Just bought my first kit- anything else I should pick up?

[bumpnzx3]

Hello-
A little about myself to start off. I work as the CAD/GIS Dept Mgr of an engineering firm during the week and I work at the Anheuser Busch brewery (*ducks to miss the beer bottles and mugs that are surely being thrown at me at this point) in St. Louis, MO on the weekends in the production maint. dept. I more or less repair things that break on the bottling, canning, and packaging lines. In the little spare time I have, I am a gear head as well as a cyclist (road and mountain). I've been a beer lover for several years. And, although I do work at AB, I still know what good beer is. I've been looking to get into the hobby of home brewing for a little while, but never did.....until I looked on CraigsList this morning.......

I just picked up a Brewers Best Deluxe Equipment kit and 12- 24oz bottles off of CraigsList for $35 today. Everything appears to be there and in pretty good shape. Is there anything else I should pick up before getting to work? I was thinking of an immersion chiller and possibly a secondary fermentation tank. Is the secondary worth the extra cost? Also- are any of the brews better than another to start off? From what I read, an ale is a little easier/a little more hands off than a lager. However- this work will most likely be done in my unfinished basement- so the cool climate needed for the lager would certainly be do-able.

 

[JMSetzler]

Personally, I would look for an 8 gallon or larger brew kettle and a decent propane cooker if you want to really start out right

 

[jgaepi]

That (8 gallon kettle and burner) and after bottling my first batch, buy a bottle tree with a sanitizer sprayer/mister. I just placed my order. What a pain cleaning and drying all those bottles. The tree will help them dry, spray sanitizer avoids have to dump in sanitizer solution. Williams Brewing or any place else should sell one.

 

[bumpnzx3]

I forgot all about the brew kettle. I will most likely hold off on the propane until I decide if this is something I am going to stick with.....then again trying to boil 5+ gal of liquid on an electric stove might turn into a PITA quickly.

 

[Ness]

Pretty nice score the kit alone typically sells for around 65.00! I've done quite a few brewers best kits and your typically only boiling 2-2.5 gallons of water. So although I love my propane it sounds like all you're really missing to get started is the ingredients(brewers best range from 30-44.00) and possibly a few more bottles. Take care

 

[eljefe]

+1 on the kettle.

I would also recommend an auto-siphon, they are cheap and convenient.

If you can get some Grolsch bottles with the swing top your bottling will go a lot faster. I went to a local bar and they were willing to save them for me (free and convenient is hard to beat).

I find a secondary to be good for freeing up the primary to brew another batch as well as keeping some of the sediment out.

Finally, check the DIY section. I used it to make an immersion chiller - it looks like hell but it works and was 1/2 the cost. Call a local plumbing store to see if they carry the coppertubing. They also appear in the classifieds on this site.

Good luck

For what its worth, I used to be a huge bud drinker (longnecks) until I lost my beerginity. That being said, I appreciate their ability to provide a consistent product especially when one slight flaw would be apparent. At least they aren't claiming to be triple hopped.

 

[bumpnzx3]

I didn't think it was a bad deal- it had some bottles to fill as well as the glass carboy. I found a 6 gal kettle with a lid on craigslist for $50- that might do the trick.

That's what amazes me about AB- the amount of beer they pump out and it all tastes the same. All of the microbrews around here taste different from time to time. All good, but still a little different. The QA process there is insane- it makes sense that it always tastes the same. They are starting to come around- the American Ale is pretty good. Their Michelob brand has some good ones also.

 

[bumpnzx3]

I went and picked up the brew kettle from CraigsList- it was in great shape. $50 seemed fair. I was just at Home Depot for some unrelated goods and ran across an open box turkey fryer. It was missing some hardware- but I snagged it for $30. Cast iron burner (45k btu), thermo, etc. I have the bits in my shop at home to make it complete. This will save me from wasted time and messes trying to do a full boil in the kitchen. And- I can use the 30qt aluminum pot it came with to fry the thanksgiving turkey this year:rockin: Stopping off at the local brew shop to buy some ingrediants this afternoon. Hopefully sometime this week I can get to brewing.

 

[jdinger29]

Don't worry about working for AB... At least you have a job... We are glad to have you brewing with us!

 

[twocylndr]

A note book. Take notes, plenty of notes. Dates, times, temperatures, amounts, ingrediants...anything that can be a variable...be totally anal about note taking. With out detailed accounts you may never be able to duplicate that perfect brew you stumbled upon...OR you may make a fatal mistake again...
Ales are good to start with. They tend to be a bit more forgiving. Since they aren't lagered...you ge to drink them sooner!!! What better reason do you need!!!

 

[pdbreen]

A note book. Take notes, plenty of notes. Dates, times, temperatures, amounts, ingrediants...anything that can be a variable...be totally anal about note taking. With out detailed accounts you may never be able to duplicate that perfect brew you stumbled upon...OR you may make a fatal mistake again...

+1 on note taking. There's a decent PDF printable template on the Radical Brewing site. Might be more than you need out of the gate, but gives you some idea of the types of things you want to record.

 

[cryptonic84]

let me get this straight, you got a burner, 5 gal pot, and an equipment kit plus bottles all for less than 150!? holy moley, even if you hate brewing you will still turn a profit if you sell that on CL or Ebay. Crossing my fingers that you stick with it though. welcome to the obsession.