This is going to be another expensive hobby

[Morrey]

buy a USED rebel to learn on, or borrow/rent someone else's bike for a couple months.

Great example. For a new brewer to rush out and buy equipment sight unseen may lead to poor choices....maybe not, but chances are some things will never be used. I know starter kits are very common as I bought one too. Once the OP knows the various brewing systems commonly used, he/she can make solid choices based on experience. Until I watched a buddy do BIAB, I never would have predicted this would be my long-term choice of systems when I began.

 

[Soulshine2]

Sounds like a great place.

My only advice is to buy a large kettle. Get a 10 gallon or maybe a bit bigger. The reason is that batches are generally 5 gallons in size. You need some headroom during the boil. Having a 10 gallon kettle is great for now and for the future.

BIAB brewing is really pretty easy and inexpensive to start with, and a lot of people stick with it even after they get a handle on AG brewing and can afford to invest in a 3-vessel system. Brewing AG will save you money you can put into a Wort Chiller, or Fermentation Temperature Control. A couple of Very Useful things!

Speaking of temp control, it may be one of the most important aspect in homebrewing. Do yourself a favor and check out some methods for keeping your beer at the proper fermentation temps. This is usually 62-65F for Ales. Maybe a simple Swamp Cooler setup to start with. This is maybe the best way to get a better tasting beer from a good recipe.

Also water is critical. Make sure you don't have Chlorine or Chloramines in your water. Even if you can't taste it, check with your municipality and find out if they have added something. If so, you can use Campden Tablets to neutralize it, or use spring water for brewing. The Chlorines react with the fermentation process to make undesirable flavors that you can easily taste even if you can't taste the chlorine stuff in your water.

Good luck and Cheers!

First of all, would this be a better starter kit?
http://www.chicagobrewwerks.com/store/brewers-best-deluxe-equipment-kit/dp/1734
second, we have (limestone bedrock in this county)well water with a water softener. I filter through a PUR. No chlorine .
I will say this much - the Safale-US-05 yeast I got there yesterday because the yeast that came with the kits were almost 3 yrs old , was bubbling away nicely this morning. Which tells me the guy gave me something I could use to make even an old kit come to life. I realize that I have at least a week before I can taste anything to tell for sure.

 

[z-bob]

First of all, would this be a better starter kit?
http://www.chicagobrewwerks.com/store/brewers-best-deluxe-equipment-kit/dp/1734
second, we have (limestone bedrock in this county)well water with a water softener. I filter through a PUR. No chlorine .
I will say this much - the Safale-US-05 yeast I got there yesterday because the yeast that came with the kits were almost 3 yrs old , was bubbling away nicely this morning. Which tells me the guy gave me something I could use to make even an old kit come to life. I realize that I have at least a week before I can taste anything to tell for sure.

You're going to the brew store in person, so there's no real need to buy a kit. That kit still has stuff you probably don't need, and other stuff you'll want to upgrade. One 6.5 gallon bucket is probably useful; don't know why you'd need two. If you use glass carboys, you *need* handles for them. It would still be better to use a plastic one. You will drop and break a full glass carboy eventually

I've been using a spring-loaded bottle filler for years. Last time I was at the LHBS, I bought a new slightly different one that doesn't have a spring and you can top up your bottles with it. It's amazing how much better it works than my old one. It fills a lot faster, and the shutoff doesn't leak.

I bought one of those auto-siphons a year ago and it's a piece of junk. I've gone back to using a plastic racking cane, which is cheaper anyway.

You also want a digital thermometer instead of an old-fashioned glass laboratory thermometer. You can get that from Amazon if CBW doesn't sell them.

What are you using for a boil kettle? Will your stove boil that much?

 

[pshankstar]

Yes it can be expensive. I just purchased a 20 gallon brew kettle (SS Brewtech) from Morebeer.com. This is to replace my keggle, which is functional but I wanted less dead space (from the concave bottom) and what not. Plus I wanted something slightly larger since I do BIAB and wanted to squeeze some more wort/grains into the mix to get more into the fermenters. Now the keggle will go up on Craigslist if no one from my home brew club is interested in it.

