EvilDeadAsh
Well-Known Member
This question seems to come up time and time again, so I thought it would be a good idea to sticky something to help. Every few days, maybe once a week, I see a post in this forum along the lines of "New brewer here, what do I need to get started?!". Another variation of this post is "Hey I saw this kit at [insert HBS here], how does it look, do I need anything else?".
In come the normal replies about kits, and kettle sizes, whether they are doing partial boils, full boils, AG vs Extract etc...
This is not outright covered in the stickies, nor in the "FAQ - please read BEFORE asking a question" thread (as far as I could tell). I've put something together that I think would be good for a primer, but open to comments or discussion on how best to present this information.
I thought I would throw this out here, edit as suggested by the community, and if it makes sense we can sticky it.
Basic Equipment Needed
A kettle.
Most equipment kits will not include a kettle, so you will have to obtain one separately. There are several wonderful vendors showcased here on HBT where you can obtain one, as well as Amazon, eBay, Target, Walmart etc...
Many brewers will start out doing Extract brewing, doing a partial-boil; this just means you are not boiling all 5-gallons of wort at once. You will typically boil 2-3 gallons of wort in this case, and as such a 5-gallon pot will suffice.
You may find after a few batches that you want to kick things up and move into all-grain brewing, do a full-boil with extract, or simply make larger batches. This will necessitate a larger kettle as you will typically need to boil 6+ gallons of wort to make that happen. The general rule of thumb (read: not a hard and steadfast rule), is to get a kettle which is twice your desired batch size.
Think about what you may do in the future so you don't wind up buying 2 kettles!
It is cheaper to get a larger kettle off the bat, even if it is overkill for your current objectives, than to purchase a kettle now only to upgrade it later on. Further, lots of vendors may offer additional features such as kettles with ball valves, sight glasses, and thermometers. None of these things are "required" on a brew kettle, especially if you are doing extract to start. If you aren't sure what features you might want or need, there are a ton of threads about this already - use the Google machine.
Now just decide what type of kettle to buy, the major options are Aluminum vs Stainless Steel
At least 1 fermentation vessel
You need at least 1 vessel in which to ferment your wort, turning it into delicious beer. Generally this will be either a plastic bucket, a glass carboy, or a better bottle
Most supply kits will come with 2 fermentation vessels and, and your LHBS may tell you that having a secondary vessel will help improve clarity. I'm not going to open that can of worms, but read for yourself and make your own decision. The point is, you need at least 1 vessel.
Regardless of what you decide, you will need at least one stopper / airlock to go into this vessel. This will typically be included in any kit you will find, but if you are putting together equipment piecemeal, make sure to pick that up.
Beer Storage / Conditioning
First, decide if you want to bottle or keg your beer...
Bottling
Pros:
Cons:
Kegging
Pros:
Cons:
I won't get into the specifics as there is a whole forum dedicated to kegging and bottling, but here is a quick overview...
If you want to get started with kegging you will need:
Initial startup costs will typically be in excess of $250.
If you want to get started with bottling, you need:
Other Useful Equipment
The basic equipment noted above is all you really absolutely need to make some beer. There are a lot of other small tools and items that are recommended to either make the process easier, or more precise. This is what I would recommend at the very least as these tools will be useful throughout your brewing adventures:
Fermentation Temperature Control
I'm giving this its own little section, because this kind of thing is generally NOT included with any equipment kit you will find out there. One of the most important factors to making quality homebrew is the ability to control the temperature during the fermentation process. For example, if you are getting started with homebrewing let's say... in the summer... in Texas... you're going to have a tough time finding a "cool dry place" in your basement to keep your fermenting wort.
The easiest, low tech solution is a swamp cooler. This is where you place your fermentation vessel in a large bucket filled with cold water and ice, wrapped in a towel, blanket, or sweatshirt. This is cheap and can be done for about $30, but is not very precise and requires some degree of monitoring and maybe some trial and error.
You may also look at a Cool Brewing Fermentation Cooler, which operates on the same principles but does not require the use of a giant bucket of water, so it is not as messy. These coolers run about $60 and have gotten a lot of positive feedback from this community
If you have some DIY skills and want to get a little creative, you can build a "son-of-fermentation" chiller. This is essentially a box made out of insulation, which has compartments inside; your fermentation vessel goes in 1 side, and frozen jugs of ice go in the other. There is a thermostat controlled CPU fan which circulates air over the frozen jugs of ice, and ultimately over your fermentation vessel - effectively working exactly like an air conditioner, but without a compressor or freon. It is more precise than using a swamp cooler or the cool brewing cooler, but still requires rotation of ice jugs every 24-36 hours. It will probably run you about $80 to build one. Search this site or the interwebs for plans on how to build one.
