I know there are some cheaper kits out there, but I'm looking for the best bang for my buck. I'm looking into creating my own IPA and Imperial IPA recipes. Not necessarily looking to make clones, but if you think I should I start with that, I would. So what are some reasonably priced starting kits that will allow me to make my own beers?
http://www.midwestsupplies.com/brewing-starter-kit-1.html (*my personal favorite is just a single 6.5 gallon bucket for bottling and one 6.5 gallon carboy for primary and one 5 gallon carboy for secondary, I have no idea why all the kits provide a second bucket for primary instead of a carboy) I would start with that, add a 5-10 gallon brew kettle (I'd go stainless, but others have used aluminum, be wary of scorching) I like this kit because of the clear carboy you can use for secondary. While you don't technically need a secondary, starting out it'll help clear your beers. For IPAs particularly since so much depends on sugar conversion, extract is a good place to start before jumping into all-grain as you'll get your gravity/bitterness ratio down. You will probably also start with an ice bath of your kettle in the kitchen sink or bathtub to start. When you have brewing with extract down, step it up and go all-grain with a 10-gallon cooler conversion and add an immersion chiller (or counterflow chiller) IMO best bang/buck.
Welcome to this crazy hobby, but welcome also to a lot of fun. Your question is a frequent one here, and there are many opinions in response to your question. Here are some: http://www.beeradvocate.com/community/search/30874020/?q=equipment&o=date&c[title_only]=1&c[node]=8
here's your best, cheapest, route. you're going all-grain. buy a 7 gallon stainless steel pot(50 bucks), a 5 gallon igloo cooler(30bucks), and then go buy two fermenting buckets with bushing lids, and one bottling bucket(50bucks), then buy a stainless wire mesh spaghetti strainer to the diameter that best fits in the bottom of the igloo cooler. The fastenings and fabricated false bottoms etc are what shoots up the costs for first time all-grain brewers and they're unnecessary really. DOn't get me wrong a stainless spigot on the cooler will make things easier, but it's not necessary to start, it just takes a little longer to pull(and you can avoid stuck sparges no problem. just line the top of the spaghetti strainer with aluminum foil until it fits snuggly into the bottom of the cooler where grain particles won't sneak down the sides - it's actually really easy... that a simple all-grain set-up. you can easily do 6 gallon batches with this... the mash-tun will hold just shy of 4 gall(about 3.9 with normal 5 gall grain recipe), but you'll sparge with another couple gallons anyway, so you can yield 6 gall quite easily with this system, and as for attenuation and abv levels, my numbers with this early system were fantastic. that's maybe a 170$ set-up that can and you can do 2 at a time, and do 8-10 batches a month potentially of course only other things you'll need are tubing, a racking cane, a bottling cane and capper. or just buy a 100 kit that has a bottling bucket, a fermenting bucket and the tubing and canes, and then just add a couple extra fermenting buckets for cheap, add the igloo cooler and strainer.
