Vague question about equipment

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Oahu

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Just ordered my equipment kit and extract kit:

My recently ordered items are below, my questions are:
1) Besides a long handled spoon and bottles what else will I need to buy?
2) I plan on ripping the package open and smacking the pack as soon as it gets here, then going right into Sanitization. What else can I do to speed up the brewing process? I know the pac takes a few days to get going.
3) Any general advice from those wiser (that means everyone here lol) than I would be appreciated.


I got:
(Sorry for caps: Cut and pasted of course)
* INSTRUCTIONAL HOMEBREWING VIDEO
* 71 PAGE INSTRUCTIONAL BOOK.
* 5 GALLON GLASS CARBOY
* 6.5 GALLON PLASTIC FERMENTER
* 6.5 GALLON BOTTLING BUCKET AND SPIGOT
* 8 OUNCES OF ONE STEP CLEANER
* RUBBER STOPPER
* AIRLOCK (KEEPS AIR OF THE FERMENTER)
* HYDROMETER (DETERMINES ALCOHOL CONTENT)
* BOTTLE BRUSH
* CARBOY BRUSH
* TWIN LEVEL RED BARON BOTTLE CAPPER
* BOTTLE CAPS
* LIQUID CRYSTAL THERMOMETER
* BOTTLE FILLER
* RACKING TUBE WITH BUCKET CLIP
* SIPHON TUBING
and a five gallon boiling pot in SS with Lid.

The kit itself consists of:
6 pounds of Wheat malt extract
1 pound of light DME
1/2 lb. Carapils malt
1 oz. Tettnanger bittering hops
yeast: Weihenstephan Wheat Activator WYeast
priming sugar
a muslin bag
 
I only see one rubber stopper listed...probably the carboy and fermenter lids use different size stoppers, and you'll want extra stoppers and airlocks anyway in case you lose/break something...numerous threads here on that.

I'd also add an autosiphon or carboy cap...more discussion of that here
 
Any general advice from those wiser

i don't presume to be wiser but here are a few pointers:

above a lot of other advice i could give - i think the one thing that made brew sessions change from something i disliked or found tedious (mostly becasue of lack of knowledge and preparing) to something that i find to be easy and natural as the sun rising is

PREPARE! smack the pack the night before you plan on brewing. let it swell overnite. i do most of my sessions in the early morning on the weekend. peaceful relaxing...plenty of time to do a brew.

LAY everything out in it's recipe order to make sure you understand the succession of events as you will progress through in your brew session. with ingredients such as multiple hop varities that go in at a certain time of the boil - mark on the packaging 60 m or 20 m or 1 m to cue you where to add these ingredients.

READ - yes read (yea i know - real men don't need no stinkin instructions) the instructions that come with your kit. read how to brew by john palmer. ok maybe a few chapters between now and when your gear arrives.

RELAX!

BREATHE!

HAVE FUN!

everyone else will fill you in on sanitization (VERY IMPORTANT) and the rest - but being prepared i think is the best advice i can give anyone doing their first brew session.
 
i think you'll figure out what you'll need, or should i say WANT, after your first brew session. looks like you have what you need for your inaugural brew....your first will have mishaps and it will not be perfect. that's expected, so don't sweat it and drink some good micro while you brew (since you don't have a supply of homebrew to toast to Saint Arnold ((Patron Saint of Brewers)) while you brew, which is very important!). you learn and get more efficient with every batch of brew. you'll get a system down and start learning what you can do to improve both the beer and the brewing experience.
i second what brewhead mentioned. get organized and make sure all your equipment is there before brew day, and take your time, don't be rushed, and have fun. oh yea, try not to have a crowd bird-dogging you for the first brew day. you'll get distracted, forget some hops, have a boil over, forget to add yeast, etc. yes, it's happend.....and we have proof! :~) just my $0.02.......
ENJOY!
 
El Pistolero said:
I only see one rubber stopper listed...probably the carboy and fermenter lids use different size stoppers, and you'll want extra stoppers and airlocks anyway in case you lose/break something...numerous threads here on that.

I'd also add an autosiphon or carboy cap...more discussion of that here

The rubber stopper is almost certainly for the carboy. The lids on the plastic buckets don't use stoppers but grommets. So only listing one stopper isn't disturbing, but to me, expected.

What's more concerning to me is that it only mentions one airlock. That means you have to share it between both primary and secondary. In other words, you can't have one brew aging while the other is fermenting. Why would a kit with a secondary stage only include one airlock? That's just not classy.
 
bikebryan said:
The rubber stopper is almost certainly for the carboy. The lids on the plastic buckets don't use stoppers but grommets. So only listing one stopper isn't disturbing, but to me, expected.

What's more concerning to me is that it only mentions one airlock. That means you have to share it between both primary and secondary. In other words, you can't have one brew aging while the other is fermenting. Why would a kit with a secondary stage only include one airlock? That's just not classy.
Well, my plastic bucket lid came with a (smaller) stopper, not a grommet. But they did only give me one airlock. Not only that, but when I went back to get another, they tried to talk me into sticking with the one. I bought three...just for spite :D
 
my old primary had a hole for a stopper too. no grommet.

El, what shop in H-town told you that crap? Better not have ben DeFalco's????????
 
Well, I really hate to say it cuz that person just could possibly browse here I guess...but, yeah. :confused:
 
well, the only thing i can figure is they are just trying to be frugal? that's why they asked me if those 25 air/ferm locks were mine!?!?!?!?!
i was in your neck of the woods this morning. cruisin' down the beltway to just past 290.......had to fight the urge to pit stop at DeFalco's....must......buy........beer ......stufff.......must....fight........temptation......
 
Yeah, I think he was just trying to save me some money...it was before he saw my shopping list. :)
 
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