Equipment list, anything i am missing?

Homebrew Talk

Help Support Homebrew Talk:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

madman960

Supporting Member
HBT Supporter
Joined
Nov 5, 2011
Messages
300
Reaction score
41
Location
Painesville
My brew kettle is 5 or 6 gallons. I forget which. Bought it in 2014. Actually I have 2 but can't remove the spigot on the 2nd. It leaks around the outside after being dropped. I will get it removed and replaced soon. I have a 3 gallon pot I use for extra water.

When I was making beer, years ago, I used 5 gallon paint strainer bags. I used 48 quart igloo coolers instead of the 5 or ten gallon drink coolers. Still need to get a new cooler this week.

Going to the homebrew store this week to get fermentation buckets. I have 3 glass carboys, but have never used them. Picking up airlocks, hydrometer, thermometer, test jar, capper, star San, and 3 to 4 recipes. I don't know what recipes yet.

Am I missing anything?
 
Spend the extra money for a bench capper and not one of those two fisted things.

Don't forget hose for racking and a bottling wand. What about a simple immersion chiller (IC). The thing that looks like a coil of copper or SS tubing? Those are inexpensive as far as chillers go.
 
Do you need a bottling bucket (basically, a fermenting bucket with a spigot) or a bottling wand?

Do you need bottle caps?

I'm assuming you're recycling your own bottles... why spend for empties when you can pay just a little more and enjoy emptying them, yourself? 😁
 
Do you need a bottling bucket (basically, a fermenting bucket with a spigot) or a bottling wand?

Do you need bottle caps?

I'm assuming you're recycling your own bottles... why spend for empties when you can pay just a little more and enjoy emptying them, yourself? 😁
I bought a used set of equipment yesterday that came with a fermentation bucket, bottling bucket, 4 cases of bottles, wort chiller, hydrometer, thermometer, test jar, 5 gallon glass carboy, plus I still have 3 glass carboys from when I used to brew beer, airlocks, hand capper, caps, bung for the carboy, wine thief, and a cleaning brush. I ordered a hand crank grain mil from Amazon and it arrives tomorrow.

Need to get a bottling wand and bench capper and more caps. Will be getting keg supplies over the next couple weeks.
 
Probably going to need to buy a new co2 tank as it's likely out of date by now.
No need to buy a new one. Your old (empty) one can be "swapped" (exchanged) for a current tested full one.
Most gas places only swap tanks anymore, very few fill on the spot. Swapping also eliminates you're paying and waiting for hydro testing. The cost of hydro testing is built into and part of the swapping price.

If your current tank is aluminum, make sure to get an aluminum one back for it. Otherwise you'll end up with a rusty heavy steel one, and they won't swap those out for aluminum ones without a hefty upcharge.
 
I no longer have any kegs.
There's a good used market for buying kegs. Check your local Craigslist, Facebook Marketplace, homebrew clubs, brew friends, etc.

Good (used) ball lock kegs can be had for $30 or less, wait for the right offer to show up. Check our Classifieds Forum too, maybe there's someone semi-local to you selling them.
 
I bought a used set of equipment yesterday that came with a fermentation bucket, bottling bucket, 4 cases of bottles, wort chiller, hydrometer, thermometer, test jar, 5 gallon glass carboy, plus I still have 3 glass carboys from when I used to brew beer, airlocks, hand capper, caps, bung for the carboy, wine thief, and a cleaning brush. I ordered a hand crank grain mil from Amazon and it arrives tomorrow.

Need to get a bottling wand and bench capper and more caps. Will be getting keg supplies over the next couple weeks.
I would caution against using the glass carboy's. I have two that I got for free, neighbor left them out to take. I have read some horror stories about them slipping and breaking, causing pretty severe injuries. As far as plastic buckets are concerned, I would get the ones with the spigot's built in. I have two I got with my starter kit from NB.

