your opinion appreciated: list of equipment for my start-up kit.

[master_haze]

Hi everyone,

After having read quite a few books on brewing and the science behind it I feel I am ready to start cultivating the brewing bug and get started brewing. First step of which is deciding on what equipment to get and that is where I would love your input on. Here is a list of items I am planning on getting. If you have any comments on items in the list or that aren't in the list but should be, leave me a comment. ^_^ If I am going to do this, I want to do it right and right from the start.

morebeer's "Personal Home Brewery Kit #5 - Kegging Super Deluxe" as the basis:
(kegging instead of bottles and with plastic carboy, as glass will probably not survive the shipping to Ecuador and I can easily get bottles here.)

Bottle of Star San Santizer (4oz)
Reusable Mesh Steeping or Hop Bags
3/8” Plastic Bottle Filler
Bag of Bottle Caps (1/4lb)
Bottle Capper
Plastic Spoon
Funnel
Home Beermaking Book
Carboy
Package of Powdered Brewery Wash (PBW)
Plastic Sanitation Bucket with Spigot
Airlock
Rubber Stopper with Hole
Hydrometer
Hydrometer Jar
5ft Vinyl Transfer Tubing
Sterile Siphon Starter (Contains Racking Cane with Tubing, Air Filter and Carboy Hood)
5 inch long dial thermometer
Blonde Ale Ingredient Kit with Brewing Instructions and Dry Brewer's Yeast
8-Gallon Heavy Duty Kettle with Ball Valve, Barb and Notched Lid
Copper Wort Chiller with Tubing

Also Included:
KEG400G – Basic Homebrew Draft System- Pin Lock:
Refurbished Pin Lock Keg
Beer Line Assembly w/ Handheld Faucet
Gas Line Assembly
Dual Gauge Co2 Regulator
New 5lb Co2 Tank (Empty)

and the additions to make it more complete:
Blichmann floor standing burner with leg extensions. Does anyone know if these are high or low pressure burners?

morebeer's (deluxe) counter pressure bottle filler

morebeer's aeration system with replacement sanitary filter's

keg&carboy washer

stick-on fermometer

rubber carboy blow-off hood

carboy bag carrier (6,5 gallon) to help with carrying full carboy's

2" x 12" thermometer to get readings from the core of HLT, MLT, kettle and carboy's.

morebeer's yeast starter kit (2000ml Erlenmeyer flask, 1/2 lb DME, & 1oz Fermaid K)

Johnson Digital Temperature Controller (Wired)

morebeer's water filter kit and beer filter kit with mounting brackets.

Organic cotton hops&grains bags from seven bridges.

What do you think? That should be a pretty comprehensive start-up kit, right? Chose the temperature controller because I live in Ecuador and will need to cool the fermenting carboy's to maintain proper fermentation temperatures.Might even need to heat them during the nights if the fridge doesn't isolate well enough.

master_haze

 

[master_haze]

oh and not to forget... a healthy supply of cleaning and sanitation agents:
Star san 32oz
PBW 4lbs
Saniclean 32oz (for beer lines etc.)

master_haze

 

[bemerritt]

I would use a bigger pot for five gallons. Unless you feel like really watching it for boil overs.

 

[Brew-Jay]

Yeah. Your list looks pretty inclusive. I just started with a single "delux" beginning brewing kit from Northern Brewer and added to it as I discovered the need. Looks like you will have a pretty complete set from day 1.

 

[Brew-Jay]

I would use a bigger pot for five gallons. Unless you feel like really watching it for boil overs.

I use an 8 gallon kettle for five gallon batches, but you are right. For the first couple minutes of the boil have a spray bottle ready or you will get some pretty bad boil overs.

 

[master_haze]

I have asked if morebeer could substitute the 8 gallon pot for a 15 gallon one but due to their software for maintaining records of their inventory they are not able to do so without mucking up their inventory index.

Seeing as I will only be using this to get started and get experience brewing I think i'll just stay glued to the pot until the foaming stops, everytime.

Once I am ready to make the jump to all-grain I will get a 15 gallon KTL HLT and MLT. This should be enough extra space to allow for the foam with even a 10 gallon batch right?

master_haze

 

[eric19312]

I've heard mixed results from the aeration system you identified. Most experiments I have seen indicate they really don't get more oxygen into your beer than you can get by rocking the fermenter.

Since you are going deluxe why not upgrade to the oxygenation partial system and pick up a bottle of medical/welding O2 in Ecuador?

I'd also consider getting more than one fermenter. either plastic buckets or plastic bottles should be fine. I do like my glass and they come well packed but I've heard very good things about the better bottles.

I'm in the same camp on boil kettle size. I think you should get kit #2 and the basic kegging system from more beer (or buy a kegging system from somebody else like keg connection) and get your pot in Ecuador. You can probably get a nice 10-15 gallon pot with a spigot from some sort of restaurant supply house there cheap. If not get the pot and order a do it yourself weldless spigot from bobby m at brew hardware.com. You could also probably get somebody there to weld it up for you.

A lot of the fun in homebrewing is building the brewery...no need to do everything all at once.

 

[master_haze]

I've heard mixed results from the aeration system you identified. Most experiments I have seen indicate they really don't get more oxygen into your beer than you can get by rocking the fermenter.

Since you are going deluxe why not upgrade to the oxygenation partial system and pick up a bottle of medical/welding O2 in Ecuador?

I'd also consider getting more than one fermenter. either plastic buckets or plastic bottles should be fine. I do like my glass and they come well packed but I've heard very good things about the better bottles.

I'm in the same camp on boil kettle size. I think you should get kit #2 and the basic kegging system from more beer (or buy a kegging system from somebody else like keg connection) and get your pot in Ecuador. You can probably get a nice 10-15 gallon pot with a spigot from some sort of restaurant supply house there cheap. If not get the pot and order a do it yourself weldless spigot from bobby m at brew hardware.com. You could also probably get somebody there to weld it up for you.

A lot of the fun in homebrewing is building the brewery...no need to do everything all at once.

thanks for the hint on the aeration system. I went with that because I didnt want to end up spilling wort by rocking the carboy's and more importantly to make sure there is plenty of o2 in there, so I will go with the aeration partial system and a 02 bottle instead. They don't have disposable tanks here but I guess I could just hook up the line to the exit on a refillable tank.

About the kettles.. They do have loads of huge kettles here but they are all aluminium and I am not interested in health issues and Alzheimer from the aluminium and if you can find a stainless one it is going to be over $600. Besides that, the quality of the welds the ecuadorians make here is of the level of a novice in the US and I am talking about people that make welds all day long every day and still can't make a decent sanitary weld. so I might as well pick up another 15 gal heavy duty pot from morebeer with it and use the 8 gallon for heating water to clean and sanitize with and making small test batches. will just have to save up a little more.

I will be picking up some glass carboy's here. That they do have here at reasonable prices. Depending on the price I will go with either 1 or 3 glass carboys to do 2 stage fermentations with.

master_haze