 

[Soulshine2]

My GF wanted to buy a Harley. But she decided to buy a Honda Rebel to learn to ride, then she would sell it, get her money out of it, then buy the HD once she learned to ride. Well, she was ready to move up in 6 months but had a heck of a time selling the Honda starter bike. She ended up losing half of what she paid on a HD trade in. Lesson learned.....take your time and buy what you really want to begin with. Starter kits rarely provide premium kettles and other equipment since they tend to appeal to the beginning brewer. Learn the ropes at places like brew clubs or this forum, then buy the equipment you want one time.

I own a Harley , my second one in fact. I had a Honda Shadow to begin on ,didn't have any trouble selling it. I then bought a 02 Heritage Springer which I owned and rode for 70K miles in 10 yrs and then traded that in for my current 15 Ultra Limited hats already been to CO and back. Theres no way I would have started on an Ultra so that point was entirely invalid. But I get what youre saying. I'm a carpenter and I know to buy the best tools instead of cheapies repeatedly. I realize you guys have all sorts of room to do this , I have a kitchen and not much left of a garage . I don't need to make more than 5 gallons . I'd settle for a case at a time so with 2 Mr Beer fermenters I'd split the batch . I can't be spending that much for beer making supplies. I can buy a lot of beer for $225 and only use up a fraction of space. Its not that important.

 

[z-bob]

Do you already have a 12 quart or larger kettle that will fit on your kitchen stove? That would boil enough wort to do 2 gallons of all-grain beer in your Mr Beer fermenter. Two gallons is almost a case of beer.

I have an 8 gallon kettle that I bought used, but my kitchen stove won't bring it to a full boil even on the high-output burner. So i'm using a 22 quart canner that I already had. That limits me to 4 gallon batches, but that's okay. I can brew 5 and 6 gallons in the summer, when I'm brewing outside anyway.

 

[Mackster]

If you are thinking about growing your equipment and you enjoy the hobby so far may I suggest going to all keg based equipment. Get a burner and a keggle. These will be good for extract @ 5 gallons, then also good for BIAB/lautering all grain 10g later on. Ferment in Sanke kegs. Glass is dangerous and awkward to handle/clean. There are soooo many reasons to ferment in steel, but my two favorite are the ease of sterilizing (steaming on a burner) and safety (especially when moving in and out of keezers/fridge for temp control). You can get 15.5 g or 7.5 g for either 5 of 10 g batches.

Like many people have said, buy once.

 

[Soulshine2]

I really appreciate what some of you are trying to tell me but let me reitterate...I don't want to take up every square inch of my empty space OR spend all my money on beer equipment . I have 2 stainless steel pots that hold 4 gallons each , the 2 - 2 gallon kit barrels to open ferment in and a couple food grade 5 gallon buckets with lids right now to make a case each . I'm fine with that. I do have a digital thermometer . I don't have an auto-siphon but I do have a shake siphon...it has a copper end with a glass check ball in it and you just shake it up and down to start the siphon, siphons 4 gallons in less than a minute. Best siphon mechanism I've ever spent money on. I could see buying the 6.5 gallon pot and fermenter for head space to make 5 gallon batches . 10 gallons is really pushing it. Our stove is new last year and has a high output burner. I also have a propane burner so boiling 5 gallons is not a problem. Not trying to open a micro-brewery here ,just a hobby. Scale it down for me please, fellas. As I said this supply house is 10 minutes away local and they have supplies on hand and can offer all the personal help as I need it. They sell these kits as a convenience to piecemeal equipment purchasing. I don't see why they would sell a kit that had to be immediately upgraded right away . Right now ,I am waiting for these Mr Beer kits to finish out to see if I even want to continue on to 5 gallon batches. Wife likes the banana /clove of Hefeweissen and I plan on working up to a batch of that ,her birthday is end of March. If that turns out to be what I hope , it will be easier expanding to the bigger size kit equipment. Shes already questioned me about "another big hobby?"
Don't take any offense guys, I'm just wetting my whistle right now. I'll test the waters a bit before I dive in head first. I really do appreciate all the comments and advice.

