Equipment Needed

[tbeer]

Hi all,

I want to start trying to brew and would love your list of bare essentials equipment needed for a beginner. Also, whats the best way to obtain this equipment (buy it as a kit online? Home Brew store? Craigslist?). Is it worth it to invest early in higher quality equipment? Equipment. Much appreciation in advance for all helpful replies.

 

[GotDrunkThenLost]

Hello fellow noob,

I did my second brew today (which reminds me I need to stop reading this forum and go and aerate and pitch. My first brew is in secondary fermentation at the moment so I'm not all that much further along than you. So far the kit I've bought is:

1 Fermenting bucket which has a tight fitting lid with an air hole/hole for air lock.
1 5 gallon carboy.
1 bottling bucket (actually came with the initial kit and acts as a replacement fermenting bucket as it has a spigot, a tight fitting lid with an air hole/hole for air lock)
1 racking (thingy) with a bottling (doofery) which I can attach to the end and I probably won't use until next week. Lets you get beer from one container to another.
1 funnel with a filter on it
1 7 gallon kettle (stainless steel)
several air locks (and stoppers)
Plenty of sanitising chemicals, at the moment I'm sanitising both pre and post usage just to be on the safe side.
Hop bags (if you want to do some dry hopping)
Bottles and lots of them
thing for putting lids on (I'll not use that initially as I bought grolsch style bottles to start with, so I'll need to buy replacement rubber seals), I guess you'll need lids as well.
Hydrometer
a hydrometer jar or something (I bought something called a thief today)

The other bits I bought which I guess wouldn't be recommended for noobs are (I decided to go straight onto all grain as I'm uber lazy and didn't want to have to get half decent at home brew then have to learn something else):
1 5 gallon kettle (stainless steel) for heating mash out water)
Big mesh bags for doing brew in a bag (BIAB), I was daft enough to try all grain but not daft enough to make a big mess.

Then there'll be the ingredients for you first brew.

 

[MaxStout]

Get the biggest brew kettle you can afford. If you ever move into all grain, you'll need it. If you do extract, you can do full-volume boils. Minimum 8 gallons, but 10 gallon (or larger) is better.

 

[snccoulter]

Buy a basic kit for now. make sure you like the hobby befor you throw bunches of cash at it. Stay away from carboys for this reason HERE and HERE use buckets. Get your friends to save all the pop top bottles they drink out of not the twist off ones. usually if you get a kit beer it will come caps. One big this is patience let the beer sit dont fiddle with it while it is fermenting
.

 

[BrewWNC]

I'd start with biab (all grain or extract) but how much do you have to spend?

Buy quality equipment that sets you up for upgrading. Do everything yourself if you can you will save a fortune.

As max stout says, buy a big kettle (you will always need it). Here's what I would suggest. I am basing these suggestion on what I wish I would have had on my first brew day.

Buy a nice 10 gallon kettle. Invest in a spigot and screen (DIY). This will save you time, money, and energy. ($159+)

Buy a smaller, cheaper kettle for heating up sparge water. 5 gallon at dollar store is $15.

Buy a carboy. $25+

Tupperware bucket for cooling beer in kettle post boil $5

DIY wort chiller $30 (copper, fittings hoses at lowes)

Burner with propane tank $80+

Hydrometer, multiple thermometers (digital and "normal"), whirl flood/Irish moss, ph test strips, large mesh bags, hoses (silicone and vinyl), extra Tupperware for cleaning, hydrometer test tube, auto siphon, wort thief/turkey baster, water, ingredients

I'm sure I'm missing stuff but its late and I'm on a iPad.

If you want to go non biab all grain, get a mash tun cooler with false bottom and spigot.

It may seem like a lot of money and it does add up ( like any hobby). Everyone's setup and equipment lists vary based on need, money, etc.

I think you could get started with a all grain setup for under $400 if you do most of the stuff yourself. Or you could by a kit for $100 something + kettle + wort chiller + a number of items not included in the kit and start for less money.

You may not even like the hobby after a year and buying the kit may save you money

 

[Puddlethumper]

I definitely agree with most of the advice you've gotten so far. A good quality 30-40 qt. kettle will serve you well as a boil kettle for a long time (as long as you are continuing with 5 gal. batches.) A good burner and propane tank (Bayou Classic SQ-14) + propane tank is the cheapest and best arrangement I can recommend for a new brewer.

The fastest reading and most accurate thermometer you can afford would be on my list along with a good hydrometer and scale for measuring grain and hops.

If you are going to start with BIAB which is the easiest and cheapest way to do all grain you won't need much more than these + what you've already considered. If you plan to go to AG you'll also need to have a 7-10 gal. kettle to use as a hot liquor tank (cheap aluminum is fine) + a mash tun. There are a bunch of options related to a mash tun so I won't bother going into that in this post.

