equipment

Hi there I am very interested in home brewing i really want to start doing this as my hobby.
I`ve been looking at mane sites where they sell kits, i don`t find the kits all that expansive, but i don`t live in the states so i will have to have them shipped to me, that would cost me about more then a hundred bucks to ship the equipment.(I live on an island called Aruba)
Does anyone have any advice or information on how to make your own kit? Or where i can get equipment that i can use to make my own kit?
I really hope to hear some replies, it really bums me out that i have to pay more than duable the price of a kit just for shipment

Most things can probably be acquired locally. Off the top of my head, here's what you need to start...

2 food grade buckets (stamped HDPE 2 on the bottom- a #2 inside a triangle... at least here in the states that's what we have- its a federal reg here). What I'm talking about is a "food grade" bucket. You can research and figure out what that means for you where you are, but basically it should be a plastic that is safe to use for food. You might be surprised at how common "food grade" buckets are. Here in the States, you can find them being sold as paint buckets and all sorts of other things. It's just a type of plastic, really, that won't impart funky flavors or ruin your brew. One of these buckets should be ~5 gallons, the other should be larger (6 or 7 gallons) if possible. Otherwise, you can do 3 or 4 gallon batches in a 5 gallon bucket, but most recipes are for 5 gallons and you need a little headspace for when the brew starts fermenting.

A glass carboy would be great in place of one or both of the buckets, but note, many bottled water companies use a plastic which is permeable to oxygen and these are generally not considered suitable for homebrewing, but if you can get a glass one, that'd be great because it will allow you to see what's going on.

Thermometer. at least 60-220 degrees (I think that's about 15 to 105 in Celsius)

Hydrometer. That you may have to mail order. It looks like a thermometer, sort of, but it's used to measure the gravity (density) of the brew. It's lightweight so if you have to order it, shipping shouldn't kill you.

Muslin bags for steeping specialty grains (cheesecloth bags or a clean sock would work too, in a pinch). Again, it would cost little to ship these from the state, but odds are you can find something suitable locally.

Some copper tubing, in a roll, can be fashioned into an immersion wort chiller for cheap. Just add vinyl tubing to run a clean supply of cold water through your wort.

An adhesive-type thermometer would be nice to have. Here they cost $2 and are frequently sold in pet stores for aquariums- they change color to show temperature.

An aquarium air pump (used to pump fresh oxygen into the water to keep it from going stale... used for the same purpose for your wort). Again, you should be able to get this locally. I paid $10 for a fancy one. Also get an air stone from the aquarium place too. If you pay $3 for it, you're overpaying. And, again, more tubing of the appropriate size.

A long handled spoon, plastic. About 24" long or so. Probably any restaurant supply store will have this.

A brewkettle. Again, you should be able to find one locally. Here, we can buy aluminum 10qt turkey fryers with a propane burner for about $50. I'd bet you could find something similar locally as well. You can also cook on the stove, but may have troubles getting the wort up to temperature on a standard stove... but I don't know what yours is like over there.

Bleach can work as a sanitizer if you are very careful to rinse it thoroughly. Restaurant supply shops may also sell the more purpose-designed sanitizers such as "Star San" or Iodophor (maybe you can get iodophor where they sell first aid supplies as well.. I don't know). And of course, boiling water and alcohol can also be used for sanitization where appropriate.

Airlocks, you can probably build yourself. If you choose to buy them, they cost about $1.50 here in the U.S. and, again, weigh next to nothing so shipping should be cheap. You can also use vinyl hose into a bucket of water as a blowoff tube instead. The only problem is that it may be tougher to tell when fermentation is complete.

A racking cane can be fashion from steel or copper tubing.

You will also need more vinyl tubing of various sizes for various things, but you will figure that out as you go...


Here in the U.S., you can assemble this kit from local places for less than $100 and this is quite a bit more equipment than any of those premade kits will have.

Kenny,

Where do you live?
Are you looking at doing a all grain brew or an extract brew?

I made my set up from borrowed / found left over bits.

You can brew with mainly normal kitchen equipment and a couple of extras.

A must is A thermometer and a hydrometer(To take the guess work away). But yoiu can even get away without those if you need to.

You'll need at least one fermenter. If you are struggling to find one to but then a local Deli/restaurant should have one knocking abut that they bought mayo in.

You'll need some form of sanitizer. (Some people use bleach)
And the odd length of plastic tube.

There is really no reason not to have a go.

hey thanks for the fast reply, i still have a couple of questions, lol.
You said something about copper tubing for a wort chiller, what exacly is that, how does that work and how do a make one?
How and when am i exactly supposed to use the aquarium pump for areation?
last question. Can you give me more detailed instructions on how to make a airlock and racking cane?
I`m kinda getting my "shopping" list togheter now hehe

A racking cane is basically just a long piece of tube with a curve on top. You attach a length of tubing to it and it allows you to siphon liquid from one container to another. You could probably just use plain flexible tubing for this, but a metal one is nicer since it allows you to put the intake point exactly where you want it (e.g., away from the trub).

After you've made your wort, it's maybe 200 degrees or so. You want to get it down to about 75 degrees or so as quickly as possible because this is a prime time for infections to occur in your beer. The faster you can pitch your yeast, the better. So folks use an immersion chiller (there are other fancier types, but the immersion chiller is a piece of cake). Buy about 20 feet of 3/8" copper tubing. Wrap it in a coil that will fit into your brew kettle with BOTH ends sticking up out of the pot. Attach two lengths of tubing to run from your faucet or water source to the chiller, and back. Once the wort is ready, you attach one end of the chiller to your faucet and the other into the drain and turn on the cold water. The cold water runs through the copper tubing and by the time it exits the other side, it's up to about 180 degrees or so. Just keep running the water through until you've reached the proper temperature for the yeast.

Instead though, a lot of guys just carry the brew kettle to their bathtub and immerse the kettle in cold water. That works too. You can also use ice inside of sanitized ziplock bags for this. Basically, sanitize 2 ziplock bags, fill one with water, close it, put it inside the other bag, and freeze it. Once your wort is done boiling, you remove the inner bag from the outter bag and throw the sanitized inner bag with the ice sealed inside it into the wort. Once the ice has melted, remove the bag with the water still inside. You might also be able to sterilize some plastic freezer packs and use those too. Basically, anything to get the temperature down as quickly as possible. I think the immersion chiller is the most fool-proof of the methods. No risk of spilling/dropping/splashing on the floor, no risk of water leaking out of the bag, etc.

An airlock is simply a device designed to let CO2 out of your fermenter without letting air inside. It sort of forces the CO2 to travel up, down, and back up. You have a straw that sticks up, maybe, 3 inches. Then you have a "hat" that sits on top of it and drops down 3 inches. And that all sits inside a container with a lid that has a couple holes in the top. You fill the container half way with water (or alcohol). When the CO2 leaves the fermenter, it goes up the 3" tube, and enters the "hat". The hat tries to float upward out of the water/alcohol, but it is held in place by the top of the container. So then the CO2 builds up until it forces its way past the alcohol in the bottom of the container, and then up and out the top. It's harder to explain that it really is. Do a Google search and look at a few pictures and it will be quite obvious how it works. Again, they're about 4 inches long total and you can buy them for a dollar from a homebrew shop here in the states. You can also just use a blow off tube (3/4" or greater inside diameter), run it out the top of your fermenter and down into a bowl/jug/pail of water or alcohol. It's not quite as sanitary, it takes a little more space, and it doesn't allow you to observe the fermentation process quite as easily, but technically it will work just as well... if you go this route, just be sure you have a hydrometer so you can check your fermentation that way.

The aquarium pump is used after transferring the wort into the primary fermenter, but before you pitch your yeast. You will want to aerate your wort so that the yeasties can multiply to ensure a vigorous fermentation process. The trick here is to try and be careful to prevent contaminants from sneaking into the air supply. For this, people will use sterile cotton cloth, perhaps dipped in alcohol, between the pump and the wort. Again, there are easier and less effective methods. You can simply shake your wort and splash it around a bit. That works too and it's free. If you use the pump, they say to run it for a half hour or so.


OK. I'm tired of typing now. You've worn me out. There are PLENTY of good basic brweing resources on the internet. Go find a couple and read them before you ask any more questions.