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Homebrewing

M

Mookow

Lifer
I've got a little over a grand coming back to me on my income taxt return, and I figure I can invest about $200-300 of it to get myself started in homebrewing. Is that budget feasible? How well can I set myself up with that?

Obviously, I need some good links to get background info, and recipes.
 
ACHILLEEEEEEEEEEEES!

whoops... I mean

HomeBrewerDUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUDE!!


heheh, get it? Troy? In the begining. 🙂
 
make a really good, delicious beer... and ill find a wherehouse next to the stone plant, and we'll work out a barter system with them.
 
vicarious shopping!


you can spend a lot less if you want, but if you are relatively sure you will like brewing (i.e., you have some friends that brew, or you really love beer, and have time for a hobby) then you can save some money in the long run by buying nicer stuff now.

Look in your yellow pages under beer, for a local homebrewing store.

Most large cities have at least 1. Buying local will let you customize your gift a bit, but might cost you more. However, you will have a place to go to for advice and returns if necessary.
Basic kit: around $70 or so, more if you upgrade the carboy.
any brew kit that has:
a 7 gal primary fermentation bucket (plastic), lid, air lock.
a bottling bucket (has a little spigot...should not be used as a primary fermentation bucket because the spigot may slowly leak)
a 5 gal glass carboy, with air lock and stopper
a 6 or 7 glass carboy, with air lock and stopper
hoses
brushes for cleaning
a quality book (Papazani has a good one, as does Palmer). don't buy homebrewing for idiots.
sanitizer
long handled, strong spoon (not wood).

Throw in a couple of beer kits (Kolsch, IPA, Porter, Stout are all easily doable for a newb). These run about 20-30$ and brew 5 gallons each and include extract, hops, yeast, and directions.

There are a few things that can really improve the experience of brewing. in the order of least to most expensive they are:

1. an autosiphon. only 10$ or so. great tool.
2. turkey fryer! (lowes has em for 30ish) they go on sale this time of year. (think they are about 30-50$)
--->lets you brew outside, avoiding nasty boil overs on the stove top
--->includes a 7 gal brew pot and nice thermometer
3. flip top bottles (avoid the hassle of capping) OR
4. mini draft system (little kegs that fit in the fridge and hold about 1.25 gallons) OR
5. a kegging system ($200), requires an extra fridge, but negates the cost and hassles of bottling.

there will be some things in the kit that you may NOT want such as regular bottles, caps, and a bottle capper. MAYBE you can trade up on these to flip tops.


http://www.midwestsupplies.com/
---> they have a decent kits


http://www.austinhomebrew.com/
----> decent kits, has one with a tapadraft minikeg system, and one with a kegging system


http://www.northernbrewer.com/starterkits.html
--->also has a kit with kegging eq included.
 
Originally posted by: Mookow
How big of a hassle is capping?
Click to expand...

i capped for 4-5 years. then I bought some flip tops....that saved me an hour/batch.


then I started kegging. that saved me 2 hours per batch.



The problem with capping is that it is monotonous, and can be messy.
 
Originally posted by: Mookow
I've got a little over a grand coming back to me on my income taxt return, and I figure I can invest about $200-300 of it to get myself started in homebrewing. Is that budget feasible? How well can I set myself up with that?

Obviously, I need some good links to get background info, and recipes.
Click to expand...

Nah, none uh dat fancy shmancy stuff fer meah! Jus' piss in a bottle, close er up, an' let it sit out fer a few weeks. That will get yuhs drunker than a horse sniffin mah sweet hearts undies out on duh line.
 
Originally posted by: HomeBrewerDude
Originally posted by: brtspears2
http://www.morebeer.com/product.html?product_id=15911

I used this kit when starting.
Click to expand...

personnally i would not get that kit because you can get the one below it, and go buy a turkey fryer which will come with an 7.5 gal pot. i love brewing in the garage, it gets teh neighbors curious and i dont' have to worry about messing up the wife's stove top.
Click to expand...

And that stuff will be VERY difficult to get off of a stove top after being on it for a hour with th eburner at HIGH. GOod thing I'm renting right now. 😛
 
Originally posted by: iamwiz82
Originally posted by: HomeBrewerDude
Originally posted by: brtspears2
http://www.morebeer.com/product.html?product_id=15911

I used this kit when starting.
Click to expand...

personnally i would not get that kit because you can get the one below it, and go buy a turkey fryer which will come with an 7.5 gal pot. i love brewing in the garage, it gets teh neighbors curious and i dont' have to worry about messing up the wife's stove top.
Click to expand...

And that stuff will be VERY difficult to get off of a stove top after being on it for a hour with th eburner at HIGH. GOod thing I'm renting right now. 😛
Click to expand...

ahhh, young grasshopper, leave a wet towel draped over the scorched crap over night and it will wipe up in the morning. (i think)
 
Originally posted by: iamwiz82
Originally posted by: HomeBrewerDude
personnally i would not get that kit because you can get the one below it, and go buy a turkey fryer which will come with an 7.5 gal pot. i love brewing in the garage, it gets teh neighbors curious and i dont' have to worry about messing up the wife's stove top.
Click to expand...
And that stuff will be VERY difficult to get off of a stove top after being on it for a hour with th eburner at HIGH. GOod thing I'm renting right now. 😛
Click to expand...

Not when you have ready access to naptha, toulene, and acetone at work... as long as they dont strip off the enamel/paint, you're good to go.
 
