I need some assistance in knowing what equipment exactly I need to purchase in order to brew beer at home. I currently make wine, and have the following... a hydrometer, 2 glass carboys, a primary fermenter (plastic - food grade), tubing, siphoning equipment, airlocks, spoons, brushes... what else do I need to get started? I seem to be getting conflicting answers from individuals in brew clubs, and on the Internet.
Are you going to brew from kits? If so, it sounds to me like you have everything you need except kegs, a tap and gas (or bottles if you must).
Personally I don't use an airlock or lid on my fermenter. Just another thing to go wrong. I have made many batches of beer by using the o ring from the fermenter lid to hold a piece of clear plastic wrap in place of the lid and airlock. Put a small pin hole in the wrap to vent CO2 and you have an (almost) airtight seal that you can see through. "Is my beer nearly done?" Let's have a look. Airlock doesn't bubble? Don't care. Wash and sterilise the lid? Ha!
Phil
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24 beers in a carton. 24 hours in a day. Hmmmm.......I would say that you are pretty much there. A large "stock" pot to cook things up, bottles, caps, and a capper amd you should be well on your way. Cheers,
Michael Herrenbruck Drag> I need some assistance in knowing what equipment exactly I need to purchase
Assuming you are using kits:
What everyone else has said plus:
A thermometer. You need to know the temp and when to pitch the yeast. Also some stick on thermometers on the primary and the carboy to ensure you stay in the optimum range for what you are brewing.
What is your water source? An easy way is to get a 25L bottle of water from the grocery store. Most are filtered and free of nasty bacteria. This means you don't have to boil or filter the whole thing.
As for the stock pot just use a large pot. Match your kit with at least 2-3 times water. Thus you will need about 8-10 L pot. Or split it up between 2 pots. Much more tricky to watch the temp though. When the heating is finished mix the remaining bottled water and the wort concentrate into the carboy. This will speed up the cooling process. But pour things slowly to minimize mixing in air. Lots of nasty things floating around in air.
*** Don't let the concentrate boil. It will caramalize the sugar ruining your brew and froth up over your pot and all over your stove top before you can even reach out. And you definately don't want boiling liquified sugar on you hands
Apart from a thermometer, you have more than the bare basics to brew from kits. With the carboys, you have the option of transferring to secondary. I started beer the way you are intending with using my wine stuff. I use bottles with natural carbonation.
What I found handy when doing beer kits is to have a 10 litre stainless saucepan (or similar) and dissolve the kit and suger in it on the stove. Much easier than dumping the stuff in your bucket and trying to dissolve it all.
Pay attention to the temperature, particularly if you a doing lager and want it to turn out somewhere near it's best. An old freezer on a decent thermostat is very habdy for this especially if you live in a warm climate.
A word of warning. You will find that, after drinking a couple of homebrew batches, bought beer will taste foul in comparison!! Oh, and patience is the hardest thing to learn. Like your wine, the beer will improve considerably with age.
Mike Mike
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