Best kit to start with?

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radiohead84

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The title pretty much says it all but here is a little on what my situation is.

I am a college student and have my own house that i share with some other friends. I love beer...more then the average college student. While I do the avg college drinking where you goto parties and try to drink as much crappy beer as possible in a short amount of time, I dont do it THAT often. More over..I love to buy good local micro brews at home(PA has some great ones)...even though it does cost a bit more...its worth it. No one else my age likes GOOD beer as much as I do..infact all my roomates hate the beer I buy.

SOOO, in an effort to expand my beer knowledge, have some fun, and save a buck or two I was wondering if some of you could suggest the best starting kit. I have read some of the home brew tutorials..including the one in the FAQ but I dont feel that I have a full grasp on it all quite yet. I am a learn by example kind of guy and like to have everything infront of me. Maybe a video would help aswell.

My favorite kind of beer is IPA by the way.

Forgot to mention that I have been unable to find a home brew shop near by. I have asked the local distributors if they knew of any and none of them do. Sooo, unless there is a database that has a good list, and maybe i could find one.....looks like ihave to buy online.

Thx
 
radiohead84 said:
The title pretty much says it all but here is a little on what my situation is.

I am a college student and have my own house that i share with some other friends. I love beer...more then the average college student. While I do the avg college drinking where you goto parties and try to drink as much crappy beer as possible in a short amount of time, I dont do it THAT often. More over..I love to buy good local micro brews at home(PA has some great ones)...even though it does cost a bit more...its worth it. No one else my age likes GOOD beer as much as I do..infact all my roomates hate the beer I buy.

SOOO, in an effort to expand my beer knowledge, have some fun, and save a buck or two I was wondering if some of you could suggest the best starting kit. I have read some of the home brew tutorials..including the one in the FAQ but I dont feel that I have a full grasp on it all quite yet. I am a learn by example kind of guy and like to have everything infront of me. Maybe a video would help aswell.

My favorite kind of beer is IPA by the way.

Forgot to mention that I have been unable to find a home brew shop near by. I have asked the local distributors if they knew of any and none of them do. Sooo, unless there is a database that has a good list, and maybe i could find one.....looks like ihave to buy online.

Thx
Click to expand...
For the most part, if you are trying to save "a buck or two" you don't want to get into homebrewing. You usually won't save money on buying pre-made brew.

It's just BETTER beer than what you can buy in the store.
 
Radiohead, where in PA are you located? I'm in the philadelphia area, so if you're near Philly, I could point you toward several LHBS's that might have what you're looking for. if not, there are plenty of online resources where you can order equipment and supplies.

-Josh
 
bikebryan said:
For the most part, if you are trying to save "a buck or two" you don't want to get into homebrewing. You usually won't save money on buying pre-made brew.

It's just BETTER beer than what you can buy in the store.
Click to expand...


After the initial outlay, I think it's possible to save money. At $7.50 a six-pack for you average craft brew buying from the store, eight six-packs would run $60.00 plus tax. I usually get a little more than eight sixers from a batch. Some sixers cost more than $7.50.

If you were careful buying ingredients, two batches could be made for that 60 or so bucks.

It would take a while to recoup the investment in gear, though.
 
radiohead84,

If you haven't done it yet, read through www.howtobrew.com


There are lots of online homebrew shops. Some have free shipping on orders over 60 dollars. Austin Homebrew for one. Northern Brewer doesn't have free shipping, but they are a good place to buy from. Request one of their catalogues. They are fun to read through when you are away from the computer.
 
I'd say start with an all-extract IPA. No point in making anything other than what you like. As mentioned, good beer costs a bit. An Imperial IPA kit will run $35-40 US, about a buck a pint.
 
JRGSPE73 said:
Radiohead, where in PA are you located? I'm in the philadelphia area, so if you're near Philly, I could point you toward several LHBS's that might have what you're looking for. if not, there are plenty of online resources where you can order equipment and supplies.

-Josh
Click to expand...

Thx for the replies guys.

Yeah I know I wont save a lot, but I think I will really enjoy brewing and making some good beer. Aslong as it doesnt cost a lot more then buying a local microbrew I am going to do it.

I live near Lancaster PA..so about a hour and 45 min drive to Philly. I also go to harrisburg a lot where my favorite brewery and brewpubs are.
 
Whether or not you're saving money is a relative according to how you do that math.

One of the beers I'm enjoying right now is a Saison Dupont clone. Considering what it would cost me to purchase Saison Dupont (if it were reliably available locally, which it isn't), the $35 or so worth of ingredients that went into making it make it a steal.

I tend to think of the equipment purchases as hobby costs. Framed that way, it's a hobby that allows one to enjoy beer at a much lower per-bottle cost than buying it.
 
radiohead84 said:
Thx for the replies guys.

As long as it doesnt cost a lot more then buying a local microbrew I am going to do it.
Click to expand...

