Help picking out a brewing kit, asking wife for one for Christmas.

Hello All,

My buddy and I are both asking our wives for a brewing kit for Christmas. We have been researching them here at work for a while, and have yet to make up our minds. My wife wants to know today what I want...

There seems to be a lot of great kits out there, we would like to stick with the "2-Stage" since this seems to offer the widest brewing options.

The major decision is to choose a glass "carboy" style kit or the plastic spackle bucket kind. I can see the plastic ones being A LOT easier to clean, however the glass ones seem like they might offer a better taste and easier to see what is going on?

We were looking at these:

http://www.williamsbrewing.com/COMPLETE_BREWERY_WITHOUT_A_KIT_P2355C257.cfm

http://www.northernbrewer.com/brewing/starter-kits/deluxe-beer-starter-kit.html

We'd appreciate any suggestions and alternative links to other kits.

Thank you!

when I got mine it was on ebay new in the box and I got a brewers best beer kit with it for around $130. I ended up buying a better bottle anyway. No matter what you get it will make beer.

I also found this one that looked interesting...

http://www.learntobrew.com/store/item/1l2h3/-_Equipment_Kits/Superior_Brew_Kit_Plus.html

The Northern Brewer option seems nice. The glass carboys are not that difficult to clean. Just soak them in one-step or PBW and give them a scrub with the carboy brush. A good tip is just to get them rinsed out well after each use, so the stuff doesn't get caked on there. Less time scrubbing. The plastic buckets work, but you can't see your progress, which is part of the fun. Also if they scratch, which they will if you try to clean them too rough, they harbor bacteria that will affect your beer. Have fun with your new kit!!!

Frankly, I'd go with the plastic bucket. I think they are just as good as a glass carboy at the fraction of the cost. Glass is heavy, breakable, harder to clean (when in the shape of a carboy!).

If, farther down the line, you want to buy a carboy then do it then.

My 0.02.

If you are planning on keeping this as a long term hobby, go with the glass.

Also, I'd go with a kit that has a bigger primary bucket than 5 gal... Then you will save yourself the worry of overflowing airlocks and whatnot.

I went with this one, and couldnt have been happier with it.

http://www.midwestsupplies.com/brewing-starter-kit.html

I like my glass carboy...I can see what's going on, presumably fewer sanitation worries (doesn't scratch, dissolve in acid, etc.), but you do have to worry about dropping it.

Get at least one of these http://www.northernbrewer.com/brewing/the-brew-hauler.html and it'll make your carboy-hoisting a lot less worrisome.

I have the Better Basic kit from Northern with glass carboy, and it's great. The Williams kit though, as opposed to Northern's Deluxe, lacks a real secondary fermenter (and a lot of people aren't keen on plastic primaries with spigots, for leaking and sanitation issues, usually), but it does include a nice-looking brew kettle and wort chiller, two items that cost MUCH more to buy separately than a 5-gallon carboy.

Thanks for the replies...

I think I might stick with the glass then... I am really liking this kit below since it has the larger 6 gallon carboy and has a bunch of extra stuff that I'd assume I'd end up buying down the road.

http://www.learntobrew.com/store/item/1l2h3/-_Equipment_Kits/Superior_Brew_Kit_Plus.html

Any thoughts on this one?

Thanks,

+1

http://www.midwestsupplies.com/brewing-starter-kit.html



May be able to find a 4 to 5 gallon stainless pot at places like Big Lots.

had another link but, they raised their prices since last summer.

OH by the way IMO glass carboys for primarys look cool but are a PAIN to clean. I rarely used my glass even to secondary any more.

mlyday said:

I went with this one, and couldnt have been happier with it.

http://www.midwestsupplies.com/brewing-starter-kit.html

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FWIW, I also went with this kit. Have brewed about 10 batches without having to upgrade any of it yet. Although I do wish I had about 3 more primary fermenters.

Started out with the deluxe kit from NB with glass carboys, liked them okay but they made me nervous.

Replaced mine with better bottles. Like them better in ways, lesser in some ways. They're lighter and easier to manipulate. Less fear of them breaking on the tile floor.

Can still see what's going on. Little bit cheaper in the interim, and easier to replace if I get worried about them being damaged or whatever later.

Still have a 5-gallon glass and 3-gallon glass but seldom use them.

burmjohn said:

Thanks for the replies...

