Couple questions before Placing order

ewhenn said:

I've done a lot of reading to try to minimize questions, but I still have a couple.



1) First, outside of bottles themself, am I missing anything?

I'm ordering from http://www.austinhomebrew.com, shipped to NY.


1 x AHS Brewing Equipment Kit (2 Stage Plastic Secondary)

This kit includes:
7.9 gallon plastic primary fermenter with a lid and stopper
5 gallon plastic carboy secondary fermenter
Medium universal stopper
Two 3-piece airlocks
6 feet of Siphon Hose (3/8" Thin Wall)
Auto-Siphon (3/8")
Auto-Siphon Clamp (3/8")
Bottle Filler (3/8")
Red Baron Bottle capper
Bottle caps
Nylon grain bag
Triple scale hydrometer
Floating thermometer
21" stainless steel spoon
Cleaner/Sanitizer
An Illustrated Guide to Homebrewing

1 x AHS Gold Seal American Pale Ale (10A)
http://www.austinhomebrew.com/product_info.php?products_id=10924{30}37{152}37

1 x Beer Bottle Brush
1 x 20Qt Stainless Steel Super Pot
1 x 6 Gallon Bucket with Spigot

Total Cost of Items: $223.95

I would definitely get a bigger kettle. No reason in buying a 5 gallon one now for just partial boils if you end up wanting to do full boils/all grain in the future. For full boil I'd say no less than 8 gallons.

2) I like APA and IPA a lot. Is this specific "kit" OK? Reason I as is it says, "Specially designed for beginners by Austin Homebrew Supply". I want to make a good first brew, and if the "beginner" kit is inferior, I'd like to know.

If you follow most of the advice here on HBT you should be able to make great beers with that equipment. Only thing I would add on is a wine thief or turkey baster/graduated cylinder so you're able to take hydrometer readings outside of the fermenter. That kit is nowhere near inferior, I use pretty much the same equipment (plus my AG junk), and I make beer that tastes just fine.

3) My water sucks. I also plan on doing partial boils. Can I boil say 3 gallons the day before for 30 mins, and put it in a sanitized fermentation bucket to store it until the next day? I would then do a 2 gallon partial boil (or whatever the recipe called for, obviously adjusting volume differences in the first day boil to equal 5 gallons), cool the wort, and add it to the previous days water I boiled. Is this OK?

That will work, but if your water really is that bad, I would try diluting it with distilled/RO water. Also, check if your municipality (if you're on municipal water of course) uses chloramine to disinfect the water. Chlorine can be boiled off, chloramine not so much. Use campden tablets to get rid of chloramine/chlorine. If you don't you may or may not end up with chlorophenols, which don't taste too great to most people. My water has chloromines in it, and the batches I brewed before using Campden tablets don't have a bandaid flavor, but why risk it?


4) Temperature. It's the summer, and my place stays 78-80F. Is this OK?

If you plan on only brewing Saisons, yes. For APAs and IPAs like you enjoy, definitely use some kind of swamp cooler. Pretty much just a tub of water with a t shirt placed over your fermenter that draws up the water and allows your fermenter to "sweat." You will need to rotate frozen water bottles in the tub from time to time to keep the temperature down, but it's worth the effort to keep your fermentation temps down.


Thanks for all the help in advance!

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Wakadaka said:

19 bucks for 7.5 gallons is a great deal. What store was that? And I think he was asking about the ingredient kit on whether or not it would make good beer. And yes those are quality ingredients. Just stay away from coopers and muntons and mr beer kits. they are directed towards beginners, and make inferior beer apparently.

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redde2brew said:

I just don't like plastic fermenters, think you will agree with me after you use it a few times. Glass will last you a lifetime. Brew stores want to sell you a plastic one to keep you coming back. Don't use that stainless spoon in the plastic bucket. Also I don't think a beginner needs a secondary its a beginner scam.

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