Kit Assistance Please

[withoutink]

Hi all,

Newbie here. I am in the early stages of researching Home Brewing. I ordered two books. How to brew. And the Complete Joy of Home Brewing.

I also started listening to two home brew podcasts. Watched a number if videos on YouTube.

I'd say I have a very limited understanding of the extract process, thus far. But it's starting to make sense a bit!

So, now I'm looking for a kit. Or to put together a kit.

I looked at Midwest, Northern Brewer, etc.

I read a lot of people talk about how, we don't need a secondary to start. That in the beginning, the bucket method would work well... Then when it looks like I need a carboy for a second. I can just add it in later.

I know I'll also need a hydrometer, pot, wine thief, possibly a wort chiller, bottles, etc.

Would it be safe to say this is a good route? Or would starting out with the carboys in the beginning be better.

I was looking at the Essential Kit & Deluxe kit from NB.

The beginner kit and the brewer starter kit from Midwest.

Is there another kit I should consider, from a different vendor?

Any other essential items I will be in need of?

Thanks in advance.

Matt

 

[rodwha]

Matt,

I'd suggest you check out MoreBeer if you'll be spending a bit of money as they offer free shipping on $59+ orders.

I've never bought a kit from them, but I'd assume they are the same quality as any other.

I've never used a carboy as I like how easy to transport and clean a bucket is.

The things you listed are all you've come up with? There's more you'll need.

 

[HumulusHead]

You really don't necessarily need a secondary at all.

I think a perfect kit for starting would be something like the kit from northern brewer that has the brewing bucket and the bottling bucket. It's got all the necessary stuff to start brewing minus the pot.

A pot for extract can be picked up for super good deals at Walmart.

The beauty of extract is you don't need all the expensive stuff to start off brewing good beer!


Sent from myPhone

 

[rodwha]

Things you'll need:

Pot (5 gal or larger - go larger if you can), floating thermometers (2 or 3 as you'll break them), hydrometers (2 for the same reason), long spoon(s), scale that does 1/10 or even 1/100 of an oz. if not grams, Pyrex measuring cup (larger is better), whisk for aeration unless you want the stone, siphon, bottle filler, bottling bucket, fermentor (buckets for me), air locks (may break, get an extra), note book for keeping detailed notes, and more depending on how deep you want to get.

 

[rodwha]

Look at Target's pots. Cheap. I'm looking at upgrading from my 5 gal aluminum pot to an 8 gal aluminum tamale steamer pot for $30.

 

[rodwha]

If you'll be using liquid yeast you'll want a flask or two (I used 2 qt juice bottles for a while) for yeast starters (can do dry yeast as it's easier).

You may want a large funnel if you want to harvest yeast, but I learned from a fellow here that it's much easier to just make a larger starter and saving a portion instead (easier and quicker with no mess and less chance of problems).

Maybe reusable grain and hop bags. I gave up on the hop bags as they didn't last so long and it's not fun cleaning them. I use a reusable dry hop back but tmy typical hop bags are toss away muslins.

I have a pitcher for water (2 gal). A colander for straining my grains and a silicone grabber as burning your hand sucks! I also keep plastic cups for sparing water, and a plate to keep my things on. I also have a turkey baster and testing tube, though I rarely use them. I also have a spoon cradle and a timer.

Sanitizer and PBW cleaner.

I'm sure there's more...

 

[beekeeperman]

The basic kit from midwest or basic kit from other vendors is all you really need to
get started. Throw in a extract kit and you will be brewing your 1st batch.
I got the $89 kit from midwest with the 5 gal. plastic carboy and haven't used it yet(the carboy) and probably won't so that isn't really necessary to get started.
Start with the basics and you will figure out what more you might like as you go.
I have since added a 45 bottle tree with the bottle rinsing adaptor which makes bottling and bottle sanitising a more organized operation .
Also bought a 60 qt round plastic livestock feeder($15) from tractor supply to use as a swamp bucket for chilling the wort/maintain cooler ferment temps.
Good luck, go for it !

 

[KeninMN]

It's amazing how quickly I accumulated brewing equipment! I started out with the Deluxe Starter Kit from Northern Brewer, then added the Mad Brewer Upgrade Kit (hydrometer and test cylinder, thief, whirlfloc, Biofine Clear and a copy of How To Brew, by John Palmer), a FastRack bottle drying system, a wort chiller, an oxygenation kit, a 2 liter yeast starter kit and stir plate and then most recently a refractometer. The two must-have items from the above list, IMHO, are the wort chiller and the hydrometer, with the FastRack system coming in a close third...