I think I might stick with the glass then... I am really liking this kit below since it has the larger 6 gallon carboy and has a bunch of extra stuff that I'd assume I'd end up buying down the road.

http://www.learntobrew.com/store/item/1l2h3/-_Equipment_Kits/Superior_Brew_Kit_Plus.html

Any thoughts on this one?

Thanks,

Click to expand...

If you are sold on glass, then I would suggest craigslist. Frankly, I think there is high turnover in this hobby: alot of people getting in, but alot of people getting out. That means alot of brewing gear ends up getting sold...

That's another thing too....who is to say that you will be in this hobby a couple of years from now?...a plastic bucket can be repurposed, a carboy---not so much.

Again, my 0.02....

True... Now is there any difference with the plastic ones as far as taste goes?

burmjohn said:

True... Now is there any difference with the plastic ones as far as taste goes?

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No....not that I could be able to tell. People make a deal about oxygen diffusion through the plastic, but the consensus is that it doesn't make a difference at the time frame our typical fermenation occurs (i.e. approximately a month).

Hope this helps...

As to the idea of platic being susceptible to scratching and harbor bacteria:

Yes, plastic is easier to scratch...but despite all of the warnings of these scratches harboring bacteria and spoiling your beer---I've yet to come across an actual incident of this happening. ...an there are alot of people brewing alot of beer in plastic buckets. FWIW

So what if you wanted to do the longer type fermentation (3 months), is that where glass comes into play because of the oxygen diffusion?

burmjohn said:

So what if you wanted to do the longer type fermentation (3 months), is that where glass comes into play because of the oxygen diffusion?

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In theory, maybe....in practice...probably not.

Just to be safe, though....I'd probably put it in glass.

Haven't noticed any taste so far, but only a few batches in. From what I understand, the better bottles shouldn't pick up anything like that from the type of plastic they are made from.

I think they same holds true with buckets but haven't done any beer in mine, saving it for wine primarily, no pun.

I kept the glass secondary around in case I want to age something or go through an actual second type fermentation. Also have a better bottle one from the kit as well but haven't had to use it yet; probably will when I dry hop this next beer.

So confused

I liked the idea of glass up front; in practice I prefer the better bottles. I've only brewed about 15 batches tho.

Go with what you thinks best! Or what you want!

I prefer plastic buckets just for the ease of cleaning. they're light , accesable and I don't worry about breaking one while cleaning. but as said before either one will make beer

burmjohn said:

So confused

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Any one of these will work fine for many years to come, but long before that you'll want fancy expensive shiny new stuff. Its an illness. Actually if dont have a bunch of money to blow then this isnt the hobby for you.... Actually you can make awesome beer with just a bucket, and brewpot. Its just not as much fun.

Glass was fun for the first few batches so I could watch fermentation. Now it's an over weighted, overly dangerous, harder to clean PITA. I don't use my one glass carboy unless all my buckets are full and I don't have $15 more to buy another bucket.

Besides, it doesn't matter what beginner kit she buys you. Within a year all of that stuff will be obsolete when you build a giant brew rig and a kegerator. Well, everything besides fermenters Just get something to get started, then start replacing as needed.

I went with the Norther Brewer Deluxe kit you indicated. I am very satisfied with it. I only needed to purchase a spoon, a kettle and a beer kit to brew. I just did my second brew today. Just to keep it on the "cheap" side I purchased a 30qt stock pot at Target. It was only $50 and if this ended up being something I didn't follow through with it was not a big loss. Some of the economy kettles out there are very thin and some of the better kettles (one I want down the road) are about $150 minimum. The stock pot I got has nice size to it (as I'm only boiling 2 1/2 gallons) for a 5 gallon total batch. I took advise of friends who brew and got the glass carboys. Yes they are a bit heavy but when I'm dropping average of $45 for a beer kit and three hours of my time it was worth it overall. I was told about the potential to scratch the plastic and get bacteria as someone noted above.

Another thought is if you and your buddy are both asking for a kit, get different kits, that give you the most variety of equipment. That way you can share whatever one of you doesnt have.

IrregularPulse said:

Besides, it doesn't matter what beginner kit she buys you. Within a year all of that stuff will be obsolete when you build a giant brew rig and a kegerator. Well, everything besides fermenters Just get something to get started, then start replacing as needed.

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Hahah... Looks like that might be the case. I am amazing at the DIY section of the site, I was reading through that for hours last night!