YAHBT: New to homebrew, list of requried material.

[Turin39789]

I tried a Mr.Beer set, nearly drinkable.

I picked up a turkey fryer this year, and started to think about doing some homebrew all the way.
So I put the basics on my christmas list from a previous thread, some carboys, a new stockpot(is this necessary, I have a large aluminum one that came with the turkey fryer but was thinking about getting a separate steel pot(what size?)), the homebrewing book that everyone recommends etc.

Now it looks like some of my family might actually get what I asked for and there have been some discreet questions about what exactly I need.

On the pot issue, do I need a seperate pot? Should it be a gigantic one like my turkey pot?

Carboys - I got asked if plastic would work, will it or should I push for glass?

We don't have any real homebrew stores that I know of here in kentucky, but the big box liqour stores(Liqour World, believe its regional) have a homebrew section, but no one around to talk to.

Thanks for any advice. I'm hoping to get everything I don't have collected after christmas and start a batch before next semesters night classes get going.

 

[davestar]

Originally posted by: Turin39789
I tried a Mr.Beer set, nearly drinkable.

I picked up a turkey fryer this year, and started to think about doing some homebrew all the way.
So I put the basics on my christmas list from a previous thread, some carboys, a new stockpot(is this necessary, I have a large aluminum one that came with the turkey fryer but was thinking about getting a separate steel pot(what size?)), the homebrewing book that everyone recommends etc.

Now it looks like some of my family might actually get what I asked for and there have been some discreet questions about what exactly I need.

On the pot issue, do I need a seperate pot? Should it be a gigantic one like my turkey pot?

Carboys - I got asked if plastic would work, will it or should I push for glass?

We don't have any real homebrew stores that I know of here in kentucky, but the big box liqour stores(Liqour World, believe its regional) have a homebrew section, but no one around to talk to.

Thanks for any advice. I'm hoping to get everything I don't have collected after christmas and start a batch before next semesters night classes get going.

Assuming the you'll be doing 5 gallon batches, i'd get a 7+ gallon pot to do a full boil with room for boil-off. a turkey fryer is a great way to go, though.

Plastic will work, though some people believe that the scratches that can develop in a plastic container will harbor hard-to-get-rid-of bacteria

 

[Turin39789]

Originally posted by: davestar

Originally posted by: Turin39789
I tried a Mr.Beer set, nearly drinkable.

I picked up a turkey fryer this year, and started to think about doing some homebrew all the way.
So I put the basics on my christmas list from a previous thread, some carboys, a new stockpot(is this necessary, I have a large aluminum one that came with the turkey fryer but was thinking about getting a separate steel pot(what size?)), the homebrewing book that everyone recommends etc.

Now it looks like some of my family might actually get what I asked for and there have been some discreet questions about what exactly I need.

On the pot issue, do I need a seperate pot? Should it be a gigantic one like my turkey pot?

Carboys - I got asked if plastic would work, will it or should I push for glass?

We don't have any real homebrew stores that I know of here in kentucky, but the big box liqour stores(Liqour World, believe its regional) have a homebrew section, but no one around to talk to.

Thanks for any advice. I'm hoping to get everything I don't have collected after christmas and start a batch before next semesters night classes get going.

Assuming the you'll be doing 5 gallon batches, i'd get a 7+ gallon pot to do a full boil with room for boil-off. a turkey fryer is a great way to go, though.

Plastic will work, though some people believe that the scratches that can develop in a plastic container will harbor hard-to-get-rid-of bacteria

Thats what I was thinking, I think somewhere along the line there was a miscommunication or I was just wrong and I may be getting a 5 gallon pot, If so I'll just return and search out another pot or use the same pot for turkeys/crawfish and beer.

The glass seems more significant and more of an investment, but I don't know what the price difference is. I'm hoping to work out one good batch and after I confirm that it doesnt suck to keep making more batches and putting them up in the garage to set.

 

[iamwiz82]

Depending on the turkey fryer, you may not be able to boil a full 5 gallons. You get better results doing a full boil, but it's not 100% required. I have boiled only 1-2 gallons many, many times.