 

[mmb]

I teach an Intro to Extract Brewing course and recommend any of the plastic bucket starter kits from the various suppliers. They'll all come with a 6.5G fermenting bucket, a bottling bucket, a bottling wand, a wing capper, misc tubing, an air lock, a hydrometer, a sample of StarSan, and the most important thing you can have, an AUTO SIPHON.

Add to that your pot in the 3 - 6 G range, a long canning spoon, and some decent hot pad/mitts to protect your hands and you'll have everything you need for your first dozen batches of beer.

As you find yourself advancing in the hobby, you may find yourself looking into full volume boil with extract which will then introduce the possible need of a chiller, a bigger pot, and some sort of outdoor stove to boil on. But, to start off, keep things as simple as possible and you'll be just fine. The most important thing is to get that first batch in the fermenter.

 

[charliehorse]

+1 on what MMB said.

There are a lot of people on here that will try to convince you that each and every piece of equipment is indispensable and you can't brew a descent beer without it. The reality is that you can brew a very good batch of beer with an extract kit, and 20 quart pot and a fermenting bucket. everything else is for labor saving. When I started in this hobby, I bought the Brewer's Best starter kit from a local homebrew supply shop. In that box, there are things that I use every time I brew, like the fermenters. Other things that I upgraded, like the thermometer (I use an electronic probe type from Wally world) and the hydrometer (I picked up a refractometer on eBay). My first 4 batches were extract and I was quite proud of them.

Things that are nice to have:
Bottling tree -- don't want a commercial one? drill some 1.5" holes in a sheet of plywood and lay it on saw horses.
Wort Chiller -- need one for extract? Nope. buy water (one time) in 2 - 3 gallon carboys from your local big box home improvement store and chill over night. Pour your hot wort in the pail and then dump water in. I'll be cooler.
Bottle Capper -- comes with the kit. It won't be long before you start saving up to switch to kegging. Making beer is fun. Thinking about making beer is fun. Drinking beer is fun. Sharing beer is fun. Bottling beer is NOT fun.

When you order your kit, get a thing of StarSan... it's a no rinse sanitizer. Throw the powered crap away. for clean up, use Oxyclean. On everything.

 

[YeastFeast]

I purchased my kit locally. Here's some lists and comments from my experience through my first 5 batches...

My kit came with:
6.5 gal glass carboy (my fermenter)
5 gal glass carboy (never used, never done secondary)
Stir spoon
Hydrometer/test tube
Long carboy cleaner
Plastic bottling bucket
Siphon tube
Air lock
Bottling wand
Bottle caps
Capper
StarSan

Things I needed for my first batch (that didn't come in the kit) that I already had:
Aluminum Turkey fryer (works great, still using it).
Thermapen (don't know what I'd do without it, use it constantly for checking wort temp, yeast water temp, cooled wort temp before pitching).
Empty beer bottles.

Things I bought immediately after doing my first batch:
Wort chiller (no way I was doing a second batch without one of these, love it. Best additional item I purchased).
Wine thief (it sucks trying to pull samples for the hydrometer without one of these).
Auto siphon ( makes transfers to fermenter & bottling bucket so much easier).
Long shallow Tupperware container (makes it easier to sanitize things like auto siphon, long spoon, all other items, ect.)
Bottling tree (make cleaning and sanitizing bottles much easier!).

One other thing. Cut a 2" piece from your siphon hose and connect your bottling wand to your bottling bucket spout, makes bottling a breeze.




Hope this helps!

 

[rodwha]

I use a bucket to sanitize in.

Go by the bakery dept in your local grocery store and ask if they have any icing buckets. They are food grade. It's a pain to wash them out, but they are free! Mine are ~5.3 gal and 2.5 gal sizes.

 

[trboyden]

Start off with a 1 gallon kit from Northern Brewer/Midwest/MoreBeer and determine if you actually like the hobby or not. Get not included items from your local cheap store. If you have a basic pots and pan set, that's probably more than enough for your first couple of batches.

If you like the hobby, and you want to move to bigger batches, you can then start planning out your ideal brew rig, and acquire the pieces as you can afford them. Buckets, big brew pot, propane burner, and gravity measurement will be the essential first pieces you need. From there you can go in a bunch of directions depending if you want to stick with extract, go brew in a bag (BIAB), or traditional 3 pot all grain brewing methods.

