The Essentials:
- 6.5 gallon Fermenttion Bucket
- Air Lock
- Bottling Bucket
- 1 Hydrometer
- 6 feet of 5/16" Vinyl Tubing
- Butterfly Capper
This is the kit I cut my teeth on:
What you'll need to round up
- Your spaghetti pot. (6 quarts is a reasonable size)
- Two cases of pop top brown beer bottles with a long neck and a skirt.
The three most common mistakes made by first time home brewers are:
- Lack of fermentation temperature control.
- Insufficient yeast.
- Use of tap water with extracts kits.
When choosing a kit look for one that uses dry yeast and has an ABV of 5% or less.
One packet of dry yeast contains about 150 billion cells. This is sufficient for up to a 1.050 starting gravity which is less than 7 pounds of extract in a five gallon (19 liter) batch. The result will be a beer less than 5% alcohol by volume.
Because extract is made from an all grain mash it has all of the minerals needed for the beer concentrated in it. The major manufactures, Briess and Muntons, both are located in areas that have great brewing water that already have enough minerals. By using tap water, or spring water you are adding extra salts that will end up leaving your beer with a kind of a twang. Use Distilled or Reverse Osmosis water for extract brewing. You should be able to find it for less than a dollar a gallon.
55°F 60°F
65°F 70°F
Step up your game
- Autosiphons ($10)
- Thermometer for measuring pitching temperature ($8)
- Kegging setup
These are the ones I have and they work great!
Making better beer and brewing toys.
- bin or cooler to use as a water bath for fermentation temperature control.
- Refractometer. Much easier, faster, and smaller sample size required.
- aquarium heater to ferment ale's in the winter
- scale for grain and extract
- scale for salts and hops
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