[lovebunny]

im pretty excited! i figured i needed something to do while im crippled and i cant think of many things more satisfying than brewing my own beer. so i picked this up. now it looks like i still need a brew pot. whats a good cheap reccomendation? and any advice from you master brewers on here would be great!

Beer Making Plus Kit with Secondary Fermenter and Ingredients
A secondary fermenter allows you to condition and clarify your beer away from all of the sediment that was created during the primary fermentation. It's not essential for beers that will be bottled quickly, but it will help produce a clearer beer and is a must for beers that will be bottled more than a month after production. This Kit includes all the equipment in our Beer Making Starter Plus kit in addition to a 5-gallon Better-Bottle plastic carboy for use as a secondary fermenter, a rubber stopper and an extra airlock. Better-Bottle Carboys have been specifically designed for fermenting beer and wine and are made from a special plastic that is not oxygen permeable and will impart no off-flavors to your beer or wine.


Includes:
6.5 gallon fermenter with lid
6.5 gallon bottling bucket with spigot
Two 3 piece air-locks
One-step sanitizer
Siphon unit (racking cane, 4 ft. hose & springless bottle filler)
Crystal thermometer
Triple scale hydrometer
Bucket clip
Quality bottle capper
50 Bottle Caps
Bottle brush
"Home Beer Making" book
21" Stainless steel spoon
Fermtech Auto-Siphon
John Palmer's "How to Brew"
5-gallon Better-Bottle plastic carboy
Rubber stopper
Your choice of one Alpine Brew Kit
Step-by-step instructions

 

[BadDNA]

You want cheap, go down to your local big box home center, and get a turkey fryer, it should come with a ~7 gallon pot which is big enough to boil a full batch. It should run you in the neighborhood of $50 or so.

If you have the option to upgrade the better bottle to a glass fermenter, I would. Plastic is prone to scratching and scratches hide wild yeast and bacteria which can be nearly impossible to sanitize and could ruin your beer.

 

[Pesqueeb]

You want cheap, go down to your local big box home center, and get a turkey fryer, it should come with a ~7 gallon pot which is big enough to boil a full batch. It should run you in the neighborhood of $50 or so.

If you have the option to upgrade the better bottle to a glass fermenter, I would. Plastic is prone to scratching and scratches hide wild yeast and bacteria which can be nearly impossible to sanitize and could ruin your beer.

Get an immersion wort chiller also. Remember, clean clean clean.

 

[jonKranked]

You want cheap, go down to your local big box home center, and get a turkey fryer, it should come with a ~7 gallon pot which is big enough to boil a full batch. It should run you in the neighborhood of $50 or so.

If you have the option to upgrade the better bottle to a glass fermenter, I would. Plastic is prone to scratching and scratches hide wild yeast and bacteria which can be nearly impossible to sanitize and could ruin your beer.

This is a good option, but since LB has a broken femur, he could always just order a 16-20 quart pot on Amazon too! Stainless steel is the way to go.

Cleanliness is CRUCIAL!!!!


Squeeb, I need to get a wort chiller and boiler pot as well. Would you recommend a hydrometer? What about refractors - are they worth the money? I like that they can give you a reading with a smaller volume of beer, but are they as accurate as they claim?

 

[BikeGeek]

Squeeb, I need to get a wort chiller and boiler pot as well. Would you recommend a hydrometer? What about refractors - are they worth the money? I like that they can give you a reading with a smaller volume of beer, but are they as accurate as they claim?

Just my $0.02, but for 5-10 gal brewing I think a refractometer is overkill. With all the variables that come in to play while homebrewing there's no need for the precision. All you really need to know is your starting point so you can determine when you're finished. Hitting the numbers the recipe gives you is nice, but rare. We're brewing on a state-of-the-art 25 bbl system. The amount of control we have is ridiculous but we still see fluctuation in our starting gravities.

 

[lovebunny]

one last question. is it ok to save bottles from previous drinking sessions? the kit came with 12 bombers but i know im going to need more than that. i figure its a win win if i can. i get to get drunk and i get bottles for my homebrew!

 

[binary visions]

I've always bottled with old bottles I drank. Just make sure they're pop tops, not twist-offs.

 

[lovebunny]

yeah i just told a bunch of my friends we are having a brown bottle pop top beer party tomorrow for the game.

 

[SkaredShtles]

I'm thinking that LB and cleanliness are going to be an impossible duo...

 

[TN]

yay beer.

 

[jonKranked]

Just my $0.02, but for 5-10 gal brewing I think a refractometer is overkill. With all the variables that come in to play while homebrewing there's no need for the precision. All you really need to know is your starting point so you can determine when you're finished. Hitting the numbers the recipe gives you is nice, but rare. We're brewing on a state-of-the-art 25 bbl system. The amount of control we have is ridiculous but we still see fluctuation in our starting gravities.

I kinda suspected that, thanks for confirming.

Got pics of your setup?

edit: beyond the 5-6 gallon range, what size/style of container is used for fermenting?

got any other tips or recommendations for basic equipment not included in a kit?

As far as cleaners/sterilizers go, what do other brew monkeys recommend?

 

[lovebunny]

I'm thinking that LB and cleanliness are going to be an impossible duo...

haha thats what my roommate said.

