Hello from Southern VA

[Metalgear753]

I am very interested in making my own beer but am trying to keep it cheap. Right now I bought a DIY Juice to Alcohol kit from ThinkGeek. I think it will probably taste horrible and want to learn about actual home brewing. Some welches grape juice with turbo yeast doesn't cut it for me. Would that be considered mead? Anyway thanks.

 

[AndyHannas]

Chesapeake, my homeland!

 

[GoldMiner]

Welcome to the forum!

If you go all-grain from the start you can get your average batch down around $20 each not including equipment.

The initial expense for equipment - pot, burner, mash tun, fermenters, etc. is where is it will be expensive to start.

 

[Metalgear753]

I noticed the equipment can be a pretty big hit. There is a place nearby me called Homebrew USA that sells a kit for I think $100. They had different levels (like basic, plus, premium, etc) of kits and I don't know exactly which I'm going to go for.

 

[Piratwolf]

Hey, metal gear! I live near you & have been to Hombrew USA often. They're friendly & helpful, if not always as up-to-date as the folks in here. However, if you're looking to save $, that is NOT the place to go. You'll be able to find what you need online for 10-30% cheaper. I get a lot from austin home brew, and thie forums here wil point you to other good spots as well! Good luck!

 

[BirdmanBrewingCo]

Welcome Metalgear!

 

[Metalgear753]

Okay thank you for the tips. I hope to start soon.

 

[Qhrumphf]

One thing I'd point out is, if you do opt to order online, order dry yeasts during the summer. I just learned that one the hard way. If you want liquid yeast (which I prefer) I'd get it in person locally.

100 bucks is pricey but that sounds like a basic start up equipment kit (fermenter, airlock, siphoning and bottling equipment, hydrometer, capper, etc). It's not going to include the equipment you'll need for all-grain brewing (although almost all of that equipment you can build yourself). Some folks on this forum have easily dropped multiple thousands of dollars on equipment (brew sculptures, top of the line kettles, conical fermenters, kegging set ups and the like), but you can still make damned good homebrew with a pretty basic equipment kit.

 

[Metalgear753]

I'm definitely willing to drop it in the beginning for the initial equipment. I will be doing very small, personal batches. I'm completely 100% ignorant to home brewing, so pardon all the questions. With all-grain, what additional materials would I need to make or purchase?

I would purchase a set like this:
http://homebrewusa.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=1_5&products_id=701

 

[Qhrumphf]

First, check out How To Brew: http://www.howtobrew.com/intro.html

Excellent resource that can answer almost any question you may have.

The traditional (I'm hesitant to say most common) all-grain method seems to be a three-vessel system- boil kettle, a mash-lauter tun (some use a kettle with a spigot and a false bottom, a lot of folks use coolers with either false bottoms or homemade manifolds) and a hot liquor tank (essentially a vessel for holding temperature of hot water for sparging, again a lot of folks use a cooler or a kettle).

I've seen premade MLT/HLT rigs sell for a few hundred dollars. You can make it all yourself for substantially cheaper.

You can also do "brew-in-a-bag" partial mash or all grain brewing on the cheap. That's what I do. I use a big grain bag to hold all my grains, mash directly in my kettle, and sparge through a colander back into the kettle, and use two smaller pots (if I had another big one I'd use that) as the hot liquor tanks. Some folks also do no-sparge BIAB which I don't know much about, but I believe you only need the one kettle and a big grain bag to do so. As far as I know this method is slightly less efficient than using a MLT in terms of pulling out fermentables from the grain, and it makes a cloudier wort, but it's cost and ease for me.

 

[Qhrumphf]

I'd also add that the kit in that link is overpriced. The LHBS up here sells a $100 kit, but it comes with everything in your kit, plus a mash paddle, a lab thermometer, an auto-siphon (which I would highly recommend buying if your kit doesn't come with it) AND a Better Bottle carboy. You can get similar or better kits for cheaper many places online (Austin Homebrew Supply, Northern Brewer, Midwest Supplies, Brewmasters Warehouse, etc)

 

[Metalgear753]

Okay thank you very much. I will definitely read a lot on howtobrew. I will probably get a kit from Austin Brew then, thanks for the money saving tips. it sounds complicated, but hopefully it will be worth it.

 

[Qhrumphf]

If you don't want to dive into all-grain brewing headfirst, you can make great beer with a basic kit like that, a 5 gallon pot, and your kitchen stove using malt extract. How To Brew will walk you through it all

 

[Metalgear753]

Thank you greatly.

 

[AndyHannas]

you wont be drinking any of this beer until youre 21 right?

 

[Metalgear753]

I am 21..

Anyway I went to HBUSA and they were really nice. I only ended up buying a glass carboy and airlock, I will probably just start with mead. Otherwise I might try the Mr. Beer kit as an introduction so I won't drop the whole big $$$ bomb before I know if this hobby is right for me.

 

[GoldMiner]

Your profile says 19.

 

[Metalgear753]

Oh dang. I can't fix it. I gotta contact an admin.