Creating my own brew kit

Ok.....

So ive been in some rough times since last posting here. Been laid off my job...yadda yadda yadda......but I'm back.

So I make a few good bets this weekend and hit a pretty nice payoff. So now that i have a little "bankroll" that i wasnt expecting......and i have a LOT of free time.....I'm going to get my brew kit on.

Instead of getting a kit I want to create my own. B/c everyone has been saying, get this kit but then buy this and this to replace what it comes with.

Help me create a shopping list for when i go to the brew store. Post things that I should get and I will edit my list as I check the thread.

I'm not going right into all grain like I was going to......so remember when posting things.

SHOPPING LIST

1- 2 6.5 glass carboys
2- floating thermometer
3- hydrometer
4- three piece airlock and bubbler airlock
5- 7.5 gallon kettle
6- a scale of some sort......recommendations please
7- carboy brush
8- beer bottle brush
9- bottle tree
10- jet bottle washer with faucet adapter
11- bottle capper and bottle caps
12- sterile siphon with carboy cap
13- funnel
14- brew hauler...(do these work?)
15- iodophor or star san....you tell me
16- stainless steel spoon


I know i've left out somethings. Like straining bags b/c i dont know what to get. Also if I were to dry hop or not use a hop bag should i get a filer for my funnel? I heard they're a ***** to clean.....but what are my other options?

Thanks for the help guys......

If going with 2 carboys I'm assuming 1 primary and 1 secondary you might want to consider using a 5 gallon for secondary, as it leaves less headroom so less air to cause any possible oxidization problems. Don't forget a blow off tube and you'll want carboy handles.

Other than that looks good to me, but I'm still a noob.

if you are not going to use secondaries, two 6.5 gallons would be awesome to get you started. if you wish to use secondaries, you may want to get a 5 gallon.

why do you want a floating thermometer? those things are a PITA. i'd just get fermometers for your carboys. you could also get a cooking thermometer and be able to attach it to your kettle, like this one:



a cheap plastic digital kitchen scale will work fine. your LHBS probably has one. something like this (there are a million different styles)



as long as you rinse your bottles out thoroughly after you drink the beer, you won't need a bottle rinser or tree (especially if you have a dishwasher) but that's your call

get the nice bench capper, not those crappy two-handed ones. you'll thank yourself for it

brew hauler might be a good idea, but i would also get the handles

my $0.02 for now...i may take another look when i get home

bed, bath and beyond has some salton digital scales that work great, for about $25.

star-san for sure.

get a bigger kettle. 7.5 is ok for extract kits, but as soon as you want to try an all grain batch, you'll need 9-10 gallon brew pot...may as well spend the extra $20 now.
ebay is a decent place to find brew pots actually.
I got a 9gallon SS pot, welded SS spigot, and large brewer's gauge for $99 from a seller named homebrewhousediscount
he doesn't have any up for sale right now though.

DeathBrewer said:

if you are not going to use secondaries, two 6.5 gallons would be awesome to get you started. if you wish to use secondaries, you may want to get a 5 gallon.

Click to expand...

this confused me. I thought you only needed 2 carboys if you were doing secondary. Ferment in one and then move to the second carboy.

Could you elaborate on what you meant? I just got confused, lol

udt89 said:

this confused me. I thought you only needed 2 carboys if you were doing secondary. Ferment in one and then move to the second carboy.

Could you elaborate on what you meant? I just got confused, lol

Click to expand...

The 6.5 gallon carboys are meant for primary since they have plenty of headroom for kreuzen(sp?) a.k.a. that foam that forms on top of the beer when fermenting and can blow the airlock out of a smaller vessel and make a mess. The 5 gallon carboys are meant as secondary since there is less headroom, there is less air trapped inside to cause a potential contamination of the beer.

If not doing secondary get 2 6.5 gallon carboys as 2 primary fermenters, to do 2 batches at once

If doing secondary get 1 6.5 gallon as primary and 1 5 gallon as secondary.

anyone else?

I agree that you'll want to get a bigger kettle.

As for the carboys, an earlier poster explained it very well. If you're going to be exclusively brewing wheat beers, then you don't need any secondaries. If you're going to be doing non-wheat lagers/ales then you're going to want to have a couple of 5 gallon carboys around to clear them in.

Primary for a week (6.5 gallon glass carboy or a 7+ gal plastic bucket)
Secondary for 2 weeks (5 gal carboy)
then bottle/keg

anyone else wanna add stuff to the list?

looks like you're set, dude. everything else will depend on what you brew. you may wish to get some reuseable hop/grain bags if you're brewing extract.

i would buy a blow-off tube for high-gravity beers and hefeweizens, too

but, yeah, other than that...looks like you're good