Equipment for getting into Homebrewing

[Milanezaz]

Hey everyone!

Im looking to get into home brewing, and have decided Im going to do a (rather primiteve) first batch to test it out, nothing too big, probably around 5 liters. Ive been looking at videos and information online but have a couple of questions.

Do all beers take the same amoun of time to ferment? (I found a kit for a pilsener online and was thinking of doing that one first)

For my first batch, can I do my primary fermentation in a carboy and then bottle directly from the carboy?

What equipment would I absolutely need besides:

Pot
Carboy
Bottles
Caps
Bottle Capper

Things Im wondering if are necesary:
Sifon
Bottle Filler
Airlock
Bottling Bucket

Thanks alot and cheers !

 

[C-Rider]

Hey everyone!

Im looking to get into home brewing, and have decided Im going to do a (rather primiteve) first batch to test it out, nothing too big, probably around 5 liters. Ive been looking at videos and information online but have a couple of questions.

Do all beers take the same amoun of time to ferment? (I found a kit for a pilsener online and was thinking of doing that one first)
No. Depends on the amt of SG. Most light ales probably done in 2 weeks. Darker ales 3-4 weeks. Also fermenting temp will make a difference. And since yo mentioned a PILSNER can you get your fermenting temp down into the low 50s and can you LAGER it down about 34 degrees?
For my first batch, can I do my primary fermentation in a carboy and then bottle directly from the carboy?
Yes you can but it's easier from a bottling bucket you can pick up a 2 gallon white paint bucket from HD
What equipment would I absolutely need besides:

Pot
Carboy
Bottles
Caps
Bottle Capper

Things Im wondering if are necesary:
Sifon Really helps leaving the trub behind
Bottle Filler Yup makes it so much easier and they are cheap
Airlock YES fermenting in carboy or bucket you really should have an airlock.
Bottling Bucket For me...Yup

Thanks a lot and cheers !

Ha, if I put every word of my answer inside your comments the program don't see them. So I'm putting some words here. LOL

OOPS, you should have a hydrometer or you 'll never know when the fermentation is done.

 

[Larkin989]

Hey everyone!

Im looking to get into home brewing, and have decided Im going to do a (rather primiteve) first batch to test it out, nothing too big, probably around 5 liters. Ive been looking at videos and information online but have a couple of questions.

Do all beers take the same amoun of time to ferment? (I found a kit for a pilsener online and was thinking of doing that one first)

For my first batch, can I do my primary fermentation in a carboy and then bottle directly from the carboy?

What equipment would I absolutely need besides:

Pot
Carboy
Bottles
Caps
Bottle Capper

Things Im wondering if are necesary:
Sifon
Bottle Filler
Airlock
Bottling Bucket

Thanks alot and cheers !

I would say all four of those things are necessary! A bottling bucket, Siphon, and Bottle Filler make racking your brew into bottles ten times easier. I can't imagine not using them.

In my opinion I believe the airlock is a must have also. In a plastic fermenter it lets me know if fermentation has begun without peeking inside. I've heard of people using tin foil instead though, but with tin foil there comes a chance of contamination.

I think a $1-$2 investment for an airlock is well worth it, rather than contaminating five gallons of beer.

Anyways, it's up to you!

Cheers

 

[madscientist451]

Hey everyone!


Do all beers take the same amoun of time to ferment? (I found a kit for a pilsener online and was thinking of doing that one first)

For my first batch, can I do my primary fermentation in a carboy and then bottle directly from the carboy?

What equipment would I absolutely need besides:

Pot
Carboy
Bottles
Caps
Bottle Capper

Things Im wondering if are necesary:
Sifon
Bottle Filler
Airlock
Bottling Bucket

I'd start out with an Ale, not a Pilsner. Ale yeasts are more forgiving and have a wide temperature range for good flavor, normally about 60-68F.
Pilsner and Lager Beers require colder fermentation and are just a little more difficult to brew than Ales.
Fermentation time depends on what beer you are making, the variety of yeast and amount of yeast pitched, as well as several other factors.
If you have a home brew store nearby, I'd skip the kits and go directly into BIAB using all grain. If ingredients are hard to come by, maybe kits would be a good place to start.
Before you brew anything, read the free on line book "how to brew" by John Palmer and watch you tube videos showing the various methods.
Brooklyn Brew Shop's "Beer Making Book" is also a good beginner book with 1 gallon recipes that can be easily multiplied to fit whatever brew pot you have.
There are endless free magazine articles and blogs on almost every aspect of brewing.
Look up BIAB brewing on YOU TUBE and see how easy it is.
My Suggested minimum for brewing is:
Brew Pot-For Stove top use 6.5-7 gallon but 5 gallon pot is ok.
BIAB bag
Large Spoon to stir grain
Thermometer
Carboy/airlock Or you can use a bucket with lid/airlock
Star-san or similar sanitizer for sanitizing the carboy and anything that touches the beer after it cools from the boil
Large Funnel so brew can be dumped from pot to carboy
Hydrometer so you can determine starting/ending gravity
Wine thief for pulling sample from carboy to test gravity.
An extra food grade bucket w/lid to keep star san solution in when you need it.
For bottling, you can bottle right from the carboy with a siphon if you
use priming tablets that you add to each bottle.
Otherwise, you need to rack the beer to a sanitized bottling bucket with the priming sugar solution added and then bottle from that.

After you brew for a while, you'll want to add a wort chiller and maybe a cooler to mash in, a kegging set up, temperature control for fermenting and some more advanced tools like A PH meter.