Check these starter kits out:

After four batches or so, you will have paid for the equipment.


http://www.northernbrewer.com/starterkits.html


The "Glass Starter Kit" would get you off to a great start. 99 dollars and it comes with a glass secondary. If you have decent kitchen stove burners, all you would need is a brew pot of some kind. I started with an enamel canning pot from a dollar store. It is just fine for doing patial boils. I think it holds somewhere around four gallons.

You might looks at these kits and then go over to Austin Homebrew and find a similar one, since they have free shipping.

Start saving empty bottles now.... :)
 
Lounge Lizard + said:
Check these starter kits out:

After four batches or so, you will have paid for the equipment.


http://www.northernbrewer.com/starterkits.html


The "Glass Starter Kit" would get you off to a great start. 99 dollars and it comes with a glass secondary. If you have decent kitchen stove burners, all you would need is a brew pot of some kind. I started with an enamel canning pot from a dollar store. It is just fine for doing patial boils. I think it holds somewhere around four gallons.

You might looks at these kits and then go over to Austin Homebrew and find a similar one, since they have free shipping.

Start saving empty bottles now.... :)
Click to expand...

http://cgi.ebay.com/HOME-BREW-BEER-...ameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem#ebayphotohosting This looks like the same kind of thing..but on ebay so cheaper. Look good?
 
Lounge Lizard + said:
Yea, it would work. It just doesn't come with a secondary. It does have a red capper, which can be used to cap champagne bottles. Maybe get it and then order a 5 gallon glass carboy from somehwere? That would work...
Click to expand...

I am sorry I dont want to seem like an idiot...but there are two buckets there? What do you mean?
 
Brewing can be cheap or expensive when you're starting out depending on how you approach it. Don't be put off by the people who're saying that it would be too expensive; I am a poor college student and i've got enough equipment to do all-grain batches. I started off doing the non-boil 'dump and stir' kits which produced perfectly acceptable beer. These are good introductions to brewing IMHO and you will soon be buying/making extra bits and bobs. If you like IPA, I got good results from the Coopers Brewmaster IPA kit. If you have the facilities to do an hours boil (a big pot) then you will want to consider following an extract IPA recipe which will give you much better beer. This involves boiling up malt extract and adding hops at various stages throughout the boil.
 
mysterio said:
Brewing can be cheap or expensive when you're starting out depending on how you approach it. Don't be put off by the people who're saying that it would be too expensive; I am a poor college student and i've got enough equipment to do all-grain batches. I started off doing the non-boil 'dump and stir' kits which produced perfectly acceptable beer. These are good introductions to brewing IMHO and you will soon be buying/making extra bits and bobs. If you like IPA, I got good results from the Coopers Brewmaster IPA kit. If you have the facilities to do an hours boil (a big pot) then you will want to consider following an extract IPA recipe which will give you much better beer. This involves boiling up malt extract and adding hops at various stages throughout the boil.
Click to expand...

Thx for the reply. I am not quite sure what you mean when you said a non-boil dumb. I hae a gas stove..a pretty big kitchen..and a basement with a perfect dark place that no one goes into that would work just great for leaving something for 2 weeks.

right now I am looking at this two kits..

http://www.williamsbrewing.com/BREWERY_WITH_AMERICAN_IPA_P1602C73.cfm
and the previous one from ebay.
 
radiohead84 said:
I am sorry I dont want to seem like an idiot...but there are two buckets there? What do you mean?
Click to expand...


The second bucket is a bottling bucket. I guess you could rack to that for a seconadary, and then use the lid and airlock from the primary bucket on it. Bottling buckets don't come with lids, at least this one doesn't. But after you use the bottling bucket for a secondary, it would help to yet have another clean container to bottle from. See what I mean?


Edited: It's not required that you use a secondary fermenter. It just produces a cleaner final product if you do.
 
I am not quite sure what you mean when you said a non-boil dumb.
Click to expand...
It's basically like adding a tin of hopped malt extract to boiling water with some sugar, mixing it and topping it up with cold water. Less than ideal but I didnt have a suitable pot to boil with. Both sets of equipment look good to me.

Like what's being said you might want to consider a glass carboy at some point but it's certainly not necessary when you're starting out.
 
Lounge Lizard + said:
The second bucket is a bottling bucket. I guess you could rack to that for a seconadary, and then use the lid and airlock from the primary bucket on it. Bottling buckets don't come with lids, at least this one doesn't. But after you use the bottling bucket for a secondary, it would help to yet have another clean container to bottle from. See what I mean?
Click to expand...


I think I understand. I had read http://www.howtobrew.com/section1/chapter1-3.html this previously and they only use one bucket to frerment..and then the other to mix and then bottle.
 
radiohead84 said:
I think I understand. I had read http://www.howtobrew.com/section1/chapter1-3.html this previously and they only use one bucket to frerment..and then the other to mix and then bottle.
Click to expand...


You can do it that way. It's not required that you use a secondary fermenter. It just helps to get the beer off the yeast cake and let it clear a bit more in a clean vessel, before moving it to the bottling bucket.
 
Oh the agony. I want to start now but I want to find the best deal on a kit first. Still looking for the best online and looking for a store near by
 

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