ian1764 said:
Hello I am an absolute beginner so just browsing to find out the best stuff to buy to make beer so as not to make too many purchases then find out I should have spent a bit more initially and saved some money.
Still relatively new myself . . . one of the nice things about brewing is that you can start small, and add equipment as you go. I wondered around the brewing isle, totally mystified, until someone suggested I buy a starter kit from the range.
For £20, the kit contained :-
- 1 x 23L brewing bucket (no tap or air lock)[/*:m:28gajtrt]
- 1 x LCD thermometer strip[/*:m:28gajtrt]
- 1 x mixing paddle (plastic)[/*:m:28gajtrt]
- 1 x standard syphon kit[/*:m:28gajtrt]
- 1 x 100g "sterilizer" sachet (sodium percarbonate)[/*:m:28gajtrt]
- 1 x instruction booklet, although the instructions are also on their web site[/*:m:28gajtrt]
I also bought :-
- 1 x 1kg dextrose sugar[/*:m:28gajtrt]
- 1 x beer kit (1.8 kg)[/*:m:28gajtrt]
You don't need the sugar if you have one of the better beer kits (2 cans, 3kg).
You also need a pressure barrel, or enough bottles to hold 23L (minus the gunk that settles at the bottom of the bucket). I've only tried bottling so far, so bought a bottle capper and bottle caps. I recycled a lot of 500ml bottles but bought some too. You can get "swing top" bottles, which you don't need caps for. You can also use plastic drinks bottles - I used a few 2L bottles that previously had still spring water. I avoided fizzy drinks bottles because I didn't want to taint the beer, but maybe lemonade would be OK. I hear brown and green bottles are better than clear, because it blocks light which can cause off-flavours in the beer. I hear some recycled bottles are a bit thin and might break. If a bottle breaks, don't try to salvage the beer - I imagine glass shards can really hurt if you swallow them. I've only had 1 broken bottle which broke during capping, and it had probably taken a few knocks before hand. I find Rekoderlig and Kopparberg bottles don't cap quite as easily as other bottles because they have a narrower lip.
There are lots of different starter kits available - some will come with a pressure barrel or bottles or a hydrometer, so look at the contents instead of just the price. Here's a list of the extra stuff I have bought since that initial kit :-
- Lots of bottles! Some recycled. Some purchased (6 for £4). Got some swing top bottles too (12 for £10)[/*:m:28gajtrt]
- Bottle caps (50 for £1 at Wilkinsons)[/*:m:28gajtrt]
- Hand capper (£10 - had to order this in at wilkinsons)[/*:m:28gajtrt]
- Bottle brush[/*:m:28gajtrt]
- A hydrometer and sample jar for testing the "specific gravity" (£3.50 + £2.50)[/*:m:28gajtrt]
- A turkey baster, for taking samples. Some people get a bucket with a tap.[/*:m:28gajtrt]
- A big funnel, originally to get the sterilising fluid in the bottles, but also to help get the priming sugar in the bottles.[/*:m:28gajtrt]
- "Videne", for sterilising. I hear "sodium percarbonate" only kills bacteria and not spores. Search this forum.[/*:m:28gajtrt]
- Syringes, for measuring out the small quantities of Videne. I imagine measuring spoons would do.[/*:m:28gajtrt]
- A bottle tree - makes the bottling process much easier. I think this was about £20.[/*:m:28gajtrt]
- A bottle rinser - makes sterilising bottles easier. About £14[/*:m:28gajtrt]
Bottling is by far the most laborious part, because you need to clean; sterilise; prime (add sugar); fill and cap all the bottles. Switching to Videne and the bottle tree makes a big difference here. I plan to get a second bucket for "batch priming", but I'm still debating whether to get one with a tap and/or an air lock. I might also get a "little bottler" and/or an "auto-siphon".
I was given 2 giant bottles that were too big for my standard caps and hand capper. I don't know if a bench capper would have been better, but I don't have a bench.
One of my friends gave me an under-tray heater. These cost £30-£40 brand new. I saw one on ebay for £10. You probably need some kind of heating if you brew through winter, unless you have the central heating on all the time, or have an airing cupboard, or live in a warm country.
I also label the bottles I give away, using standard address labels (6 per A4 sheet) run through a printer. Bottles that are tapered, or have lots of raised bits are difficult to label.
M.
