What equipment should I get? (Noob)

[Drunken Horse]

I know I could probably piece alot of this from searching old threads but hopefuly this will bring it all in one place and make sure its upto date.

I'm planning on brewing 40 Pints of Ale, and along side this having a rotation of Wine's Ciders and occasional Mead. Wont be starting from grain yet (hopefully later on)

I've been researching what I can source locally ( I dont do ebay!) and have a decent (I think) shop nearby. I've compared it to Amazon (expensive for the same gear) and Wilko's (cheap but not sure of the quality).

So far I plan on getting for the beer 30 Litre Fermenter and a 5 Gallon keg the local store does 2 almost identical kits (with hydrometer, thermometer syphon cleaner, etc) one including Coopers English Bitter with a standard s30 valve Keg and the Woodforde's Wherry with a King Keg (tap location depending on what they have in stock but I'd guess bottom tap). (Read on here king kegs can be a bit of a pain?) both come with CO2 bulbs. Then planning on using some snaptop bottles as well as the keg.

For the wine, cider and mead a 10 Litre fermenter, Demijohns for the cider/mead. 2.5 gallon keg, gallon snaptop cider bottles, and wine bottling kit (bottles wont be too hard to come by).

Questions I have are
1) Am I going wrong with any of this? Is there anything I shouldnt bother with or should get instead?
2) Is the King Keg kit worth another £20?
3) Should I stick with the CO2 bulbs or pay a around £20 extra and get an S30 bottle?

 

[Dave1970]

1) Am I going wrong with any of this? Is there anything I shouldnt bother with or should get instead?
2) Is the King Keg kit worth another £20?
3) Should I stick with the CO2 bulbs or pay around £20 extra and get an S30 bottle?

1. Not wrong, but you should consider whether you want to bottle rather than keg. It's more time consuming bottling but I'd say the results are better than plastic kegs. So a crown capper, crown caps, a 'little bottler' and some scrounged from a local pub bottles is worth considering

2. Yes. The Wherry kit itself is worth the best part of a tenner more than the standard bitter kit. Although some people do reckon the budget kegs are as good as King Kegs they are a lot cheaper..infact only £20 more for a better kit and a KK sounds like good value

3. In the long run you'll save with an S30 bottle, unless of course you end up bottling

 

[Drunken Horse]

Thanks Dave. Was ubdecided over getting a capper and just buying a enough ales to provide the bottles or to go with the more expensive snap tops which I read provide a better seal. Guess I'll go with the capper enjoy the beer then try a few snap tops to compare.

 

[Kinleycat]

Can i suggest the Coopers microbrewery kit?
I wish i had bought this set up when starting. Its about £60 but comes with your choice of Coopers kit, their fermenter which is the mutts nuts and a supply of bottles and carbonating drops. :thumb:

 

[Grumpy Jack]

Having started out barreling, I almost exclusively bottle now and can keep a range of beers over a longer period to allow for my differing tastes in beer through the year; also it means that I can keep a few back to see how they taste in six months time - I try to set aside half a dozen from a 40 bottle batch, sometimes they make it to Christmas and then again... :grin: It's also nice to be able to give a few away and get feedback on my brews.

The Wherry kit has various results if memory serves from threads on here, but I have to say that the Woodforde's 2 can kits are, in my experience, worth the extra money and produce a consistently good brew.

 

[Dave1970]

I don't think you'll find any problem with the seal on crown caps, it's what almost all commercial brewers use. I've drunk 2 year old crown capped homebrew that's still been perfectly carbonated. The Grolsch type bottles look really nice and you're not using a disposable cap, but I wouldn't say they seal better.

 

[PD]

:thumb: +1 for Coopers starter kit with plastic PET bottles. their fermenter is the best and you get everything for your brew included.
OK the hydrometer is not the best but a top Stevenson and Read only costs £3

 

[Bonesy]

The Cooper kit is the dogs, you get everything you need for your first brew. £69 at tesco, but try and support your lhbs if you can.

 

[Drunken Horse]

Thanks for the suggestions I think I got side tracked from the coopers set because of the larger starter kit when I prefer ales and it doesnt come with a barrell as I was leaning towards doing. The fermenter looks good. Not a fan of plastic bottles but I suppose I could live with them for a bit and replace or compliment them with either a keg or glass bottles later on. At £71 in my local shop would be a cheaper set up than the king keg set up I wad considering. Thanks guys given me a lot of good options to consider.

 

[ushills]

I got a Coopers kit this month and the site did it with a range of ales, I went with the English bitter. Many sites seem to do this!

 

[rpt]

The Coopers PET bottles are pretty good. They aren't as substantial as glass bottles but seem to stand up to multiple uses well, as do the caps. They are designed to hold beer unlike other plastic bottles and so the beer doesn't suffer oxidation. I haven't tried a barrel as bottles are more versatile and too many people seem to suffer with leaks and other problems.

 

[Drunken Horse]

I finally settled on the Coopers Lager starter kit (thanks to those who suggested it) and a can of coopers Light malt extract to get me off to a good start (hopefully). Also picked up a wilkilco cider kit
A Bottle capper - still not convinced I'll be happy with the PET's they'll do for the fridge and for checking conditioning though.
Managed to find snap top bottles for £2 with nice beer inside (not grolsch!) that will help me resist drinking all my HB before it reaches its best!
2 Wilko wine starter kits (at £15 each) to get me the demijohns and to get started on wine and a few experiments. If I can convince the Mrs that I can make drinkable wine then I'll maybe get a proper wine starter kit as I dont really drink enough of it to make more than a DJ's worth a month.

I got 3 10 litre (they are actually closer to 12) PP 05 buckets for £3 each from pound stretcher.Identical to these

Ordered some grommets and bought some airlocks figured I could use these for experimenting (let me know if this willl cause me problems!)

About to move house so will still be a little while but I cant wait to get brewing. So been driving the wife crazy researching what kits to use and deciding which of the WOW style recipes you've all come up with I'm brave enough to try (I will be passing on the Onion wine though).

Thanks again for the above help.

 

[chrig]

Good choices I would say.

If you want to give a wow a go without a demijohn you can make one from 5L water bottles from the supermarket.

 

[Drunken Horse]

Good choices I would say.

If you want to give a wow a go without a demijohn you can make one from 5L water bottles from the supermarket.

I got the 2 wilko wine kits to get the demijohns to make wows. But have been eyeing up the water bottles. If I can find the space in fhe new house I think they'll be joining the shopping list. The buckets will be beers. Going to try a chocolate stout, maple syrup beer and a banana beer. But dont fancy making 20 plus litres incase they are undrinkable. Going to split kits into 2. 1 normal brew and one for the experiment.