Homebrew gear

Get at least a 10 gallon brew pot. Plate chillers are great too.........you can find cheap ones on ebay or amazon.

http://www.northernbrewer.com/shop/brewing/beer-equipment-starter-kits

cheers

 

it wouldn't hurt to get a burner either if you're going to be doing a full-volume boil (which you can easily do in a 10 gallon brew pot assuming you're doing 5-gallon batches). it'll heat the wort up a lot quicker than a stove.

 

here's a good one, plenty of horsepower..

http://www.amazon.com/Bayou-Classic-KAB4-Pressure-Cooker/dp/B0009JXYQY

 

Here is the list that I would suggest for starting out.

http://microbebrewer.blogspot.com/2012/04/getting-started-equipment.html

 

A little work on google will bring up many threads on this site and others debating pros and cons of glass carboys, better bottles, and plastic buckets. Go ahead and read through some of them and see what you think will work for you best.

Also, it's pretty easy to get into home brewing without spending a ton of money, but the more you're willing/able to spend, the easier you can make it for yourself. The kits from sites like Northern Brewer are a great place to start and fortunately you can easily upgrade and add not to as you brew more and advance in your skills. Once you have a few batches under your belt you'll get a better idea of where you want to go next with your brewing.

 

The Bayou Classic SQ14 is a good burner too, large and flat.

 

Get a kit, try an extract/partial mash unless you can't even make soup. Then go full extract.

 

I suggest a simple kit, one that uses two buckets. One for fermenting and one for
Bottling. Most simple ingredient kits only need 4 weeks to finish, no secondary needed. Good luck and have fun.

 

If you have a nice big brew pot, the next most expensive thing aside from the basic homebrewing starter kit would be the burner & gas bottle to run it. If, however, you want to work with whole grains, the next most expensive thing is a good grain mill.

Beyond that, most expenses are incidental for the actual brewing, although you seem to have a good budget, so you might look ahead to kegging. That will use up the rest of your spare cash very nicely.

 

I bought my kit from Northern Brewer - deluxe kit with the plastic carboys. I like having the carboys - haven't scratched them yet. I'm also very anal retentive about sanitizing. I also like the fact that you can't drop one and have it explode; sending shards of glass all over the place like the glass ones. I use OxiClean and PBW to do most of my cleaning. Let soak over night and very minimal scrubbing is needed. I'm partial to StarSan for sanitization after cleaning and brew day sanitizing. Don't fear the foam!

I can also highly recommend NB's beer ingredient kits. Very tasty beer.

I started with a turkey fryer. Tried 2 of them - bought a Blichman burner this year and it's the best. Quiet, good on gas and it gets me to boil fast. Wouldn't recommend that unless you're sure you really want to make beer - a lot as they're expensive but for me - worth every dime. If I could do it over - never would have bothered with the fryers.

Would also recommend an immersion chiller at the least. Shortens the brew day quite a bit.

The only thing I've strayed on a little is I got an Ale Pail this spring for my sour beers (kriek going now) so I don't contaminte my plastics with the bugs in Wyeast 3278 blend.

I'm putting together the things needed to jump to all grain. If you decide to do so and are going to use the round 10 drinking coolers like so many kits have (including the ones from NB) - I saved money there by getting them at Home Depot. 47 bucks for the cooler instead of 80 that many home brew places advertise them for (extra 10% off if you're a Veteran at Home Depot too so if it applies....)

Welcome to brewing - it's an AMAZING hobby.

 

I just got a beginners 'deluxe'kit from a LHBS to my work. I am using their kit it comes with, and adding in some more hops I got from another LHBS close to homeish. I will be sparging the crystal malt, so it'll be more 'fun' then with just extract. I will be brewing up my first ale tonight! If no local homebrews stores, midwest has great prices. I just chose my local for the sake of convenience and I wanted it that day (yesterday). You can get a lot more with 200.

 

Go with a Northern Brewer deluxe kit as teal said. I like glass cause I think it's hardcore, but it doesn't really matter.
10 gallon brew pot. Immersion chiller.
Do extract full boils for a while. The other variable that won't fit in your budget is fermentation temperature control. Get a cheap hi/low thermometer from the home improvement store and leave it in various spots of your house for a few days each. You'll get an idea which locations are warmer/cooler. Then you will know where to carefully and slowly relocate your fermenter should the temperature skew away from the ideal.

 

One or two points-scratching of vessels is unsightly but given proper treatment poses no risk whatsoever. My FV looked disgusting yet never gave rise to an infected brew even after many years.
Much equipment can be improvised, stolen from the kitchen, or be a simple DIY job such as making a mash tun from a cooler and some copper pipe.A decent thermometer is useful and if you live in a warm part of the country some form of temperature control is vital.Or simply don't brew during hot weather.

 

The three most popular vessels for fermenting are (1) plastic buckets, (2) glass carboys, and (3) better bottles. Each have their pros and cons. Because the kit that was originally given to me came with a 6.5 gallon carboy, I have fermented almost exclusively in glass carboys. I have also made a couple of batches in a borrowed better bottle. Regarding glass carboys, the main pro is the hardness of the glass, which make them harder to scratch than the other two options. The are also impermeable to oxygen. The con is the real potential for breakage. As for the better bottle, I found it somewhat difficult to clean. When moving a better bottle, you want to remove the airlock, else you'll end up with suck-back because of their lack of rigidity. Plenty of people here seem to like plastic buckets for fermenting. The biggest advantage to the plastic bucket is the large opening on top. A potential disadvantage seems to be the potential for difficult sealing.

Given all of this, the main take home message should be that you can make great beer in any of these vessels. You just have to learn to use whatever type you decide on.

 

I'd go with a simple kit like Homebrew35 suggested...a lot depends on your stove/heat source...if it is adequate, I wouldn't even worry about a burner at this point.

 

Thanks for starting this thread, I'm in the exact same boat. My friend and I are probably going to start out with the deluxe kit from northern brewer. We live in the desert southwest but fortunately, my friend works for a local beer distributor so we will be able to use the refrigeration units there for fermentation (provided that his boss gives us the OK). I've also been reading "How To Brew" to learn as much as I can before we get started. Thanks to everyone for the advice so far!