My First Brew Equipment Help

[clubfed11]

Hello all,
This will be my first brew I've ever made. I've been reading a lot on the forums and a few books I own and have deiced I would like to start with a BIAB. I'd rather get the equipment to start with this as I know if I start with extracts I will want to step up to BIAB in the future. Just trying to save time and money here. I will be shooting for 5 gallon batches.

I also would like to skip bottling all together. I'm in the process of making a keezer and will have a few questions regarding that.

Oh please also keep in mind I currently only own a motorcycle so a lot of my purchases will have to be made online and shipped to me. I am in the San Francisco Bay Area so if you guys know of anything local that I could fit in a backpack I can go that route as well.

Any comments, questions and opinions are greatly welcome as this is a list I've been putting together for a bit and it's not complete. I will be working with an electric kitchen stove but could step over to outside propane in the future if needed.
EDIT: I'm thinking my stove won't be able to handle this. Going to switch to outdoor propane, will include that below as well.

I'm not sure if I need to do a dual stage fermentation or single and I would like to cold crash as well. Questions will follow regarding that as well. (This might get long! sorry)

Equipment:

a) 11 Gallon SS Pot with basket (might not use basket, opinions here, I know it's not needed especially if I get the custom made bag below) $88
www.amazon.com/Bayou-Classic-1144-4...34062461&sr=8-15&keywords=stainless+steel+pot

b) A Brew Bag to fit above basket
http://biabbags.webs.com/

c) A simple measuring jug that I have around the house

d) A 6.5 Gallon Fermentation bucket with spigot and lid with hole for a bubbler air lock. $25
http://www.northernbrewer.com/shop/6-5-gallon-bottling-bucket

e) Kitchen scale for weighing grains, ect. $12.50
www.amazon.com/Ozeri-Digital-Multif...&qid=1434062746&sr=1-1&keywords=kitchen+scale

f) Racking Cane + Auto Siphon + Tubing $13
http://www.northernbrewer.com/shop/auto-siphon-5-16#reviews
http://www.northernbrewer.com/shop/5-16-id-siphon-hose

g) Spoon for stirring $8.50
www.amazon.com/Brewing-Spoon-Stainl...&qid=1434063519&sr=1-2&keywords=brewing+spoon

h) Thermometer $25 (I've heard great things about this but might want one that has a probe, so I don't have to keep going into the kettle to check the temp)
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00GRFHXVQ/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

i) Hydrometer (If you guys know of a better one let me know) $7
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000E60U6Y/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

j) OxiClean for cleaning $7.50
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00MOJUJ92/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

k) Starsan for sanitizing $7.50
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0064O7XXS/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

l) Cheap spray bottle to put Starsan in $5?

m) tubing to transfer from bucket to keg (6ft should be fine)
http://www.northernbrewer.com/shop/3-8-id-siphon-hose

n) Propane Burner $50 (will find a cheap tank on Craigslist, could also source a lot of this from CL as well)
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000291GBQ/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

o) Wort Chiller (working on this)

Some of the obvious items I will pick up from Safeway/Target, ect.
A couple questions around the fermentation process. If I transfer into the bucket with a sieve, then ferment for however long and cold crash, would it be okay to open that spigot and transfer into the keg straight from there? Or should I really use a second vessel?

Also with the Keezer build I'm building a BrewPi setup to control the temp. I keep reading that you need to take a couple hydrometer readings from the fermenting beer, however aren't you supposed to keep that lid on during the fermentation process? How do you take a reading if you can't take the lid off, or do you just do it quickly?

Also being that I will be going straight to kegging is cold crashing nessicary? Can someone break down the procedure they would use (primary fermentation, no secondary) going from off the stove and into the fermenter then into the keg?

Sorry for the long post. I'll have plenty more questions. I wanted to get your guys opinion on the equipment I've selected.

Cheers!

 

[NeoBrew]

I do BIAB. I don't use a basket. I have a 10 gallon pot which has been big enough for everything I've tried. For larger beers with a starting gravity up in the 1.070 range I need to do a dunk sparge to get my full volume of water. I prefer this anyway as I seem to get slightly better efficiency with a sparge.

I don't use a basket. I would recommend finding some way to suspend the bag wilserbrewer has good deals on pulley systems. The bag is quite heavy until the wort drains from it and much hotter than you would think. If you don't do a pulley, make sure you buy some heavy rubber gloves to handle the bag. Perhaps the basket will solve a lot of those problems. I wouldn't know.

You'll want a test jar for your fermenter too. http://www.northernbrewer.com/shop/fermenters-favorites-economy-test-jar

I'll let others weigh into the fermenter style debate. I'm a glass carboy fan.