Keep an eye on your local craigslist ads, there is used equipment available all the time. I have a mixture of new and pre-owned equipment.
Used brew pots, carboys, thermometers and things like that are fine, toss out any used tubing and be suspicious of used buckets unless they look really pristine. Note: be careful when you clean brewing buckets that you don't scratch the plastic on the inside and change out any plastic tubing you are using every now and then, its almost impossible to really clean tubing.
Get involved in your local brew club if there is one.

Good Luck and Happy brewing

 

[Brownalemikie]

IMO, for small batches you won't need a bottling bucket. I've brewed 29 (2 gallon) batches and still have not used one. I siphon directly from the carboy to the bottle. I also use sugar cubes for carbonation. Works for me!

 

[RM-MN]

Make life easier, buy a kit that contain everything necessary to brew a 5 gallon batch except for a themometer, pot, and bottles. These are available from nearly every brew store. I use this source often and they have their own kit. http://www.ritebrew.com/product-p/840143.htm

Get a pot that will hold 8 gallons or more and a burner that will boil that much water and save having to buy two pots, one small to start with and then an upgrade to the one you should have bought at the start. Read through Plamer's book before you start, then read it again when you have a brew or 2 done so you understand more of it.

http://howtobrew.com/

 

[Lefou]

A 5gal stockpot?
You'll outgrow it quickly. It's OK for boiling, but you'll find extracting the wort is tricky.
You'll need a racking cane (siphon), some tubing, and means to contol the wort stream. I've recently decided to upgrade to an ANVIL 7.5gal kettle with 1/2" spigot and built-in thermometer. Can use it for smaller mashes and boils without worrying over how to dispense the wort without a real mess. I brew on a gas stovetop in the kitchen so this is a great option for me.

A triple scale hydrometer is a must if you plan on getting your ABV and gravity levels in the proper range.
A reliable thermometer ... or two.
Blow off cap and tubing is must for the times when fermentation is overwhelming your airlock. It will save you from a mess and work cleaning it up afterwards.

 

[Domminigan]

For a first run with an extract; you really only NEED a pot to boil in, a bucket or carboy to ferment in, an airlock to keep nasties out, bottles to bottle with, a capper to put the caps on, some caps and a tube to siphon with.

All the extra stuff helps improve your brew, and I recommend everything the others have said; but at the same time, my first brew years and years ago had just what I've mentioned. My old brewing book had all these amazing things in it that made life easier, brewing better and faster... But I didn't have access to any of it. I pinched the hose between bottles, used boiling water for sanitizing and boiled multiple batches in my 5 quart stewpot.
It was vastly harder to do it with minimal equipment, I had to keep everything covered in aluminum foil as each batch of boiled wort was cooling, and the finished product was nowhere near what I was producing later with a wort chiller and all the extra trappings... But the end product was still good, still beer and working with the minimum junk was what really got me into brewing and appreciating the stuff I got later.

So my advice; add some food grade tubing to transfer, an airlock, and a good grade bucket for a second fermentation and go to town.
You really need to transfer your beer away from your first fermentation. There will be a lot of settled yeast, and it will look mostly done, but you will want to let it mellow for a little while away from all the worn out yeasties before you bottle.

Also, don't get in a rush to bottle. You do and your bottles will burst and soak everything around them.

If you enjoy it, and want to do more; then upgrade to more stuff.

 

[Milanezaz]

Hey everyone!

Thanks so much for all of the responses! I forgot to clear something up in my first post that makes a huge diference, I dont live in the US and thats why the equipment is such an issue, as home brewing is relatively new where I live (Uruguay) and the equipment is rather expensive, and on top of that brewing kits cost 300+ USD.

Ive managed to budget a rather primitive kit including:

10 Liter plastic fermentor pot (with a faucet(?) and an airlock) = 20 USD
Bottle filler = 11 USD
Bottle Capper = 28 USD
Caps = 5 USD
Sifon= 26 USD

I've decided to change my first batch from a pilsner to a pale ale, based on everyones advice on this board (thanks guys !) and I found a kit online where i can get the grains, hops, yeasts for making 20 liters of quantity for 20 USD.

Also I probably wont be using a bottling bucket at least for my first batches.

This would bring my total to 110 Dollars (ouch) (This is why anything non esential I could cut from my first batch would make my life a lot easier!)

I'm going to resort to using one of my own pots for making the wort, but my biggest pot goes up to 5 liters. (A 10 liter pot would increase my budget by a whopping 46 USD) Is there an issue if I only ferment 5 liters in a 10 liter fermentation bucket?

Also, what would be the best way to do temperature control on my fermentation? (We´re in summer right now and have an average of 82 farenheit and some days even up to 95ish)

Thanks again for all the advice everyone!!

 

[Domminigan]

I imagined you might be restricted on things.
If you have to boil in multiple batches where you boil some of it, let it cool, transfer to your fermenting pot, then boil the next batch; you will want to cover everything while it cools. If you've got a lid for your pot, throw a wet cloth over it to prevent little no-see-ums from sneaking in through the gap while it is cooling.
The cheapest way of keeping things cool is a wet piece of cloth covering the fermenter. An old t-shirt works well. Put the shirt over the fermenter, put the fermenter in a tub or larger bucket and then put water in the tub. The t shirt will soak water up, the water will evaporate and it will keep the fermenter cooler.
You will totally ruin any shirt you use, so use one you never plan on wearing again. If you can, have a fan blowing across the fermenter for a while while. This will dry out the shirt really fast, so you will want to make sure you can pour some water over it every now and then while the fan is on.