Equipment Question

I have been pondering homebrewing and I have made up a few lists of stuff that I want. I am leaning towards the either the Midwest or Northern Brewing 2 carboy kit. I can afford to part w/ 200.00.

Then I started to add things in, a 7.5 gal kettle, wort chiller, keg, and a kit. Before I knew it, I was around 400.00 A little too high right now.

So I ask you guys, how long did it take you to get all your stuff? I was thinking of asking the Bridal Unit for the kit at xmas and then pick some stuff up as time went on. But I want to get it all....now.

My old neighbor has a ton of HB stuff sitting in someone elses garage that isnt being used, but I feel weird asking if I could borrow all his stuff.

Any thoughts, suggestions, advice as to what to do?

Thanks. Great site btw!

Very few people start with everything right off the bat. Typically you start with a basic kit, then add the chiller and a big pot for full boils. Then, it's all down hill from there. I don't really want to add up what I paid for everything I have, but I'd probably be shocked.

Honestly, if you're patient, you'll probably find good deals on all sorts of brewing stuff.

so you are saying go w/ the intermediate kit and maybe get a 7.5 gal kettle? I want to do 5 gal batches so I can keg it and get it into my meister. What would the minimum kettle size be w/ out getting boil over? I hear boil over is baaaaaad.

I have a buddy in HVAC so maybe I could get him to build me a wort chiller cheap or I could do it myself.

Thanks for the advice.

I recommend starting small, but always, always going quality. That way you can work your way up and sell off your old stuff. Or you can keep your old stuff and make extra/experimental brews without sacrificing quality.

Just don't worry about getting everything all at once. Every time I brew I think of something new I'd like to get, or something I'd like to upgrade.

You can brew a half decent beer using a $20 Ale Pail and a 1.5 gallon (or close) kettle, a $2 air lock and a $20-$30 kit (get specialty grains!). If you've got a splash of bleach and half decent tap water you can save some money on sanitizer.

This will get some wort in the fermenter and a week to decide if you like this hobby.

I got a hand-me-down kit from a friend and I learned from that what equipment I'd need.

I'd trade the Ale Pail for a funnel with strainer and a 6.5 gallon Better Bottle, watching the beer bubble is more enjoyable.

I'm planning on kegging, because I'm lazy and kegging seems like more fun, but if you're unsure, you can buy two packs of 22oz bottles and a pound of bottle caps for about $30, and add a capper for about $6.

Anyway, the point is that you can make this as expensive or as cheap as you'd like to go. In the end, YOU will determine if the beer you make is good, not the equipment you have or don't.

7.5 gallon kettle is probably expensive, yeah?

Look for a 30qt turkey fryer set-up, $30. This will handle full boils. If you need to go bigger than that I suggest look for a keg to convert to a kettle (see keggle). The burner from that should easily be OK for 5 gallon boils, may need to be upgraded for 10g.

I started off for less than $120 CDN. I bought a basic kit with an ale pale and a glass carboy and my first ingredient kit. I used a 16L stock pot I already had and I was into my first batch.

Since then I've gone all grain and gotten into kegging and I don't want to guess how much money I've spent. As others have suggested, start small. Nothing you buy will become useless as you progress, you'll just be adding on to what you already have.

I pieced my equipment together. You may find you like starting with the equipment kits. I think the ale pail is a great primary fermenter. I would acquire something else for secondary though, I personally use glass carboys. The kegging can be expensive, in the long run it will save you time and money. I wouldn't rush into it though, give yourself a few batches. I was lucky enough to come upon 2 free cornies and a 20lbs co2 tank for free so personally have yet to bottle. For a few really cheap first brews I recommend making yourself a German Hefeweizen. MMMMMMM tasty and easy. You could even just make it with an ale pale. Buy a kit or ask advice on piecing it together, probably will run you <$25. add your ale pail and necessary equipment (pot, spoon, airlock) and you're looking at a cheap but delicious first brew. I'm drinking mine for dinner right now (storm knocked out power to kitchen area of house and no fuses are blown hoping a new one isn't needed) and boy is it tasty. I just used the cheap brewers best hefeweizen but with a liquid yeast. This was an inexpensive kit that would be very easy to improve upon. I figured since the power was out I'd crack into my "stored grain" reserve :cross: Its making me ramble if you can't tell

got a basic set, a wort chiller, and a turkey fryer to start, probably spent around 150 total to start, then adding the cost of sanitizer and ingredient kit took it up to 190. Remember that the add ons cost money too. Also i decided to drink my way thru 54 samuel adams bottles, which cost around 60 bucks, but that was money VERY well spent.

