New Equipment Purchase and Suggestions

I am trying to keep my entry costs to home brewing at a minimum, with the intent of learning and transitioning to bigger and better as I gain experience.

There’s a local listing selling some brewing equipment, and being a newb-to-brewing, I am considering purchasing the equipment and adding to it to do my first of hopefully many great home brewings. I can pick up the following equipment for around a $100:
- primary fermenter
- secondary fermenter
- keg
- large pot
- thermometer
- siphon
- hydrometer
- bottle capper
- bottle caps
- 4 cases of bottles
- air lock
- cleaner
- sanitizer
- shelving to hold everything
- and other misc items

I have a propane burner to use, so the boiling isn’t an issue. I know I need to get some extract kits, and am planning on getting a couple of replacement parts as well (i.e. airlock, spring tip bottler, tubing, clamps, etc&#8230. Is this a good purchase and is there anything else I need or what you would recommend for a newb-to-brewing?

This is a great site and the information is awesome, so let me say thanks in advance for any input provided!

Regards,
Will

My first questions would be how big are the fermenters, how big is the 'large pot' and what is the keg for. The keg isn't much good without a CO2 hook up, gauges and a faucet.

sounds like a deal to me. the only other thing i would get is Charlie Papazian's book.

I was told the equipment was brought from the Austin, TX area, so I am assuming it was purchased from Austin Homebrew. I am not sure about the size of the fermenters, but according to the Austin Homebrew website, the only sell plastic fermenters in a 7.9 gallon version, and the carboy from 5-6.5 gallon. I know one of each style is included in the listing.

The plus side, the keg is useless until i get the CO2 hookup, gauges, and faucet, but when it is being included in the purchase, I don't think it would be a bad idea to grab it and keep it for possible kegging adventures down the road. If it doesn't work out, then I could sell or hand it off to a fellow brewer.

Again, thanks for the input and please let me know if you need any additional information. Being a newb, I need to learn what information you guys need to give advice, so let me know!

Thanks!

Good deal, especially if it's a nice big pot.

The size of the pot is important for you to know. If it's 8+ gallons, you can do 'full' boils. Many brewers (including this one) started off doing 'partial' boils in smaller pots, then topping off with water in the fermenter to reach your total volume (usually 5 gallons).

The reason I mention this is because if you are doing partial boils, you can chill the wort afterwards through a combination of putting the pot in an ice bath and topping off with cold water.

But if you will be doing full volume boils, you will need another way to cool your wort. An immersion chiller is a handy piece of equipment for that.

Good luck!