Home Brew Kits
- Thread starter jmatkins
- Start date
BeerAdvocate
BeerHunter
If you are going to start out with extract brewing you wont find a better kit than this for the price: This is what I started off with
http://www.midwestsupplies.com/brewing-starter-kit.html
Let me know if you have any questions. I would be more than happy to help!
http://www.midwestsupplies.com/brewing-starter-kit.html
Let me know if you have any questions. I would be more than happy to help!
danthebugman
BoM Nov '10
Been seriously considering trying my hand at home brewing...like I need another hobby :dunno: :grin:. Thanks, this is a valuable resource :thumbsup:.
Dan
Dan
My main advice to offer is this. When you buy a boil kettle unless you plan only doing stove top brews get a 10g pot. If you get into the hobby you'll definitely want the 10g and as you increase your brewing expertise a larger pots comes with it. If you have a propane turkey fryer or would like to get one just buy a 10g pot to start it's cheaper than buying more than one pot. Then again having a second smaller pot could be handy. I use the 16qt pot that I originally bought for stove top extract brewing still for certain things. Also when it comes time to buy a pot check at a local restaurant supply store, sams club, or other box store. You can get MUCH better deals from those stores than brewing stores/websites.
Second since you will start out bottling I think it's important for bottling to be as easy as possible. There are two important pieces of equipment that make bottling tolerable if you ask me. One is a bottle tree and the other is a bottle rinser. I have the big tree as well for when I clean and delabel bottles. You fit more than three cases at one time on the tree. The bottle rinser makes sanitizing bottles a cinch. You just turn it upside down and pump the sanitizer up inside the bottle 2-3 times. I would have either quit brewing or bought a kegging system already if it weren't for those two pieces of equipment. The first couple times I bottled were serious pains in the ass!
http://www.midwestsupplies.com/90-bottle-drying-tree.html
http://www.midwestsupplies.com/bottle-rinser-sulfiter.html
PS I can point you towards a whole bottling tutorial that is super streamlined.
Second since you will start out bottling I think it's important for bottling to be as easy as possible. There are two important pieces of equipment that make bottling tolerable if you ask me. One is a bottle tree and the other is a bottle rinser. I have the big tree as well for when I clean and delabel bottles. You fit more than three cases at one time on the tree. The bottle rinser makes sanitizing bottles a cinch. You just turn it upside down and pump the sanitizer up inside the bottle 2-3 times. I would have either quit brewing or bought a kegging system already if it weren't for those two pieces of equipment. The first couple times I bottled were serious pains in the ass!
http://www.midwestsupplies.com/90-bottle-drying-tree.html
http://www.midwestsupplies.com/bottle-rinser-sulfiter.html
PS I can point you towards a whole bottling tutorial that is super streamlined.
Great info man!! Thanks for this and the stuff on chat. Lookin forward to getting started.
danthebugman
BoM Nov '10
Yes please. I have read through several sources on the net and some are great, while others are not so helpful. Also if there are any books you feel are good I'd be interested in those as well.
Dan
BeerAdvocate
BeerHunter
How to Brew by John Palmer is the Homebrewers bible and a must read, followed by
The Complete Joy of Homebrewing by Charlie Papazian
The Complete Joy of Homebrewing by Charlie Papazian
Radical Brewing by Randy Mosher is an awesome book and actually entertaining to read. The other two books will help more with the basics but Radial Brewing will help expand knowledge and creativity.
http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f35/bottling-tips-homebrewer-94812/
That's the best explanation I've seen for bottling. It's basically how I do it with tweaks for how my house is setup and so forth.
http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f35/bottling-tips-homebrewer-94812/
That's the best explanation I've seen for bottling. It's basically how I do it with tweaks for how my house is setup and so forth.
BeerAdvocate
BeerHunter
Those are the same bottling tips i used starting out.
Another tip is, instead of building the dip tube for inside the bucket you can go to the hardware store a buy a threaded elbow piece of pvc that screws right on and works great.
Another tip is, instead of building the dip tube for inside the bucket you can go to the hardware store a buy a threaded elbow piece of pvc that screws right on and works great.
thanks for some great info you two i thought about home brew years ago but put it on the back burner. now i have recently found my love for many stouts and different ale's and such. and i got lost in the forum yesterday and found my way to this post and i have been reading/watching videos and shopping for kits at Midwest for id say ever it seams here is what i came up with.
http://www.midwestsupplies.com/brewing-intermediate-kit-w-two-5-gallon-glass-carboys.html
http://www.midwestsupplies.com/traditional-stout-20-minute-boil-kit.html
http://www.midwestsupplies.com/imperial-stout.html
those are in my taste line as my favorites now in order for the kit to fly by the wifey i need to make maybe a blueberry Belgium we tried something on that lines and she liked it and i did also.
i like that kit because it seams easier to have 2-3 batches going on at once. also im thinking going the 22 oz route to lower my bottle count.
any help will be greatly appreciated maybe i should start a new thread but it seams me and john are looking for the same thing thought it might help us both.
http://www.midwestsupplies.com/brewing-intermediate-kit-w-two-5-gallon-glass-carboys.html
http://www.midwestsupplies.com/traditional-stout-20-minute-boil-kit.html
http://www.midwestsupplies.com/imperial-stout.html
those are in my taste line as my favorites now in order for the kit to fly by the wifey i need to make maybe a blueberry Belgium we tried something on that lines and she liked it and i did also.
i like that kit because it seams easier to have 2-3 batches going on at once. also im thinking going the 22 oz route to lower my bottle count.
any help will be greatly appreciated maybe i should start a new thread but it seams me and john are looking for the same thing thought it might help us both.
Just want you to know with that imperial stout you will need a good steady temperature and a shit ton of yeast in the beginning of fermentation. I did one very early on when I started brewing and was in way over my head. I learned quick though. Also my advice would be to get a second packet of yeast to pitch into the imperial stout. One packet isn't going to be enough for a gravity of around 1.090. It'll be cheap insurance trust me.
yea thanks for the tips i am putting the imperial on the back burner and going to start with the 20 min boil stout and the Irish red ale i think both are more noob friendly but one day soon that imperial will be mine :santa: