What should I need and what should I want

I'm on a tight budget and can't just get whatever I need. I'm wondering what a first time brewer needs to get started. I can get a bucket with a lid at lowes but a carboy is a little expensive so far as I've seen locally. I have the ability to add a valve on the bucket but would not know where on the bucket would be optimal. I have a still not put together yet but would assemble it to avoid losing a beer, wine, or mead.

What I have now,

20 qt. stock pot.
3 - 1000 ml bottles
Only going to use pizza crust yeast cause its fun
3 - empty coffe cans that can hold two lbs. of grain ( airtight )
Strainer 3in wide that is easily sanitizable by boiling
A pill bottle I keep flavoring in
A basement that's always 60*F

Are you planning on doing all grain?
Either way you'll probably want a hydrometer. It's the only way you can be certain fermentation is done.

What sized batches do you want to make? Are you planning on making prison wine type stuff as bread type yeasts tend to not give great flavors. Extract/Partial Mash/All Grain?

Bare minimum equipment needed for extract beer is a pot to boil it in, something to ferment in with some sort of airlock (can use foil in a pinch), some way of sanitizing things, some hose to syphon the beer so you do not oxidize it, and bottles with some way to cap it.

Then there are the extracts and hops and yeast, but that goes without saying.

I'm probably going to do 5 gal batches. Not really a fan of store bought beer taste and want to take my shot at making something tasty. Hydrometers are sold near me so ill have to get one. What about those beer kit with the fancy fermenter. Would it have a hydrometer?

some do. And to do 5 gallon batches,the lowes or home depot 5 gallon buckets are too small. You need 6-6.5 gallon bucket to allow head space for the expanding krausen foam that developes on the fermenting beer. & please don't use bread dough yeast. doesn't taste that good in beer,trust me.
Get some dry yeast,it's only about $3.75.

I will get yeast for beer. Only using it for mead. Cause I like the bready taste with fruity overtones. It isn't just bread yeast btw its pizza crust yeast..

Btw my first brew consist of

3 tbsp of honey
3 tbsp of brown sugar
3 tbsp of white sugar
3 sun dried prunes ( mixed with yeast and 2oz water)
1 tsp Fleischmann's pizza dough yeast
Borough water
Kraken 750ml rum bottle rinsed at 120*F

I added another two sun dried prunes on day two

I used 120 degree water to ferment and it was around 110 when I pitch the yeast it was like adding yeast water to 110 F water ( this is the operating range of bread yeast) and when I did it the action was rigorous and consistent.

It smells amazing going on day 5. It would make a good mash for distilling but idk how it would taste bottling it. The yeast is solid on the bottom and does not move easily when jostled. Like cement.

lozoot said:

Btw my first brew consist of

3 tbsp of honey
3 tbsp of brown sugar
3 tbsp of white sugar
3 sun dried prunes ( mixed with yeast and 2oz water)
1 tsp Fleischmann's pizza dough yeast
Borough water
Kraken 750ml rum bottle rinsed at 120*F

I added another two sun dried prunes on day two

I used 120 degree water to ferment and it was around 110 when I pitch the yeast it was like adding yeast water to 110 F water ( this is the operating range of bread yeast) and when I did it the action was rigorous and consistent.

It smells amazing going on day 5. It would make a good mash for distilling but idk how it would taste bottling it. The yeast is solid on the bottom and does not move easily when jostled. Like cement.

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Sweet jesus... please post tasting notes when you sample it, for my sheer morbid curiosity.

Where did you learn recipes like that?

lozoot said:

Btw my first brew consist of

3 tbsp of honey
3 tbsp of brown sugar
3 tbsp of white sugar
3 sun dried prunes ( mixed with yeast and 2oz water)
1 tsp Fleischmann's pizza dough yeast
Borough water
Kraken 750ml rum bottle rinsed at 120*F

I added another two sun dried prunes on day two

I used 120 degree water to ferment and it was around 110 when I pitch the yeast it was like adding yeast water to 110 F water ( this is the operating range of bread yeast) and when I did it the action was rigorous and consistent.

It smells amazing going on day 5. It would make a good mash for distilling but idk how it would taste bottling it. The yeast is solid on the bottom and does not move easily when jostled. Like cement.

Click to expand...

Oh Lord... I just about gagged reading this.

Do you realize that this won't make anything that even has a passing resemblance to beer? You could MAYBE stretch it to a weird mead of some kind, but there's not a single component in this that makes it beer.

Prunes? Pizza dough yeast?

<runs to toilet, barely holding down breakfast>

I am actually hoping this is a troll thread

davekippen said:

I am actually hoping this is a troll thread

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I'm gonna brew this up. Just need to pound a fifth of kraken first for the bottle.

Brewmex41 said:

I'm gonna brew this up. Just need to pound a fifth of kraken first for the bottle.

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I think he's adding the rum to the brew... if you want to call it that

To be fair he DID say it was a mead, not a beer.

I'm not saying I approve perse, but I dont disapprove either. It needs okra.

Floating a recipe on the forum is one thing, morphing that discussion into distillation is another. No more discussion about distillation please.

davekippen said:

I am actually hoping this is a troll thread

Click to expand...

Not me, I'm dying to find out how this turns out.

I did realize the yeast would be active at first, but day 6 and the fruity smell is amazing. Idk why it worked, but mashed prunes are going to be in my mead starters for awhile. And bread yeast for mead must be okay. The alcohol smell is already present and its pretty hard cake of yeast. Prune peel floated to the top and top fermentation started earlier this morning.

Just to mention day 2 there was blowoff, and everyday it's been above 70F

lozoot said:

I'm on a tight budget and can't just get whatever I need. I'm wondering what a first time brewer needs to get started. I can get a bucket with a lid at lowes but a carboy is a little expensive so far as I've seen locally. I have the ability to add a valve on the bucket but would not know where on the bucket would be optimal. I have a still not put together yet but would assemble it to avoid losing a beer, wine, or mead.

What I have now,

20 qt. stock pot.
3 - 1000 ml bottles
Only going to use pizza crust yeast cause its fun
3 - empty coffe cans that can hold two lbs. of grain ( airtight )
Strainer 3in wide that is easily sanitizable by boiling
A pill bottle I keep flavoring in
A basement that's always 60*F

Click to expand...

What do you mean a pill bottle you keep flavoring in?

I'm going to keeps bags of hops there. It's a pill storage bottle that's air tight. Holds 3 oz of hops. My pap used it for hops and i inherited it.

Don't waste your money trying to cheap out. You will regret it later. The HBS has starter kits that are discounted already. They will have everthing you need except for your brew kettle and bottles. I would opt or one with 2 buckets, a capper, hydrometer, stirring spoon. Then most importantly don't forget sanitizer, auto siphon and caps.

Lozootmaniac said:

I did realize the yeast would be active at first, but day 6 and the fruity smell is amazing. Idk why it worked, but mashed prunes are going to be in my mead starters for awhile. And bread yeast for mead must be okay. The alcohol smell is already present and its pretty hard cake of yeast. Prune peel floated to the top and top fermentation started earlier this morning.

Just to mention day 2 there was blowoff, and everyday it's been above 70F

Click to expand...

The dried prunes were probably the only things providing nutrients (e.g., free amino nitrogen) to the yeast since honey and sugar are devoid of yeast nutrients. People sometimes use raisins for nutrients in mead as well.

This has got to be a troll thread!

If not - to the OP - forget about brewing for a while. Read some about homebrew brewing and get proper equipment to do it. You can get it done in small batches for less than $100 total.

For a carboy I use a water bottle I got at lowes. It's lite weight and works great.

I always wondered if water cooler bottles were the same PET plastic as better bottles myself. Can't see why they wouldn't be? I like your username. Makes me wonder if paw paws might be good in a wheat beer?...

To my logic, if its a container you would store water in without fear of chemicals leeching out, why would fermentation cause any more chemical leeching? Of course, I'm no scientist.