The most expensive solution, but also the most precise and most hands off is a dedicated fridge with a temperature controller. This would be a fridge big enough to hold your fermentation vessel(s), hooked into a temperature controller, with a temperature probe that cycles the compressor on and off to maintain a specific temperature - usually within a few degrees. The temperature controllers usually run between $40-$80, and you would need to get your hands on a fridge. Of course you can get lucky and get a fridge from a relative for free, or pretty cheap off your local CL ads. Further, the temperature controller isn't absolutely necessary
Optional or Situational Equipment
These items are optional to again, make life easier, but may not apply to everyone's situation
There are many equipment kits available from the vendors listed on this site which will generally have most of this stuff bundled together.
In come the normal replies about kits, and kettle sizes, whether they are doing partial boils, full boils, AG vs Extract etc...
This is not outright covered in the stickies, nor in the "FAQ - please read BEFORE asking a question" thread (as far as I could tell). I've put something together that I think would be good for a primer, but open to comments or discussion on how best to present this information.
I thought I would throw this out here, edit as suggested by the community, and if it makes sense we can sticky it.
Basic Equipment Needed
A kettle.
Most equipment kits will not include a kettle, so you will have to obtain one separately. There are several wonderful vendors showcased here on HBT where you can obtain one, as well as Amazon, eBay, Target, Walmart etc...
Many brewers will start out doing Extract brewing, doing a partial-boil; this just means you are not boiling all 5-gallons of wort at once. You will typically boil 2-3 gallons of wort in this case, and as such a 5-gallon pot will suffice.
You may find after a few batches that you want to kick things up and move into all-grain brewing, do a full-boil with extract, or simply make larger batches. This will necessitate a larger kettle as you will typically need to boil 6+ gallons of wort to make that happen. The general rule of thumb (read: not a hard and steadfast rule), is to get a kettle which is twice your desired batch size.
Think about what you may do in the future so you don't wind up buying 2 kettles!
It is cheaper to get a larger kettle off the bat, even if it is overkill for your current objectives, than to purchase a kettle now only to upgrade it later on. Further, lots of vendors may offer additional features such as kettles with ball valves, sight glasses, and thermometers. None of these things are "required" on a brew kettle, especially if you are doing extract to start. If you aren't sure what features you might want or need, there are a ton of threads about this already - use the Google machine.
Now just decide what type of kettle to buy, the major options are Aluminum vs Stainless Steel
At least 1 fermentation vessel
You need at least 1 vessel in which to ferment your wort, turning it into delicious beer. Generally this will be either a plastic bucket, a glass carboy, or a better bottle
Most supply kits will come with 2 fermentation vessels and, and your LHBS may tell you that having a secondary vessel will help improve clarity. I'm not going to open that can of worms, but read for yourself and make your own decision. The point is, you need at least 1 vessel.
Regardless of what you decide, you will need at least one stopper / airlock to go into this vessel. This will typically be included in any kit you will find, but if you are putting together equipment piecemeal, make sure to pick that up.
Beer Storage / Conditioning
First, decide if you want to bottle or keg your beer...
Bottling
Pros:
- Cheap startup cost, just need empty glass non-twistoff bottles, and a capper. I'm told you can purchase beer bottles pre-filled with beer and can empty them through drinking as well, but I've yet to come across anyone silly enough to do this.
- Easier to have a variety of beers at your disposal
- Can be stored in a fridge for serving
- Portable
- Beer generally needs to be in a bottle to be entered into a competition
- You can make sweet ass labels (possibly a con as well?)
Cons:
- Can be a pain in the ass to clean and sanitize 45+ bottles every batch
- Potential for overcarbonation resulting in "bottle bombs". While this is not a symptom of bottling in and of itself, it is a problem specific to bottling. In other words - bottle bombs and overcarbonation doesn't simply happen because you choose to bottle, but it is not something you will run into when kegging
Kegging
Pros:
- Only have to clean and sanitize 1 container
- Easy peezy. Rack your beer into an empty keg, blast with CO2, and wait.
- It's badass to have your own beer on tap
- Carbonation problems can be corrected by adjusting pressure in the keg
Cons:
- Expensive to get started
- Expense continues if you want to expand to more taps, more kegs etc...
- Beer generally needs to be in a bottle to be entered into a competition (workarounds still exist with kegging)
- Not as portable; you can certainly transport a keg and CO2 canister with you but it isn't convenient to do so
I won't get into the specifics as there is a whole forum dedicated to kegging and bottling, but here is a quick overview...
If you want to get started with kegging you will need:
- At least 1 keg. Homebrewers will generally use cornelius kegs, which are 5G in size. There are 2 types: ball lock, and pin lock.
