After years of saying I'll do it, I've finally decided I'm going to buy myself a beer brewing kit. I love craft beer, love hosting tasting events, and love going to breweries. I love DIPAs, IPAs, Browns, Reds, Porters, and Stouts. I'm not a lager or pils kind of guy. I'm looking to spend between $80-160 on the kit, and need help narrowing down my choices. I'd like the kit to include everything I need, but would also love to hear what else I'm going to need that the kit doesn't include (for instance, if the kit doesn't come with a thermometer, should I buy one?) Glass or plastic carboy? Here are the kits I'm looking at Northwest $150 http://www.northernbrewer.com/shop/...-starter-kits/deluxe-brewing-starter-kit.html Midwest $90 http://www.midwestsupplies.com/brewing-starter-kit-1.html Austin $139 http://www.austinhomebrew.com/product_info.php?cPath=178_33_52&products_id=12921
Couldn't find an edit button, but just wanted to add that I'll be brewing and storing everything inside a 2 bedroom apartment!
If it were me, I would buy a basic kit with a fermenting bucket and bottling bucket. I feel that a secondary fermentor is pretty useless. http://www.love2brew.com/Basic-Beer-Making-Kit-p/bek001.htm This kit with a thermometer (digital) and a 30 quart pot would be ideal to start. That way you have room in your budget for an ingredient kit.
So yeah, this is kinda ridiculous, but I still haven't purchased a kit, and I haven't looked into them for a long time. Been involved with a bunch of other products, but still drinking plenty of beer, and still really wanting to start brewing. As far as getting a kit goes, my budget is now $200ish. Should I get a kit from somewhere online like midwest/northwest, or should I take all of my money to my local homebrew store? This is the pricelist for items at my local homebrew store, any chance some of you could take a look and give me your opinion on all this? http://www.bencomoshomebrewsupply.com/conc/index.php?cID=1 edit- I'd really love to eventually brew IPA's, Saisons, Porters, Stours, Sours, and the like. I'm pretty unfamiliar with the whole process, other than helping out once at a friends house 3 years ago. Reading the howtobrew.com book right now.
Are you still in a 2-bedroom apartment? If so, then presumably you'll be brewing in your kitchen, so do you have a gas or electric stove? Whichever type of stove that you have, I think you'll be restricted to batches less than 5 gallons because of the difficulty of attaining a good boil of a large amount of liquid on a kitchen stove. (Electric stoves are usually not a good heat source.) You can boil two small batches, but that begins to be a cumbersome process. That boil limitation could determine some of the equipment that you should purchase. The kits in the link of your LHBS include a book and the ingredients for your first beer, but if either of those aren't something that you want, then I suggest that you look at pricing things on an ala' carte basis. Have you decided if the book is a good one, and will the beer kit brew a recipe that you want to make? If you are still on a budget, have you looked at Craig's List to see on the outside chance that used equipment may be available? There are options that can get you started brewing, but it will be helpful to know more about your situation to be able to give you guidance within your budget.
Yeah, still in the apartment, will be brewing in the kitchen. Stove is an electric 4 burner. I might consider doing ala carte. I just need to know all of the materials that I need, which I'm sure the kind folks at the homebrew supply store would be able to help me out as well. Multiple opinions is always preferred though This is something I want to be serious about, so an initial budget doesn't mean I'm opposed to upgrading/adding things in the near future (like a keg?). But yeah, $200 to start. I'd prefer to buy new, just a weird preference thing lol.
The starter kits in your LHBS link have a lot of what you need, so use those lists as a start. This link to a similar thread has a lot of good discussion that will add more. There are other previous threads that may also be helpful if you search for them. http://www.beeradvocate.com/community/threads/good-starter-equipment-around-150-dollars.213758/
Basic equipment bill for 2.5G all-grain stove-top brewing for under 200 bills. Mash-Lauter tun - $40 Igloo 5-Gal MaxCold Beverage Cooler, Ice Blue Cooler-to-MLT conversion - $15 Tramontina 18/10 Stainless Steel 22-Quart Covered Stockpot - $60 (lifetime warranty) Stainless steel immersion chiller - $50 MrBeer fermentor - $10 (Craigslist: fermentor + 8 1-L PET bottles + caps as low as $5) Fermentation chamber - $19 Igloo 48-Quart Breeze Ice Chest Total - $194 You'll need to come up with a few extra bucks for sanitizer, hydrometer, thermometer, analog scale, and blue painter's tape. Shave $55 if you use malt extract (no MLT)
I tried my first batch on an electric stove. Took forever to get a boil with 6.5 gal. I have since bought a burner and wow what a difference. You will get tons of advice from people here as far as what to buy next. This hobby can get expensive. I have brewed 3 batches so far and the burner would go to the top of my must-have list. However if you have plenty of time and not so much money, you can do just fine on the electric stove and spend your money elsewhere. I also bought an 8 gal tallboy pot. Probably not in your budget now. Not really a necessity either. But when you get one, go for 10 gal so you can do full wort boils. That is one thing I wish I could do differently.
Not sure it would have saved much time with our stove. Half? I thought full volume boils helped with flavor and hop utilization. Just a noob here. I read that it Palmer's book I think.
Full volumes are more better than a diluted half-volume post-boil; however ... it's not written in stone how large that full-boil volume must be. If you're stove is under-powered ... then make your batch size 2.5G.
I just bought a Brewer's Best deluxe kit, it has a 6 ga glass carboy, a fermenting bucket, bottling bucket and everything else you need to get started, thief, beaker, thermometer, hydrometer, cleaning brushes, etc. Set me back $120, but worth it, I can space out by brews and have two at a time during different stages.
