I saw you mentioned looking into conical equipment. Do you currently do any all grain or full boil?

I started mostly identical to what you've got there. Had some great results, I highly recommend adding additional grains for flavor, sounds like you've been doing that too. The kits are great but after going all grain my brews got so much better. Something about the kits, they just always seem to taste similar. Kinda like Campbell's soup recipes, there's 1000 casseroles to be made with Campbell's but they all kinda taste the same.

I do a full boil in a DIY keg kettle then ferment in a carboy, haven't gone conical yet, very tempted though. I went straight to kegging early on, bottling is such a chore.

And, yes, aging pays off. The best beer is always the last one!

I'd love to hear more about your brews and equipment