Homebrew gear

Word on the street is that one can support Better Bottles with a milk crate to prevent suck back. I haven't tried it but just offering a suggestion to a problem.

 

Lots of good stuff in there so far!

My suggestion: Get an 8 gallon plastic fermentation bucket. I just got one and I love it. The main difference is that you won't get any blowouts with 5.5 gallon batches. Also get a 6.5 gallon bucket. Use carboys if you want. I now have a better bottle, a glass carboy, and two plastic buckets. I like the carboys for bottling and secondaries, and the buckets for primaries. Make sure to get stoppers and airlocks too (I like the plastic 3-piece airlocks myself).

Absolutely get a wort chiller. Cooling with ice sucks, and you need about 20 lbs (just for partial mash/extract, you'd probably need double that for a full boil).

You absolutely must get a wine thief and an auto-siphon as well.

Get TWO gravity testers. They're cheep and you can and probably will drop one eventually like I did.

 

A sanitised turkey baster is a good way to pull beer samples.

I have been homebrewing for almost 20 years, and have never had an auto-siphon. Not necessary if you know how to siphon.

 

True, but it is certainly much easier with an auto-siphon. Gone are my days of cursing tubing.