Equipment advice please

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nyer

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I am completely new to brewing beer. I have made hard cider and am currently making wine from a very cheap kit I was given as a gift. I am hoping someone could help me come up with a list of equipment I will need to buy so I can start making beer. I'm also looking for the best book available so I can learn more. I have been reading and searching for hours on this site and it has helped me alot, but, I have no idea how to do this.
My wife works for a winery that supplies alot of beermaking supplies so I can get some stuff there and I also have a place that I can get glass carboys. Does anyone have a newbie list of equipment needed?
 
There is tons of information out there, I would also recommend checking craigslist or other sites such as that. You never know when you might find someone giving up the hobby or getting new equipment and selling their old stuff cheap.
 
FWIW, if you are buying or filtering the water, better get 6 or so gallons as the boil process will eat up a portion of the initial batch.
 
Nothing but opinions here based on my experience (been brewing about 1 year so take it for what it's worth)

1. Better Bottles rock. Easier to handle and easy to clean.
2. Ditto on auto-siphons (at least the 'rocking' part)
3. How to Brew is the definitive read, but Complete Joy of Homebrewing is a lot of fun and should be in your library just for the philosiphy if not for the information.
4. Start using a secondary as soon as possible. The quality of the beer is significantly better.
5. Exercise patience in fermenting and conditioning the beer. It's well worth the wait to leave your beer in secondary for a few weeks and bottle for a month or more.
 
joebou4860 said:

You'll need a large 5 gal kettle and a thermometer on top of that kit, and bottles to put your beer into. The "LCD thermometer" they give you is a peel and stick type like you would find on a fish tank, you'll probably want a metal dial, meat type thermometer to measure your water/wort temperatures.
 
Would I be better off buying the items I need seperately? I don't really want to buy a basic kit that I will use once or twice and then decide I need better equipment or different equipment to do things right. I guess what I'm asking is will I still be using everything in the kit a year down the road or will I have to upgrade?
 
I think you'll find that most good homebrew supply shops will sell a 'kit' that is a collection of basic items that you would need. I personally would avoid things like the 'Mr. Beer' kit because most folks who really get into brewing find that too limiting. But I've been brewing for a year now and still use all of the items that I got in my 'starter kit' from homebrewery.com. Of course I've also added items since like additional carboys for secondary fermenting, a big funnel, etc, but the basic stuff is still needed.
 
nyer said:
Would I be better off buying the items I need seperately? I don't really want to buy a basic kit that I will use once or twice and then decide I need better equipment or different equipment to do things right. I guess what I'm asking is will I still be using everything in the kit a year down the road or will I have to upgrade?
You will probably continue to use everything from one of those beginner kits as you advance in your brewing. I know I do.

http://howtobrew.com is an excellent place to get started.

Once you get a feel for the process, you may find additional equipment that you want and you will likely want to get additional fermenters but the kits are a good place to start.

Craig
 
You will probably continue to use everything from one of those beginner kits as you advance in your brewing. I know I do.

+1
I still have some of my original equipment from 15 years ago when I started...Alas, I broke my thermometer and hydrometer on my last 2 batches!
I broke my galss carboy years ago...had to finally replace my bucket...it stopped sealing. I still have my original racking cane, bottle capper and bottle filler.
 
You can't go wrong with a copy of "THe Complete Joy Of HomeBrewing" by Charlie Papazian.

It's propbably the starting point for most homebrewers and spans a wide level of experience...starting with the newbie.
 
I'm meeting with my wifes boss tomorrow to see what I should buy. He owns the winery and makes wine, vodka and brandy. He used to make his own beer and offered to set me up with what I need and he says he will give me some pointers. They sell most of the equipment right there and it sounds like I'm getting a discount on whatever I need. Hopefully I'll go home with a bunch of toys tomorrow.
 
I bought almost all of my equipment Sunday. We looked at one of the kits and decided what I would need and I bought it seperately. He sold me all the parts except the carboys and a true brew porter kit for $48. He gave me a big discount on everything. All I need now are a two carboys.
 
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