Hello Everyone! For my birthday I received the Balliihoo Complete Starter Set (link below) and two 40 pint brew kits, a coopers and an IPA. I was wondering if there is any more equipment I need to buy before I head back to university on Sunday. I don't have a thermometer or a 5 gallon stainless steel pot, are these two items necessary? Thank you and any comments or advise is welcome as I'm a complete beginner! Thanks again and happy brewing! http://www.balliihoo.co.uk/balliihoo-complete-starter-set-best-seller-p-19.html
I can't find the instructions for your specific ingredient kits on the website, but the instructions for the other beers listed there are probably an indicator of the same method of brewing that your kits will use, and that means that you have no-boil kits. However, you'll need a vessel of some kind to boil the specified quantity of water that will be the basis of your beer, but the malt extract and hops that come with the kits are not to be boiled per the traditional brewing procedures. Your malt extract may have hops already added which gives the bitterness and some taste, and the hop pellets that come with your kit are added to the fermentor like dry-hopping just for some aroma effect. It looks to me like you've got everything that you need to make beer. Edit: if you plan on bottling your beer, then you'll obviously need some bottles, caps, a capper, and a bottling wand. If your bucket has a spigot, then that's a plus, otherwise a bottling bucket with a spigot is a nice thing to have to make the bottling process easier. Some kind of sanitizer may also be needed for your equipment, tube, and bottles; I didn't notice that in your kit. P.S. Welcome to the BA site and to the Homebrewing forum.
Are you planning to brew in your university? First make sure you don´t get in trouble for that man. Then thermometer is something you must have, maybe not for this since it looks that you won´t be mashing but definitely for your next brews.
