Ultimate Beginner Kit?

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BillyVegas

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Anyone know of the ultimate beginner kit? I see lots of different places with slight differences in beginner kits... but... What's the best of the best?

Is there a best kit, or am I better off assembling my own with more quality equipment?

Also, what about glass vs. plastic carboys? Glass would seem the best to me.. but I know both have pros and cons... what are your feelings?
 
Ultimate beginner kit to me sounds like a single tier, 15gal AG setup with conicals, but I don't think that is what you mean. I got the one from Midwest Supply and love it. Easy to add on too and comes with everything you need (except pot).

As far as glass vs. better bottle (plastic carboys), people will argue one way or the other, but the honest answer is that both are perfectly fine. Glass is more expensive now and heavier, but a little easier to clean and won't scratch. I would say get whatever is cheaper
 
Go with one of the Ale Pail or True Brew kits. This one is very well equipped, and at a good price: Beginner Kit. Regarding glass vs. plastic: For your primary, it's hard to beat an Ale Pail. They're much more user friendly, and have a number of benefits over glass. For a secondary, I was all for glass, then all for plastic, and now I'm back to glass. The only real detractor as far as glass goes is safety, but if you can keep your wits about you (and preferably get a carboy parka), you'll be fine. Avoid those cheap coated handels that attach to the carboy neck, as they're asking for trouble.

Some other gizmos you might want to invest in if you're going all out is an aeration system, 1-liter flask, stir plate, small stir bar, Schmidling Malt-Mill (if you see yourself going partial mash or all-grain), a pot that's minimum 5 gallons, and a good quality digital scale.
 
The only real detractor as far as glass goes is safety, but if you can keep your wits about you (and preferably get a carboy parka), you'll be fine. Avoid those cheap coated handels that attach to the carboy neck, as they're asking for trouble.

Milk crate- Much easier to carry carboys (be it glass or better bottle) and protects glass carboys.

Some kind of wort chiller would be a plus. Are you planning on bottling or kegging the finished project?
 
Milk crate- Much easier to carry carboys (be it glass or better bottle) and protects glass carboys.

Some kind of wort chiller would be a plus. Are you planning on bottling or kegging the finished project?

The parkas make it really easy to carry them, and they block light (win-win). I went back and fourth regarding a wort chiller, but decided for my needs (3-4 gallon boil) it made things unnecessarily complicated. An ice bath in the sink works well enough for those volumes, at least in my experience.
 
I would think I would be bottling my first few batches, as I don't have ample refrigeration options for a keg... as of yet. I think I'll start kegging once I get a solid beer down.
 
Along the same lines as the OP, what are the essentials of a good starter kit? Neither of the Midwest kits posted contain everything. What else is needed without necessarily going all out? I know I'll need a turkey fryer, bottles, and a recipe kit but I don't know what other odds and ends are necessary to begin brewing.
 
All i use out of my original brewing kit is the hydrometer, plasic bucket/bottling bucket as primary, 5 gal carboy(secondary), 5 ft of tubing, auto siphon, racking cane, bottling wand and capper. I don't bottle anymore because of kegging but I incuded those.
Also Star-San is mandatory for easy sanitation.
And whirlfloc.
and a good thermometer.
you don't need a turkey fryer if you have a kitchen stove.
the book in that kit is nowhere near as good as this site.
no funnel needed with a bucket
I have only used the brush in the kit once and it wasn't for brewing. I cleaned a toilet with it.

Have fun is the most important part and if your careful you'll make a damn good beer.
 
All i use out of my original brewing kit is the hydrometer, plasic bucket/bottling bucket as primary, 5 gal carboy(secondary), 5 ft of tubing, auto siphon, racking cane, bottling wand and capper. I don't bottle anymore because of kegging but I incuded those.
Also Star-San is mandatory for easy sanitation.
And whirlfloc.
and a good thermometer.
you don't need a turkey fryer if you have a kitchen stove.
the book in that kit is nowhere near as good as this site.
no funnel needed with a bucket
I have only used the brush in the kit once and it wasn't for brewing. I cleaned a toilet with it.

Have fun is the most important part and if your careful you'll make a damn good beer.

