I love reading this stuff!
Hello ladies.
Hehe.
I'm new as well, but have been researching this extensively for a few months. As a very experienced total newb, I think I'm in a pretty good position for
some things...
I can't go against any of the above advice, it is all good and makes a lot of sense. What I wanted to add is this: It's possible (though perhaps not advisable) to assemble all of the equipment for about $50 by scrounging around. Once you understand the process, you will understand the parts you need to accomplish your goal. So, piece of equipment, by piece of equipment, here's what's going on.
Well, we learned in science class, alcohol comes from fermented sugar. Grapes have sugar (wine), apples have sugar (hard cider), and malt has sugar (beer). What is malt? Well, when grain is growing, it needs energy. Energy comes from sugar. So grains have a way of producing their own sugar. Basically, they break down enzymes and stuff into sugar within themselves to energize their growth spurt. The key to utilizing this energy is to trick the grain into producing sugars, and then drying it out. Voila! Sugar (malt) inside a piece of barley. You can buy this malted grain in a store and get it out yourself through the use of a grain mill, and water and heat and straining, but you can also buy the sugars pre-extracted. This is called "Malt Extract" and comes in two forms: Liquid (LME) and dried (DME). That's the sugar (and much of the taste). So you need to buy some extract. And you of course need some yeast. And you need water. Hops are also necessary for beer- they add flavor. They are the thing that gives beer its bitterness and quantitied vary depending on the recipe. So you make it easy on yourself and just like any other cooking, you find a simple recipe and just buy all the ingredients on the list.
So you need: Malt extract, yeast, hops, and water.
Now you need to make something with the ingredients. You're going to boil it and cook it at somewhat precise temps. But boiling a lot of liquid isn't all that easy on most home stoves. So you MIGHT consider using a propane burner, like the type you use for frying turkeys (on sale now, after thanksgiving). You might just decide to use smaller quantities of water and a smaller pot. That's a fine way of beginning, but there are advantages to a full wort boil, so maybe just start out that way? It's up to you.
So you need: A large kettle (brewkettle aka stockpot), a heat source (propane or your own stove), a looong spoon, and a thermometer.
Now, you've diluted the malt/sugar, added the hops, and it's nice and hot. Uh oh! Problem! Warm liquids are a breeding ground for bacteria! The only way to save it is to add something to prevent infection. Yeast! Yeast will fight bacteria and also create alcohol which will inhibit bacteria. But yeast can't tolerate high temperature, so you've got to cool down the wort first.
So you will need: your thermometer, and either a big tub full of cold water (maybe with ice), or a "wort chiller" which is just a coil of copper tubing that you run cold water through inside the brewkettle- it's the opposite of baseboard water heating
Then you need to get the wort into a container for storage and fermentation. This is called a "carboy" or sometimes you just use a food grade bucket with a sealable lid. I should mention that you can NOT put HOT liquid into the carboy- no hot water rinse. It can shatter. Anyway, down to temp, you transfer it into the carboy/bucket and throw in the yeast. But in order to multiply, the yeast needs oxygen, so you need to "aerate" the wort. This can be done by simply agitating the carboy. Be careful though! A broken carboy is a HUGE mess.
So you need: A fermenter (carboy or bucket), and a siphon hose to get the wort from the kettle to the fermenter.
But now air is getting into the fermenter and air can add nasties. Also, yeast is a weird thing that goes through life cycles. In the first stage, it's reproducing. In the NEXT stage, it's letting off CO2 and alcohol. How do you get the yeast to go into that stage? By cutting off its oxygen supply. So you need to cap the fermenter. however, you don't want an explosion, so you need to be sure that CO2 can escape without letting air back in.
So you need: An airlock and, perhaps, a blow off tube.
Then the beer sits for awhile and becomes alcoholic. But then you think to yourself: How do I know when it's done? How do I know how much alcohol is in this? To figure that out, you need a hydrometer. The hydrometer is a little device like a thermometer that measures how much non-water is inside a liquid. The more sugar in the water, the higher the reading. So you measure the "specific gravity" of the beer, relative to the specific gravity of water (which is 1.000) and this will give you a feel for when you are done fermenting. Of course, you really want a comparative reading, so you also remembered to check the gravity of the cooled wort before you added the yeast.
So you need: a hydrometer, a tube to hold some beer when you stick the hydrometer in, and a way to get the beer from the fermenter- a ladel works, but a wine thief is fancier and less likely to allow organisms into your brew.
Then, you siphon the beer out of the fermenter and into another bucket. You have beer now, but it's not carbonated. So you add some priming corn sugar and water (oftentimes DME is used in the place of corn sugar) and you mix it in a bucket so the solution is equally distributed between the entire batch of beer. Once mixed, you put it in bottles, and let it sit at room temperature for a week, until the beer has naturally carbonated- this is the same thing that was happening in the fermenter, but once bottled, the CO2 will have nowhere to go, so it will be infused into the beer itself.
So you need: another bucket, some priming sugar or extra DME, bottles, bottle caps, a bottle cap capper.
Finally, the last thing you need is patience. If all goes well, after a week or two of "bottle-conditioning" (carbonation), you will have BEER.
You know, it's funny. I feel like I just gave a "birds and the bees" talk. The sexiest thing in the world, rendered completely unsexy by a long and boring discussion involving science and stuff.
