Starting out

[Beatson]

Firstly, Hello there, thanks for reading this.

I am a total and utter beginner to Homebrewing and I am looking to buy some equipment to start with room to expand.
I have looked at the starter kits available online and the idea of buying them does not appeal to me greatly, I like buying separate parts so I can become more familiar with them and it just appeals more to me. I am thinking of a budget of around £150 if possible, and looking to make 5 gallon batches at a time. My experience with brewing is very limited... one Chemistry lesson a few years back where after making Limonene we all thought we would quickly grab some supplies, chuck them into a bottle with a water trap on top, using guessed amounts with boiling water to kill any bacteria then cooling it down and adding the yeast... needless to say this failed epically... but then again our teacher was purely guessing the method and amounts of ingredients.
So I was mainly wondering what equipment exactly i would need (and want) to make 5 gallon of some form of ale, with a budget of £150.
Also heating equipment may be needed as the only likely space I will be able to put it is in the attic... although its not too cold in there, I dont fully know the right temperature needed.

Thank you in advance
and cheers :

p.s. any information and explanation on the equipment would be great although not necessary

 

[Wez]

it depends how good you are with your hands, you can set up a brewery very cheap if you can do things like convert a cool box into a mash tun. have a good search of the forum you will find some great posts about how to do such things.

 

[robsan77]

hi, i set up for under £100 :thumb:

 

[Beatson]

Me and making stuff with my hands often does not go well together
but ill look around, i suppose with guides making stuff with my hands would be much easier than my usual method :

 

[Springer]

Hi Beatson,
Welcome to the forum. As Wez said use the forum search feature and then maybe do a kit of some sort. Ask specific questions if you are unsure of anything, by all means.
Its a bit hard to answer questions like, how do you train a dog, or how do you make a piece of furniture, if you see what I mean :?
No need to spend anything like £150, that will get you loads of kit even for AG brewing, but you need to know how to use it and all that info is available here on the forum with a bit of searching. I don't think anyone can answer you queries in a post, but someone may attempt to and prove me wrong. :lol:
A kit will allow you to brew a reasonable "5 gallon of some form of ale" for the price of the kit and a bucket and a few other bits. If you are happy with your result you have achieved your goal.
"don't fully know the right temperature needed. " I don't know anything about your attic but can you get 5 gallons up there easily:? A bit of research will tell you that ideally you need 20 degrees approx.
Research Trying to be helpful.
S

 

[orange]

I think a homebrew shop is a good place to start. The one near to me set me up as a complete novice with the basic equipment and a lot of questions answered. :thumb:

 

[Muddy Funker]

A beginner start up kit I think is actually a good place to start.

Certain items are an absolute essential, fermenting bin, hydrometer, sterilising powder, syphon, bottles or keg ect,,,

All of these will come in a good starter kit along with a decent two can beer kit.


From here you wouldn't really need to add that much more equipment to move to AG if you so wished.

If you're happy to stay with plastic and keep things simple £150 is quite a large budget. It would easily cover all your needs as long as you're prepared to make some items yourself, boiler, mash tun.

Good luck and have fun :thumb: