Essential Equipment: Seeking Advice from Experienced Brewers

[Bryan.]

Hey everyone,

I need some advice on essential equipment. I’ve got a few basics but would love your recommendations on:

Fermenters: Plastic vs. glass—what do you prefer?
Brewing Kettles: Best size and features for beginners?
Airlocks and Stoppers: Best types and brands?
Thermometers and Hydrometers: Recommendations for accuracy?
Cleaning and Sanitizing: Top products to use?
Measuring Tools: What’s essential for precision?
Bottling Supplies: Key items for a smooth process?
Thanks for your help!

 

[Sadfield]

There's many right answers to those questions. This gave me the knowledge and tools to answered most of those questions when starting out.


Buy once and buy well.

Decide how much beer you want to drink and how often you can get to brew. That will determine the size of kit.

Measuring equipment should be accurate and reliable. Get the best possible for your budget. You can choose when and where accuracy matters most to you, but you can't make inaccurate equipment more accurate.

Buy some good brewing books,

 

[jof]

Oh & you don't need at the most expensive shiny stainless steel kit to make good beer.

You will need time.

What you need is a few practice runs to get something acceptable, then you can fine tweak your process.

 

[Bryan.]

View attachment 102284

There's many right answers to those questions. This gave me the knowledge and tools to answered most of those questions when starting out.


Buy once and buy well.

Decide how much beer you want to drink and how often you can get to brew. That will determine the size of kit.

Measuring equipment should be accurate and reliable. Get the best possible for your budget. You can choose when and where accuracy matters most to you, but you can't make inaccurate equipment more accurate.

Buy some good brewing books,

Thanks for the great advice! I agree that investing in quality equipment and accurate measuring tools is key. I’m looking forward to checking out some good brewing books. Any recommendations?

 

[Bryan.]

Oh & you don't need at the most expensive shiny stainless steel kit to make good beer.

You will need time.

What you need is a few practice runs to get something acceptable, then you can fine tweak your process.

Thanks for the tip! I agree—practice and time are what really matter. Looking forward to refining my process with each batch.

 

[Sadfield]

Thread 'Home brewing books for beginners' https://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/threads/home-brewing-books-for-beginners.105273/

A more general thread about brewing books.

Thread 'Brew Books - What's On Your Shelf??' https://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/threads/brew-books-whats-on-your-shelf.96688/

 

[Nicks90]

A 60 quid Chinese tea urn, a 20 quid biab bag and a fiver for a long handled plastic paddle. Free plastic fermentation bin from friend

Bottles are (cough) recycled from their virgin state from the supermarket by yours truly and a cheap capper and caps from Amazon.
Job jobbed for over 150 all grain brews.

All other ancillary items are just borrowed from the kitchen. I know the weight of a litre jug full of minch crushed grain is 500gm (ish) and a small ramakin works to measure hops in to using the kitchen scales (which also has a curved tray that will fit up to 500gm of crystal/adjuncts). And the wifes colander is big enough to fit the bag of mashed grains in over the kettle to drain whilst the wort comes to the boil. Kitchen temp probe is accurate to within a degree for mash temps and the time on my phone is more than accurate for timing hop additions and boil time length.
What more do you need?

I did splash out on some copper pipe and bent it round a lemonade bottle to make a home made chiller ( still has the original electric tape to space it out for 2 bits of spare hosepipe and jubilee clips on it) at about brew 60 and my wife bought me a glass wide necked 25l carboy for Christmas

It's the ingredients, patience and practice that make great beer, not gadgets.

Edited to add: not denigrating anyone that spends wedges of cash on stainless kit, or people that want a Bluetooth enabled auto kettle that lowers your grain in, stirs it, heats it 4 different ways, pumps it up, down and all around - all whilst playing relaxing whale sounds and rubbing the knots from your shoulders ...but it doesn't actually make better beer.

 

[MashBag]

This will be different, because I don't have a bleach party where I practise my molecular chemistry, and maybe some beer pops out.
I make beer, reliably, regularly and quickly.

Fermenters:
Plastic if you must. But fermentation in the kettle is very good.

Brewing Kettles:
This is a budget question really, but I only recommend a preowned braumeister. Don't let anyone pursaude you they are just the same, but more expensive. They are different. And you will have a great residual value.

Airlocks and Stoppers:
none.

Thermometers and Hydrometers:
A good Infrared Gun. Any hydrometer.

Recommendations for accuracy?
Find a recipe you like and brew it repeatedly. Make one change at a time. This will improve your accuracy and your understanding.

Cleaning and Sanitizing:
Caustic truck wash and water and a bog brush win every time.

Measuring Tools:
What’s essential for precision?
A braumeister & inkbird.

Bottling Supplies:
Crates. Do 12 at a time. Easiest & quickest.

Of you want a shiney brewery, and enjoy washing up please ignore the above. Or just steal some ideas

Top tip. Treat your yeast like babies, not like sugar in your tea.

 

[Omega]

My take on it though I am not professional, and brewing for about 1 year (not counting experience with Pinter):
Fermenters: Plastic vs. glass—what do you prefer? - I prefer plastic: 1. It is cheaper, 2. I like watching how it brews, 3. The signal from Rapt Pill is reliable; 4. I brew under pressure which is good for lagers and IPAs
Brewing Kettles: Best size and features for beginners? - don't use it, I buy kits and because it is faster and more convenient. Also, this might be the cheapest option
Airlocks and Stoppers: Best types and brands? - don't know, I got two somehow and I do not see any difference
Thermometers and Hydrometers: Recommendations for accuracy? - I use Rapt Pill for convenience, it tells me alcohol %, temperature, duration, and very convenient
Cleaning and Sanitizing: Top products to use? - ChemSan, ChemClean? I save the sanction water and reuse it, so far no problems after circa half a year. I do not always clean the keg either if I put the same brew from the same manufacturer
Measuring Tools: What’s essential for precision? - Rapt Pill, it is not that accurate as it measures gravity +- 0.002. However, it is good enough for me, I wanted accuracy at the start, but now I am not that bothered as long as I know when to stop fermenting
Bottling Supplies: Key items for a smooth process? - I have two kegs 19 litres, people advised me here to get them to make life easier and they do. I have 2-litre plastic bottles (Cola, Fanta etc) and other 0.5-0.7 plastic and glass bottles too. Usually I drink from keg and give away 0.5-2 litre bottles. Then bottle capper (I think I spent about £10 on eBay for new one, it looks like this and you won't risk breaking the bottle as happens with cheaper ones https://brew2bottle.co.uk/products/...l0auREqExlTmhFVD_aeHTWYZtDxLbclcaAlM4EALw_wcB ) and caps. And I now started using carbonation drops instead of priming sugar - it costs more, but sugar causes rapid foaming and starts spilling if you do not bottle it fast, so less messy and easy to use
I also got myself fridge and Keg Washer/Fermenter cleaner. This keg washer looks a bit better than mine and cheaper, it saves a lot of hassle cleaning https://www.themaltmiller.co.uk/product/keg-king-cleaning-kit-corny-keg-washer-and-fermenter-cleaning-kit/?v=79cba1185463#:~:text=The Keg Washer from Keg King is an affordable, efficient,sediment and residue with ease.