Best Homebrew Equipment Set for a Starter

I’ve had great luck with the Brew in a Bag method. I have an 8 gallon boil kettle which I wish I bought the 10 gallon instead. I use that with a burner hooked up to a propane tank and then cool it with a wort chiller and ferment it in the catalyst fermenter all of this probably cost me less than $500 and the one good thing is I can always use the boil kettle I have and add onto my system if I want to move past the BIAB method , I can’t speak as to what is involved when brewing largers tho ... good luck

 

Do you have a good local homebrew store (LHBS) near you? If so, I would recommend you visit that store and purchase your equipment there. Establish a relationship with the folks working at the store so you can consult with them when you have questions on your first batch (and beyond). The store owner/employees have a strong vested interest in having your first batch (and following batches) turn out well so you will stay with the hobby (and hopefully buy more homebrewing ingredients).

I personally do not have experience with the TrueBrew Homebrewing Starter Kit but starter kits typically come with a fermenter, bottling bucket, airlock, bottle filler, racking equipment, bottle capper,…

The other item you will need is a brew kettle, typically stainless steel and you can choose how big you want to get. You will also need to be able to cool down your wort which can be easily accomplished via an ice bath if you choose to brew your first batch on the smaller side and augment with water.

You should read a good homebrew book (e.g., How to Brew by John Palmer) prior to purchasing your starter kit since this may influence your initial purchase.

You asked a few questions:

“I am primarily interested in brewing British-style ales and lagers, especially because these styles aren't easily accessible in my area. Would my choice of equipment depend on these preferences?”

British style ales are pretty straightforward (my first batch was an English Bitter Ale back in the 1990’s). Producing a lager requires additional equipment and steps due to the lagering phase. I would recommend that you start with ales and at a later date decide if you want to try your hand at lagers (and purchase additional equipment then).

“I'm not sure if the TrueBrew starter kit has the right kind of components to allow me to a do a temperature-controlled fermentation.”

No, a starter kit will be pretty basic with no equipment for temperature control. A cheaper/simpler way to manage heat is via evaporative cooling (i.e., placing the fermenter in a pan of water and wrap a T-shirt or towel around the fermenter and dipping into the pan’s water) and this will cool things down a few degrees. A more thorough way to manage heat is via a refrigerator with an external temperature controller. When you decide to produce lagers you will need to cool down much colder (e.g., less than 40 degrees F) so something like a chest freezer with an external temperature controller is needed here.

To summarize:

1. Buy a good homebrewing book (and read cover to cover)

2. If you have a good LHBS buy your starter kit there and ingredients for your first batch (e.g., English Bitter Ale)

3. Wait until you have brewed a few ales before deciding to go the lager route

Welcome to the great hobby of homebrewing. I have been homebrewing over 25 years and my next batch will be batch number 472. You too can do it!

Cheers!

 

What part of Tennessee are you in? If you’d like to lager you’ll definitely need to be able to lower your temp. I started out with a Anvil 6.5 system and quickly realized I wish I had started out with the 10.5 gallon system as I wanted to do bigger beers without using extract if I could. Although I just did a stout and had to use it anyway to get the ABV ridiculously high. Welcome

 

Does your "10 gallon" refer to batch size or equipment size? A single 10 gallon batch will ideally need a 15 gallon brew kettle, a 14 - 15 gallon fermentor (or multiple smaller fermentors).

In retrospect if I could do it again, I would have bought a 15 gallon kettle even for 5 gallon batches, with the thought that I might eventually do larger batches. I would also have built a mash tun larger than my current 10 gallon......it's tight trying to stuff it with grains for a really high gravity brew.

 

As @riptorn discussed above could you clarify what is meant by "10 gallon" system. You will need a high BTU burner to boil your wort. Also a wort chiller (either immersion type or a plate chiller).

And if you are going to jump in right away with all grain you will need to conduct a mash/lauter.

And you will learn after reading the book a number of other items.

This will add up to several hundreds of dollars but that is the cost of brewing via a full boil and all grain.

You could brew your first batch more economically via extract and partial boil but you seem disinterested in that.

Cheers!

 

Not 'special' but you need a burner with lots of BTUs to boil the 12 gallons (or so) of wort to result in 10 gallons after a one hour boil. Simply a matter of money. And to re-enforce what I posted above you will need a chiller to bring that wort from boiling temperature down to pitching temperature (e.g., mid-60s for ales and lower 50's for lagers). Again, a matter of money.

You will also need a larger fermenter for fermenting 10-gallon batch. The fermenter that comes with the kit in the OP won't be big enough. Again, a matter of money.

If that is what you want that is your choice. Again, a matter of money.

An alternative approach is to brew your first few batches on a smaller scale to get the basics/fundamentals down pat and then grow as your experience grows but it sounds to me you want to go BIG right away which is your choice (if you have the capital available day 1).

Best of luck here!

Cheers!

P.S. Another topic which has not been discussed yet is how do you intend to package the 10 gallons of beer when it is done. Bottling will require about 100 bottles. Or you will need two 5-gallon kegs and the means to serve draft beer.

You will learn more after reading the book.

 

In addition to what @JackHorzempa has stated about 10 gallon batches, recognize that 5 gallons is about the largest amount of beer you can maneuver without pumps, gravity and other special equipment.

When dealing with 10 gallons of boiling sugar water for example, you need to have a plan.
5 gallons of boiling wort is no walk in the park, but with good pot holders, back strength and patience you can deal.