 

[rattyboh]

There is a lot of great advice already given. However, this is what I would say if you really are looking just for bare essentials:

You might want to consider starting with partial boil extract kits for a few reasons. It is the easiest way for a beginner to get into the hobby, and many or most homebrewers start out that way. There is less that can go wrong than all grain so it will give you a chance to figure out proper cleaning, sanitizing, and fermentation. You will be able to learn the process and all the equipment you use for extract can still be used if you decide to move to partial mash or all grain. Things like a wort chiller are great to have but you can do just fine with an ice bath to cool your partial boils to start. A large kettle and propane burner are necessary for full boils (although some stoves can handle the full boil, it is extremely slow) but a five gallon kettle on a stove will work fine for partial boils. If you do decide to move to all grain, that five gallon kettle will still be useful for heating sparge water. There is also no reason you can't start out with a larger 10 gallon kettle and boil what you can on your stove until you want to move to full boils. You can get a good 10 gallon aluminum kettle for $40-50 that would work just fine.

I would suggest a starter equipment kit like this one

Then add a kettle, a thermometer, a large spoon, an auto-siphon (not absolutely required but it will make transferring much easier), some way to control fermentation temperature (swamp cooler out of large storage container is cheapest option), starsan or some other no rinse sanitizer, PBW or another cleaner, a scale, and a brewing book like How to Brew by John Palmer

Then buy an recipe kit and be ignore the instructions (use How to Brew or some of the guides on this site instead)

Again, this is just what I would think of as the bare essentials, and I may be forgetting some things. There are plenty of things you can add on that make the whole process easier and faster (many already mentioned by others) so what you start with really depends on things like your current budget and if you think you are likely to stick with it for a while.

 

[govner1]

Hello fellow noob,



I did my second brew today (which reminds me I need to stop reading this forum and go and aerate and pitch. My first brew is in secondary fermentation at the moment so I'm not all that much further along than you. So far the kit I've bought is:



1 Fermenting bucket which has a tight fitting lid with an air hole/hole for air lock.

1 5 gallon carboy.

1 bottling bucket (actually came with the initial kit and acts as a replacement fermenting bucket as it has a spigot, a tight fitting lid with an air hole/hole for air lock)

1 racking (thingy) with a bottling (doofery) which I can attach to the end and I probably won't use until next week. Lets you get beer from one container to another.

1 funnel with a filter on it

1 7 gallon kettle (stainless steel)

several air locks (and stoppers)

Plenty of sanitising chemicals, at the moment I'm sanitising both pre and post usage just to be on the safe side.

Hop bags (if you want to do some dry hopping)

Bottles and lots of them

thing for putting lids on (I'll not use that initially as I bought grolsch style bottles to start with, so I'll need to buy replacement rubber seals), I guess you'll need lids as well.

Hydrometer

a hydrometer jar or something (I bought something called a thief today)



The other bits I bought which I guess wouldn't be recommended for noobs are (I decided to go straight onto all grain as I'm uber lazy and didn't want to have to get half decent at home brew then have to learn something else):

1 5 gallon kettle (stainless steel) for heating mash out water)

Big mesh bags for doing brew in a bag (BIAB), I was daft enough to try all grain but not daft enough to make a big mess.



Then there'll be the ingredients for you first brew.

I would recommend that you NOT use your bottling bucket as a second fermentor. It's very difficult to completely clean & sanitize the threaded components of the spigot. You'll end up w/ an infection at some point and the cost of the lost batch will exceed the investment needed for a second bucket !


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

 

[Hello]

Another vote for starting with extract because with extract, the chances of you getting a good beer on the first try are high. The first brew turning out great is a great way to pump you up to continue. If my first had failed miserably, I wouldn't have continued and my wallet would be happier.

Buy a 10 gallon kettle and nothing less. I wasted $40 on a 5 gallon economy pot that I grew out of quickly. I think 10 is a better recommendation even for new folks.

If your stove won't handle a full boil then try partial boils. My struggled at 3 gallons so bad that I was quickly brewing outside with a turkey fryer burner.

Buy two hydrometers and have at least one extra airlock on hand. I tend to break mine when removing them from the bung. I've gotten better but having extra never hurt. Those two items sitting around doing nothing will be about $10 total. A small investment to have on hand.

Enjoy yourself. In the end you'll probably make beer and you'll probably enjoy it. Make this a fun hobby and not something you do just to get beer. I heard a guy say yesterday that the process is a total pain and he doesn't look forward to it but he loves his beer. If that were me, I'd stop brewing. Make it fun but stay on the sober side. Too much can go wrong.

 

[gregfreemyer]

There are now a million beer brewers and probably a lot of them are occasional brewers. I started really cheap:

Turkey fryer with 7.8 gallon kettle - already owned
(Actually the first couple I did on the stove with a 12 quart stock pot - already owned)
6.8 gallon fermentation bucket - borrowed
Carboy (optional) - borrowed
6 ft hose to siphon/rack with - purchased
Bottling bucket - I used the turkey frier, it had a spigot
Capper - borrowed

Cleaner - used normal dish soap
Sanitizer - bought a small bottle of starsan.

A bottling wand is what I know now I should have bought day one. It was messy and wasteful trying to bottle without one and they are cheap.

I bought a Brewers Best Belgium Wit kit as my first beer. It had the grains/hops/yeast/steeping bag/bottle caps included.