Here is what you need, at the least:

6gal glass carboy for secondary fermentation
rubber bung with airlock
6gal plastic bucket for primary fermentation
lid for bucket with hole for airlock
bucket with sipgot for bottling
bottler (or lots of Grolsch style bottles)
tubing
auto-syphon (highly recommended, don't want to infect your beer)
thermometer (make sure it's good, stick it in boiling water to confirm it is)
hydrometer
sanitizer (I use iodine)


I demote my plastic buckets to garage duty after a couple dozen batches. No need to take a chance since they are fairly cheap. Same goes with the tubing.

 

[Turin39789]

Originally posted by: iamwiz82
Depending on the turkey fryer, you may not be able to boil a full 5 gallons. You get better results doing a full boil, but it's not 100% required. I have boiled only 1-2 gallons many, many times.

Here is what you need, at the least:

6gal glass carboy for secondary fermentation
rubber bung with airlock
6gal plastic bucket for primary fermentation
lid for bucket with hole for airlock
bucket with sipgot for bottling
bottler (or lots of Grolsch style bottles)
tubing
auto-syphon (highly recommended, don't want to infect your beer)
thermometer (make sure it's good, stick it in boiling water to confirm it is)
hydrometer
sanitizer (I use iodine)


I demote my plastic buckets to garage duty after a couple dozen batches. No need to take a chance since they are fairly cheap. Same goes with the tubing.

It's an Eastman outdoors, and I believe its a 30qt 7.5 gallon aluminum pot.

I've got a decent thermometer that I picked up after I stepped on the one that came with the turkey fryer on the day I was supposed to do two birds. It seemed to work pretty good but I'll check it with some water.

 

[Tifababy]

The 7.5gal pot that came with the turkey fryer should work just fine (many people use it). My propane burner is a measly 55k BTU and I was able to bring almost 14gal of beer to a boil last weekend. I use glass carboys for everything (6.5gal for primary and 5gal for secondary), but plastic buckets are easier. Lots of people are starting to use "better buckets" which are plastic carboys because they are afraid of carboys breaking.

I've recently switched to all-grain brewing, but if you're doing extract brewing you can get a beginners kit for under $100 from any of the major online brewing shops. The best online shops are
http://austinhomebrew.com
http://midwestsupplies.com
http://northernbrewer.com
http://morebeer.com

I bought my first starter kit from morebeer.com because they had free shipping, but you can get similar kits at any of the shops. The only thing you'll need outside of the kits is a boil kettle and you already have that from your turkey fryer. Obviously, you'll also need ingredients too.

 

[davestar]

Originally posted by: Turin39789

The glass seems more significant and more of an investment, but I don't know what the price difference is. I'm hoping to work out one good batch and after I confirm that it doesnt suck to keep making more batches and putting them up in the garage to set.

A glass carboy at my local store is $15-20. A plastic food-grade pail is probably $8-12.

 

[Jeraden]

I remember reading that you shouldn't use an aluminum stock pot for some reason. I don't remember why, but I know they say you want steel.

If you have a GFS marketplace in your city, they sell a VERY heavy-duty steel stockpot for a good price (I think 5 or 6 gallon for $40 or something). I previously had one I bought online that was extremely thin gauge steel and could hardly maintain a boil since it wouldn't retain heat very well.

If you have a beer supply store in town, or even online, just get a brewing kit and it should come with everything you need already. Couple that with an ingredient kit, and you are all set, just need to get empty bottles. I just drank lots of beer while I was waiting for my first batch to finish fermenting.
(although it sucks when you buy a case of beer and realize they have friggin twist-top bottles that you can't use for bottling).

 

[jonny13]

I just started brewing about 6 weeks ago and bought a starter kit of $109 from midwestsupplies.com. Aside from the start kit, I bought a thermometer which can clip to the side of your brew pot ($10), sanitizer and b-brite for cleaning, and a second 5 gallon glass carboy ($18). I just brewed my 4th batch last night and bottled my second batch. Also, I only have a 4-5 gallon pot since for extract kits, you are really only brewing 2.5-3 gallons and pouring that into 3.5-4 gallons of water.

 

[Turin39789]

Well Christmas was mostly a wash, the only thing I got homebrew related was the joy of homebrewing.


I think I'd like to do all grain brewing, but I think it might be foolish to start there.



Also just found that there is a semi-local supply store, they offer two kits, a one stage for extract brewing or a two stage kit. Do these seem like decent deals for what they contain?


http://www.winebeersupply.com/shop.php?id=54