Looking for basic advice on 1 gallon kits

LA Homebrew has some awesome 1.5 gallon kits. they are about 50 bucks.

http://www.lahomebrew.com/1-5-Gallon-Beer-Kit-p/e100001.htm

If you have any questions call the store...the guys there are awesome and they brew some awesome beer.

 

I love my Northern Brewer 1 gal kit. It came with everything I needed to start extract brewing and move on to all grain.

My advice:
-Buy Star San sanitizer, I had a little trouble with the Easy Clean not cleaning thoroughly enough.
-After a half dozen batches my plastic fermenter cap started cracking. I replaced it with #6 drilled rubber stopper and it fits well.
-There is not a lot of head space on a 1 gal jug so try using a blow off tube for the first few days of the fermentation. Then replace with an airlock.

 

For the extras that you get in the Schoolhouse kit (really mainly the thermometer and hydrometer, but the other things will be useful too), I'd go with that one, assuming that their available brewing kits give you a beer style that you want to brew. I question the use of 6-oz bottles (are there enough of them for 64 oz. of beer?), and wonder whether the brush that they list is small and usable only on that size of bottle. You can use these plastic bottles a few times, but start saving 12-oz. glass bottles from beers that you drink and use them instead, and then get a bottle brush for that size. I also wonder about the 3/4 inch tubing. Maybe their auto-siphon requires that size. (A bottle filler, capper and caps will still be needed.)

The other option that you can look at is to page back through the threads in this forum and read the ones that recommend basic equipment and 1-gallon batch size. I think it's cheaper in the long run to get the equipment that you need on an ala carte basis. You can also look up batch size and equipment in John Palmer's book howtobrew.com or purchase the newer edition as hard copy. It's a great book to give you a firm base of info to get started as well as advancing into complex recipes.

 

To be clear... Starsan is a sanitizer, not a cleaner. Easy Clean is technically a cleaner, not a sanitizer. It's important to use a cleaner and a sanitizer, in that order. Easy Clean may also have sanitizing properties, but AFAIK it's never been certified as a sanitizer. That's not to say it can't operate as one. I really don't know.

If a one-gallon (batch size) kit came with a one gallon fermenter without a reasonable headspace, I'd call that a bad kit. Losing beer to blowoff sucks, especially when making small batches.

 

I guess reasonable headspace is debatable but a simple blow off tube is an easy way to prevent wasted beer with these small batch glass jugs. That doesn't make it a bad kit.

 

I disagree. But that's okay.

 

Two gallon brew buckets are available and should be standard issue for 1 gallon batches. Just think, you could brew a 1.5 gallon batch, if you wanted to. Don't try that with a 1 gallon jug!

 

I agree. But the little 1 gallon jugs are cute, so there might be a marketing aspect to it. I think a "one gallon" jug without at least another .3 gallons of headspace is either lazy kit design or disingenuous.

 

Ahhhhh...the Schoolhouse brewkit comes with a 2 gal bucket...the choice is easy

edit: but for a few $ more you could get a decent 5 gal kit (with capper and bottle filler)

 

And you can install a spigot in the 2 gallon bucket. Don't try that with a 1 gallon glass jug!

 

<sheepishly puts away the diamond tipped hole saw...>

 

For small batch-size brewers; all else equal ... 2.5G set-ups don't need significantly more space ... equipment ... time ... or expense than 1G set-ups.

Why settle for one sixer when it's just as easy / convenient / practical / economical to get four of them?