Poor mans list

I have recently been considering brewing, and after talking it out with a friend we have decided to take the plunge. Neither of us can can make a large initial investment, but we think we have a list of what we need, but i would love to have an experienced person tell us if we are missing something important (U know like a fermentor )
here is the list

3 X 5 gallon bucket
1 x Airlock
(Rubber Stopper, Drill bit, clear flexible tubing, Pitcher)
1 X Large Pot
1 X Wooden or Plastic Spoon
1 x Plastic bucket lid
1 X Racking Cane
Sanitizing Solution
1 x Hydrometer
1 x Submerislbe thermostat

Once we have convinced our signifigant others that this is a hobby they can benifit from we are hoping to improve our equipment, but we think we can do this list for under 50 bucks Our initial brew is going to be an attempt at hard apple cider. We have researched this for hours, hoping to avoid as many rookie mistakes as possible, but any extra pointers are welcome. Today is Monday, and we are going to purchase our supplies and begin the brewing process on sat.

ALSO!! would rather use a sanitation tablet to remove wild yeasts rather than simmering the apple cider for 30 mins, would love to know cost to benifit ratio.

After hours of reading, I have found this website to be full of knowlable and considerate people, and have chosen to make this site my home, ty for the chance to join your family of brewmasters!!

I'd add a 2nd airlock. Have 2 fermenters and make 1 of the buckets a bottling bucket with spigot. That would be the only changes I'd personally make. No point having 3 buckets with only 1 airlock. If you want a container to keep sterilizing solution handy, add a 4th bucket...those are cheap anyways.

Airlock - around $2 bucks...4th bucket....freebies if you ask restaurants around you. If you buy one, they are still super cheap.

You can always ask restaurants to see if they have any food grade buckets. They throw those away or get rid of them all the time They might be freebies. I'd also recommend checking your local Thrift store for pots. I have seen pots on the cheap in the past...but unfortunately, it was before I was into the hobby so didn't take advantage of them.

Just thoughts on cutting down more of your costs if you're trying to get the minimum required equipment

What are you planning on doing with the cider between the time fermentation ends and the time you drink it? Bottles? In that case, you would need a bottle capping device and bottle caps, or a whole lot of flip cap bottles. Other storage methods will require other costs.

will be putting the hard cider in wine bottles and using cork to cap them, can get wine bottle for free from friend, and making a 4 gallon batch.

That's only going to work if you want still cider.

the corks will not hold in the carbonation during the final phase?

Corks won't hold and/or the wine bottles will blow up on you. They just aren't mean to handle carbonation.

Looks like we will be using repurposed pop bottles.

Wine bottles aren't designed to hold pressure. So either the cork will blow or the bottle will if you carb with them.

I'm able to get food grade buckets from the bakery at my local grocery store. They usually have 3 or 5 gallon buckets for frosting and just toss them after use. I've gotten a few, cleaned them out, drilled a hole in the cover and put a grommet in. Good to go.

You can pick up a basic starter kit from most homebrew supply stores for $60-100

If you are doing a cider first you can skip some of the parts you need for boiling a wort and split up your expenditures. Use some store bought, no-preservative juice or frozen extract and get a cheap first batch in. Then start springing for more gear, better ingredients, etc.

I'm going to direct you to this "Cider" recipie:

EdWort's Apfelwein

Easy as kiss my hand to make, and tastes great still or carbonated. If you read through the recipe you'll see that you don't need everything on your list right away.

Brewnoob1 said:

You can always ask restaurants to see if they have any food grade buckets. They throw those away or get rid of them all the time They might be freebies. I'd also recommend checking your local Thrift store for pots. I have seen pots on the cheap in the past...but unfortunately, it was before I was into the hobby so didn't take advantage of them.

Just thoughts on cutting down more of your costs if you're trying to get the minimum required equipment

Click to expand...

I get various size buckets (2,3.5,4,5) gal buckets from my local grocery store's bakery, icing comes in them. You can put a spigot on one of those for a cheap bottling bucket

Same with a pot, scored a 5gal with a 2gal bonus for $20 in the spring at the same grocery store.

Keep a look out on CL I got almost all of my equipment from there and the classifieds here on HBT are good but you gotta be fast at responding . Good luck and welcome to the obsession!

wow lots of great ideas, will continue to check for new info, thanks a bunch guys

It has been 4 days since we started our first batch, and we are really excited. We went with https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f25/man-i-love-apfelwein-14860/ we expect it to be a bit dryer than what we want but plan to back sweeten, and add sugar to the original reciepe in future batches once we know what it will taste like finished. I would love to hear any tips on back sweetening.