 

[mongoose33]

I'm thinking back to when I started brewing, about 15 months ago. I'm up to my 28th batch, 25 of which have been all-grain. So I'm experienced to some degree, but I also remember very well what it was like to start out.

If you don't want to spend much, then just go w/ the kit from your local store. You can solicit advice here until you're blue in the face, but you already have enough. Just get the cheapest option you can, try it, then upgrade as you want, and consider the wasted money on the cheap stuff the price you had to pay.

So, what do I know now that I wish I'd known back then? You're getting lots of advice in a similar vein here, not just from me. Overall, what people are suggesting (for the most part) is that you go higher in quality.

***************

Interestingly, there's a conundrum here. I think that the better the equipment--up to a point--the more likely you are to enjoy the hobby. Case in point: chilling the wort. You can try the no-chill approach, but that means you have a kettle of cooling beer sitting around for a day. Or you can try to chill in a sink w/ water and ice. That'll work, but it'll take an hour or two. Or you can buy a chiller you run off a sink or outside hose, and chill in under 15 minutes. Depends on how long you want your brew day to be, I suppose.

Suppose during your first brew day it takes 7 hours. It might, actually. Do it on a weekend day just in case. At the end of 7 hours, you have made beer (well, not yet, not until bottled and carbed, add 3 weeks).

You look at that 7-hour investment of time and say, for a 5-gallon batch, "What the heck--7 hours to produce 50 bottles of beer? I might as well buy it." And there you are.

I brewed Sunday. 4 hours. I set up the night before, and it went like clockwork on Sunday. I didn't lose the day, I have some great beer going in the fermenter, and I'm looking forward to brewing again this weekend. Why do I do this? I LOVE my beer, I think it's wonderful to have my own excellent beer on tap at my beck and call.

Will a 7-hour brew day dissuade you? Maybe, maybe not. Maybe you can see efficiencies in how you might do things differently (you will). Maybe you can see different equipment that might help. And maybe you find it so interesting and cathartic that the 7-hour time period is more like meditation.

In the end, again, you get to decide what you want out of this. All the rest of us can do it relate our own experience and what it taught US.

*************

I've had a few big hobbies. It's part of what makes life fun for me. I suspect you, too.

*************

One other consideration: suppose you decide you don't like this. You'll want to sell your equipment, right? If you buy quality equipment now, there's a market for it. For cheap stuff, probably not so much.

Of course, if you're like me, you might see any "loss" as the price you paid for having an interesting learning experience. I once bought a Hi-Point pistol (cheap, cheap, cheap) because I'd read online there were ways to make it a great performer, with some mods and polishing of parts and so on.

Well. I found that the pistol would jam using my own handloaded ammo (a truncated cone bullet if that matters), but would shoot commercial fine. I sold that pistol and took about a $40 loss on it--but I considered the learning and fun of trying to make it work well worth the $40. Heck, people spend that going to the movies, and what do they have to show at the end of it?

So, to each their own. The only guy you have to please here is you.

 

[Kharnynb]

You're going to the brew store in person, so there's no real need to buy a kit. That kit still has stuff you probably don't need, and other stuff you'll want to upgrade. One 6.5 gallon bucket is probably useful; don't know why you'd need two. If you use glass carboys, you *need* handles for them. It would still be better to use a plastic one. You will drop and break a full glass carboy eventually

I've been using a spring-loaded bottle filler for years. Last time I was at the LHBS, I bought a new slightly different one that doesn't have a spring and you can top up your bottles with it. It's amazing how much better it works than my old one. It fills a lot faster, and the shutoff doesn't leak.

I bought one of those auto-siphons a year ago and it's a piece of junk. I've gone back to using a plastic racking cane, which is cheaper anyway.

You also want a digital thermometer instead of an old-fashioned glass laboratory thermometer. You can get that from Amazon if CBW doesn't sell them.

What are you using for a boil kettle? Will your stove boil that much?

mostly agree with you, but auto-siphons are an amazing invention worth every penny.

 

[madscientist451]

Compared to many other hobbies...it's dirt cheap.
Fishing/hunting..boats..ANYTHING with wheels...all way easier to blow big amounts of money on.

100% agree with above, but have to add my most expensive hobby ever was my Ex-wife. Cost me thousands and thousands; all my home brewing/cider/mead/winemaking expenditures are a pittance compared to dealing with an EX. Ok, I'm being sarcastic, an Ex isn't a legitimate hobby, but it just if you look at where big money goes down the drain, homebrewing is chump change in comparison.
For the OP: some people feel they need an expensive brewing "rig", but you can brew great beer with a minimum of equipment. Your beer will greatly improve by pitching an adequate amount of yeast, fermentation control, a kegging set up the good recipes/ingredients.
You can use the Mr. Beer Fermenters, since you have 2, just multiply the existing 5 gallon recipes x .75 and make 3.75 gallon batches. Having a pot larger than 4 gallons would be nice.
If you don't want to upgrade to a larger kettle, my first expenditure would be a 5 gallon plastic carboy and an airlock/stopper. shoot for 3 gallon batches, that will work fine for your 4 gallon pot. The next upgrade would be a 5 gallon round cooler, about $20 from Walmart. Rig up a spigot and put a BIAB bag (about $8) in there and you have good mashing equipment.
So your next up grade would be temperature control. A small chest freezer and a controller is what you want, but for years I used a cardboard box lined with insulation board, kept cold with frozen 1-2 liter water bottles. You have to play around with it, but you can make that work for very little investment. An auto siphon costs about $10, I replace the tubing every 6 months or so.
Bottling is a tiresome chore, so eventually you'll want some corny kegs (about $50) and a spare refrigerator to hold them. You'll also need a regulator, Co2 tank, hoses and fittings, and all those things add up, but the amount of time saved is well worth it. You can spend a lot on kegging, but I just use a picnic tap, put the keg and Co2 bottle in an old 'fridge, and it works fine.
Keep an eye on your local craigslist, there's used brewing stuff available all the time.
Be aware of prices, some people try to get sell on craigslist for more than it costs to just order it on line.
Brew with the water you have and see how it comes out. If your water tastes ok right out of the tap, it should be fine. My well water has lots of Iron/Sulfur, so I use distilled water built up with added minerals for IPA's and water from my spring for other beers. Manipulating your water is somewhat advanced and not really worth worrying about until you have experience in many other areas of brewing. If your water isn't suitable, just use bottled spring water. When I make lagers, I'll use a 50/50 mix of spring and distilled water.
Get some extra food grade buckets, they come in handy for all your brewing tasks. I have one dedicated bucket for star-san sanitizer and use the same solution several times before It gets dumped.
If you haven't read the free on line book "how to brew" by John Palmer, I'd get stated on that ASAP. Good luck and happy brewing.

 

[IslandLizard]

[...] Right now ,I am waiting for these Mr Beer kits to finish out to see if I even want to continue on to 5 gallon batches. Wife likes the banana /clove of Hefeweissen and I plan on working up to a batch of that [...]

Just for the record, if you want good beer, stay away from Mr. Beer kits. They are 95% marketing and 5% product.

Instead, buy ingredient kits that are proven to make the promised beer (which they not always do) or use proven recipes posted here and elsewhere then compound from loose bought ingredients. Steeping grain, 3# bags or bulk buy of dry malt extract (you really only need Pilsen / Extra Light), hops, and yeast. That's all you need for extract batches. And decent water.

Unless you bought RO water, before you boil, treat your water with a pinch of Meta or 1/4 Campden tablet to destroy the chlorine.

 

[z-bob]

mostly agree with you, but auto-siphons are an amazing invention worth every penny.

The one I have (bought from Northern Brewer*) is probably defective. The rubber piston doesn't seal well. It's hard to start, and then about halfway thru draining the carboy it starts sucking air into the line. I could probably stop that by pouring some water in from the top, but it's not worth messing with. A $2 racking cane works perfectly every time.