 

[TN]

If you have the option to upgrade the better bottle to a glass fermenter, I would. Plastic is prone to scratching and scratches hide wild yeast and bacteria which can be nearly impossible to sanitize and could ruin your beer.

Not sure if he needs to be around glass.

 

[BadDNA]

edit: beyond the 5-6 gallon range, what size/style of container is used for fermenting?

got any other tips or recommendations for basic equipment not included in a kit?

As far as cleaners/sterilizers go, what do other brew monkeys recommend?

No pictures of my setup but picture a couple of 10gal Rubbermade coolers and a 10gal kettle on a propane burner. It's basic and simple.

Beyond 5 gallons a lot of people will either split batches to two or more glass fermenters or invest in a conical fermenter.

Cleaners/sanitizers are easy too. You can go as simple as a bleach solution (1/2C to 5gal) or you can get specialty cleansers that are intended for food service. I use the bleach solution most of the time and only use some of the others when that fails to do the trick.

 

[TN]

No pictures of my setup but picture a couple of 10gal Rubbermade coolers and a 10gal kettle on a propane burner. It's basic and simple.

Beyond 5 gallons a lot of people will either split batches to two or more glass fermenters or invest in a conical fermenter.

OK...with that being said....could you do an open topped primary in a big dairy container (I can't call it what it is, b/c I don't the proper name but it is a big ceramic 10+ gal container)? Those things are everywhere around here. The only problem I can see with them is how heavy they are & I can only imagine how heavy one would be with 5+ gal of beer in it.

 

[BadDNA]

OK...with that being said....could you do an open topped primary in a big dairy container (I can't call it what it is, b/c I don't the proper name but it is a big ceramic 10+ gal container)? Those things are everywhere around here. The only problem I can see with them is how heavy they are & I can only imagine how heavy one would be with 5+ gal of beer in it.

Unless you want a really funky beer, no. You shouldn't ever do an open fermentation, it needs to be sealed off from the outside air in order to prevent wild yeast and bacteria from entering and spoiling the beer.

 

[BikeGeek]

OK...with that being said....could you do an open topped primary in a big dairy container (I can't call it what it is, b/c I don't the proper name but it is a big ceramic 10+ gal container)? Those things are everywhere around here. The only problem I can see with them is how heavy they are & I can only imagine how heavy one would be with 5+ gal of beer in it.

Brewers all over the world ferment in open fermenters; some in positive-pressure, laboratory-like environments, others in the equivalent of a basement, with varying degrees of success. BadDNA is right in that it's much easier to get infected beer in open fermentation, but simply covering it with some sort of lid, or even foil helps a lot. I'd be more concerned with what might already be living in the pores of the ceramic jug. If you want to try open fementation, do a small trial first to see what happens. After you pitch your yeast on the next batch, rack a gallon or two in to an open bucket and let her go. Who knows, you may actually catch something wild that tastes good.

This fall, I sat 1.5 gallons of wort uncovered in an apple orchard for several hours then took it home and let it ferment. It smelled like poo while fermenting but actually finished dry and slightly tart, with a fruity, slightly barnyard aroma. Not great, but not offensive and definitely drinkable.

 

[BikeGeek]

Got pics of your setup?

At home, my setup is much like BadDNAs: rubbermaid/gott coolers, buckets, stainless kettle, turkey-fryer burner.

At work:
30 hl Braukon brewhouse:

l-r: mash tun, lauter tun, kettle, pre-run tank (only the stack is visible)

 

[BikeLuvR904]

good idea with the turkey fryer

 

[pnj]

LB, you brew yet?

 

[lovebunny]

i present to you. archwood amber ale! 10 more days i get to drink it!!

 

[BadDNA]

i present to you. archwood amber ale! 10 more days i get to drink it!!

 

[lovebunny]

 

[jonKranked]

you need to wait a few more days... it'll get even better! I promise!!

 

[Pesqueeb]

Squeeb, I need to get a wort chiller and boiler pot as well. Would you recommend a hydrometer? What about refractors - are they worth the money? I like that they can give you a reading with a smaller volume of beer, but are they as accurate as they claim?

Somhow I missed your question. But I agree that a refractometer is over kill for homebrew, unless your independently wealthy. I use a standerd 3 sided hydrometer. You will have to comensate for wort tempature with a hydrometer but thats easy to do

 

[jonKranked]

Somhow I missed your question. But I agree that a refractometer is over kill for homebrew, unless your independently wealthy. I use a standerd 3 sided hydrometer. You will have to comensate for wort tempature with a hydrometer but thats easy to do

haha no worries on missing my Q. I actually picked up a thermo-hydrometer so the temperature correction shouldn't be too tricky

 

[DamienC]

This fall, I sat 1.5 gallons of wort uncovered in an apple orchard for several hours then took it home and let it ferment. It smelled like poo while fermenting but actually finished dry and slightly tart, with a fruity, slightly barnyard aroma. Not great, but not offensive and definitely drinkable.

Making a lambic?

I've wanted to experiment with spontaneous fermentation after visiting the Cantillon Brewery in Brussels earlier this year. Here's a shot of Cantillon's massive, copper cooling tun in the attic of the brewery which is open to the outside air from which wild yeasts are imbued upon the cooling wort...