Pardon my ignorance, but what is whirlfloc? Also, as far as not needing a turkey fryer, will any kitchen stove work? I'm assuming I would then only need a brewpot; though I'm not sure what size would be sufficient. One last question, there are kit upgrades on Midwest, where I plan on picking up my kit from; are they necessary? The one I was considering comes with a carboy dryer/drainer, a jet bottle washer and faucet adapter, and a nylon grain/hop bag.
 
Whirlfloc are tablets added with 10 minutes left in the boil. Long story short, they make the beer less hazy. Not really required on a dark beer, but most people add one to every brew.

You absolutely do not need a turkey fryer. If you have a stove, you're good. The pot size you need depends upon how large of a boil volume you want. I work with a 3 gallon boil for both extract and partial mash recipes, and use a five gallon pot.

Generally speaking, get a pot that is 2 gallons larger than the volume of the boil you want. Look around at the various brew sites for good deals on pots...I got my five gallon "economy" pot for $35, and it's just fine for my purposes.

You don't need a jet bottle washer/adapter. When you pour a beer, rinse the bottle out a few times with water and let it dry. The only time one really needs a jet washer is when beer is allowed to dry and congeal inside the bottles you want to use.

As for nylon grain/hops bags: Go to the paint section in your local Lowes, Home Depot, etc. Eventually, you'll find paint strainer bags. They come in 1 gallon (good for hops, need to be tied off) and 5 gallon (good for grain, will fit over your entire pot). They're pennies on the dollar compared to what the brew stores charge for hop/grain bags.

Schwind provides good advice, but I got a chuckle out of the fact that he says "I didn't use anything from the kit except..." and then goes on to list basically everything that was included in the kit. The Ale Pail-based kits are really quite good. Get the one that has the glass secondary, and take a look at some of the items I've listed earlier on in this thread if you want to accessorize. Everything I use to brew is included in that kit, plus the items I've outlined a few posts up.

Above all, and as Schwind has said, this site is a priceless resource for learning the ropes. It would have taken (literally) years on my own to learn what I've learned on this site in a matter of about a month. Before you make a purchase, poke around here, figure out your goals, ask questions, then make the plunge.
 
I like glass because you can see what is going on, which is part of the fun. It is a mystery if you use plastic.
 
MoreBeer | Personal Home Brewery #4 - Bottling Super Deluxe

Includes an 8 gallon brew pot for doing full 5-gallon boil, and a wort chiller. By far it looks like an excellent starter kit that you can grow upon without having to replace pieces. Plus the bottles are 22oz which will make bottling much faster.

When I got my starter kit I just went to the LHBS and he pieced together a decent one, but after doing a few brews, I'm ready to upgrade, especially to a larger brew pot so i can do full boils.
 
I like glass because you can see what is going on, which is part of the fun. It is a mystery if you use plastic.

Keep in mind, your glass needs to be covered. If you leave the glass exposed to light, it will skunk your brew. Hop isomerization is caused by wavelengths up to 520 nm, so even thick carboy glass can't prevent it. It's one more reason I prefer buckets as primary fermenters. Glass is good for secondaries.

Of course, a lot of folks swear by glass for primaries, and I'm not saying they're wrong. But glass requires more attention than buckets, and is more of a pain to work with. But for a secondary, you want the small head space, and the impermeable nature of glass.
 
You absolutely do not need a turkey fryer. If you have a stove, you're good. The pot size you need depends upon how large of a boil volume you want. I work with a 3 gallon boil for both extract and partial mash recipes, and use a five gallon pot.

Generally speaking, get a pot that is 2 gallons larger than the volume of the boil you want. Look around at the various brew sites for good deals on pots...I got my five gallon "economy" pot for $35, and it's just fine for my purposes.

So to make a 5 gallon batch I'd need a 7/8 gallon pot, correct?
 
ThreeSheets...

Man did you see the #5 kit??? The one that included the Kegging system??

Sweet deal!!!

I have some stuff now but Only a few items will be duplicate.. So I might just spring for that kit come the new year!!! I really wasn't looking forward to bottling and that kit seems to put it all to rest! The only other thing I'll need is a second fridge...Hmm checking CL next!
 
I'd look for a kit that includes most or all of the following:

1 6-Gal Better Bottle
1 5-Gal Better Bottle
Bottling Bucket
2 orange carboy caps
auto-siphon
tubing
wine thief (not the junk one Northern Brewer sells)
hydrometer
floating thermometer
bottling wand
bottle tree
vinator
self-adjusting bench capper
nylon grain bag
nylon hop bag
Instructional DVD (always helpful if you haven't seen it done before)
How To Brew book by John Palmer

Not all of those are required, but they tend to make life much easier.
 
