Home Brew Kit - Starter Kit or Piece meal?

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#1

Pulling the trigger on a homebrew kit. Want to serve my first round for Thanksgiving.

I’m fairly adept, and will likely expand this hobby over time…I’m already planning a gravity tower to reduce floor space, bending and lifting. But,

  • Will I be annoyed with a 2 stage starter kit after a couple of recipes?
  • Or should I spend a little extra money upfront and purchase some upgraded pieces and assemble my own kit? If so, which pieces to you recommend?
  • And finally, glass carboys or the Better Bottle plastic carboys?

Thanks for your feedback.

#3

@zmetzing Thanks. Definitely going with the auto siphon. I would still pose the question to you…glass carboy or PET Better Bottle?

#4

Glass carboys. The 2 stage deluxe brewing kit they sell at homebrew headquarters (Richardson I think) is a great place to start and is also pretty versatile. It used to run about 120 for the glass carboy version. It was one of the constantly recommended starter kits that’s worth it for people actually wanting to get really into homebrew on most of the forums and research I did when I was planning to start brewing.

#5

I agree glass. And get the carboy hauler, its a life saver.

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#6

Iirc, apart from the auto siphon which sounds awesome, getting a second carboy was almost always the next thing to add

#8

I didn’t know those existed in Texas. Seen a couple DDP shelters but not a basement.

#10

Ooooo it’s for rich folk, makes sense. Terrible idea but makes sense. Sister lives up in Seattle and I’m quite jealous of her canning, liqueur and beer corner she has in her basement.

Never had Manhattan projects stuff, sounds good up until the Pina colada ipa and I’ve had some weird ass ipas. Lone star beer & wine carries them so that’s cool, they’re a fantastic store.

#12

So, my 2 cents (been brewing for 20 years fwiw), is you can get a good brew out of the basic 2 bucket plastic kit no problem. The glass carboy with the hauler handle is a very nice to have but if you are on a budget then go simple for now. The only thing I would splurge on is the auto-siphon. the flavor comes from the ingredients more so than it does the equipment. All grain is best but the mini mash kits do put out a really good product.

As an alternate solution let me throw in an additional 2 cents. if you ever have the idea that you want to make a wine or mead, then do what I did. Buy a wine making kit, then add in the 1 beer specific tool that isn’t in the wine kit (the cap setter). The equipment crossover is very very close AND for just a little bit more money you are now able to make both beer and wine. The wine kit comes with a 7.5 plastic bucket and 6 gallon carboy, the hydrometer, the auto siphon, bottle tree, an airlock, and the corker. so just add in the capper and you’re set up for both. I went that direction and eventually bought a 2nd carboy because some wines take a long time to condition in the carboy.

I go to Fine Vine Wines over on I-35 (its just a few minutes away from DMS), and have always had excellent service with getting beer and wine supplies. Bryan is the resident beer guy and George, the owner, is the wine guy (he has won a ton of competitions too). They have a discount club that is free to join, and if you buy a starter kit from them then you can also buy a beer or wine kit at like 30% off. So even if you happen to spend a little more on the wine kit + bottle capper combo, you save that money right back by getting the beer kit from them same day. Hope this option helps.

Knock on wood, I have never broken a carboy. I’m going to chalk it up to my arm strength from all those 12 oz curls.

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#13

Thanks guys. I’m not on a budget. Don’t have unlimited funds, try just trying to make frugal decisions. Would rather spend a couple extra bucks in a better siphon, gravity measure, etc., if I’m going to buy it within the first 5 batches anyways thAn have the extra starter version lying around taking up space.

What about kettles and pour spouts and sight glasses? Worth it now? Wait a while?

#14

Wait a while for the higher end up grades. I can tell you I have a 3 vessel 15 gallon brew rig, converted sanke kegs with sight glasses, pumps, ability to batch or fly sparge, 10+ carboys, all kinds of fermentation vessels, and you can make beer that is very satisfying without any of the gadgets I have. It just makes it easier and more repeatable as you get further into it. If you want to buy a 5 gallon carboy with a hauler price it out and I’ll sell you a used for cheaper if you wish. I am mostly out of the brewing game but not ready to sell everything, but I have plenty of carboys. If you do get into kegging I have ball lock kegs and taps and other things I can sell as well.

#15

I got an aluminum crab/crawfish boil pot off amazon for about $25, it works great (and safe, don’t listen to brewers insisting on stainless). Not sure what kind of pour spout you are referring to other than the one that comes installed for bottling on the plastic bucket. as you get further into it a mashing tun is a good idea so you can do full grain batches, but make your own, don’t buy. You can convert a 48 qt ice chest with an upgraded spigot for half what they charge for one.

