ShannonFarrell
Hireling
Karma: +0/-0
Posts: 2
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« Reply #6 on: April 10, 2009, 03:48:52 PM » |
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Ah-ha! I finally got into the forum.
I've been brewing for two-and-a-half years now. Since I'm in the process of moving, I'm not doing much brewing at the moment.
I will happily share any and all experience that I can with the group.
As for what to buy... I've got a lot of thoughts on that. I'll try to dole it out a little at a time.
There are two major types of homebrewing beer: (a) all-grain and (b) extract.
I can't speak to all-grain yet, but I will in the (hopefully) near future. From what I understand, it is more time consuming (on the brew day) than extract, but the difficulty increases just a little. You do need some additional gear for it, so it tends to be something you "level-up" to in the future. Extract is easy, can be pretty fast, and produces good, very drinkable beer.
Another serious consideration is kegging. In short, kegging has been the single best improvement to my enjoyability of this hobby. It's not the taste of the beer. It's the pain of bottling. In short, when you bottle, you rack (siphon) the beer from a fermenter to a bottling bucket, and then fill each bottle, one at a time. This can be messy and a pain. Then you cap each bottle and store it. A week or two later the beer can be ready to pour from the bottle. For kegging, the buy-in is a more expensive, but you rack the beer from the fermenter to the keg, pressurize the keg, and can start drinking in a few days. I LOVE kegging. You can still prep bottles to take to parties or something, but it's just easier.
IF you are going to keg, your initial equipment buy will be different and non-standard from most kits that are commercially available. If you don't want to do that, then you can get away with a standard kit.
So, that takes me to some other basics of things you need. With everything, people will argue pros and cons of each option. I'll just give you my opinions.
- A pot in which to boil the beer. A turkey fryer with burner and big pot is about the perfect way to start. If you can't brew outside, that's a challenge, and I'll be happy to discuss options there.
- A big spoon to stir the pot. I use a plastic one.
- A good thermometer. I use an analog glass one I bought at a brew store.
- A hydrometer. Okay, not strictly required, but if you want to know what the alcohol level is, this is key. It can also help determine when the beer is done fermenting.
- A fermentation container. I've used both glass carboys (big glass water jugs) and plastic buckets. I prefer the buckets. They are cheap, easy to clean, and lighter weight.
- An airlock. I use a three-piece top-hat style. It fits into the lids I have with my buckets. This allows the CO2 that is created when the yeast eats the sugars during fermentation to escape.
- Tubing to siphon beer after fermentation.
- Bottles or kegs. If you're doing bottles, you'll also need a bottle capper and caps. If you're doing kegs, you'll need a keg, a CO2 tank, a regulator, and the appropriate tubes/connections. Like I said, kegging is more expensive, but the single greatest upgrade I've ever made.
Okay, that's all I've got time to say now. Post questions and I'll work on more answers/advice.
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