Most people now believe that for many beers, secondary fermentation is unnecessary. Especially if you have the ability to cold crash and get things to settle to the bottom. So yes, you can go right from fermenter to keg. I'm not a bucket guy, so I'm not sure if you will get clean beer if you just use the spigot. I would suggest you pick up an auto-siphon. http://www.northernbrewer.com/shop/auto-siphon-5-16 This will let you rack from above the trub and get cleaner beer into the fermenter. The rule of thumb I have been using for single stage fermentation is no longer than 3 weeks in primary and only if I'm not adding dry hops, oak cubes, etc. If I'm doing that I transfer to secondary first.

You are taking on a lot at one time. You might consider a batch or two of extract just to start to understand the logistics and focus on fermentation. You can do a full volume extract in the pot you are looking at.

Let us know how the brewpi goes. I've been hoping to build one myself soon. And yes, you just take the top off the bucket to do a reading. Just use good sanitary practices and minimize the disturbance. You should also do your best to keep the air in the bucket calm so you preserve the CO2 layer that is built up there. It is keeping the oxygen off your new beer. (This is one of the subtle advantages of carboys)

Good luck! Welcome to the hobby!

 

[doug293cz]

I'm not sure if I need to do a dual stage fermentation or single and I would like to cold crash as well. Questions will follow regarding that as well. (This might get long! sorry)

Unless you are adding fruit, wood, bulk aging something like a barely wine, etc. you don't need to do a secondary. Fewer things to clean/sanitize, and fewer opportunities to infect or oxidize if you skip the secondary.

f) A Sieve to place over the bucket when I transfer into the fermentation stage $7
www.amazon.com/Winco-MS3A-8D-Strain...?ie=UTF8&qid=1434062666&sr=8-2&keywords=sieve

I have found sieves to clog easily and become a pain to use. Eventually you should get your BK fitted with a ball valve and bottom pick up dip tube. Then use whirlfloc near the end of the boil, followed by a whirlpooling after chilling. Some settling time after the whirlpool, and you will get quite clean wort out of the ball valve. Getting BK trub in the fermenter is not an issue, unless the volume is high enough to block the fermenter bucket spigot after cold crashing. If you don't have a ball valve on the BK, then an auto siphon is very useful for transferring to the fermenter. I find lifting a BK with 5.5 gal of wort onto a table for siphoning much easier than trying to pour the wort out of the BK. You can keep the pick up of the siphon above the trub in the bottom of the BK to limit what gets into the fermenter.

n) Propane Burner $50 (will find a cheap tank on Craigslist, could also source a lot of this from CL as well)
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000291GBQ/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

That burner would work, but if you can afford an extra $36, this burner is quieter and more controllable (in order to minimize gas use)

A couple questions around the fermentation process. If I transfer into the bucket with a sieve, then ferment for however long and cold crash, would it be okay to open that spigot and transfer into the keg straight from there? Or should I really use a second vessel?

I cold crash in the fermenter bucket, and fill the keg right from the bucket, as long as the trub layer after cold crashing is above the inlet for the spigot. I also add gelatin for fining during the cold crash in order to get clearer beer into the keg.

Also with the Keezer build I'm building a BrewPi setup to control the temp. I keep reading that you need to take a couple hydrometer readings from the fermenting beer, however aren't you supposed to keep that lid on during the fermentation process? How do you take a reading if you can't take the lid off, or do you just do it quickly?

I take my fermenter monitoring readings with a refractometer, and use this calculator to correct the readings for the presence of alcohol. Uses a much smaller sample, which I take with a rigid piece of plastic pipe (my bottle filler wand without the spring valve). I can insert the pipe into the airlock hole, so I don't have to remove the cover. If you want really accurate readings of FG, you can take a hydrometer reading as you keg.

Also being that I will be going straight to kegging is cold crashing nessicary? Can someone break down the procedure they would use (primary fermentation, no secondary) going from off the stove and into the fermenter then into the keg?

I cold crash in the primary bucket. When the beer is cold, I add gelatin and wait 2 - 3 more days for it to do it's work. Then, I put a tube on the spigot that reaches to the bottom of the keg, and just open the valve (assuming fermenter trub is below the spigot, otherwise I would have to resort to the auto siphon, but that hasn't happened yet.)

One piece of equipment you didn't mention is a wort chiller. Immersion chiller coils are cheap and easy to make, and reasonably priced if you buy pre-made. Or, you could go with a no-chill process (you can find more info searching around HBT or the net.)

Brew on

 

[clubfed11]

Thanks for the replies. I'm planning on building a super simple brewing station for outside. I'll rig a pulley system up so I can pull the bag out. I know a lot of people don't use a basket, I might try it without one since the bag I buy should be custom made.

No secondary fermentation needed unless adding fruit, wood, ect. Gotcha.