So to make a 5 gallon batch I'd need a 7/8 gallon pot, correct?

Yup, you are correct sir. An option to pursue might be getting two smaller pots -- say each in the neighborhood of 16-20 quarts -- and splitting your 5 gallon boil into equal halves. This has a number of advantages. The first is that two 2.5 gallon batches cool much more effectively in the standard bathtub water baths when compared to a single 5 gallon vat. Indeed, I'd say for a single pot of 5 gallons, a wort chiller is almost a requirement. Two pots also makes doing stove-top partial mash and all grain a possibility.

Just food for thought.
 
Yup, you are correct sir. An option to pursue might be getting two smaller pots -- say each in the neighborhood of 16-20 quarts -- and splitting your 5 gallon boil into equal halves. This has a number of advantages. The first is that two 2.5 gallon batches cool much more effectively in the standard bathtub water baths when compared to a single 5 gallon vat. Indeed, I'd say for a single pot of 5 gallons, a wort chiller is almost a requirement. Two pots also makes doing stove-top partial mash and all grain a possibility.

Just food for thought.

Ok, that makes sense. A water bath is just water in a tub/sink with a ton of ice, correct?
 
Ok, that makes sense. A water bath is just water in a tub/sink with a ton of ice, correct?

Yep, I use one of those large round plastic tubs that we usually put a keg in for parties. I fill it up with a couple bags of ice and some water. It took me 20-30 minutes to chill the wort and by then all the ice was gone in the tub.
 
Yep, I use one of those large round plastic tubs that we usually put a keg in for parties. I fill it up with a couple bags of ice and some water. It took me 20-30 minutes to chill the wort and by then all the ice was gone in the tub.

That sounds like a great idea. The layout of my house wouldn't make transporting the pot to the nearest bathtub a good idea.
 
Yeah, the water bath is just semi-submerging your pot in cold water and ice. I've found that about 3 gallons is the practical maximum for this method. Any more volume than that in one pot, and it takes too long for them to cool down. Two 2.5 gallon pots have more surface area, and will cool down exponentially faster when compared to one 5 gallon pot.

Out of all the gizmos I have for breiwng, a wort chiller is the one thing I don't have. This is why: with a wort chiller, regardless of variety, you need to remove the lid to the pot. This exposes the wort to any nasty creature floating down on the air. In short, I'd argue that a water bath is a superior method of cooling because it keeps the wort contained until you are ready to use it. This is contingent on the fact that you can get the wort cooled in less than an hour, and preferably less than 30 minutes. This requires a lot of ice and a lot of water.

The reason I said bathtub is that I've found an average sink to be too small, volume wise, to effectively wick away the heat in a short amount of time. The tubs Three Sheets recommends will probably do the job nicely, but you'll need one for each pot. I've seen them on sale at Home Depot for $5 each, so they're not breaking the bank.
 
To Stevearino's point, start big and think big.

"If I knew now what I knew then," is a pretty popular thread around here. An all grain brew sculpture isn't what I really talking about, but big burners, big pots for full boils, wort chiller, and a kegging system is all stuff I wish I bought straight out. I would have saved a lot of money.

I may have been different though; I started brewing at BOP places so getting a home kit wasn't an expirment to see if I liked it, it was the start of an obessional and consuming 'hobby.' :drunk:

If you know you are going to brew for the long haul, buy big now and then later, you can focus on recipes.

My $.02
 
To Stevearino's point, start big and think big.

"If I knew now what I knew then," is a pretty popular thread around here. An all grain brew sculpture isn't what I really talking about, but big burners, big pots for full boils, wort chiller, and a kegging system is all stuff I wish I bought straight out. I would have saved a lot of money.

I may have been different though; I started brewing at BOP places so getting a home kit wasn't an expirment to see if I liked it, it was the start of an obessional and consuming 'hobby.' :drunk:

If you know you are going to brew for the long haul, buy big now and then later, you can focus on recipes.

My $.02

In less than a year I went from the midwest intermediate kit to building 2 different sculptures from scratch... first was a five gallon system then I jumped to a ten gallon system. I'm not complaining.... it's what I learned along the way that was so worth the money.... (just don't ask my wife) :D
 
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