equipment from general supplies stores?

My order for my homebrew kit fell through so I was wondering if I can gather all the equipment needed from general stores like home depot and such. I do not have a homebrew store near me so that is out of the question and I really do not want to order online. I figure on getting my fermentation bucket and bottling bucket and hose from home depot but what I am really stuck on is where to get a siphon, airlock, and hydrometer and also a bottle capper. I've read about homemade airlocks, has anyone fabricated any part of their equipment? If anyone knows of any stores other than homebrew shops where i can get these things please let me know! Thanks!

Lucas

You would have to get food grade buckets for your bottling bucket and fermenter. In terms of the hydrometer and capper and such, it would be easiest to get those at a HBS. I ordered my kit off of midwestsupplies Basic :: Midwest Supplies Homebrewing and Winemaking Supplies. I know you said you don't want to buy online, but that is a great price and the people are very nice and friendly and I got it promptly.

+1 for Midwest Supplies. In maybe 8 years, I've never had a bad experience with them. They always ship fast and their extract kits are high quality.

I'm curious about your hesitation to order online. There are some fantastic online stores so why won't you use them?

Well, i had originally ordered a starter kit from Morebeer but with the holidays i had some money issues and had to cancel the order. My main reason for not wanting to order online is the time it takes to ship. I go back to school in a week and I do not really want to brew at school. I had thought about starting a brew before school and letting it ferment for a week and come back to check on it. Is this ideal or should I really be able to monitor the fermentation 24/7? Can the brew be in the fermentation bucket too long? I was thinking about biting the bullet and ordering the original starter kit from Morebeer and hope it gets here in time to set up a batch before I got back to school. What do you guys think?

I think for your first brew it would be fun to watch it but honestly not being able to look at it for a week might be a good thing. You will be nervous that its ruined and you will post and Revy will have to tell you don't worry.


Just have someone check on it once or twice just to make sure it hasn't blown out the airlock or anything crazy happened. My LHBS lets you brew on premise and they leave all their brews in the fermenting bucket for 2 weeks or longer so don't worry about the time frame, just don't let it go over a month is my suggestion.

Also I'm sure that with enough resourcefulness Macgyver could brew using a Swiss Army Knife a pack of matches and a used cereal box but for the new brewer getting the starter kit will make your life easier.

For a primary you could probably find a 5 gallon #1 PET bottle at Lowes or Home Depot. A 5 gallon batch would be hard in a 5 gallon bottle but you could easily make 4 - 4.5 gallons instead.

A blow off tube (airlock) can be purchased at any hardware store.

I can't think of anything else you can piece together. Sanitizer, hydrometer, etc. are really specialized items that are hard to find without shopping at a brewing store.

I think you could do it. Might even be easier than you think. You could use a Homer Bucket or do you have any bakeries near you? you might be able to get a large plastic bucket there... for free or a buck or two. You could get a grommet from HD or Radio Shack, install that and use a piece of tubing for a blow-off. Siphon is nothing more than another piece of tubing... but you'd be winging it on the hydrometer thing I'd guess. You could use bleach as a sanitizer, but rinse really well ...really, really, well! Water for your brew is easy...buy it. Buy the largest pot to boil in you can get... nothing less than 20 quarts is suggested though.
But, aside from the equipment...where will you get ingredients? That part might be a bit hard to Mickey Mouse.
YMMV

Basic supplies can be put together at home depot.

Grommet -


Bucket - white or orange homer bucket.



Hose-


Siphon Raking cane - 1/4 ID pex or 2 foot of 3/8" OD by the foot copper refrig line. Not all store sell copper by the foot. 1/4" pex is 3/8" OD so buy some vinyl hose with 3/8 ID to transfer your beer.


Bottle capper - ebay is your best bet. Try craigslist.org for a local buy maybe.
Or look to this thread on how to DIY bench capper.
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/diy-bench-capper-26795/

Caps - order online or again try local seller on craigslit. I suppose you could technically reuse caps if you carefully open bottles but this is getting a little extreme.

Bottles - buy beer in pop tops, drink, reuse.

Hydrometer - ebay or craigslist again. Or do without. Just ferment for 2 weeks and taste a sample until its not sweet anymore or is dry enough to your taste.

Yunus said:

Also I'm sure that with enough resourcefulness Macgyver could brew using a Swiss Army Knife a pack of matches and a used cereal box but for the new brewer getting the starter kit will make your life easier.

Click to expand...

you forgot a paperclip and chewing gum lol