I've never brewed before and I want an easy kit to help me learn the basics. What exactly would you recommend I buy? Preferably under or around $100. I'm not looking for anything top of the line just yet because I want to have a few trial and error phases before I purchase the expensive brewing gear. Thank you all in advance.
I started out with Northern Brewer's Essential Starter Kit. It comes with everything you need to make your first batch, other than a large pot. It's $80 + shipping. Do you have a homebrew shop nearby where you could buy the equipment?
$100 would be tough. I recommend buying a stainless stock pot (like a bayou classic) that's around 10 gal, a high pressure burner, fermentation bucket with spigot on bottom , airlock, some tubing, bottling wand, bottle capper and caps. This kit looks ok: http://www.midwestsupplies.com/brewing-basics-plus-kit.html it's $150 but comes with a ingredients kit and bottles (which is kinda dumb since I'm sure you can collect and clean no problem). Small enough you could do it stove top no propane burner.
1) Midwest supplies starter kit http://www.midwestsupplies.com/searchspring/result/?cat=&q=Starter 2) Buy and read John Palmer's- How to Brew 3) find someone who knows more than you and learn from them if possible 4) drink beer during all points of this process :-)
Well, in AL its technically illegal to homebrew, but I'm sure I could find the supplies if I wanted to badly enough
absolute bare minimum: you'll need a pot to boil your wort in, which you might have in your kitchen, and a thermometer to measure the temp you'll steep your grains at and later cool your wort to before you pitch your yeast. you'll need a plastic bucket, lid and airlock for fermenting your beer and a hose and racking cane to siphon it off with, as well as a wand for bottling. speaking of bottles, you'll need enough to hold your whole batch, so if you're doing 5 gallons, ~55 12oz bottles or the equivalent in bombers or swing-top growlers (non swing-tops won't hold the carbonation in during bottle conditioning). if you're not using swing-tops you'll need caps (which I always used to forget until bottling day). you'll need sanitizer and cleaner to make sure nothing gross starts living in your beer. you'll also need a spoon or paddle to stir your beer with while you brew it, and finally your ingredients. i got started with a groupon kit from midwest supply, so you should check to see if they're still doing that or something similar. most online homebrew stores have good starter kits, and as far as equipment goes you don't need to go crazy but you'd be hard pressed to find a kit that is missing necessities for first time brewers. a few things you don't necessarily NEED but really really really should add on are: -auto-siphon: a lot easier to use than a racking cane. just make sure you sanitize it thoroughly. -star san/iodophor and pbw: does a much more thorough job than the one-step cleaner that comes with beginner kits, which isn't really a food-grade sanitizer. -fermenter thermometer: something to use to keep track of fermentation temperature. you don't need to spring for a dedicated chest freezer and external temp controller to make good beer at proper temps, so knowing what those temps are to begin with is a good way to keep track of fermentation and diagnose any issues you might run into during your first few batches (not that you won't make great beer!) -hydrometer: really should be on the necessities list, this is used to keep track of what your starting and finishing gravities are and therefore what your %ABV is. if you get a glass one, a backup wouldn't hurt, as i broke my first one on my first brew day. you should be able to find kits that have all of this stuff, or if you think you can find pieces individually for cheaper than homebrew sites are able to offer, you can put your system together yourself. a few more buds for your bowl: -read this: www.howtobrew.com you don't have to do the whole thing at first, and probably shouldn't because a lot of it won't apply to you until you get more advanced, but it's a must-read for anyone who wants to learn about homebrewing. -read this: http://www.themadfermentationist.com/2012/02/11-mistakes-every-new-homebrewer-makes.html and then say thanks to OldSock. -relax, don't worry, have a homebrew. since you probably don't have any yet, just relax and don't worry. you can have another brew too. cheers!
I'm only about a month or two ahead of you on the leaning curve, but to me it's been invaluably instructive to start with small all-grain batches. Many of the online stores now sell 1-gallon kits, such as: http://brooklynbrewshop.com/ http://www.austinhomebrew.com/product_info.php?products_id=13440 http://www.northernbrewer.com/shop/...er-kits/1-gallon-small-batch-starter-kit.html (I think this one is partial mash) Assuming you have a large kitchen pot, you can use these to begin brewing with relatively minimal overhead costs.
