new to brewing! Equipment suggestions?

[HopLife]

My brother brews in North Carolina too. The big issues he had to address to get good beer were temperature control when fermenting and finding a good hardness of brewing water. His tap water is very hard and tends to also have a high chlorination level. A water filter to remove the residual chlorine and mixing the brewing water with a portion of distilled water may be neccesary to dial in some of your brews. A simple 'swamp cooler' is a cheap way to keep your fermentation from getting too warm.

 

[BreezyBrew]

What nobody ever told me was you pretty much need a garage for all the equipment, and to brew when it's rainy outside!

 

[ACbrewer]

What nobody ever told me was you pretty much need a garage for all the equipment, and to brew when it's rainy outside!

This is one reason why I've not gone to all grain brewing - I don't have a garage to keep my equipment in.

 

[JordanThomas]

This is one reason why I've not gone to all grain brewing - I don't have a garage to keep my equipment in.

Yea, I'm lucky I have a basement for storage. It is filled with spiders... classic old Michigan house basement, but it works.

 

[bad67z]

If I were starting today, I would buy one of the starter kits and a turkey fryer from CL (which the op has quite a few in their area) and I would go the BIAB route to start.

 

[unionrdr]

The partial mash kit I brewed 2 days ago was BIAB. With my new elec burners,I was finally able to boil 3G in my 5G BK. It's not hard,save for maintaining mash temps. I say try it,biab seems like a decent way to start.

 

[ajbeyer]

A good question to ask is "What's your budget?" This will give the brewing gurus here a better idea of what to get first as far as necessities vs luxuries go.

IMO, I think you could probably piece together a good equipment setup if you're willing to take the time to put it all together. At the same time, kits from Midwest, Northern Brewer, etc. give you the basic items to get you going with out having to do a lot of hunting and scavenging of individual pieces. All you would have to do is add the other things like the kettle, bottles, and other items.


Another option to think about if you're on a small budget is a smaller scaled equipment setup. Northern Brewer offers 1 gallon kits and places like Brooklyn Brewshop and Small Batch Homebrew are exclusive to the small batch brewer. The good things about small batch brewing is the price, plus you can have some variety (ex: five different one gallon bottled brew vs the same amount of bottles for one 5 gallon flavor). Another advantage, price wise, is things like a stand alone burner (plus the propane tank if you don't have one) and immersion chillers aren't really needed.

Another thing with small batch brew is you'll "have" to brew more often since these aren't typical 5 gallon recipes. That's good as the more you brew, the more experience you'll have. Hope this helps.

I would probably say my budget is anywhere from $75-150. I want to make sure I am actually going to continously brew, and not just do it one time before I buy more equipment. It shouldnt be a problem with a 5 gal beginner kit. I have no problem buy one piece of equipment at a time, but if its easier to get everything I need in a kit, then that is probably easier. I just dont want to but a kit, and not have to use a lot of the stuff and waste my money on unnneccesary items.

 

[unionrdr]

You won't be with the midwest kit. You'll def use all of it at one stage or another. & the price is very good,with great service.

 

[twistr25]

I would probably say my budget is anywhere from $75-150. I want to make sure I am actually going to continously brew, and not just do it one time before I buy more equipment. It shouldnt be a problem with a 5 gal beginner kit. I have no problem buy one piece of equipment at a time, but if its easier to get everything I need in a kit, then that is probably easier. I just dont want to but a kit, and not have to use a lot of the stuff and waste my money on unnneccesary items.

Just saying from experience, that's why I recommend the Midwest Kit. I have only added additional elements to it, there is not one thing in it I do not use. I would consider it high end bare bones. If you want to price shop, look for kits with a similar setup as the Midwest one.

 

[unionrdr]

Good words,twistr. Def high end stuff for the price. They must move a lot of stuff to give the prices they do. I also noticed their ale pales no longer have the BB logo on them,from the catalog I just got yesterday. They now have the midwest logo. I can def say from experience that you hit the nail on the head with their stuff. I've found this to be true myself.
Hell,even e-mails to the tech advisors has been quick & usefull. They got my vote,hands down!

 

[twistr25]

Good words,twistr. Def high end stuff for the price. They must move a lot of stuff to give the prices they do. I also noticed their ale pales no longer have the BB logo on them,from the catalog I just got yesterday. They now have the midwest logo. I can def say from experience that you hit the nail on the head with their stuff. I've found this to be true myself.
Hell,even e-mails to the tech advisors has been quick & usefull. They got my vote,hands down!

Definitely agree, and if I can catch a shipping sale, the grains and extract and whatnot are cheaper than my LHBS. Have had a little issue with getting yeast intact, but I know they are willing to help out if that is the case.

 

[unionrdr]

Yeah,there customer service is 2nd to none. Great astuff from a great place with tech guys,salesmen,etc that are all home brewers themselves. so they know what they're talkin about. But savin a bit more on shipping is always good. sign up for their e-mails,you'll get some good eals & promo codes.