I am going to start home brewing, like in a matter if days
I have done a lot of lurking in these forums and also have bought and read part of the book by Palmer that a lot of people recommend.
and yes I am overwhelmed
I am intending on buying the starter kit from this website here (the essential Brewing starter Kit).
I have one main question that is giving me pause from just running over there (they are local) and grabbing one and brewing into the sunset…
if I buy this, with the additional choice of one of the three available beer kits do I need to buy anything else at all?
this is assuming I have a 20 quart stock pot (which I do).
It says “everything included” but I am just hesitant that I will get it all home and start boiling away only to find there something obscure that I “need”…I think I have been reading too many of your posts…
I understand there are many many “add ons” which I will get to in time…of course. but just asking about “needs”
The bare minimum is a kettle, a fermenter, an airlock, a sanitizer, a bottling bucket with bottling wand, bottles (choose PET with screw-on caps and skip the caps and capper), a siphon, and a hydrometer. If you’re doing extract plus a mini-mash you will need a grain bag. Might be a couple other handy items, but that would get you through a first batch at minimal cost.
With your pot, a beer recipe kit, and starter kit from NB you could brew a batch. However I would recommend adding a hydrometer. It will be well worth the $20 once you have your first batch going and you are wondering if its done fermenting. Also with the hydrometer you can calculate the alcohol of your finished beer. I consider it a necessity and it was actually apart of my Nb starter kit i got a few months ago before they changed how they packaged the kits.
You can technically brew with out it but do you self a favor and get a hydrometer.
When using buckets, the wine thief is not necessary nor the rack to store the hydrometer. Store it some place that it doesn’t get bumped on the counter. So skip the 2 “upgrades”.
Test drive it sense you are near the store, but I would upgrade to a bench capper from the wing capper.
There are very little “needs” in brewing beer. Some “wants” maybe.
Hard to tell from the photo, is there a sanitizer included? Looks like StarSan or Iodophor maybe. Be sure you have one of them.
Put the hops in pantyhose when you boil them. This will make it easy to remove them at the end of the boil. $.99 at Walgreens/Walmart.
See my signature line about keeping the fermenting beer cool.
DON’T OVER THINK THIS! You can read a lot here and learn a lot here but over thinking things will lead to an overwhelmed feeling and this is not that hard. Work on the basics early and you can learn more advanced techniques later.
Yep- go for it. Make that first batch. There will be plenty of time to refine your methods as you’re enjoying sweet sweet beer that you brewed yourself.
Fair warning - brewing is addictive. If you sniff the airlock more than twice you’ll be hooked for life!
This is the perfect time to make beer, because if you are in Minnesota, the temperatures will be fairly cool, which will help the most. Like the others said jump in and start to swim. It will be the best experience you will have for a hobby that becomes a lifestyle and ultimately an obsession.
DON’T OVER THINK THIS! You can read a lot here and learn a lot here but over thinking things will lead to an overwhelmed feeling and this is not that hard. Work on the basics early and you can learn more advanced techniques later.[/quote]
I second that, My first batch i was handling the wort like radio active material, by the second i was laughing at myself
[quote=“beerme11”][quote=“Loopie Beer”]Best advice I can give:
DON’T OVER THINK THIS! You can read a lot here and learn a lot here but over thinking things will lead to an overwhelmed feeling and this is not that hard. Work on the basics early and you can learn more advanced techniques later.[/quote]
I second that, My first batch i was handling the wort like radio active material, by the second i was laughing at myself[/quote]
Dang, you must be smarter than me! It took me 18 months before I started laughing at how much I used to worry and fuss over stuff. I just came across photos of my very first beer in secondary that I sent out to anyone that would listen and asked “have I killed my beer” because it was lighter at the top than the bottom. Now I know it is SUPPOSED to do that!
I literally bought the essentials kit the week they changed it, and have my first batch in bottles, second batch in secondary right now. You will be fine to start a batch with what you have. Eventually, you’ll need bottles, but you have time until bottling day. The recipe kit doesn’t come with any priming sugar, but when I talked to the guys at the shop, they were adamant that table sugar is fine.
The one thing that surprised me my first batch (not that I’m an expert or anything now) was how hard it is to get the extract syrup out of the jugs. Even if you do the “bathe in hot water” trick, it runs out very slowly. The next batch I try, I’m going to spoon some of the hot wort into the syrup jug and swirl it around to get the last of it out.
I’m lucky like you in that the shop is local to me. So I went in every weekend to pick up the occasional thing as I decided I wanted it.
I feel I can now go get it and start with confidence.
long spoon…good call there I don’t have one
Hydrometer…I will get that as well, gotta have toys
panty hose for hops…check, never woulda guessed
bottles…I can wait a few weeks on those
sugar…I checked, would you believe there is no sugar in my house?? I am thinking just grab a bag of Sugar from the grocery store and good to go
bottle questions…hope it isn’t asked somewhere else here but, do I need to buy bottles or can I just sanitize and re-use my Sammischlaus bottles? they are dark colored pry off.
PET bottles were mentioned…what are those?
all these confounded acronyms in brewing …took me a week to figure out what FG and OG meant
again thank you for all the sound advice…definitely gonna document and blog the first attempt.
it is my hope that this becomes a new addiction…hopefully not an obsession though, I already have one of those.
Regarding bottles, yes, reusing is fine. One tip I’ve read about that sounds like a fine idea… bottle one out of your batch in a plastic soda bottle, squeezing the bottle so there’s no headspace before twisting on the plastic cap. That way, when the beer carbonates, you can tell because the plastic bottle will inflate and get rigid. I haven’t tried that yet, but the next batch I bottle is definitely getting that treatment.
Oh, and PET is just a plastic bottle. Your kit has caps and a capper, so really it’s up to you if you want to use glass or plastic. I bought a case of glass bottles and reused a case of glass bottles (but got really sick of the fact that Summit labels are glued on with something that’s nearly impossible to scrape off).
