Home brew kit for the beginner.....advice needed

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BREWECU

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after sitting in on a cousin's brew session over the holidays, I have decided to Jump in and give home brewing a try. I will start off with just a simple extract brew. I have done some research online and looked at numerous "starter Kits" from various suppliers. My questions are:

1. is there any one starter kit that you would recommend over another, and if so, why?? I have been looking hard at kits from Northern Brewer and Williams Brewing.

2. Glass or Plastic (better bottle) carboy?
3. what, if anything should i add to a basic kit.....a secondary, or wort chiller?

4. In the end, should i just ditch the idea of a starter kit, and piece one together myself from various suppliers?

Any insight would be of great assistance. Thank you all in advance.
 
just about any starter kit will do. i haven't seen one yet that didn't have all the basic equipment. plastic buckets are fine for primary fermentation. glass is recommended for secondary. you will need a 5-7 gallon brew pot, a wart chiller, grain bag, bottles, caps, priming sugar, beer ingredients.

also i recommend chucking the racking cane that comes with the kit. it is fairly useless and a pain in the butt to get a good siphon going with it. buy an auto siphon you will be much happier.
 
after sitting in on a cousin's brew session over the holidays, I have decided to Jump in and give home brewing a try. I will start off with just a simple extract brew. I have done some research online and looked at numerous "starter Kits" from various suppliers. My questions are:

1. is there any one starter kit that you would recommend over another, and if so, why?? I have been looking hard at kits from Northern Brewer and Williams Brewing.

2. Glass or Plastic (better bottle) carboy?
3. what, if anything should i add to a basic kit.....a secondary, or wort chiller?

4. In the end, should i just ditch the idea of a starter kit, and piece one together myself from various suppliers?

Any insight would be of great assistance. Thank you all in advance.

1. This is the kit that I started with, and I am happy with it.

EVERYTHING + A CARBOY - Complete Brewing Equipment Kit #2

2. This topic has been debated AD NAUSEUM on this forum, and I'm sure you can find all the information you need with a quick search, but I'll share my thoughts. I like glass, for no other reason than the aesthetic appeal to it, and the fact that it 'feels' like quality. HOWEVER, after reading through this forum and hearing the stories people have shared regarding their glass carboy, whenever I'm carrying mine around, I become paranoid, especially if it is full. With that, whenever I buy a new carboy, I'll probably be going with a Better Bottle.

3. My initial impression is to advise that you go with a secondary. Not because you should secondary your beer (again, an overly debated topic on this forum). I am part of the school of thought that says that using a secondary is not very useful, USUALLY. I recommend getting a secondary so that you can use it as another fermenter. The faster you get a pipeline going, the easier it will become to be patient and give your beer the time it needs to condition. There is nothing worse than having to sit and stare at a fermenter for weeks with nothing else to do. A second fermenter will allow you to start on another project.

4. You can piece together your own. It really is a cost/benefit kind of thing. If you already have a big kettle, you know you don't need one of those. If you already have a 5 gallon, food-grade plastic bucket around the house for some reason, you know you won't need to get that. I recommend the kit that I did in the first bulletin for this reason, it has EVERYTHING you need for your first brew. You don't have to worry about getting your cooled wort in to the fermenter, only to realize you forgot to get yeast. Or get your fermented beer in the bottles before you realize you don't have bottle caps. If you get this kit, or a similar one, just make sure that the supplier provided everything they said they would, and I don't think you'll regret it.
 
just about any starter kit will do. i haven't seen one yet that didn't have all the basic equipment. plastic buckets are fine for primary fermentation. glass is recommended for secondary. you will need a 5-7 gallon brew pot, a wart chiller, grain bag bottles, caps, priming sugar, beer ingredients.

I disagree with the bolded, a wort chiller is not a necessity, it's helpful but an ice bath works just fine. The grain bag may not be necessary if the kit is just extract.
 
A wort chiller is pretty easy (and cheap) to make from soft copper tubbing, plastic hoses and clamps. The copper can be wrapped around a LARGE coffee can with each end connected to part of the plastic hose. You will need to get a connector for the hose to attach to your faucet head. Many people have posted that they made these for less than $20.
 
I pieced mine together over time and spent a lot more money, but I knew I would eventually go all-grain and wanted some flexibility with my brew kettles. That being said, I would go with the ~$200 Williams "Complete Brewery" starter kit with a brew kettle and a wort chiller and ingredients. You can't beat that deal.
 
Thanks for the insight guys. I ended up pulling the trigger on the Williams Brewing complete kit including the brewpot and wort chiller...seemed like a very good deal. Thanks again for the response.
 
I have the Williams kit, and just brewed my first batch this past weekend...so far, I like the equipment that I bought, but the brew kit, I am not sure. Actually, the kit itself was fine, but I emailed the customer service, and they wouldn't tell me what type of hops were used in the kit...most other companies are happy to tell you what is in the kit you are using. I think I will be ordering my kits elsewhere from now on!
 
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