Brewing Starter Kit Suggestions

Discussion in 'Homebrewing' started by CharlesLit, Aug 26, 2012.

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  1. CharlesLit

    CharlesLit Initiate (0) Aug 26, 2012

    Hey Guys! Myself and couple buddies of mine want to get into home brewing this semester at college. We have absolutely no experience in brewing and I was wondering if anyone had 1. A suggestion for a home brewing starter kit and 2. any books or links to suggested reading before attempting to brew.
     
  2. FATC1TY

    FATC1TY Pooh-Bah (2,564) Feb 12, 2012 Georgia
    Pooh-Bah

    Yeah, Palmers "How to Brew" is pretty much the baseline for learning it from the ground up. Brewing for Idiots, if you will.

    Goes from basic to scientific and explains it all out.

    As for a kit, I'd obviously say that extract will probably be your best route to start basic. There are recipe kits you can buy online. Clone or not, most will work out fine. Check your local homebrew shop for any recipes and such. Most have some of their own.

    Look at places online for their kits. Most include the basics, like fermenter bucket or carboy, and a bottling bucket and such.

    Add an auto siphon for sure. You'll need a decent sized pot at best, and a way to atleast boil 3-4 gallons of water reliably for an hour atleast. Then a sink or a place to cool it quickly if you don't buy a wort chiller.

    Read up on it, buy a basic kit, and add an extract recipe and see if it's for you. Takes a bit of patience and understanding, and it's a pretty rewarding process. Until you go all grain, it's not going to be a massive cost saver over buying commercial brews in some cases.
     
  3. Ilanko

    Ilanko Initiate (0) Aug 3, 2012 New York

    I Have started with this 1 gallon this kit , you get everything necessary start brewing plus ingredient to make for 1 gallon. The IPA kit is a very safe recipe to start with, the all package will show you hove to brew all grain beer in your kitchen. From this small safe scale you can evolve and figure out what's the best way for you, what equipment you need to have.
    And two more things. A avoid homeberow starter kit like this , just because for beginners less is more.
    B don't worry of all-grain making precess.
     
  4. AlCaponeJunior

    AlCaponeJunior Grand Pooh-Bah (3,452) May 21, 2010 Texas
    Society Pooh-Bah

    Auto siphon, wine thief, bottling wand. Those are the most important gadgets if you ask me, and they're not expensive.

    6.5 gallon bucket, another bucket or carboy of your choice for bottling (I'd probably go with a second 6.5 gallon bucket if I were you). I have an eight gallon bucket which I love (and wasn't expensive), but it's not totally needed.

    Obviously the bottle capper and bottle caps are necessary.

    Thermometer and gravity tester are also needed.

    Wort chiller is not needed, but you will need about 20lbs of ice each time you brew if you don't get (or make) one.

    How to brew by Palmer is my recommendation for the one book you need.

    Starsan for sure. Some PBW to clean the buckets.

    There may be a couple other things I missed but those are the most important.

    A good recipe kit like and IPA, American amber, or pale ale for your first batch. It can have steeped grains, btw.

    Make sure to write down your procedure and make a checklist before you start.

    Here's my first solo effort. Feel free to use anything you wish.
     
  5. vondetour

    vondetour Initiate (0) Mar 31, 2015 California

    I just posted some questions and now i found this page,thanks AlCaponeJunior am looking into what you recommended.
     
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