A few more questions

[truckinusa]

1. Is cooking outdoors the way to go? I'm wondering If I could cook on my stovetop or should I just forget that idea and use a propane burner/turkey fryer setup. I have no vent-a-hood in my kitchen(cheap house) so I'm thinking it will get stinky.
2. Which kit? I see that midwest brew supply suggests the $89 kit but another individual suggested I get the $59 one. There is a $129 one as well. It seems more complete, but maybe I don't need all that. I hate buying stuff in kits that are the cheaper version that I eventually wont use or replace anyway.
3. Are St Pauli Girl bottles ideal? I need to do some drinking to amass 50 or so.
4. How am I going to wash all this equipment? I have a cheap house with apartment like sinks and no washtub. I can barely fit a bowl in my sink let alone a kettle.

 

[phatuna]

Outdoors is nice but not necessary. I like the scent of boiling wort, but others (mostly kids or SWMBO) sometimes don't like it.
Kit, it's up to you and your pocket book and whether you think you'll stick w/ it. Personal choice.
Aren't st. Pauli's green? if so, they're not ideal as sunlight through green will skunk your beer if you're not carefull.
Do you have a cooler or something that you can put your equipment in to sanitize? You must have a shower that you can rinse stuff off in?

 

[truckinusa]

Outdoors is nice but not necessary. I like the scent of boiling wort, but others (mostly kids or SWMBO) sometimes don't like it.
Kit, it's up to you and your pocket book and whether you think you'll stick w/ it. Personal choice.
Aren't st. Pauli's green? if so, they're not ideal as sunlight through green will skunk your beer if you're not carefull.
Do you have a cooler or something that you can put your equipment in to sanitize? You must have a shower that you can rinse stuff off in?

Oh yeah, forgot about the bathtub.

I don't know the color of St Pauli Girl. I'm colorblind. I believe its darker than Heineken? Sam Adams is better maybe?

I was just thinking of different scenarios:1. blinchman indoors2. blinchman outdoors with burner3. turkey fryer and burner outside

I'm wondering which scenario produces the best result.

The kits I dont understand because I'm not familiar with why I need this part or that.

 

[greenleer]

1) I brewed in a cramped apartment kitchen on the stovetop for over a year. It sucked, but it's completely managable.
2) Most kits are pretty comparable. A number of people on this forum recommend a long primary and foregoing a secondary. The $75 kit from Northern Brewer accomodates this and even comes with a wine theif and autosiphon -- both very handy.
3) Green bottles in general are not ideal. They let in too much light.
4) OxyClean. Get a tub of regular, unscented OxyClean. Fill your bucket(s) with warm water and a scoop of OxyClean and let your equipment soak.

 

[phatuna]

Yep, Sam Adams is brown I'm pretty sure. You can also go to your local pub and ask them for a couple of cases of empty brown bottles.

I am a fan of the turkey fryer route. That will get you happily brewing for a long time. The upgrade from there (IMHO) is a 15 gallon pot (ie keggle or the like) which will enable you to do 10 gallon batches.

I bought the $89 kit and use almost everything. I did eventually upgrade to an autosyphon as the one that comes with the kit is a pain to get flowing. Everything else, I still use to this day and have just built off of it.

 

[LarryC]

Not sure what you have for stores but target or walmart have these big plastic tubs for really cheep (I think I paid $7 for mine). You can use it to sanitize in and if you have a warm climate, you can fill it up with water and put your fermentor in it to help keep the temp down - a 2 fer!

Edit: you can use this for an ice bath to cool your wort in as well - I have two different size tubs for the stuff I mentioned.

 

[phatuna]

That's funny Larry, I do the same thing. I have 2 big round ones like you'd put a keg in at a party. Right now they are both keeping primaries cool from last weekends double batch.
Also used for sanitising, cleaning bottles, putting kids in when it's hot, cooler at parties, I tried to use it for trapping a possum that was hanging in my backyard, etc. etc.

 

[shortyjacobs]

1. Is cooking outdoors the way to go? I'm wondering If I could cook on my stovetop or should I just forget that idea and use a propane burner/turkey fryer setup. I have no vent-a-hood in my kitchen(cheap house) so I'm thinking it will get stinky.
2. Which kit? I see that midwest brew supply suggests the $89 kit but another individual suggested I get the $59 one. There is a $129 one as well. It seems more complete, but maybe I don't need all that. I hate buying stuff in kits that are the cheaper version that I eventually wont use or replace anyway.
3. Are St Pauli Girl bottles ideal? I need to do some drinking to amass 50 or so.
4. How am I going to wash all this equipment? I have a cheap house with apartment like sinks and no washtub. I can barely fit a bowl in my sink let alone a kettle.

1) I love outdoors. Bonus round question: What kind of stove do you have? The "ceramic top" (flat, smooth top), ones have a bear of a time holding boils....although if you have a coil top or a gas stove you are probably just fine being inside. I much prefer my turkey fryer setup though.
2) answered by others...go with what you think you'll need. Most of the kits, however, aren't "overstocked" with extras, and are cheaper than buying piecemeal...
3) UV could be an issue, but if you bottle condition in closed cardboard boxes, it's not really a problem...just don't age your brew in the sun :cross:
4) Tub works well, plastic bucket works well.

 

[truckinusa]

1) I love outdoors. Bonus round question: What kind of stove do you have? The "ceramic top" (flat, smooth top), ones have a bear of a time holding boils....although if you have a coil top or a gas stove you are probably just fine being inside. I much prefer my turkey fryer setup though.
2) answered by others...go with what you think you'll need. Most of the kits, however, aren't "overstocked" with extras, and are cheaper than buying piecemeal...
3) UV could be an issue, but if you bottle condition in closed cardboard boxes, it's not really a problem...just don't age your brew in the sun :cross:
4) Tub works well, plastic bucket works well.

I have the el cheapo, coil stove with oven below.

Do your bottles normally age outside of the fridge? At what point do you refrigerate them? Do people on here drink warm beer normally? I'm a cold beer drinker.