Same for storing it all. How is home life? Because you are going to need to claim a fair amount of real estate for all that 10 gallon equipment. Like park your car outside because you need the garage sort of space.

5 gallons is the US standard homebrew size. Most all recipes are provided in 5 gallon size, everything is and has been 5 gallons for a while because it works pretty well.

Cheers

 

@billandsuz that makes sense. How much space with a 5-gallon set take? I'm scoping out an extra slot in our garage I could use.[/QUOTE]

Well, 5 gallons. The kettle is a big lobster pot, probably bigger than anything you have. And it should be 6.5 gallons to hold 5 with a boil and boil off. The kettle is bigger than you might expect but not giant. A 15 gallon kettle is as big as a half bbl, a standard keg of beer.

You can put a fair amount of equipment inside too, so you store the pot with a lid and everything that will fit goes inside. You'll also have a mash tun, like an Igloo cooler, and that too will hold some stuff.

I store ingredient in a 5 gallon bucket with a screw top lid. A few actually. Rodent proof, these are made specifically for food storage. Or you can use a clean Homer bucket with a lid.
It is useful to have everything you need right in the same space because you don't want to be running around getting stuff while your wort is boiling, or you are bottling etc.

Cheers

 

i did start with a true brew kit. My better half got it for me years ago and i still use the bottleling bucket. everything else i broke or wore out.
alot of good advise already has been given.
for me.
10 gal stainless kettle with a valve/spikot
propain burner
mash tun or BIAB, i use a tun
metal containers for grain storage. if this home brewing becomes a problem, like it is fer me, you will have either multipal trash cans for grains or a tool locker. got the tool locker at a yard sale cheap. after a while, still was not big enough so here come the cans.
I like buckets so get one extra, same goes for air locks, bungs, racking wands, and hydrometers.
yep, i have lost or broken them all.
get a decent scale to measure sugar at first, if you go to all grain brewing you have the scale.
get books and ask questions here and or other places, people. for the most part, home brewers dont mind sharing info.
have fun

 

If you go with your decision to brew 10-gallon batches, then your need for a fermentation chamber just became more difficult to provide. Moving that much liquid was mentioned above as needing pumps, etc. to move beer, so you'll have to deal with that.

I only need a fermentation chamber when brewing a lager because I have a cool basement for fermenting ales. A 5-gallon carboy or plastic bucket fits well into my beer fridge, and I don't mind setting the temp to 50 degrees (fermentation) or 32 degrees (lagering) for 4-6 weeks. It sounds like your climate may require you to use some sort of temp control for your ales, so consider 5-gallon (or less) batches. You'll be able to brew more styles more often and drink your beer without it getting old and having to dump it.

I'm not saying it will happen to you, but new brewers frequently have bad batches until you get your procedures dialed in, so it's less expensive to dump smaller batches. But heed advice from this forum and you should grow into this hobby very well.

 

But the hat is a dandy

 

To stretch your budget furthest, and wind up with equipment that you retain indefinitely, a look on craigslist is probably the best source. You would benefit from having an experienced home brewer help you out. Maybe start hanging out at the home-brew shop?

 

Just getting back from visiting my parents outside Nashville. Picked up some great German Pils at Smith & Lentz on the way to their house.

After 10 years of using a cooler for a mash/lauter tun and mostly boiling in an 8 gallon pot on my stovetop I switched to the 10.5 gallon Anvil Foundry and I wish I had that thing from day one. It is $370 without the pump (which you could add on later for $100). It comes with an immersion chiller. I brew 5 gallon batches of mostly very traditional lagers and English styles. I love the ease of use, compact size, and especially the accuracy of mash temps. I do no-sparge step mashes and decoctions for all my lagers and it has made my brewing so much easier. At least 5 guys in my homebrew club have switched to the Foundry and love it.

And then you need a chest freezer or dorm fridge with a temp controller (doesn't have to be the most expensive one and since you are in Tennessee you should only need to make the beer colder and not have to worry about making it warmer!). I am a fan of open fermentation for both lagers and English styles. A plastic bucket with a loose lid is a more than adequate fermentation vessel for traditional lagers and English styles. Then bottle that beer and lager it in the bottle.

Eventually you will add things like kegs or a grain mill but you can do without either of those or plenty of other things. Just pay attention to sanitation and temperatures (and please dear god if nothing else de-chlorinate your water with half a campden tablet) and you'll be hooked.

And join a homebrew club. My local homebrew store sucks but all the local homebrew clubs are great.

 

Are you powering this with 120V or 240V? If 120V, how long does it take to heat up (both for mash temperature(s) and boiling)?

Cheers!

 

But wait, there's more! Did I mention that the Foundry let's you run on 120 or 240? Thanks for the reminder Jack.

I am currently doing 120 and it could be faster, but as someone who does double decoctions, I'm clearly not in a hurry! It's a hobby and I enjoy the process. As I like to joke, brewing a lager is like sex--if you think the point is to get it over with as quickly as possible, you aren't doing it right!

You are able to add the water the night before and set a timer and have it ready to mash in when you wake up. That is a time saver. So many reasons that the Foundry is great for beginners and very advanced brewers alike.

 

That is a nice feature.

Running on 240V is 'better' in order to shorten heating times but for most folks that would require some electrical changes to the house which is best left to a licensed electrician.

FWIW I am a natural gas man!

Cheers!