Hello From Lakewood Ohio

[mrgreenbrew]

I have been recently looking into brewing my own beer. From what I have been seeing I think that an all grain system would be of my greatest interest because it gives me a great range of what I am able to brew.

So as of last weekend I bought a brewing kit from Craigslist. This kits contains:
7gallon brew bucket with air lock
Wort Chiller
Bottle filler
Bottle capper
Bottle brush
Carboy brush
crushed roasted barley 4oz + black patent 4oz malt
priming sugar 5 oz packet
malto dextrin 8oz packet
fuggle finishing hops .5oz (4.2% alpha)
northern brewer bittering hops (6.5% alpha)

Things on my list to acquire:
48 qt. cooler
brew kettle
6 gallon glass carboy

So my 1st question is what type of brew kettle should get and should it have a thermometer and coupler and ball valve? or can i do with out it?
The best prices I have found have been form spikebrewing.com


Thanks for your input

 

[LakewoodHomeBrew]

Welcome aboard!

I'm also in Lakewood - and I got a kettle from spikebrewing. I'm not impressed with the soldering on the NPT ports: rough, not smooth - it may be a b!tch cleaning to avoid grime build-up. However, I have not had the opportunity to use the kettle yet, so I cannot say for sure.

 

[mrgreenbrew]

Thanks for the input lakewood! If I will mostly be brewing 5 gallon batches, what size brew kettle should i get?

 

[maffewl]

Welcome aboard! The min. size kettle you would want for 5 gallon batches is 7.5 gallons. It doesn't have to have the ball valve or anything like that, it can just be the kettle. I think walmart is selling aluminum 7.5 gallon turkey fryers for around $40 right now, and that would work fine. You can use any cheap digital thermometer, like the ones for 10 bucks at walmart if you prefer. As with any hobby, it all depends on how much you want to spend. Also, if you are looking at 6+ gallon boils, most electric stoves won't cut it. I would suggest looking for a propane burner as well. I have the SQ14 and love it.

 

[two_hearted]

I've been using an aluminum turkey fryer as my kettle for the last year. Its been great and I can't drop the kind cash needed on a SS kettle. The Pros don't outweigh the price for me.

 

[mrgreenbrew]

Wow what a great tip. I went onto walmart's website last night and for under $50 I can get a 7.5 gal brew pot that comes with a burner that hooks up to a propane tank. That's a great value.

 

[unionrdr]

I'm not too far away in Sheffield village,not too far west on I90. I have a box with some 40-ish Sierra Nevada stubbies,all cleaned & most de-labeled. With about half a bag of gold caps (that's half a 144 count bag) & at least one .5 gallon blow off jug. Free if you wanna come & get'em.PM me if you're interested.