starting homebrew is this good kit?

http://www.northernbrewer.com/shop/...arter-kits/essential-brewing-starter-kit.html

Honestly, this is all you really need. This and at least a 7.5 gallon kettle. This is a good starter kit for the first time home brewer.

 

That and a Hydrometer

 

In that case, I would just buy 1 or 2 glass carboys, a 7.5 or larger kettle, funnel with strainer, SS whatever else you want, a hydrometer, a bucket, some kind of Sanitizer; (ie. StarSan, Idophor), an auto siphon and either "The Joys of Home Brewing" - C. Papizan or "How to Brew" - J. Palmer. Oh and a wort chiller.

If this is your first time start small. Don't go for broke for the first batch. Have fun learning how to brew, then start building your dream brewery.

So after reading the list I provided, yes that is a good price to pay for what you listed.

 

That seems to be a decent price for all that stuff. You will likely outgrow the 5 gallon kettle within a few brews. 10 or 15 gallon kettles are ideal if you plan to stick with the hobby or go 'all grain'.

 

That's what I thought until I got about 4 beers in. Fermenting in buckets is the way to go. So much easier to clean and without the fear of horrific bodily injury/gallons of beer to clean up.

 

yeah after breaking 2 carboys so far while cleaning, they are getting annoying hah

 

I'll just echo those who allude to the safety of plastic over glass. Carboys are awkward things to handle when they are full of 40#s of liquid and when they are slippery with water, cleansers, and sanitizers. Breaking that much glass all at once can result in some dire circumstances.

I have a 5-gallon, a 3-gallon, and several 1-gallon glass fermenters, but mostly, I use plastic buckets because they are safer and easier in other ways (adding things to a bucket is easy, pulling a sample from a bucket is easy). I have broken one of my 1-gallon fermenters and got lucky. The bigger the fermenter, the luckier you need to be.

If you do go with glass, consider doing what I have done with my 5-gallon glass carboy -- wrap it with clear packing tape. It doesn't look pretty, but at least if I break it, the tape should contain a lot of the fragments (I hope).

edit: Just want to add that lots of people use glass and don't kill themselves, but it scares the crap out me, especially because my brewing operations are spread across two levels of my home and require navigation of stairs. Another precaution I take is to keep my glass carboy in a plastic milk crate, as those things are design for handling 40+ lbs.

 

And remember: don't drink (too much) when handling full 5 gallon glass carboys!

Oh, and you can buy carboy handles for around $7. Makes them much easier to move around.

 

Even if you go ala carte and get a stainless brew pot but everything else in the kit including the plastic buckets for now, you'll find many uses for them layer during the washing/sanitizing process even after you get glass carboys later.

 

Get a brew pot that is 8+ gallons and a wort chiller. Get the books mentioned above. At minimum set up a swamp cooler for some fermentation temp control.