What beer equiptment kit?

[will.brett]

Hi everyone.

I hope this is the right section of the forum to be asking this.

I'm planning on getting a kit tomorrow, With my budget being about £100. Is this too low? Iv noticed that there are kits like the coopers brew kit, but i don't want a kit that can only use beers kits to brew which i suspect this kit does. I want a kit that I can experiment and make my own beers from authentic natural ingredients. As i think using a beer kit to make someone else beer kind of defeats the point of brewing your own.

I want to use ingredients like grain and hops, rather than these pre-made syrup things. I want to learn the traditional proper way of brewing and want an idea of what kit to get for doing this. If anyone could help me with this i would be very appreciative.

Thanks

Will

 

[Shrek]

If you want to to AG then don't bother with a kit and build your own brewery. It should be a lot less than £100 if you stay away from the shiny stuff and go for plastic to start. There is a guide here that shows you how to build everything you need Click here

 

[WelshPaul]

There are also a couple more guides to making a cheap and effective mashtun and a chiller below. I used these and the two came to under £60. My "boiler" is a 25l aluminium stockpot (£24 from asian foodshops).
Other than that, you should get a couple of fermenters, airlocks, and some taps (makes it MUCH easier to empty the FV's), which won't cost that much. Last but not least, invest in a Little Bottler - they are lifesavers on bottling day!

http://www.donosborn.com/homebrew/mashtun.htm
http://www.donosborn.com/homebrew/wort_chiller2010.htm

 

[Runwell-Steve]

You will also need some bottles, pop down your local pub and ask them to save you their Magners / Bulmers bottles, they are ideal.

You will then need some caps and a capper as well of course.

 

[will.brett]

Thanks for the reply's.

I have had a look at the build your own walk through and would love to do that...but i just don't have the tools to do build this as im living in my student digs at the moment and most of my tools are at home.

Aren't there any smallish kits available that would suite my needs or is it just a case of your sodded if you don't go built your own?

cheers

 

[WelshPaul]

Firstly, I would definitely recommend building your own as it will save you a small fortune!
The trouble with building or buying a "smallish" kit is that you will soon want or need to upgrade to a bigger one, thus spending even more money than if you'd just got the proper equipment to begin with.
For example, my 25 litre stockpot, despite being fairly affordable, is now not fit for making larger batches (30 litres or more) so I am in the middle of building a larger 60l electric boiler - basically, I wasted £24 on the stockpot!
Conversely, my mashtun is 32l, a lot larger than the 25l versions that are fairly common, and can easily produce over 40l of wort after sparging. Larger coolboxes rarely cost much more than small ones, especially if you look out for special offers.
These are the two main bits of equipment that will affect the size of your kit the most; you can always buy more fermenters later and split your wort into these if you want to do larger batches.

 

[will.brett]

That does sound like a very valid point as i often do this with various other projects and end up spending a fortune.

So what i need is a mash tun and a wort cooler? or are there many other components? oh and a fermenter or two but there not expensive

 

[Shrek]

There is an AG brewery for sale in the for sale / wanted section. Not sure if you could collect it or not tho? Not sure how much it would be to post one.

 

[will.brett]

Iv had a look and Bristol a bit far for me to go, plus the add was put up 3months ago.

Might just have to have a go at making my own.

 

[carl_saint]

The add was put up 2 days ago!

 

[matth]

Hi, it sounds like you may need to give extract, or partial mash a try.

I am currently doing extract with a view to getting in to AG next year. With extract you have the freedom of playing around with recipes, using hops and specialty grains (ones that you steep - not mash), the main difference is that you brew from malt extract, either dried or liquid, then boil and add hops as normal. for AG you need a Mash tun, which you don't need for extract. An All grain brew will take you up to 8 hours, whereas you can do an extract in around 2 - 2.5 hours.

Tubby has a walk through of an extract brew for a stout - same principles apply for whatever beer your brewing, just the recipes are different.
http://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=30&t=2672

Its up to you on the sizes, though i suspect if you are in student halls or digs then you won't have a lot of room. My tiny brew setup is built for the same reason, i had to fit it on a shelf in a back room when not in use, so i built it all from 15 ltr buckets. I have made a mash tun however, but i do not use it as i haven't the time to do all grain just yet. oh i also do not bother with a coller as i find its ok, not ideal, but ok, if i leave the brew overnight to cool.

