If you're set on 1 gallong batches okay, but in my limited experience 5 gallons batches even seem small. You'll be surprised how hard it will be to keep up with consumption.
IMO there is way too much effort in the brew process to make a single gallon, plus you will have to be extra careful with your fermentation temps as 1 gallon can fluctuate quite quickly.
May be true.
But a one gallon to five gallon upgrade is simply a matter of replacing the one gallon jug with a with a larger vessel, a fermenting bucket or a carboy. All the other equipment will do for any size.
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The second post forgot the bottling bucket (for one gallon any food grade container that will hold 1-gallon.
And the second poster forgot an airlock:
So here's my modification of masterfools suggestions (my changes in bold; my comments in italics, otherwise masterfools):
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A decent stainless steel stock pot (you probably already have one) for doing your boils.
A glass jug (available for about $5 at any LHBS;
or you can buy a jug of cheap wine or apple juice))
a stopper (no. 6 for a gallon but other size for others)
an airlock (one size fits all)
"blowoff tube" (the base of an airlock and a few feet of plastic tubing from a hardware store. This is in lieau of an airlock for the first few days of fermentation to prevent krausen/foam blowing through the stopper and out the airlock. It's not nesc. if you have plenty of head room but with a one gallon jug and a one gallon brew...)
sanitizer (iodophor or star san, again, available at any LHBS)
some nylon boiling bags for hops (LHBS) (
not a requirement as you cal boil hops directly if you want.)
muslin bags for specialty grains (if you are doing extracts; if you are doing all-grain you might want a strainer, colander, or a nylon bag. Paint strainer bags are excellent and cheap.)
a decent metal or poly spoon (I try to avoid cheap wood spoons, and scratched plastic or poly isn't great)
a thermometer (I prefer digital instant read for smaller boils)
a fermometer (for the glass jug, to measure fermenting temperatures)
(your LHBS can hook you up. You can use terrerium thermometer or an adhesive strip thermometer; technically this isn't required but as fermenting temps are 5 to 10 degrees higher than room temp and bad temp control leads to off-tastes, you'll probably want one.)
a funnel
a hydrometer
a racking cane w/ tubing and bottling wand (
the tubing can be bought in any hardware store by the foot)
Bottling bucket (the only other thing that is size specific); for a one gallon batch any food grade bucket will do but for larger batches you'll probably want a bucket specifiaclly for bottling (they'll have a spigot)
Bottle capper
(and caps)
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You can get all the equipment *and* the ingredients for your first batch for 40 dollars from Brooklyn brew shop. There's other places that sell one gallon kits too. The tubing and airlocks are pretty cheap. It's the carboys and buckets that make equipment expensive and one gallon containers are significantly cheaper.
Rather than fermenter and bottling buckets, stopper and airlocks (I still use the tubing and a bottle wand though), I have 3 Mr. Beer "little brown kegs" which which although I despise the *concept* of a "Mr. Beer" (geez, what is this? Kindergarten) actually work really well for fermenting and storage and only cost $10 each. Well, it's not for everyone but it is an option out there. I also have 2 a gallon glass jubs for Carlo Rossi and Apple Juice.