*I should probably leave the product a review on their website, mostly to test whether they still delete all the bad reviews.

 

[FranklinNewhart]

Get yourself a keg and the equipment to run it. You are going to get really tired of filling bottles really soon.

 

[Soulshine2]

To madscientist...I have an Exwife as well, and you're 100% correct..those are probably the most expensive thing on earth.
I like your breakdown and progression of equipment. I tinker and I think what you said you did , I could do as well . I have some equipment usable now. I can get more ,just a matter of what and where and how much . I hit thrift stores often and find all kinds of unusual but completely usable stuff at a fraction of cost. I'm going to wait on these 2 kits and then see what I feel like doing. I'm becoming overwhelmed by all the comments -you need to buy this , you need that , don't do this , don't buy that you don't need it...its getting a little confusing and almost makes me want to give up before I get started. Heres what I don't want to happen which has been stated - to buy cheap and then rebuy for a quality upgrade....ON THE OTHER HAND, I don't want to make a big investment for quality purpose sake only to not see any return or lets call it depreciation or even not like it and sell it and have to take a loss. What I have was cheap enough at $5 per kit . All I have invested is water ,about 3 hours time and a couple bucks for the fresh yeast to get it going. If this goes in the trash I'm out a whopping $20.

 

[PADave]

mostly agree with you, but auto-siphons are an amazing invention worth every penny.

IMO a spigot is an even better option.

 

[Stillraining]

Compared to many other hobbies...it's dirt cheap.
Fishing/hunting..boats..ANYTHING with wheels...all way easier to blow big amounts of money on.

+1...
I cant think of another hobby I have that is a fraction as cheap as this one. I spend 2000 per year just getting to Fly fishing spots. Don't even ask me about the boats expenses...and Skiing? Sheesh! Cant afford it anymore. Wood working?...forget a bout it..not even close. Gym membership? Nope way more expensive...Lets see maybe walking the dogs...dont know about that either, that's an 800.00 dog x 2 plus vet bills, fancy food and lord knows what all else as I quit asking..

Cheapest hobby I have by far...anyone whose not saving money brewing there own over buying it is doing it wrong. An awesome IPA we brew that everyone loves is still only 5.00 per gallon....Cheap! Dirt Cheap!

FWIW... I build my own fly rods and tie my own fly's...still not even in the same league comparison wise. And dont get me started on anything that goes bang.

Gardening might be the closest thing I can come up with....OH Wait....I weed with an excavator...never mind.

 

[Stillraining]

Here is what I tell people to buy.

1) 16 gal Bayou Classic SS pot with valve and Bazooka screen 155.00 online
2) 70 Quart Coleman Extreme Cooler 47.00 Walmart
3) Propane burner 40.00 on sale all the time. Add 40 if you need a Tank
4) Hydrometer and Tube thing 15.00 LHBS
5) Long Spoon 1.00 Dollar store
6) Digital thermometer 12.00 on line
7) bottle caper 15.00
8) 2- 6 gallon ferm buckets with spouts 35.00
Dude your brewing for the next 10 years for < 300.00 , no upgrades needed unless you want them.

 

[Kharnynb]

IMO a spigot is an even better option.

On a bottling bucket, sure, on a primary it just adds more problems than it is worth.

 

[skraeling]

On a bottling bucket, sure, on a primary it just adds more problems than it is worth.

not when its stainless like on my ss brew bucket...

 

[PADave]

On a bottling bucket, sure, on a primary it just adds more problems than it is worth.

I've never had a problem. Much easier to clean than the autosiphon. Attach a hose and turn the valve. Every primary I purchase will have one. Sure, the autosiphon can come in handy, I just dread cleaning and sanitizing the thing due to its awkward size.

 

[Kharnynb]

I agree, if you have money to spare for a full steel ss brew bucket, it's a totally different thing than a plastic bucket with a spigot.

While of course it can go perfectly well, i've already had one failure in a bottling bucket that cost me almost half a batch...don't want to increase that with a 2-4 week sit around in a fermenting bucket.
also not great to clean a spigot somehow if you are using a swamp cooler where it sits in the water for weeks.