- CO2 canister and regulator. Many HBS places sell these, you can also find them at welding supply stores
- Some way to tap. This may be something complicated like a keezer, or a converted fridge, a dedicated kegerator, or as simple as a picnic tap
- Tubing and disconnects. You need tubes to get CO2 from the canister into the keg, and from the keg into your belly, as well as fittings to connect everything together.
Initial startup costs will typically be in excess of $250.
If you want to get started with bottling, you need:
- Bottles, there are several options here
- Caps
- A capper
Other Useful Equipment
The basic equipment noted above is all you really absolutely need to make some beer. There are a lot of other small tools and items that are recommended to either make the process easier, or more precise. This is what I would recommend at the very least as these tools will be useful throughout your brewing adventures:
- Hydrometer. This allows you to determine the specific gravity of your unfermented wort, fermenting wort, and finished beer. This will also allow you to determine the ABV in the beer you have produced. This may or may not come with a small graduated cylinder, or test "jar" (its not really a jar) in which to test - make sure you get one, and not just a hydrometer by itself.
- Racking cane with tubing. I would recommend picking up an Autosiphon, but a standard racking cane is fine as well. You will also need appropriate size tubing to fit over the cane
- A big ass spoon, or mash paddle. If going all-grain, you will need something to stir the ever living crap out of the mash when you "dough-in". This is also useful when boiling to help prevent boilovers, or after the boil to create a whirlpool.
Fermentation Temperature Control
I'm giving this its own little section, because this kind of thing is generally NOT included with any equipment kit you will find out there. One of the most important factors to making quality homebrew is the ability to control the temperature during the fermentation process. For example, if you are getting started with homebrewing let's say... in the summer... in Texas... you're going to have a tough time finding a "cool dry place" in your basement to keep your fermenting wort.
The easiest, low tech solution is a swamp cooler. This is where you place your fermentation vessel in a large bucket filled with cold water and ice, wrapped in a towel, blanket, or sweatshirt. This is cheap and can be done for about $30, but is not very precise and requires some degree of monitoring and maybe some trial and error.
You may also look at a Cool Brewing Fermentation Cooler, which operates on the same principles but does not require the use of a giant bucket of water, so it is not as messy. These coolers run about $60 and have gotten a lot of positive feedback from this community
If you have some DIY skills and want to get a little creative, you can build a "son-of-fermentation" chiller. This is essentially a box made out of insulation, which has compartments inside; your fermentation vessel goes in 1 side, and frozen jugs of ice go in the other. There is a thermostat controlled CPU fan which circulates air over the frozen jugs of ice, and ultimately over your fermentation vessel - effectively working exactly like an air conditioner, but without a compressor or freon. It is more precise than using a swamp cooler or the cool brewing cooler, but still requires rotation of ice jugs every 24-36 hours. It will probably run you about $80 to build one. Search this site or the interwebs for plans on how to build one.
The most expensive solution, but also the most precise and most hands off is a dedicated fridge with a temperature controller. This would be a fridge big enough to hold your fermentation vessel(s), hooked into a temperature controller, with a temperature probe that cycles the compressor on and off to maintain a specific temperature - usually within a few degrees. The temperature controllers usually run between $40-$80, and you would need to get your hands on a fridge. Of course you can get lucky and get a fridge from a relative for free, or pretty cheap off your local CL ads. Further, the temperature controller isn't absolutely necessary
Optional or Situational Equipment
These items are optional to again, make life easier, but may not apply to everyone's situation
- Bottling bucket. If you are planning on bottling, it will be easier if you have a bottling bucket. A lot of equipment kits come with one of these - it's the bucket with a spigot on it.
- Bottle Filler. Again, if you are planning on bottling, the bottle filler wand makes life easier.
- Wort chiller. I won't get into an argument about using an immersion chiller, vs counterflow, vs plate chillers, vs an ice bath. There are articles, tutorials, and threads galore about all of these options but many new brewers don't even think about this before their first batch so it is something to consider. Use the Google machine for more info to make an educated decision.
- Blowoff Tube. If you have a particularly active primary fermentation, you may need a blowoff tube. If you intend to start out with a wheat or high-gravity beer it may be a good idea to pick up something for a blowoff tube. It may be a good idea anyway, buit again - use the Google machine to decide whether or not you need this.
- Propane Burner. If you start out with a partial 2-3G boil, this probably won't be necessary right off the bat. Most people, however, cannot do a full 6+ gallon boil on their stove. With that in mind, it may make sense to pick up a propane burner. Just about any propane burner you will find will have enough BTUs to boil the crap out of your wort; prices range from $50 up to about $150.
There are many equipment kits available from the vendors listed on this site which will generally have most of this stuff bundled together.
How you regreted me,Am I here because of your humilty...or your stupidity? I'm chompimg at the bit...I'm stirring up the mash,oh hear I come again,ooooohoooo brewinf alllleees...
