Old Brewer Getting back into it, what equipment do I need?

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Thunderman

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I was heavily into brewing in the 90's but stopped for 13 years. I want to get back into it but need equipment. Can someone direct me where I need to go to get a good set up?

Thanks!
 
Go look at the vendor list (in the forum list here), and check out their 'Beginners' kits. Most tell you exactly what is in them, and you can compare prices. That should get you started.

Some places that come to mind:

Northern Brewer
Austin Homebrew
Rebel brewer
MoorBeer
Williams Brewing

There are a lot more in the vendor list.

I have only used Rebel in the list above (no problem; repeat customer), but all of them seem to be used often by folks here without any issues, if you have any concerns about using on-line stores.
 
Northern Brewer still has a BIG DEAL going on, probably till the end of the night from what I heard. You buy a 5 gallon stainless steel kettle and an extract kit and they will give you the free basic starter kit.

Promo code: FreeStarterKit

Links to each of the items.

Kettle
http://www.northernbrewer.com/shop/5-gallon-stainless-kettle.html

Extract Kits (pick anyone)
http://www.northernbrewer.com/shop/brewing/recipe-kits/extract-kits

Basic Starter Kit (This is what you get for FREE)
http://www.northernbrewer.com/shop/brewing/beer-equipment-starter-kits/basic-starter-kit.html
 
Northern Brewer still has a BIG DEAL going on, probably till the end of the night from what I heard. You buy a 5 gallon stainless steel kettle and an extract kit and they will give you the free basic starter kit.

Promo code: FreeStarterKit

Links to each of the items.

Kettle
http://www.northernbrewer.com/shop/5-gallon-stainless-kettle.html

Extract Kits (pick anyone)
http://www.northernbrewer.com/shop/brewing/recipe-kits/extract-kits

Basic Starter Kit (This is what you get for FREE)
http://www.northernbrewer.com/shop/brewing/beer-equipment-starter-kits/basic-starter-kit.html

actually it's ANY stainless steel kettle. you can go for the 5 gallon or higher, whatever tickles your pickle
 
Basically you know you'll want a pot that's larger than the batch size you're doing by as much of a margin as you can afford. Expanding your batch size and grain bill is always on the horizon. So for 5g. batches I'd go with at least a 8g. pot (what I have, though I wish it was larger).

You can do BIAB with a large pot (like mentioned above) and a smaller pot that you may already have, a 2-3 G pot for sparge water to pour over the grains or dunk them in.

Or you can do full volume BIAB in the larger pot for *most* grain bills.

The starter kits above will help with cleaning, fermentation, racking, measurements, etc. Personally I'd invest in a wort chiller, too, unless you're fine with leaving the pot in the bathtub with ice water for an hour or more to chill.

So, for brew-day you need:

Large pot
Brewing Bag (homebrew shop has or get voile fabric and make one/have seemstress sew)
heat source that can boil ~6g. water
auto-siphon (don't suck on tubing, just get one)
thermometer
hydrometer
fermenter (ale pale bucket with air-lock)
clean water (buy distilled or use tap/filtered, it affects product though)
no-rinse sanitizer (I go with StarSan personally)

Then you need assorted brushes, cleaners, and bottling equipment. The kit will have most of the above except the pot and brew-bag.
 
I would love to shop at Northern Brewers but they refuse to ship to Alaska using anything other than UPS, which means the shipping will cost twice what the product costs.
 
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