Those are pretty much my thoughts as well.

Humm, pawpaws never crossed my mind. Could be good! As for the water bottle just clean it with oxyclean and don't use a brush.

It seems like you could use anything and make something unique. The Egyptians used wooden bowls and beers stone pots that they let bacteria build up on. And the experiments ppl did! Like sanitizing and lagering. I love it.

I'm going to use a lowes bucket with a lid I think as I'm familiar with modifying them at my previous job.

The prune idea is a secret of another form of brewing I won't elaborate on. It allegedly erases bread yeast odors and can help shield your yeast during a big beer bottling. I only know this cause of a paper i read from 1968 with some stuff my pap left when he died. Some hops that are maybe 40 years old and some distilling equipment with recipes scribed into it from the same era.

CreamyGoodness said:

To my logic, if its a container you would store water in without fear of chemicals leeching out, why would fermentation cause any more chemical leeching? Of course, I'm no scientist.

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alcohol in certain percentages can melt or dissolve a plastic. That and the plastic my be brittle enough to get cracks that's you can only see in certain light, leaving behind odors or living bacteria. Boil then sanitize? Or sanitize then boil? That's my question.

I would say if you want to boil limit the time the water is in the bottle. That would make soft spots and thin the plastic. That's why I use oxyclean and starsans.

What about vacuum drying. I have a vacuum pump for refrigeration, could anyone give me advice there? It seems like like a good way to sanitize as I never bought or saw stars an. I realize the vacuum drying only works if I clean the residual matter first then sanitize using the pump. My question I guess is could the vacuum pump kill everything?

Could the vacuum pump help me boil a wort at 100F without losing ABV? Or bottle at negative pressure? This could help me bottle beer at long distance without aeration.

I think long distance bottling is a great idea!

I got a bucket at lowes today with a lid, 5$. Grabbed a paint strainer bag as well, 2$.

I have a 20 qt stock pot, 30 ft of 3/8 copper tubing, that 5 gal bucket, a grain bag, an empty 20 cu. ft. CO2 tank, and no more money for my project.

Ingredient wise I got nothing unless 6 lbs of steel cut oats matter much. .or some adjuncts such as rosemary and thyme.

Lozootmaniac said:

alcohol in certain percentages can melt or dissolve a plastic. That and the plastic my be brittle enough to get cracks that's you can only see in certain light, leaving behind odors or living bacteria. Boil then sanitize? Or sanitize then boil? That's my question.

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One of mine got tiny cracks after about 4 batches. When I was cleaning, I noticed a little gooey drop near the bottom and looked closer. There were a couple of cracks. Not enough to really leak, but I threw it out. They are very cheap. A more expensive better bottle might last longer. I will closely check the others before the next use.

I like the 3 gal size.

im just curious if the op is even of legal age to drink this concoction he has made, it sounds like some foul stuff to me.

Ok I recently was reading about bucket brewing and some have suggested using a 6.5 gallon bucket to ferment 5 gallons of beer. Could I get away with fermenting 3 gallons in a 5 gallon bucket? Or is that too much airspace above the beer while its fermenting?

Does anyone recommend that I get 1.6 gallon carboys/better bottle and split the batches in half after I boil it, and just use the bucket for something else. My stock pot is only 5 gallons and a quart to the top so I'm limited by that.

I also wanted to make An unhopped version of each beer I want to make with hops, has anyone ever split a wort before hopping and left the other to be flavored/preserved with other ingredients? Or should I make a separate wort for every un hopped recipe I make. I'm interested in not using hops at least once.

A 5 gallon bucket would be better. It'd have less head space than a 6.5 gallon one.

is the headspace only a concern with oxygen being inside and extra aeration?

The co2 off gassing from fermentation would onl have a 2 gallon space to fill up with a 3 gallon beer. You need to aerate the wort for the yeasts' reproductive phase.

I know you aerate for the yeast, I'm asking what the problem with extra space is in the fermenter.