[Beating A Dead Horse]To buy a brewing "Kit" or build my own$150 Budget includes beer

ok so after discovering this lovely forum the brewing bug hath bit me and I haven't even brewed my first batch.

I have two 1/2 Barrel 15.5 Gal Kegs, tops have already been cut, holes drilled and "Keg Tool" pulled to solder the couplings into. I have the ball valves, couplings, tee's etc for a temp gauge and site glass if I choose.

I have 10 Cornies I picked up for $10 a pop.

I built a CFC as I don't want to mess with ice bath.

I do not have the basics however. so my question is should I buy a "Kit" or piece my own. I have $150 budget and that includes my "beer ingredient kit"

what I know I need is:
Primary container "I prefer car boy over a white ale pale, so I can see whats going on"
plug with hole in it for blow off tubing
thermometer
Hydrometer
auto siphon
star san

items below can be borrowed from Neighbor:
bottling bucket as I can't afford a Co2 tank setup yet.
bottle capper

I was going to buy a kit from Midwest supplies until it figured in $46 in shipping. I called to see if they would forgo shipping or price match other online competitors and I got the response of " our prices at 20% lower than anyone else every day all day, go kick rocks if you don't like it"

So I start looking at Austin HomeBrew, BrewMasters etc they have kits slightly more money but Free shipping or $7.99 shipping.

I am torn between these two kits AHS Brewing Equipment Kit (2 Stage)http://www.austinhomebrew.com/product_info.php?cPath=178_33_52&products_id=12736 and Brewmasters Warehouse SILVER Kit



-=Jason=-

I'd do a kit, when I started out I priced the individual items and there's no reason not to get a kit... if I were you I'd want all of my own equipment, sure you can borrow it from your neighbor but what if your schedules don't line up properly?

They're both nice kits, but I prefer the 6gal PET better bottles. You said you don't like the idea of buckets (neither do I) so the AHS kit doesn't fit your criteria as the primary would be in a bucket. You'd also get a 5gal better bottle but nowadays the trend seems to forego using a secondary in favor of a long primary anyhow (depending on style). Lately I use my 5gal bottle as a primary for 4gallon batches so it could be nice to have anyways. It's pretty nice that the AHS kit comes with a big spoon (I bought one separately after buying my kit)... I'm not a fan of floating thermometers though, that'll be next to impossible to read in a keggle. You probably want a thief and at least a laboratory thermometer.

The build your own kit on the AHS site is a great idea, if you're going for a glass fermenter that'd work out well for you. Unfortunately they don't offer a 6gal better bottle. I'm a fan of the BMW kit... the only thing you wouldn't need is the carboy brush because your fermenter is plastic and you don't wanna scratch it, perhaps you could swap that for a spoon or something?

You know, with all those cornies and keggles and such, you might wanna get two 6gal carboys off the bat so you can keep your pipeline full. You'll be itching to fill them all, especially since you're already addicted before even brewing once!

Either way, they're both nice kits.

yeah I'm learning towards the BMW kit myself I like the fact it comes with the 6 Gal BB with blow off tube. If I can sell a few cornies $20-25 i'll have money to get kegging started. I can get more at the sweet price of $10. unfortunately I live in BFE and there isn't a high demand for 5 gal cornies.

I did just price out each piece of the kit and it does come out to be more than the kit I guess thats why you buy a "kit" to save money.

so it looks like BMW kit is best for my needs. now I just need an ingredient kit

-=Jason=-

Why don't you check out the kits and pieces from Northern Brewer. northernbrewer.com They advertise $7.99 shipping on an order, large or small.

@RM-MN it looks like NB kit is $10 more than the BMW kit where as both at $7.99 shipping.

-=Jason=-

A lot of the recipes on here in the recipe section are built on brewmasters warehouse and easy to order, or you can build them yourself pretty easily. Most of the popular recipes have both AG and extract conversions. Here's the current thread going on fav recipes https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f14/favorite-3-hbt-recipes-208550/

Northernbrewer has good kits too, I went with a bunch of those until I got my legs under me, they all turned out great. Oh yeah and I suggest using dry yeast for a while, I still use s05 and s04 80% of the time.

BovineBlitz thanks, I'll have a look there and see if I can put together my own kit. I guess its no different then buying a ready to go kit. as long as its dry yeast and not all grain

any reccomendation for a first time brewer. my SWMBO likes Blue Moon or wheat beers, so if i can make some thing she likes from the get go it will give me more beathing room when I say " I need another Carboy, or I need to brew another batch, I need xxx for brewing"

EDIT: I hadn't been to the recipe section of BMW only the ingredients ZOMG..... looks like I'll be buying my kit and recipe from the same place. I'll have to ask SWMBO to look at recipes with me to see which one she wants.