Will add racking cane and auto siphon to the list and ditch the sieve. That makes sense. It might be a couple brews in before I get the kettle fitted with a ball valve and all that but good point.

I might check out that burner, depends on how much I have left over after changing a few of the items on the equipment list.

Noted on the gelatin...anything else I could use? Irish Moss or something I think I've ready. I've also read that just only cold crashing has produced clear beers and gelatin ect aren't needed?

I think I might stick with a hydrometer and use your method of grabbing a sample through the bucket hole. Or maybe even drill a separate hole and plug is when not pulling readings. That way I could leave the air lock alone.

The wort chiller I've been certainly looking into but living in California I'm a little concerned about wasting a ton of water. What I'm thinking I might do is filling a bunch of water bottles with water, freezing them, putting them in my cooler and filling it with some water as well. Then maybe pump that water through the chiller using a pond pump or something. Have the wort chiller in the kettle of course. Could even do that while the kettle is in an ice bath as well. I also have a hose connection where I will be brewing, but again I don't want to be going through a ton of water. Also what is the temp that I want to get the beer at?

Thanks again guys! I will update my list with some adjustments!
Just finished the brewpi last night, will be installing the software tonight and doing some test. Still waiting on my damn freezer!

 

[doug293cz]

Thanks for the replies. I'm planning on building a super simple brewing station for outside. I'll rig a pulley system up so I can pull the bag out. I know a lot of people don't use a basket, I might try it without one since the bag I buy should be custom made.

I've done it with and without the basket. I think I'm leaning towards not using the basket most of the time. Try it both ways and pick what you prefer. This is a personal preference choice that makes no difference to the beer.

Noted on the gelatin...anything else I could use? Irish Moss or something I think I've ready. I've also read that just only cold crashing has produced clear beers and gelatin ect aren't needed?

Whirlfloc is a refined version of Irish moss, so Irish moss is also used near the end of the boil for the same purpose as Whirlfloc.

If you read the linked (in my previous post) article about gelatin, the exBeeriment found that gelatin plus cold crashing gave better clarity than cold crashing by itself. Seemed to really cut down on the chill haze. Do you need it? No, but it does have observable benefits.

I think I might stick with a hydrometer and use your method of grabbing a sample through the bucket hole. Or maybe even drill a separate hole and plug is when not pulling readings. That way I could leave the air lock alone.

You need a much bigger sample for a hydrometer (3 - 4 oz) than for a refractometer (3 -4 drops). So the "straw" method I use for the refract would be very tedious because of the number of times you'd have to dip the straw. For a hydrometer, you will want to get what is known as a wine thief. It will require a slightly bigger hole in the bucket lid than does the airlock.

The wort chiller I've been certainly looking into but living in California I'm a little concerned about wasting a ton of water. What I'm thinking I might do is filling a bunch of water bottles with water, freezing them, putting them in my cooler and filling it with some water as well. Then maybe pump that water through the chiller using a pond pump or something. Have the wort chiller in the kettle of course. Could even do that while the kettle is in an ice bath as well. I also have a hose connection where I will be brewing, but again I don't want to be going through a ton of water. Also what is the temp that I want to get the beer at?

Lots of people use the ice water recirc method with their immersion chillers to save water, and time. You will need a submersible pond or small sump pump. If you have another water reservoir (40 gal or more, swimming pools are good) you can recirc from that to chill down to 100°F or so, before switching over to your ice water. Using your ice water on 180+°F wort will eat thru your ice pretty fast.

Brew on

 

[nettekdl]

If your bucket has a spigot why not elevate the bucket and fill your sample tube with the spigot? That is how I take my gravity readings because I hate sticking things in my beer if there is a way around it.

 

[doug293cz]

If your bucket has a spigot why not elevate the bucket and fill your sample tube with the spigot? That is how I take my gravity readings because I hate sticking things in my beer if there is a way around it.

That also works, if you don't mind lifting the fermenter in and out of the chamber for each sample. Also, you want to sanitize the inside of the spout before taking a sample to minimize the chance of anything pathological sneaking upstream into the beer. These types of spigots have a significant risk for this:



Brew on

 

[clubfed11]

If your bucket has a spigot why not elevate the bucket and fill your sample tube with the spigot? That is how I take my gravity readings because I hate sticking things in my beer if there is a way around it.

That's a good point. Duh
But yeah lifting it might get annoying. I'll see what works best for me. Thanks for the replies and ideas guys. Great community here!

Just a side question, with that big of a brew pot, would it hurt to make an extract only brew in there? I know it would be a good idea to do an extract first to get the idea of things. Should I be worried about anything making an extract in there? I think over the course of a few months I will start getting the equipment together to make BIAB but will have the keezer setup asap so I can serve out of the keg and also use it to ferment when nothing is in the keg.