Best starter kit?

I always liked the people at

They have great equipment, great ingredients and great people. I am a long time customer and have had nothing but good experiences with them. They put out a great catalogue also that is fun to drool over. They don't just sell the stuff they are committed to advancing the art of home brewing. Check out their beginners kit with the video.

Doug

On Thu, 03 Mar 2005 01:40:01 GMT, "BCC" said in alt.beer.home-brewing:

Depends on where you live. Starting by visiting the nearest homebrew shop is always good.

Starter kit (from a local shop or by mail order from the web):

6 to 6-1/2 gallon plastic bucket fermenter with airlock 1 quart mason jar 8 gallon stainless steel (or aluminum, if you must) pot (a turkey fryer is an economical way of getting this) Chiller (basically, 25 feet of copper tubing and fittings) Bottles (visit your local beer distributor, if you have deposit laws - you might be able to get empties for the deposit price. You don't want screw-tops.) Bottle capper Crown caps Assorted tubing, racking cane Hydrometer and wine thief Wire whisk - around 12" to 16" Thermometer that goes from 65 degrees F to 212 degrees F (or equivalent in C)

You can probably get all this (or most of it) in a kit for less than buying the items individually.

You'll also need dry malt extract, hops and yeast for whatever style beer you're brewing and at least 1 hop bag.

(I hope I haven't left anything out.)

I recommend you do some research and find an extract recipe you want to brew (unless you can mash, then partial or all-grain will do). Most likely an ale, unless you can lager at temps in the 30s. Then just buy the ingredients from your local homebrew supplier or order online. Personally I order from Austin Homebrew Supply online and I can order the amounts of each according to my recipe or pretty close to it. That way it will be YOUR beer and not a kit. It is just as easy as a kit, but you are the BrewMaster. Just my two non-cents worth.

I've had good luck with Listermann's website store.

There aren't any local suppliers in my area of south-central Washington state, as far as I can tell, so I went right to the internet. That's strange, actually, since this is a major hop-growing area!

Karl S.

If you are a total newbie to the brewing game, I would reccommend taking baby steps first. A basic home wine making kit will give you all the equipment you need to get a batch going (as described by Al in his posting). Spagnols, the wine people, have the Brewhouse line of home beer kits that make a very good "quick and easy" first attempt. You just add water to the contents of the bag-in-box in the primary fermenter and add yeast. Given some age this makes a very respectable first attempt for the amount of effort involved. If you want to try extracts or canned extracts with dextrose, make sure you get a good quality yeast and watch your temperatures. The down side of kits is that it makes you lazy and you don't learn very much about the brewing process. But it also prevents you from spending too much on equipment before you know what you're doing. To jump right into malts and the mashing process and then start boiling worts, can be a daunting task for a newbie. If you're trying to make a clone of a commercial beer you enjoy, then the Brew house kits are a safe way to go. If you are happy with that one, then you're on your way to the more difficult brews. (I still occassionally use a Brew House kit to quickly fill in the gaps between brews).

Welcome fellow "Newbie". Here are some sites to check on. These are ones that I have found to be helpful. However, I'm positive that there are many others.

a real man never scoffs at a homebrew no matter how humble it's origins might be. whether it be from a "Beer Machine" or a hand-crafted glass and steel brewing masterpiece. homebrewing helps to make a person whole.

if you don't have a good local homebrew store, the world is filled with them and many can be found on the internet. Williams Brewing and Northern Brewer are two with very good service. they've each got proper starter kits with good value for money. you can always upgrade pieces later, you'll always have use for the pieces you buy now.

this picture shows the basic bits and pieces you need;

just add a big pot for boiling water and some empty bottles.

the one piece i'd urge you to include is a glass fermenter. a food-grade plastic bucket serves the same purpose and millions of batches of great beer have started in one. but there's nothing like being able to see the wort start to roll and bubble and foam. even though i understand the chemical and biologic processes at a very low level, it's like magic every time.

so pick up a cheap kit (with a glass fermenter of course), ingredients of a simple ale, and make a hell of a mess in your kitchen. we're all here to help - just get your first batch going! happy trails, dan