My setup cost me about £25 (although it isn't fully complete (i don't have a cooler).

Breif details of how cheap it can be
bought 5 15 ltr buckets from ebay - £15 for the lot (one for boiler/HLT, one for mash Tun, and 3 FVs)
1 Kettle from tesco - £4.50
found some taps and connectors on ebay for around £3
silicone baking tray to cut up for washers, etc - £1
Offcut peice of 15mm copper pipe from builders merchants for manifold and connecting taps - £2
Cheapo youngs airlocks - £2

Mash tun was one of the buckets, tap added, wraped and sealed with silver backed leftover carpet underlay - which is quite effective.

Boiler again a 15ltr bucket, but with the element from a tesco value kettle added (as it is only 15 litres i only used 1 element). I followed this how to.
http://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=30&t=9899

It has taken me about a year, as i'm strapped for time, but i'm getting there.

That is it really, just followed the 'how to' section on here to make stuff - would have taken me much longer, if at all, if i hadn't.

hope this helps, i realise you said your tools are at home, but it is possible to bodge, i didn't use any hole cutters etc - for the tap holes i just drilled a hole with a normal wood drill bit then cut around a penciled on circle with a hacksaw blade from poundland. other stuff i needed - soldering iron, screw drivers, electrical tape, ptfe tape. thats it really.

15 litre will be too small soon, but for the time being it is just the right size, but when i do decide to go biger i can just remove the components and add them to a larger bucket or stock pot.

If all that is a bit much it is still possible to funk up a kit abit by steeping a few grains, adding hop teas, dry hopping in secondry, etc - all of wich you will find details of if you search on here.
Good luck

 

[matth]

alternatively most homebrew shops will have a full system you can buy such as
http://www.leylandhomebrew.com/cat202_1.htm

 

[Shrek]

Go for it! :thumb: If you need any help just put a post up and someone will probably have the answer for you.

 

[will.brett]

Thanks for the replys again.

Also i must have read the joined date instead of the post date for the add.

Cheers

 

[TonySan]

Or, God forbid, you could stick with kit brewing whilst in student digs, as everything you buy for that will be used later on for all other types of brewing, and only buy good quality kits and maybe experiment adding extras.

For the AG brewers out there, I'll get my coat. :hmm:

 

[will.brett]

I just assumed that kit brewing was a set thing that you added this sachet with this packet mix and do bugger all else. I didn't realise you could create own recipes. Maybe it would be a good idea to do this for my remaining uni years and then upgrade when i get a bigger place? I have no idea really what im doing so all your oppinions and suggestions are really useful.

All i want is to make a beer that i can call my own. I hate the idea of this whole paint by numbers and then claim it as your own work.

Cheers

 

[Shrek]

You can do a lot with kits. There are some good kits out there that you can alter to suit your tastes and they are a lot quicker than a AG brew. The real joy of AG brewing is that it works out a lot cheaper than kits and you can make a beer exactly how you want it. There are a few posts on here about how to get the best out of a kit. Maybe if there is another AG or kit brewer around your area on the map you could PM them and ask to give them a hand on a brew day and see what it is all about.

 

[will.brett]

Cheers Shrek,

Im actually going to darkstar brewery hopefully next week so i can have a tour and help out a lil bit as I really want to learn how to do this properly so that i can experiment with out worrying if its going to work or taste nice.

 

[Shrek]

Don't look at the shiny stuff! If you are going back at xmas to your dads place why not have a play with his? :?

 

[TonySan]

A good starting point to customise kits is to search for terms such as hop tea, dry hopping, steeped grains in relation to kit brewing on brewing forums. Also short brewing, making to 20 litres instead of 5 gallons (23 litres) is also a good approach.

Most recommend brewing as per the instructions first time and then tweaking to your taste, but if you see a good combination on a forum that someone has actually tasted rather than just proposed, and their tastes/preferences seem to be the same as yours, give it a go first off.

And if you want to move on after, you already have all the basic equipment you need.