The most common denominator for all three of those methods is going to be cooling and storage/serving. Having gone through the gadget acquisition phase myself, rather than immersion coils, I should have built the chest freezer first and just let the wort chill over night before pitching the next day. I personally haven't had any issues with contamination with that process, and I've noticed no difference between beers that were chilled with an I/C and that were just left to chill in the freezer overnight. The main benefit is shorter brew day/less equipment need. To do lagers you'll need the freezer anyways and the same is true if you move to kegging.

Speaking of kegging, you'll need to decide whether you want to stick with bottles or keg your beer. I hate bottling and I went and bought a Blichmann Beer Gun, and still hate it. So I pretty much went straight to kegging. My biggest advice for kegging is go with used kegs, but buy extra spare parts - pressure release valves especially, but also spare o-rings and poppets. You'll want them on hand in case you need them, and inevitably, I've needed them just about every time I've kegged to deal with some CO2 leak or another. Also, don't crash carb. Give the brew 5 days to absorb the CO2, you'll get better results.

You'll be tempted to buy a lot of gadgets and nice and shiny stainless steel. You don't need it. If you want it it's fine, I have my fair share. But just keep it in the back of your mind that if they were able to brew beer well in wood barrels, outside, with no technology, for hundreds of years, you likely don't need a lot of crazy stuff to brew good beer either. One visit to the Pilsner Urquell website and their picture gallery of how they still make beer to this day (http://pilsnerurquell.com/us/how-we-brew) should dispel any myths you come across.

 

[mmb]

When you order your kit, get a thing of StarSan... it's a no rinse sanitizer. Throw the powered crap away. for clean up, use Oxyclean. On everything.

Correction: Oxyclean Free or Oxyclean Baby. You don't want the perfumes from the standard Oxyclean on your brewing gear. It can make things funky.

 

[withoutink]

Hi Guys,

I was chatting with my wife, she works at a winery and she found out that they have an account with LD Carlson... The purchasing coordinator said she would put in an order for me, on their order this week...

So, I was looking at this kit:

http://goo.gl/F8TYyy

It's an amazon link, as it was the only site I could find that had a photo of the kit. I was thinking if I have the opportunity to place an order at wholesale, get the kit with the better bottle and the stock pot to start.

Here is what the kit includes:

The most complete equipment kit in the homebrew industry is now available from Brewer's Best®. The Brewer's BeAst includes everything your customers need to make the finest batch of beer (by using a Brewer's Best® ingredient kit, of course) in one box. Equipment kit includes: 6.5 gallon "Ale Pail" Primary Fermenter with Grommeted Lid, 6.5 gallon "Ale Pail" Bottling Bucket with Spigot, Easy Clean No-Rinse Cleanser, Auto-Siphon, 5 Better Bottle, Plastic Paddle, Carboy Brush, Hydrometer, Liquid Crystal Thermometer, Bottle Brush, Black Beauty Capper, Econolock, Drilled Bung, Lab Thermometer, Bottle Filler, Siphon Hose with Shut-off Clamp, IO-Star, 20 qt. Brew Pot and Equipment Instructions. * Does not include bottles or caps

I would also order some bottles, caps, and star san.

Thoughts?

 

[mmb]

Looks good. I wouldn't use the bottle brush on the Better bottle unless you wanted to ruin it. Hot water, Oxyclean Free, and a washcloth to swish around are all that is needed to clean Better Bottles.

 

[charliehorse]

Other than the pot (I already had one), that's the kit that I started with. Since your wife's job has an account with L.D.Carlson, order a kit of something to brew in it as well. If you like IPAs, I'd recommend the Australian IPA. The instructions in the Brewer's Best extract kits are very, very well written.

MMB... I stand corrected. I buy all of my cleaners unscented anyway so I never noticed.

 

[brewprint]

http://www.homebrewing.org/Beginner-Beer-Making-Kits_c_205.html

 

[unionrdr]

Looks like a decent kit. But I never liked how my Ale Pail didn't have a seal in the lid. Under pressure during initial fermentation, it always leaked around the lid. But other than that, it's a good kit. Here's a pic of what I have thus far;

That's the 45 bottle tree & avinator from Ferrari. Darn handy on bottling day. I also got the Super Agata bench capper after my wing capper gave out. But you can get that later. The bottling wand is a must as well. A couple floating thermometers & hydrometers would be a good idea as well. And Walmart has a digital scale for $20 that I use all the time for weighing priming sugar, hops, grains,etc. And I like Starsan for no rinse sanitizing & PBW for cleaning everything. A spray bottle for some Starsan is definitely handy as well as measuring spoons, measuring cups & funnels all from the dollar store. An orange Home Depot bucket for draining cleaner out of fermenters, soaking bottles,etc is handy too.