 

[Stillraining]

On a bottling bucket, sure, on a primary it just adds more problems than it is worth.

Hundreds of batches now and not one infection not counting the penicil growth I had just recently after pitching some roasted coconut into secondary. Always store my buckets with enough starsan in them to keep the valves flooded. Nothing is going to grow in there.

Safe to say 10's of thousands of batches are fermented in valved buckets every year across the globe...Infections are an issue for any brewer regardless of process or equipment. I have an auto siphon as well and use it for wine and occasionally beer if need be.
Your beer is only as safe as your practices. You cant expect to treat a valved bucket the same as you would a non valved bucket. Take time to disassemble them after each use as much as you can, cleaning the threads and gaskets, stick a small brush inside and clean what you can, look in them and make sure nothing is fouling them, but IMO the most important is to keep them flooded in starsan. If your worried about etching the buckets doing that for prolonged periods then remove the valves and store them flooded in a separate container by themselves and install back in the buckets when your ready to ferment, bottle or whatever.

This topic comes up all the time and is like beating a dead horse, but to put a blanket statement to a new brewer that valves should be avoided for risk of infection is just plain wrong. Having a preference one way or the other is fine. But we should teach proper handling and usage of all brew gear and the merits of all.

PS: That penicil growth didn't affect the beer or the operation of using the bucket valve one bit..just made sure I didn't let the surface level fall to low at bottling and suck any in. It was a Gluten free for my daughter hence the reason it got bottled instead of keged..she said it put commercial gluten frees to shame. I have another batch ready to bottle right now...I boiled the coconut in 2 cups water this time instead of roasting and direct pitching. Pretty sure light roasting just doesn't kill everything it needs to. Hope it taste as good. She will let me know if not that's for sure....... Might have to grow penicillin on purpose from here on out if not..

 

[mongoose33]

I've got spigots on all my bigmouth bubbler fermenters. I always disassemble when cleaning, takes about 15 seconds to get it off the fermenter, then I clean it w/ a small brush, soak in PBW, rinse, soak in Star-San a bit, then back on. It probably takes, cumulatively, 5 minutes to do all this. In fact, when I store the fermenters I don't reinstall the valve until the day I use it, and I dunk that spigot in Star-San again, working the valve, before reinstalling it.

Seems to work.

 

[emcfarden]

Don't feel like you HAVE to sit on your money and go in for the best at first. Sure, if you're upgrading later on that's probably good practice, but if you get a decent starter kit to get your feet wet you'll use most of that equipment even when you start upgrading your system in the future. When you start making bigger purchases/upgrades (e.g. kettle, pumps, kegging stuff, etc.) then take your time, peruse HBT threads and weight your options.

That's what I like about brewing, its not like other hobbies (e.g. motorcycling, boating, etc.) where you have one big purchase and that's what you're stuck with. You can brew great beer with cheap equipment, and you can brew great beer with the most expensive equipment. Everything in between is just process, preference, and quantity related.

I get asked (by non-brewers) all the time if I save a ton of money on beer, and my answer is always no. If you factor in ingredients, equipment, energy (gas/electricity), and time you're probably not making it for much less than you can buy it in most cases.

You'll find many different opinions, processes and techniques unique to all homebrewers, which is why it's such an awesome hobby.

Enjoy it!

 

[Kharnynb]

Hundreds of batches now and not one infection not counting the penicil growth I had just recently after pitching some roasted coconut into secondary. Always store my buckets with enough starsan in them to keep the valves flooded. Nothing is going to grow in there.

Safe to say 10's of thousands of batches are fermented in valved buckets every year across the globe...Infections are an issue for any brewer regardless of process or equipment. I have an auto siphon as well and use it for wine and occasionally beer if need be.
Your beer is only as safe as your practices. You cant expect to treat a valved bucket the same as you would a non valved bucket. Take time to disassemble them after each use as much as you can, cleaning the threads and gaskets, stick a small brush inside and clean what you can, look in them and make sure nothing is fouling them, but IMO the most important is to keep them flooded in starsan. If your worried about etching the buckets doing that for prolonged periods then remove the valves and store them flooded in a separate container by themselves and install back in the buckets when your ready to ferment, bottle or whatever.

