First timer

Northern Brewer General
1

I’m sure there are comments posted throughout the site, so I apologize for asking a question that you have likely answered elsewhere…

Ready to start brewing, and want to get started correctly. Am I better off getting an equipment kit, and if so what do you recommend?

Or, am I better off acquiring the right pieces separately, and if so can you point me to a list of what to go and find?

Thanks for the help, can’t wait to get started.

2

I did and after 4 years I use most of the equipment I received with the kit. Here is the one I started with:

http://morebeer.com/products/personal-home-brewery-kit-3-bottling-deluxe-1.html

It also has a handy dandy list for you. They let me change out the recipe kit that came with it (not a big fan of blondes).

Recently though I saw this:

http://www.rebelbrewer.com/shop/getting-started/deluxe-equipment-kit/

Good luck! :cheers:

3

I purchased the Northern Brewer Deluxe Brewing Starter Kit from our host site…I have been very happy with it over the past two years of brewing. It may not have everything you need as you progress in the hobby but I have used every piece of equipment in the kit in addition to some I’ve picked up along the way (e.g., my homemade wort chiller, carboy carriers, etc.). It was also very affordable.

Enjoy the sport!

:cheers:

4

You won’t be sorry with a starter kit. Thru tomorrow you can get the dark star burner free with the deluxe starter kit from our host. I recently got the basic starter kit for free to give to my nephew for Christmas. Welcome to the obsession.

5

Hey thanks for the responses. I learned of the burner add-on and decided to go with it.

Plenty more questions next week I’m sure!

6

Get a hydrometer. Kits these days seem not to include them.

7

Next question will be which brew pot…IMO…go with a 10 gallon and by pass the 5 and 8.

8

thanks. fortunately I already own a 10 gallon stainless stock pot for cooking obsessions!

9

I’m helping a coworker pick out a starter kit from all the offers I’ve been getting through email. Seems like 2-3 new offers a week all including something different. I’m shocked to see that NB doesn’t include a hydrometer in their starter kits. Along with a pot and a fermentor, I’d say it’s the most important item a home brewer needs (excluding malt, hops, yeast of course). When I got my starter kit 3 years ago, it included one. Other home brew supply sites include hydrometers… why not NB?

10

If you’re starting out with extract, you should be hitting your target OG every time. New brewers often panic unnecessarily when they measure OG and think they are off by a wide margin because they didn’t stir the top-off. You can therefore argue a hydrometer may isn’t strictly necessary for the OG of extract kits, and maybe just a source of confusion.

If you simply wait long enough before bottling, your yeast will attenuate all it’s going to, so measuring FG for confirmation & ABV calculation shouldn’t strictly speaking be necessary either.

Personally I agree, that everyone should have a hydrometer (or refractometer) but I can understand why they’d put it in an “upgrade” kit. Get people brewing by telling them it’s no harder than making soup from scratch. Then introduce the lab equipment later.

11

One of my lessons learned starting out was my brew pot, I pieced one together bought a weldless valve and thermo kit. It works fine but I think the pots that are threaded and come fully equiped would of been better.