-=Jason=-

ZOMG....

we have a Magic Chef Freezer we picked up for $50 at a garage sale. its hardly ever full if anything it has one or two items in in. I was planning on converting my my mini fridge into a kegorator, but it looks like im going to have to convince SWMBO to let me build a KEEZER, and I'll use the mini fridge to build a fermenting chamber since I have crazy temp changes like SWMBO's mood swings when Aunt flo comes to visit.

-=jason=-

I am extremely jealous of your equipment

Flomaster said:

BovineBlitz thanks, I'll have a look there and see if I can put together my own kit. I guess its no different then buying a ready to go kit. as long as its dry yeast and not all grain

any reccomendation for a first time brewer. my SWMBO likes Blue Moon or wheat beers, so if i can make some thing she likes from the get go it will give me more beathing room when I say " I need another Carboy, or I need to brew another batch, I need xxx for brewing"

EDIT: I hadn't been to the recipe section of BMW only the ingredients ZOMG..... looks like I'll be buying my kit and recipe from the same place. I'll have to ask SWMBO to look at recipes with me to see which one she wants.


-=Jason=-

Click to expand...

Hefeweizens turn out excellent with extract, though you can't use a dry yeast... you can however keep the gravity in normal range, underpitching a hefeweizen yeast can be a good thing. Wyeast 3068 is delicious, lots of banana-y esters. You could also just use S05 and go for a cleaner american wheat... delicious with amarillo. Something like 3lbs light dry extract, 3lbs wheat extract, 30 IBUs of bittering hops and an ounce at 5min will give you a nice mild hoppiness.

Isn't BMW great?

bovineblitz said:

I am extremely jealous of your equipment

Click to expand...

i can't help it, I built an HTPC, next thing I know I've built a 8TB unRaid server filled with 400 movies and 1500 tv episodes. seems any hobby I get into I don't just dip my toes into I just dive right in.

by the time my first batch is ready to bottle I'll likely have a kegging setup *crosses fingers* thats the plan at least.

-=Jason=-

Flomaster said:

i can't help it, I built an HTPC, next thing I know I've built a 8TB unRaid server filled with 400 movies and 1500 tv episodes. seems any hobby I get into I don't just dip my toes into I just dive right in.

by the time my first batch is ready to bottle I'll likely have a kegging setup *crosses fingers* thats the plan at least.

-=Jason=-

Click to expand...

At least I have you beat in the PC department

3,300 TV shows and 800 movies



...trade?

Flomaster said:

@RM-MN it looks like NB kit is $10 more than the BMW kit where as both at $7.99 shipping.

-=Jason=-

Click to expand...

Thanks for that heads-up. I usually only look at Midwest and Northern Brewer since they are (relatively) close to me. Then I head to the local store to buy so I can see what I'm getting. The local store is actually quite competitive and I don't pay shipping but the selection just isn't as large as the bigger distributors.

RM-MN said:

Thanks for that heads-up. I usually only look at Midwest and Northern Brewer since they are (relatively) close to me. Then I head to the local store to buy so I can see what I'm getting. The local store is actually quite competitive and I don't pay shipping but the selection just isn't as large as the bigger distributors.

Click to expand...

ahh your one of the lucky guys who has a LHBS mine is over 90 miles away not to practical to just pop on in for a few things.

I'll likely be purchasing the BMW kit and a recipe wheat beer for my first brew. probably extract as it seems the easiest for a first time brewer.

-=Jason=-

thinking about this for my first brew
http://www.brewmasterswarehouse.com/recipe/ee201098/

it doesn't have any directions and was posted by anonymous.

im thinking extract because I haven't built a mash unit although I do have a blue cube Igloo cooler I can convert, but for my very first brew extract might be easiest for me.

-=Jason=-

edit: I think I found my deal.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B002BU7CVM/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

amazon.com has a kit for $77 I get free 2 day shipping because I am a PRIME member. this would save me precious money I could put else where. its $32 cheaper so that would pay for my first ingredient kit plus I can buy some more gear and stay under $150.

-=Jason=-

I know its only a $32 dollar savings, but for a first time brewer just trying to get all the equipment together for his first brew pinching pennies is where its at.

-=Jason=-

EDIT: looks like its $17 dollars shipping brining the total up to $94 just $15 cheaper the BMW Silver kit.

well here it is. I settled with BMW for everything not a bad way to spend a $150 Gift Card is it?



-=Jason=-