This topic comes up all the time and is like beating a dead horse, but to put a blanket statement to a new brewer that valves should be avoided for risk of infection is just plain wrong. Having a preference one way or the other is fine. But we should teach proper handling and usage of all brew gear and the merits of all.

All i did was state my opinion, that they are to me, more trouble than they solve. also, you cannot deny that it is one more thing that can go wrong, even if it hasn't for you.

even a slightly leaking one means it displaces air and adds oxygen to the beer.

 

[Vammy]

Aaaaand...back on topic

To the OP: I too wrestled with what to buy when I started. With some advice from my LHBS (shameless plug for High Gravity in Tulsa right here lol) I decided to go with a deluxe starter kit. Six gal bucket fermenter, bottling bucket, hand capper, hydrometer, auto-siphon, racking cane, all the stuff I needed except a kettle and bottles. Bought a Polarware 5 gal SST stock pot, an extract kit, 2 cases of bottles, and I want to say I was "all in" for right around $200.

I still use most of the stuff I bought that day; while I'm all-grain now, and looking to upgrade to 10 gal brew days, I still ocassionally do 5 gal extract/steeping grain brews on the stove, so all the stuff is used to this day.

Now, to be completely transparent: after a couple all extract brews, I got another fermentation bucket, then 3 6.5 gal glass carboys, I upgraded to a bench-mount capper, and started brewing for "the pipeline" . Then I got tired of bottling and started kegging...got a fridge capable of holding 3 cornie kegs, and so on....there can be a progression of gear!!

Have fun, relax, don't worry, and have a home brew!

 

[DrunkenCanuck]

Yeah, I just finished my first brew. $50 for ingredients, $50 for bottles and lever caps, $50 for a brewing pot on top of the starter kit I got for Christmas and I spent another $80 for a Coleman 5 gallon mashing tun.

 

[Tommydee]

Assuming you have little to no equipment, let me suggest this kit to you:

https://www.morebeer.com/products/premium-fermonster-homebrew-starter-kit.html

It comes with virtually everything you need to brew, including an extract kit for your first brew--so you don't even have to make the decision about ingredients, and can focus just on process. The only thing it really lacks is a burner such as a propane turkey burner (for outside), or possibly you could do it on your stove if it's stout enough.

Kristiismean above has it right: buy once. Don't go cheap just to find out you want to upgrade shortly thereafter. The kit above is really a great starting place, the kettle is good, the fermenter is good--it's what I wish I'd bought when I started.

+1. I don't have this kit, but wish I would have. Though I'd say a 10 gallon kettle is better than 8.5, as you can then move to all grain BIAB with a $35 bag and pH meter....but if you have a decent stove, and want to do 3-4 gallon BIAB, this would be perfect.

You are getting good advice. The equipment can be tempting, but resist, and spend the energy making the beer. The crazy fancy equipment really is an automation obsessionmany guys have, which is really cool for the engineer minds, but not necessary.

I'm only in my 4th month in the hobby, and already have dragged 2 lay down freezers in the basement from Craigslist , and am halfway down the keg/Keezer rabbit hole. maybe I need to follow my own advice.

 

[Lefou]

SWMBO says there's a hard limit on any new purchases. Yes dear. Absolutely, dear.

She's convinced the Mr. Beer kit is a disguised gateway to obsession and she feels guilty for humoring me over the last year or so.
I'm a seasonal brewer during the cooler months with limited space and means but it ain't gonna stop me. It's too much fun and the brewing/distilling bug is genetic. Piecing together my setup has been some of the best fun I've had since giving up my other life doing electronic systems configuration and fielding work for the Army. Brewing is simpler, less stressful, and who the hell cares about General Order #1 now, eh?

This weekend my ANVIL kettle came in and the 5gal. stainless stockpot will play support along with the Igloo mash tun and assorted carboys. This should keep me busy for another year until I can figure out the next "upgrade".