I will agree with the used market. I have seen complete starter kits with bottles and extra's for really good prices. If I was just starting out, that is where I would look. As far as keg's go, I was lucky enough to get about 10 to 12 free from a local poster who was getting out of the hobby, so if you happen to see anybody close by, maybe you can barter a trade or something. I paid for a Torpedo keg from Morebeer only because it was the only one I could get to fit my kegerator, but I would have looked used if I had known better.

I have the wing style capper and it works ok for me, but I don't bottle much and am working on trying to figure out how to eliminate bottling all together
 
I have the wing style capper and it works ok for me, but I don't bottle much and am working on trying to figure out how to eliminate bottling all together
I simply can't stomach using the plastic (red or black) wing cappers, I got 2 of them that came in "lot" purchases. That inherent flex just bugs me. I'd steer well clear of those.

My aversion is likely due to having started out with an all metal wing capper. It has zero flex, when using it feels much safer and secure, as a good tool promises to be, and should. The best hand capper one could buy when my girlfriend then (my wife now) put together a top notch homebrew rig for me, a totally unexpected Christmas present almost 16 years ago.
She must sometimes regret getting that idea ever since... on both counts. ;)
 
Lots of good advice, but I say a cheap refractometer is really handy. Should be able to get one for under US$ 15.00 on amazon, look for ones that'll do 0 to 30 brix. Get some eye-droppers at the same time: they are handy for collecting a tiny sample of hot wort to cool, without allowing evaporation to throw things off.
 
I would caution against using the glass carboy's. I have two that I got for free, neighbor left them out to take. I have read some horror stories about them slipping and breaking, causing pretty severe injuries. As far as plastic buckets are concerned, I would get the ones with the spigot's built in. I have two I got with my starter kit from NB.
I'd like to second this too. I started with glass carboys because I was paranoid that plastic would leech into the beer, but I never bought another glass carboy again after a full one broke when I picked it up around the neck, sending the carboy from just below the neck about 5 feet where it shattered and (luckily) filled my Cool Brewing bag with liquid and glass that I rushed to the sink, very fortunately managing not to be injured or spill anything on the ground (specifically my living room carpet at the time). I can only guess that the glass around the neck had some invisible crack in it that had worn down to the point that when I picked the carboy up by the neck, it just snapped. I was lucky in that I didn't get injured or get a massive mess in my living room, but I've heard stories of people who did get injured from the shards of glass. I did still use glass carboys after that for beers that needed to be in secondary for multiple months, but I never used them for any of my usual beers and fully switched over to plastic (initially being quite paranoid in the kind of plastic I would use since I was still hesitant about plastic fermenters, one area my opinion has completely changed from personal experience).
 
5 gallon glass carboy, plus I still have 3 glass carboys from when I used to brew beer, airlocks [...]
As others have already said, be very careful using and handling large glass vessels, such as... glass carboys!

We have numerous reports of breakage, many completely unexpectedly, some resulted in (severe) injuries.
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/threads/broken-glass-carboy-horror-stories-compendium.376523/

There are other threads on this topic too, more than anyone would like to have.
 
I used to ferment in glass, some years ago. Never had an accident with a glass carboy, but that was probably due just as much to luck as to skill. Switched to SS (Brew Buckets) about 10 years ago, never looked back. Yeah, I miss being able to look inside, but don't miss those tense moments carrying or cleaning giant glass jugs. Trying to hold on to a 6 gallon glass carboy with slippery PBW on it is about a 9.9 pucker factor.

If you MUST use glass, then by all means, keep it in a sturdy milk crate. Never use those neck-mounted carrying handles, they can snap off the neck due to side-loading. And those Brewhaulers--the carboy can slip between the webbing.
 
Thumbs up on the brewbuckets. Very affordable when you average the initial investment over a lifetime of brews. Easy to clean and I bottle directly from the FV so no contamination from
unnecessary transfer to bottle bucket.

1000001263.jpg
 
Last edited:
Back
Top