I find capping to be a real pain in the ass. If I had the money I would buy the flip top bottles. I have the hand held capper and it seems if I don't have it exactly over the bottle the cap goes on crooked and then the bottle will probably explode (cap pop off). On the other hand, if you like making beer and also want to make wine I would try the benchtop capper because you can use that for both wine and beer
 
Originally posted by: Mookow
TTT
Click to expand...

Here is my equipment, which is basic, but it gets the job done.

one 6 gallon bucket with lid set for an air lock
one 6 gallon bucket w/ spigot(makes bottling much easier, do it quietly, though)
4 feet of hose
one L-shaped hard plastic tube
one hose holder for the side of the bucket
two airlocks
two 6 gallon glass carboys
two rubber plugs with holes for airlocks
one auto-siphoner, though I prefer just filling the tube with water and starting it that way
one hydrometer
one floating thermometer
one 5 gallon stainless steel pot
one bottle capper

I think that is it.
 
background links...

the best on-line source is Palmers "How to Brew" http://www.howtobrew.com/intro.html Palmer really knows his stuff, and you can find a list of absolute essentials there.

ANY basic $70 kit will get you brewing. if you like it, then you will want to upgrade some equipment along the way.


IF you are really on a budget then you could get by with the following EQ:

fermentation vessel: 7 gallon (US) food grade plastic bucket with lid and airlock.

bottles and capper: recycled clean and sterlized bottles can be used. bottles with twist off caps work too, but you might get 1 or 2 bottles per batch that do not get a good seal.

Large pot: a 12 quart is really too small, but you could probably do it for one or two batches if you wanted to try brewing before you buy a kettle. However, I would recommend a 7-8 gallon pot of any metal, thicker guage metal is better. I use a 7.5 gallon enameled pot.

stir spoon: non-wood (harbors bacteria) spoon long enough for what ever pot you are using.

siphon hose: clear vinyl food/water grade hose. 3/8 OD, 1/4 ID is common.

Bottling bucket: 7 gal food grade bucket with a spigot placed 1 inch from bottom. Assuming you also had a lid and airlock, a bottling bucket could double as your fermentation vessel, though most people don't because 1) buckets are cheap and 2) the spigot my leak over the fermentation period.

Sanitizer: Bleach can be used, but must be rinsed thoroughly with hot water. There are no-rinse sanitizers that are easier but more expensive. Stan-San is a popular one. I use bleach.



What I have and what I paid for it... some stuff I dont' remember the cost:

brewing equip:
7.5 gal enamel pot, analoge thermo (clips to side of pot), outdoor propane burner (all came with turkey fryer from lowes for $20)
propane tank ($25)
grain bag/hop bag
big plastic spoon (2) ($10 each)

Fermentation equip:
plastic primary fermentation buckets with lids and airlocks(2)
auto-siphon ($10)
various hoses
Four 5-gallon glass carboys with air locks

Bottling equip:
Enough flip tops of various sizes (10 oz, 16 oz, and 1 liter) to bottle 10 gallons of brew
about a case of plain old beer bottles
a bottle capper

kegging Equip:
10 # co2 tank ($70)
dual guage regulator ($50)
3 way juntion to pressurize up to three kegs ($25)
10 kegs (5 gallon cornelius type) (9$ each)
about 6-7 various keg nozzles for dispensing (7$ each)
a large chest style freezer (got for free) with external thermostat override (50$)

total $$$ somewhere around $450 (kegging running up at least half of that) over a 10 year acquisition period.

 
What I am looking at for my initial purchase:
-The "Advanced" kit from midwestsupplies.
-A turkey fryer.
-Bottles, either caps or flip-tops, depending on cost. Purchased locally, as it seems that shipping is half of the cost of bottles. I am going to try to get enough to hold 10+ gallons.
-Autosiphon.
-recipe book


Am I missing anything if I purchase the above items? Other than the actual ingredients for a batch. Maybe my boss will loan me a 30# propane tank in return for some of the finished product. If not, I have a 20# tank. Also, I probably will get some regular cap bottles anyway to use for when I give people some of my brew... that way if they break or lose the bottles, I wont feel obligated to kill the people involved.

Homebrewerdude: do you have any recommendations for a first batch? As far as my personal taste goes, I am basically getting into this because I really like the "heavier" brews (heavy stouts and hoppy IPAs) but dont like paying $5+tax for a 22oz bottle. And I'd like to try some different stuff that I havent seen made commercially. But I dont want to try anything too out there until I know that I am making beer correctly. Then I might try to whip up a pineapple stout 😛

EDIT: in other news, I just counted them after buying another one today, and I have eleven 22oz bottles of Stone Imperial Russian Stout sitting in a box in a dark corner of my basement. I'm hoping they age well.
 
looks like you got it all covered. you may not need the recipe book, there are lots of recipes out there

realbeer.com forums
cats meow recipe database
google

as far as first batches go, plan on two or even three, because you will have the capacity to roll them out in parallel. Beer is impossible to screw up as long as you sanitize.

This midwest kit looks really good.

http://www.midwestsupplies.com/kits/amberale.asp#OCTANE IPA

Follow that up with a stout the following weekend.

<a target=_blank class=ftalternatingbarlinklarge href="http://
<b">imperial stout (looks like it fine reci...supplies.com/kits/darkale.asp#IMPERIAL]http://www.midwestsupplies.com/kits/darkale.asp#IMPERIAL[/L]

i think iamwiz82 might of just brewed up one of their other stout kits.


edit they have what looks like a nice deal on their bottles, though there will be shipping too. $1 for a liter bottle though qualifies as hotdeal.


 
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