#16

I originally purchased a starter kit from homebrew headquarters with the glass carboy and plastic bucket, and if I remember correctly it came with an extract kit. Also, target sells, or atleast used to, an aluminum tamale pot in the 40qt range that works really well to start out for inexpensive. As noted, stainless is not required as some would have you believe.
Upgrades since then, well I ended up going the keg route from my first batch onward, so the bottling stuff has not seen any real use. I did end up buying several of the plastic better bottles and personally prefer them over glass, but I do have a number of glass carboys too. The plastic are lighter to move around and easy to find places to store, as you don’t have to worry as much about breaking them.
I really like the brew in a bag method, as less pots means less to clean up and store, but if I had a garage, I would probably build a large electric brewing setup, but not because it would make any better of a beer, more of a just because I could thing… Both simple and advanced setups can produce great beer, so start simple and then decide how deep you want to delve.

Hmm, also, Starsan is great and don’t fear the foam!

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#18

Thanks guys. Out of convenience, I picked up my starter kit yesterday with a couple of upgrades…now I just need a pot. I think I’m going to start with a 5 gallon pot for now and do a few extract batches on the stove, then move to better equipment either after Christmas, or after I graduate next August. They’ve got a stainless pot with lid at the shop I can get for $50.

If anyone lives in Plano and wants to offload some supplies, let me know. @indytruks138 send me a PM with pictures and offer when you decide to start selling off some supplies. If I can find room for them, I might take them sooner than later. If I build a rig later, it has to fit in a 18" x 24" or 24" x 24" space, otherwise I have to just disassemble it all each time and put it away somewhere.

@Tony - I have no fear :wink:

Two more questions

  1. Does anyone find a need to boil and cool the water to top off the batch? And do you ever bother using distilled water?
  2. Does anyone substitute more malt extract for the wort sugar?

Thanks.

#19

Not sure I completely follow but I’ll try and answer.

1- yes this is a fairly common tactic, in my case I boil about 4 gallons, maybe lose a quart or 2 in steam, then I drop a 10 lb bag of ice into the sanitized bucket, cool off my boil pot in an ice bath for about 10 min (dropping the wort temp to maybe 140), then pour into the bucket with ice. That typically gets me back up to about 5 gallons and cools me down to about 80 degrees. If I need to top it off I used purified water (not distilled, you want some mineral content in the water).

2- I will usually do all grain batches these days, but if I want to crank up the ABV a little then I’ve been known to add a lb of light DME to the wort during the boil.

Hope this answers what your were asking.

#20

@Lordrook To paraphrase back to you - you are not sanitizing the water you add to the wort?

#22

Nope. I make sure to buy a brand new bottle of purified water from the store and have yet to have an issue. Same with the bag of ice as my understanding is modern industrial ice makers are equipped with filters and UV treatments of the water as if goes through the system and into the ice hoppers. Not to say that there’s not a risk doing this, however you could get bacteria in your wort just by a piece of dust falling into it despite all your best efforts of keeping a clean brew station. YMMV

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#23

On the cooling topic, wort coolers are great, but often times in the summer, the “cold” tap water isn’t quite so cold. In that case, I have had great luck getting the temperature down low enough that I can transfer the wort to the fermenter and letting it finish cooling overnight in my fermentation fridge then pitching the yeast in the morning.

#24

The spouse is very fond of a wide-mouthed plastic carboy. Have only used plastic the last several years.

Will you keg or bottle?

Don’t mess with the wort sugar. You need it - especially if you are bottling - for carbonation. Also, sanitizing your equipment is your friend.

We use reverse osmosis for water, but if you know your water, it doesn’t always matter. Our city water in Wisconsin is shit, and must be accommodated. You can always sterilize extra water and measure it after the boil, adding back what you need.

Found a stainless pot with a glass lid and a tiny vent that works really well. The constraint for brewing in the kitchen has always been the blasted microwave over the stove. Measure first!

Wort chiller has been the only extra investment. Earlier in the brewing life it got popped in the snow on the back deck. (I know. Not an option here.)

BTW, we quit measuring gravity years ago. You can guess abv pretty well after the first couple of samplings. And don’t discount beginner’s luck. I still say after 50 brews or so, the first - a Belgian double - was my favorite. Nut browns are pretty consistent. And I know the tradition is to drink when you brew, but dang. I have watched that backfire more than once.

@Tony - interesting about pitching the yeast the next day. That makes a lot of sense.

@Lordrook - Yep. Ice is good water as long as you haven’t used it to keep the fish. :wink:

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#25

@clk75201 Thanks for your feedback. When you say “don’t mess with the wort sugar”, can you elaborate? Both the book and the instructions on the extract can say to replace the sugar with DME or spray malt…and then just use sugar for the bottling carbonation.

#26

My thinking (and I’m not head brewer) is that if you are using sugar to bottle, then stick to the recipe and use sugar.

I will say the joy of brewing is getting it really right sometimes, getting it really wrong and drinking it anyway, and then finding recipe you use as a sure bet.

We have no sure bets. Every new brew is an experiment. If we go wrong, we know where to find drinkable beer. We drink a lot of beer.