newbie ?s

I am an absolute green pea at this. Should I purchase the equipment to try brewing in individual pieces or a complete kit? What suppliers do you guys get good service from...who should I buy from? As with everything else there seem to be a ton of suppliers. If I should get a kit, whose is the most complete and of good quality? I'll be back with more noob ??s soon!


Thank, Chris

I'd go with the kit... but i tend to forget things....

8AV8 said:

I am an absolute green pea at this. Should I purchase the equipment to try brewing in individual pieces or a complete kit? What suppliers do you guys get good service from...who should I buy from? As with everything else there seem to be a ton of suppliers. If I should get a kit, whose is the most complete and of good quality? I'll be back with more noob ??s soon!


Thank, Chris

Click to expand...

Chris,
At first it can all seem so overwhelming. My req would be go to the nearest beer supply shop. Ask them what is the easiest equipment to get started with and what they recommend. I always hand write the steps and put times on when I need to do something. A timer helps.
Good luck!
Verm

A local shop is the best bet, cause nothing beats talking to people and actually seeing the stuff. But if you're like a lot of us and don't have a nearby shop, on-line is the only option you'll have. In that case, I'd simply check out the huge number of homebrew supply websites listed on this forum https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=701

Also, check out howtobrew.com there is an abundance of information there that will help you decide how deeply you want to get into this.

Good luck and have fun!

Unless you have some of the equipment already, I would say get a kit. This will get you started then you can add to it as your brewing hobby grows. You will need to get a brew pot and bottles in addition to the kit because most of the time they aren't provided.

I would also suggest doing some research if you haven't already. Most kits come with a book and here's another great source of brewing information:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/wiki/index.php/Main_Page

Most everyone finds a kit the easiest and most painfree way to go. If you have a local shop they can set you up. If not you can always order online and get it delivered. Don't go crazy, you don't need much to get started. Trust me once you get hooked, and you will, you will go on a buying frenzy and before you know it have all kinds of equipment. But all you need to get started is a plastic fermenter/bottling bucket with lid, a plastic spoon for stirring, an airlock, bottling wand, bottles, caps, capper if needed, sanitizer and your first beer kit. I started off with "no-boil" kits, they use liquid malt extract and are super simple to brew. While the beers produced are not as complex and flavorful as other types the no boil kits produce a remarkably good beer with minimal effort. Then as you want to move on to boil kits you can start adding to your basic kit. My first addition was a 5gal glass carboy and auto-syphon so that after one week in the bucket I could move the beer to the carboy for two weeks of secondary fermentation. Even the no-boil kits showed improvement from the added conditioning before bottling. So far I have done the no-boil, some 20 minute boil and full boil type kits. Soon I plan on moving to all grain, but all the kits have made great beer. Just be patient and let it age (bottle condition) longer than the kits say.

No local brew shops here. Thanks for the advice. Can anyone recommend a particular supplier that you have had success with? A kit seems like the way to go then.

I started with a beer man microbrewery kit (no-boil) http://www.beermanmicrobrewery.com/
Since then I've added stuff from a local shop as well as stuff from http://www.annapolishomebrew.com/ as well as quite a bit from http://www.midwestsupplies.com/ most recently.

I've ordered often from austinhomebrew.com and morebeer.com. I've been very happy with both and have used extract, PM, and AG kits from Austin Home Brew. All were good!