Buying my first kit this week

I think this was our hotest summer on record. I wish we had the summer weather you get up there. Just not sure I could handle the winter. At least you probably don't need a wort chiller that time of year.

 

Winter I can chill a 5 gallon batch in about 10-12 mintues. Summer it's like 15-18... ha-ha.

 

That looks pretty damn good!

Keep shopping for better deals and make up your mind when you're sure. No need to rush!

The things I contend are most useful are...

auto-siphon
wine thief
bottling wand

all of which are cheep. if they're not in the kit you decide to buy, they're easy to add on without spending much. When I bought my starter kit it was from a st louis homebrew store and they let me substitute a couple things and adjusted the price. For instance they offered iodophor and I wanted starsan, so they just adjusted by a few bucks. Either way, the price of these critical items isn't very high.

I like the kit you have here because it comes with two buckets, a wort chiller, and an IPA ingredient kit. The equipment looks solid too. It's got the gravity tester and thermometer, and the wort chiller which is awesome.

Note the wort chiller isn't critical but it's so damn fine that once you've used ice a couple of times you're just going to wind up getting one anyway, so it's awesome to have it already.

I would say make sure you get starsan. It's like dish soap for beer where anything that has suds on it will be good to go. It's cheep, goes a long way (I've used half of a $15 bottle in a year), and it works like a champ.

I will not make the final determination on your best deal evah no matter what but you're doing well by shopping and comparing, and I think you've definitely narrowed it down to "damn fucking close." If you went with this kit you'd probably be jiffy.

I do suggest to make sure you've got a wine thief, auto-siphon, and bottling wand. These are the best pieces of hardware I have. The rest doesn't make that much dif.

The one listed in this quote comes with the pot too, which is an expensive piece, so you're not too shabby there either.

I see "dry sanitizer" listed... get starsan man. Starsan!

another pro is that the ratings are good, others seem to be happy with this kit.

you can PM me if you want to discuss more, and I'll do my best to steer you in the right direction. I suspect you've basically got the info you need tho, and just need to step up to the edge of the cliff and dive into the water. nothing's ever perfect, so just "go for it" every now and then and your life will be more exciting! The only way you definitely lose is when you never bother to try. It's scary when you jump, but that refreshing plunge when you get there makes it all worthwhile.

 

because those three inexpensive items are the most useful things I've found yet for brewing. I have spent about $350 on brewing junk and while those things probably cost less than $20, they are the most useful things I have, and I wouldn't want to brew (or bottle) without them.

The auto-siphon is better than a regular siphon because it SO easy to use and isn't much more than the regular siphon.

The bottling wand is just fantastic and IMO is the one MUST item of the three listed. Just push down, fill any size bottle till it JUST overflows a little tiny bit, and you're done. Leaves the perfect headspace for carbonation.

The wine thief makes sampling for gravity easy and quick, and is easily sanitized. You don't really need the cylinder for testing gravity, as it's bigger than you need and you'd need several wine thief samples to fill it. I bought a testing cylinder and don't use it. I just use the wine thief and the container that my gravity tester came in to test the gravity and they work perfectly together (and are about the same diameter, so again work perfectly together).

The burner could be your next thing. Right now I'm using an electric stove where I have to straddle two burners, but my beer is coming out very well. A burner would be nice, but I'd rather have the wort chiller TBH. I will upgrade to a burner etc next year when I make the full conversion to all grain. While I'm doing partial mash or extract batches, I prefer to have the wort chiller over the burner. YMMV of course, but I'm expressing my opinions here which anyone who's experienced can feel free to differ with (please splain' us why!).

You will not regret the starsan. Just make sure everything is covered with starsan and "don't fear the foam." It's the shit.