I think you always spend more than you think, but for my "system" alone, i only spent 150 and have a pretty nice set-up that isn't fancy, but it gets the job done.

Will be going fancy soon!

I started off with a basic kit that included 2 buckets (one for bottling), a hydrometer, an airlock, an autosiphon, tubing, bottling wand, wing capper, one-step, and bottle caps. I added two cases of bottles and a cheap enameled lobster pot. Initial start-up cost with ingredients was like $150.

After a few brews I started adding things like a carboy for secondary, a SS kettle, more bottles, a carboy for primary, a wine thief, a strainer, more airlocks, more carboys, a converted cooler for doing Partial Mash ect...

Eventually I bought a Sanyo 4912, tap tower, and kegging set-up.

At this point I would estimate that I have spent around a thousand dollars on equipment alone in the past year (and I have big plans to spend a lot more once we buy a house...)

buckrogers71 said:

how long did it take you to get all your stuff?

Click to expand...

16 years and still going. "All your stuff" does not compute

Thanks guys! I have the meister, so that isnt a concern. I suppose I will have to keep an eye out for a turkey fryer. I thought that the pots that came w/ the fryers werent good b/c they are aluminum?

I guess I will have to think about it long and hard

give the search "aluminum stainless" a quick go, it's a pretty common topic here .

But as others have said, you can brew as cheap, or as expensive, as you want. I ordered a pretty darn nice setup a la carte for about $200, with a couple recipe kits included (admittedly I got a kegging system on the side, but a few bottles and a capper are cheap). I made a thread about it here earlier, look here if you're interested.

My buddy and I found a beer and wine supply store near us that had a start up kit for $89 plus $30 for an ingredient kit. Everything start to finish for a first timer.

The link is here.

You can order right from the net, but I think its more expensive than in store.


P.S. yea first post for me!

OblivionsGate said:

My buddy and I found a beer and wine supply store near us that had a start up kit for $89 plus $30 for an ingredient kit. Everything start to finish for a first timer.

The link is here.

You can order right from the net, but I think its more expensive than in store.


P.S. yea first post for me!

Click to expand...

Welcome and good luck on your first batch!

buckrogers71 said:

I have been pondering homebrewing and I have made up a few lists of stuff that I want. I am leaning towards the either the Midwest or Northern Brewing 2 carboy kit. I can afford to part w/ 200.00.

Then I started to add things in, a 7.5 gal kettle, wort chiller, keg, and a kit. Before I knew it, I was around 400.00 A little too high right now.

So I ask you guys, how long did it take you to get all your stuff? I was thinking of asking the Bridal Unit for the kit at xmas and then pick some stuff up as time went on. But I want to get it all....now.

My old neighbor has a ton of HB stuff sitting in someone elses garage that isnt being used, but I feel weird asking if I could borrow all his stuff.

Any thoughts, suggestions, advice as to what to do?

Thanks. Great site btw!

Click to expand...

This kit, http://www.homebrewery.com/beer/beer-gs-deluxe-kit.shtml with the 5 gallon brew pot, http://www.homebrewery.com/beer/beer-brewpots-spoons.shtml. Will put you at little over $200, of course that will be without bottles or a keg.

It's probably one of the more complete kits I've seen for the price (at least on line).

Whiskey® said:

This kit, http://www.homebrewery.com/beer/beer-gs-deluxe-kit.shtml with the 5 gallon brew pot, http://www.homebrewery.com/beer/beer-brewpots-spoons.shtml. Will put you at little over $200, of course that will be without bottles or a keg.

It's probably one of the more complete kits I've seen for the price (at least on line).

Click to expand...

Now THATS what I am talking about. I thought of possibly getting a turkey fryer kit (about 60.00) and that would pretty much complete what I need.

Thanks Whiskey!

No problem!

It's the kit I plan on ordering once I get moved, I'm going to see if they will substitute better bottles for the carboys, though.

I was planning on ordering a few weeks ago, but If I had the kit it'd be brewing beer and I didn't want to transport fermenting Wort 700 miles.... So I'm on hold for another week or so! Which is ok, it's given me a bunch of time to research, suppliers, equipment and techniques.

Hope it works out!