Ok I am about to order my first brew kit. I have looked at many different sites and think I have found the one I want. http://www.homebrewing.org/Beginning-Homebrew-Kit-Upgrade-2-_p_1692.html I have 2 questions. 1 - Is this a good kit for a first timer 2 - What are the advantages/disadvantages of the Better Bottle carboy versus a glass carboy? An advice and input is greatly appreciated
“2 - What are the advantages/disadvantages of the Better Bottle carboy versus a glass carboy?” A better bottle can’t shatter and cause serious harm to you if an accident occurs. There was a past thread on this topic and there was a diversity of views on this topic. I would very strongly recommend that you obtain a Better Bottle vs. a Carboy from a safety perspective but there are BAs who are not as cautious as me on this topic. Cheers!
Deep waters........ ^^^That's me^^^ Just treat your carboy like a big glass bottle and you'll be fine. Some say glass is dangerous because it can break into large shards and some say plastic can get scratched and harbor bacteria. It's your choice: perceived danger or perceived infection (Neither one is very likely)
Here is the thread I think Jack is referencing. It seems like it has a pretty good discussion of why to use or avoid glass. http://beeradvocate.com/community/threads/glass-carboy-injury-poll.131554/ The kit seems fairly standard, but a 5 gallon pot is not really big enough for a 5 gallon batch. There needs to be room to boil without boiling over, plus there is water that boils off during the 60 minute boil. Personally I would get a kit without a pot and find the pot separately. That being said I only have 3 batched under my belt, and all of them were with a much smaller pot that I already had. I just got a larger pot (32 quart). I personally went with morebeer.com's basic kit, but I think they were all pretty comparable. The cheaper kits are missing somethings (like the autosiphon that I bought separately). Oh and make sure you read howtobrew.com
“plastic can get scratched” Plastic vessels will not get scratched if you treat them properly. I have brewed 100’s of batches in plastic vessels. I cleaned them gently (hot water and wet paper towels) and they were never scratched. Better Bottles can be cleaned without scratching them. Cheers!
If you go to homebrewtalk this issue has been beaten to a bloody pulp hundreds of times. They both have pros and cons, its a preference thing.
Welcome to this wonderful hobby and the insanity that goes along with it. The one item in your beginners kit that stands out to me is the 5-gal. size of your brew pot. That size will work okay to get you started, but it will limit you to boiling wort only to around 3 gallons. If you are brewing 5-gallon recipes you'll have to add water after the boil, or limit your recipes to a smaller batch. If you are making small batches for now but think that you'll be moving into all-grain, larger-batch brewing later then the 5-gal. brew pot can be kept for use for sparge water and you can get a larger pot when you start the all-grain brewing.
