What should i buy tomorrow?Additions for a new brewer.

[Addicted]

I just started my first brew Monday,and i need some new stuff to do a few more brews while my first is fermenting.I want to use glass carboys for all my fermenting from now on,whether or not i stick with fermenting in one vessel or decide to do a secondary.Not sure which way i want to go yet.

I'm going to a Home brew store tomorrow and plan to spend a fair amount of money on carboys,extract kits and anything else that i see i like.So can i ferment five gallons of beer in a 6.5 gallon carboy or is that too much head space?Should i buy a few different sizes?

Is there anything else i should buy while I'm there?I'm in the buying mood.

 

[Grizzlybrew]

I love 6.5 gal carboys for fermenting - you don't have to worry about blow-off tubes, the headspace is actually good for primary fermentation - primary fermentation will produce a thick blanket of CO2 to protect the beer. I would also get some 5 gal to secondary in.

If you really want to spend some money and up the fun factor - get set up for all grain!

 

[Addicted]

I love 6.5 gal carboys for fermenting - you don't have to worry about blow-off tubes, the headspace is actually good for primary fermentation - primary fermentation will produce a thick blanket of CO2 to protect the beer. I would also get some 5 gal to secondary in.

If you really want to spend some money and up the fun factor - get set up for all grain!

Ok,i already have a 5 gallon carboy that came with my kit.So I'm going to buy two 6.5 gallon and one 5 gallon carboy.

All grain is on the way,i have a keggle now that is going to be the start.It's going to be an electric boil kettle very soon.

 

[Photopilot]

I have 5 carboys, but think the better bottles would be a good option also. Off the top of my head, key items for a new brewer.

bottle blaster(water thing attaches to the sink)
Bottling wand
Wine thief
auto siphon

I would consider a keg before I would go all grain. While its nice to have bottles of beer, kegging makes the whole process so much easier.

 

[Addicted]

When i bought my starter kit i made sure Midwest sent me two kegs also,i did not want to spend all that time washing and filling bottles.Sounds like a pain to me.

 

[david_42]

Good move. I started with 5L kegs, then switched to cornies. Once in a while I bottle a few, but not often. I don't even bottle wines and meads.