Question from a first timer - Recommend a brew kit??

So I finally decided to take the plunge into the world of home brewing after making a few 15 Gallon batches of delicious brew at a local place. I bought a few books and have done my research but still have a few rookie questions I was hoping people could help me out with.

I would like to focus on simple ales at first (5 gallon batches), trying to get a solid basis in home brewing before venturing on to riskier things.

What brew kit would you purchase and is there really a difference for the beginner between a glass or plastic carboy? I know there are countless threads on this but for the first timer (I'll probably get hooked and upgrade all this equipment over the next 12 months) is there a real risk with glass vs plastic? I would actually prefer the plastic as it seems safer and more practical, but if it is more prone to contamination I will give glass a whirl.

Also, I was leaning toward purchasing this as many people have recommended. Its a little pricier than others I have seen but those mostly include 5 gallon fermenters and bottling buckets. Is it true I need these 6 gallon sizes for the extra space during the fermentation process?

Also, if I am going to do 5 gallon batches what size stock pot do I need. Can I get away with 20 liters or do I need to go as big as 30 liters?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance.

I'm still using the plastic buckets from my beginner's kit. So I can't really help tip you one way or another on the carboys. But I would definitely suggest you go with at least a six gallon fermenter like they have in the kit you linked. Otherwise you may lose some beer due to it overflowing in your blow off tube. Beyond that, I would suggest a five gallon or more brew pot. If you are going to be using kits, the ones I've used at least, they call for partial boils of around 3 gallons and that size is fine for those. If you think you will be going to AG in the future, or doing full boils, then you'd want to get a larger one.


P.S. Welcome to the hobby/obsession

I second the plastic buckets... ive got about 4 or 5 now. They are really easy to work with. Later you can buy carboys for secondaries but as I tell most people secondaries are really just useful for 2 things most the times with ales, adding something (hops, fruit) or emptying out a primary cause you want to brew some more beer!

I recommend that you go ahead and decide if you are going to want to move into all-grain/ full boils when looking into your kettle purchase. I made the mistake of buying a 7.5 gal kettle to start with which is not big enough for a full boil but great for partials. I ended up having to buy a 10.5 gallon pot later so now i just got this pot sitting around doing nothing. 7.5 gal was $50 and the 10.5 gallon was only $70 (farmhouse brew supply) so basically by spending 20 more early i could have saved myself 50.

Also i have a really cheap/easy all-grain system that used the stuff around my house and a large bag to get started... even more low tech than Brew In A Bag but i can still get good efficiency so if you are interested in how easy this setup is let me know and ill post it up for you.

Happy brewing and warning... this hobby will be addicting as well as bring out the "friends" you barley know (pun) like winning the lottery will!

There is a certain romance to fermenting in glass, but plastic buckets have been used for decades for homebrewing. I recently upgraded to a better bottle with the racking adapter for two reasons, and I just ordered another one.

1. I broke a glass carboy full of sanitizer. No injuries or property damage, but I am happy with the current level of scarring that my hands have and do not want more.

2. The better bottle racking adapter allows you to rack wort off of the trub without having to siphon, and the pickup tube rotates so you can adjust it for varying levels of trub. Just make sure to put the better bottle on a surface high enough to rack into your secondary/bottling bucket/keg/etc. at least a day before you rack so everything settles out of wort nice. There are plenty of tutorials for cleaning a better bottle without scratching it. If you clean it as soon as you rack out of it, it is really easy. Just oxiclean it and shake it around real good, and for stubborn crud, you can put a towel or other fabric in with about a gallon of oxiclean and shake it until it is sparkling clean, then rinse a few times.

Northern brewer has a starter kit that includes better bottles as an option (it says plastic carboys, but I think they only carry better bottles) and it says you can configure your plastic carboys, which I assume means you can get the ported ones with racking adapters. I'm only going off of what I read in their catalog, so if you go with that starter kit, do a little research to make sure you are getting what you want. I just looked at their website (deluxe brewing starter kit) and there is no option there for configuring the plastic carboys, so you may want to email them.