at the DIY route, which I'm afraid is going to be more trial and (more importantly) error than its worth, especially at today's meat prices.

Does anyone here actually have/used/sampled the goods out of these units? I did a search and saw one member unboxed one but that's about where the thread ended. I love the idea of doing my own 45-60 day dry aged beef and pork as well as trying out some fermented sausages. But the unit is... rather spendy.

Was hoping for any first (or even second!) hand opinions on them.

Hi,

I will be honest its a whole lot of money for something that is so simple, ie: it just dries meat.
So I have started to build one myself. ink bird sells a set of devices to control temp and humidity
the brains of the system, others are using larger fridges I chose a mini fridge that is not much smaller if any at all compared to a 3600.00 drying cabnet? I think if they can do it I can too.
So the journey begins. so far its plugged in and works ! holding 37-39 degrees humidity is way too low at 23-46 so I have ordered a small dehumidifyer, to date I have about 200.00 invested.
On my way and have not even scratched the surface of the cost of a pre made unit.
so it begins !

Bob

 

[tpc74]

I mean 25% off...whats not to like? I'd go with the pro!

But in all seriousness, I feel like you can build something that does something similar for far less money. Of course, that depends on how much time you have. I'll likely never have enough time to do all the projects I want to do, so for now I can either get no sleep or make sure the projects don't take that much of my time.

 

[LoydB]

Build one, spend the $3500+ you save on quality meat from a local rancher.

 

[Culinary Otter]

But in all seriousness, I feel like you can build something that does something similar for far less money. Of course, that depends on how much time you have.

Lol therein lies the crux of the problem. I set out to build one about 3 years ago, ordered half of the stuff to make it. Then decided to sell the house and move, and every project surrounding that has gone from 0-60 in a hurry.

Fast forward to today, I've been using the inkbird and the fridge I bought, and realized I should have done more research on it before purchasing, or waited until after COVID when I had more selection. So my enthusiasm has substantially waned on the project, which is why I started looking at the complete package.

Build one, spend the $3500+ you save on quality meat from a local rancher.

Sounds like a plan! We already buy half a cow and a whole pig every year locally.

I'll consider myself un-enabled. Read through every dry age thread I could find here over the last two nights, trolled some other places for info (remembered why I dislike Reddit...). Ordered a beverage cooler which I think will be much better suited.

Sadly being in the People's Republic of Canada nothing is cheap, but all in I should be 1/5 to 1/6 of the Dry Ager. Worst case scenario I give up my dreams of dry aged beef and have a nice beverage cooler out of it.

Thanks for all the comments. The build starts on Monday!

 

[tpc74]

Lol therein lies the crux of the problem. I set out to build one about 3 years ago, ordered half of the stuff to make it. Then decided to sell the house and move, and every project surrounding that has gone from 0-60 in a hurry.

Fast forward to today, I've been using the inkbird and the fridge I bought, and realized I should have done more research on it before purchasing, or waited until after COVID when I had more selection. So my enthusiasm has substantially waned on the project, which is why I started looking at the complete package.


Sounds like a plan! We already buy half a cow and a whole pig every year locally.

I'll consider myself un-enabled. Read through every dry age thread I could find here over the last two nights, trolled some other places for info (remembered why I dislike Reddit...). Ordered a beverage cooler which I think will be much better suited.

Sadly being in the People's Republic of Canada nothing is cheap, but all in I should be 1/5 to 1/6 of the Dry Ager. Worst case scenario I give up my dreams of dry aged beef and have a nice beverage cooler out of it.

Thanks for all the comments. The build starts on Monday!

Ahh yes, sometimes life steps in and gives ya a smack into a different direction for a bit. Its why I am sometimes on/off of certain forums. Trying to pair them down to a couple is hard, because I've found so many cool people across many different boards.

Good luck with the build, I'll be following along. :)