Looking to get into home brewing but i don't know what kit to go with, have a local shop here in Anchorage that has a kit for $229 http://arcticbrewingsupply.com/collections/brewing-kits/products/beer-kit-3 but i don't know if thats overpriced? been looking at this kit as well http://www.homebrewing.org/Brewers-Best-BeAst-Equipment-Kit-with-Glass-Carboy_p_3156.html any and all advice is greatly appreciated.
The one from your local place, isnt priced bad I guess. Seems a little expensive with a bunch of junk you don't really need. Doesn't inclue a bottling bucket, which I feel is something you would need. No need for a secondary, IMO, atleast starting out. The adventure in homebrew kit is priced well, and seems to have most of the bases covered. Even a kettle, which is a bit small, but can be useful, especially if you decide to do smaller batches than 5 gallons.
I'm a bucket man, myself. I've been brewing for four or five years and I can count the times that I've aged a beer for more than a month on one hand. I use a Better Bottle when I age. I've heard good things about the widemouth BB that just came out and would be looking into getting one of those if you're going to age beer. Otherwise, I'd save about $40 or $50 by getting the plastic and be willing to replace if it you scratch it. It's personal preference, but glass can be hard to clean.
As far as procedure goes, the best things you can do for your beer are: Sanitization Aeration Temp Control Proper Yeast Pitch Rates Keep that in mind on how you spend your money too.
Yeah im leaning more towards the package from Adventure in Homebrew. What do you recommend to help with temp control? Living in alaska and in a two story id say that every single room of my house is consistently a different temperature then the next one so finding the right temp in my house is going to be tricky it seems.
Well, being in Alaska, I think you have an advantage actually. If you can find way to keep your beers around 62-68 degrees, for most fermentations, other than a lager, I'd say you'd be in the ballpark. If it's colder, it's easier to warm it up a bit with a belt heater or something similar. Otherwise, we use a fridge/chest freezer with a controller to hold the temp down in the advised temp for the yeast being used.
if you guys had to start all over again knowing what you know now. what would you do differently with your first kit? is there something that you would have spent more money on to get right away and maybe not used something you did in the past?
I started out with a 30 gal Tupperware container. I place my fermenter in there. I fill the Tupperware up about 1/3 of the way with water. Empty some two liter bottles and fill them most of the way with water. Throw them in the freezer and you have large ice cubes. Swap them out every 10-12 hours for a week. I can keep a beer at about 62F in the basement this way. You'll need abot 4 two liter bottles. The only thing I'd be concerned with these kits is that I didn't see a size on the kettle. A full batch of beer is 5 gal. You'll need at least 7.5 gal of kettle for boils and stirring. If you ever want to do 10 gal batches, you'll need at least 12.5 gal of kettle. Keep in mind that you want to buy ONCE and be done with it. Decide how big you want to get with this and make the right decision. A 5 gal batch of beer is roughly 2 cases of beer. In my house, that lasts a few weeks.
I'm also new I just bought the standard kit for I think 79$ fermenter bottling bucket auto siphon and a bottle filler and capper and it produces good beer at least so far so fingers crossed and good luck!! Cheers
Get a bucket, get a bottling bucket with the spout. Get an auto siphon, tubing for the siphon. Get a bottle of star san and PBW, for sanitizing and cleaning. Get a hydrometer, and the test jar for it as well. Find a good thermometer, spend more if you like to cook and double the use. Bottle capper as well as a bottle filling wand, too. From there, you need a way to boil, and a vessel to boil in. For extract batches, you can do half boils, but full boils are beneficial. If you want to do 5 gallon batches, then I'd look for an 8-12 gallon kettle, and perhaps and outdoor burner if you stove won't cut it.
Start with one gallon all-grain kit and see where you like to take it from there. Make sure you keep it simple before you jump on the big buys kits
will be brewing my first batch this weekend over at a buddies house, going to do an extract first then once that turns out he said he'll take me through the steps of all grain. Wont be buying gear till around the new year. Like to do plenty of research before i jump into anything new.