 

[charliehorse]

An orange Home Depot bucket for draining cleaner out of fermenters, soaking bottles,etc is handy too.

Not seeing this. I see a blue Lowe's bucket though.

 

[unionrdr]

Oh, sorry. It's in between the bottling table & fermenter stand. Here it is;
The Lowe's bucket is good too. It has a seal in the lid like the Home Depot one does. The blue one is used for my Barley Mill grain crusher, as it fits the base of the crusher tighter.

 

[Pickle29]

I just started brewing this past month. This is the equipment kit I started with:
http://www.midwestsupplies.com/brewing-starter-kit-1.html

I also ordered 8 oz of Starsan, a few fermometers, and a stirring paddle/spoon. I bought my pot and a propane burner from Academy Sports for about $50 total.

This gave me everything that I needed to get started, minus bottles which I had already been saving for a while.

 

[withoutink]

Ok, first off thank you everyone for the replied. I was on my phone when I posted my last update.

After speaking with the purchasing coordinator, they said get whatever I want, at cost. So, I also put this list together. This way I was able to build my kit at cost, using other items.

I had a friend look through it and he said it's pretty concise and thought it would go well. I will price everything out tonight, the wife is bringing the pricing sheet home. Then depending on what makes most sense I will pull one of the two triggers.

If you see (PC) thats just a note to me to check the price.

 

[charliehorse]

You have a few redundant things on that list. You won't need both a 16oz and 32oz bottle of StarSan. As far as PBW goes, pick up a pail of unscented Oxyclean from the local dollar store. If you can get the starter kit (I would get the Better Bottle kit), do that. Your extract kits will have plenty of caps (as long as you don't mind the BB logo). You *might* need the stainless spoon... I use one for All-Grain brewing.

 

[withoutink]

Thanks, yes, the dupes are for me to check pricing... to see which may be a better deal.

You have a few redundant things on that list. You won't need both a 16oz and 32oz bottle of StarSan. As far as PBW goes, pick up a pail of unscented Oxyclean from the local dollar store. If you can get the starter kit (I would get the Better Bottle kit), do that. Your extract kits will have plenty of caps (as long as you don't mind the BB logo). You *might* need the stainless spoon... I use one for All-Grain brewing.

 

[trboyden]

If you use a spray bottle with the StarSan, as opposed to filling a bucket or pan and soaking, you'll get more out of a bottle spraying stuff down because you only use 1 oz of StarSan per 5 gallons of water. So one 16 oz bottle could last you awhile. I brew every other weekend, and I have only used maybe 3 oz of StarSan in a year. And I spray the crap out of my stuff. I keep a mix in a dedicated 5 gallon bottling bucket and refill my spray bottle from that.

 

[withoutink]

Ok I think I'm sorted. I think this will be the final order. I'm ordering more stuff than I probably need at first. But the pricing is really really good. Plus the winery doesn't order often.

 

[MB331]

I have less than 10 batches under my belt and I love watching the fermentation process. The formation of the krausen and yeast activity is pretty interesting. I would recommend a Better Bottle instead of a bucket.
Also, get the largest funnel you can. It makes life a lot easier when pouring your wort.

 

[myelo]

Your list looks pretty complete to me. The only thing I might do different is a bigger brew kettle, especially if you are getting a good deal on pricing. I would at least check the price difference for larger sizes.

You can do 5 gallon batch extracts with a 5 gallon pot by boiling a partial amount and then adding the remaining water in the fermenter. But boiling all the water volume can improve the quality of certain styles of beer and for that you need about 7.5 to 8 gallons because some volume will evaporate and to prevent boil overs.

... of course if it were me and I were looking at a 7.5 gallon pot I would probably go ahead and get one at least 10 gallons to do 5 gallon all grain (brew in a bag) batches.

See how this hobby goes?

 

[charliehorse]

Also, get the largest funnel you can. It makes life a lot easier when pouring your wort.

I can't think of a time when I pour wort into anything. I either drain it through the valve in my kettle or I siphon it with the Auto-Siphon.