Buy A Home Brew Kit Or Assemble Myself?

[oldmacdonald]

As the topic suggests, I'm slowly acquiring everything I need to get into home brewing. Put the cart before the horse a bit in that I already have an ice bank and a 4-way flooded font but no brewing stuff. Was originally planning to just go down to Coles and buy a Coopers Home Brewing kit but then I realised I could brew in a bucket with cling wrap over it so maybe there's more sensible ways to go. i.e. since I'll be kegging there's probably a few things in a kit that I don't absolutely need.

The fermenter's essentially a bucket with a tap on it, but is there a "best" style of fermenter out there? I've seen the recent discussion about conicals but don't know if I can justify the expense at this stage when I inititially only plan to start with canned brews.

I know I'll need kegs obviously, but what else am I going to need besides a fermenter? I'd like to get a filter and filter either from the fermenter to a keg or from keg to keg.

What are cubes and what are they used for, do I need them initially?

 

[JestersDarts]

quick reply -

don't buy the coles fermenter at full price- from what i've seen they're way too expensive for what you get..

 

[MarkBastard]

Just get a 25L 'water barrel' with a red lid from bunnings. It's really just a fermenter and you can buy a tap for it too. All up under about $15 - 20 from memory.

Throw away the lid, put some glad wrap over the opening and then use the black rubber band from the lid to hold the glad wrap in place.

 

[Steve]

As the topic suggests, I'm slowly acquiring everything I need to get into home brewing. Put the cart before the horse a bit in that I already have an ice bank and a 4-way flooded font but no brewing stuff. Was originally planning to just go down to Coles and buy a Coopers Home Brewing kit but then I realised I could brew in a bucket with cling wrap over it so maybe there's more sensible ways to go. i.e. since I'll be kegging there's probably a few things in a kit that I don't absolutely need.

The fermenter's essentially a bucket with a tap on it, but is there a "best" style of fermenter out there? I've seen the recent discussion about conicals but don't know if I can justify the expense at this stage when I inititially only plan to start with canned brews.

I know I'll need kegs obviously, but what else am I going to need besides a fermenter? I'd like to get a filter and filter either from the fermenter to a keg or from keg to keg.
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What are cubes and what are they used for, do I need them initially?

Get yourself down to bunnings and get a 25 litre "Open Head Camper Drum" for about $18 from memory. They are basically just a normal white plastic fermenter shaped vessel, hole for the tap (which can also be procured from the same establishment for approx $1.50). They have a red lid. They dont have a hole for an airlock but just screw the lid on finger tight and then back it off a tad to let the co2 our when fermenting. Whilst you are there grab some food safe tubing that will fit on above mentioned tap to rack into your keg. Cubes are used by all grainers to rack boiling wort into to store until a later date.
Cheers
Steve

Edit: Beaten by Mark ya *******

 

[JestersDarts]

quick reply -

don't buy the coles fermenter at full price- from what i've seen they're way too expensive for what you get..

personally - I would start small, get a grasp of the finer points of basic kit brewing, sanitising, fermenting, bottling/kegging,

before moving onto hopping, racking, cubes, lagering etc,

before moving onto AG!

I'm only at stage 2...

thats just me. I can't afford to jump in head first, get absolutely everything i need for a full kegging, mashing, brewing setup -

So am starting with the nessecities first.

Temp controlled ferment fridge,
Bottles at this stage,
C02 & regulator next paycheck,
kegs & Fittings paycheck after,
2nd Fridge paycheck after that,
etc etc etc.

This is going to take a while!

 

[RdeVjun]

At domestic home brewing scales, there's not a lot of difference between fermenter types, basically any hygienic container with a tap at the bottom and some way to get liquids in the top should be fine. I wouldn't trouble yourself with conical fermenting vessels, certainly not this early in your brewing career.

For cubes, if you're going to go all- grain, they're extremely useful for no- chilling, but also make a decent fermenter or conditioning vessel which is quite space- efficient- I can fit four in my fermenting fridge at once. Also quite handy to bottle from, so in place of a bottling bucket. Do some searches though, there's loads of discussions about them.

Hope this helps! :icon_cheers:

 

[Bribie G]

Cubes - i.e. plastic water carrying jerrycans such as made by Willow, are used mainly for secondary fermentation / cold crashing or lagering, and the other widespread use is to receive boiling wort from the kettle in a all-grain brew. Then it is allowed to cool naturally before being poured into the fermenter. If you are starting off with kits then you aren't likely to need any cubes. So basically what you need as a bare minimum is:

A couple of fermenters, either 'barrel' shaped or bucket shaped, from your local home brew shop. Hydrometer likewise. Some vinyl or silicone hose to fit to the fermenter tap so you can fill your kegs. A big mixing spoon which you probably have. A hydrometer, which usually comes with its own plastic tube. Sanitizer, which can be as simple as Woolies $1.30 bleach. An accurate thermometer.

The thing about a complete Coopers kit is that it supplies bottles, which you won't need, a dodgy strip thermometer, a hammer on bottle capper for glass bottles (I think?) and a DVD that is only good as a frisbee or incorporate into a set of wind chimes.

If you shop around LHBSs in you region you should be able to set yourself up with one fermenter for around $70 (2 slabs of TED) with a hydrometer, hose and a better thermometer, and add maybe $35 for each subsequent fermenter / airlock / tap - you've obviously heard about clingwrap so that would save a buck. Also taps from Bunnings are only $1.99.

Welcome to the craft.

PS. Don't forget however that if you are brewing to 23L and kegs hold 19L you will have a bit spare, but there's nothing wrong at all with using supermarket 1.25 or 2 L soft drink bottles to hold excess, some brewers use nothing else and they can be reused a few times.

As for what you do with the beer once you are ready to keg, there are heaps of resources on the forum about kegging setups, connections, gas supply, etc. Welcome to some late night reading :icon_cheers:

EDIT: I also have one of those $18 Bunnings 25L. I find that they are of a size that doesn't afford much headspace and can cause overflows with a vigorous fermentation - however coming into winter, and if you get a fermentation fridge you can get away with a 25 litre job. Especially if you tailor your batches to keg size i.e. 19 litres.

 

[Nick JD]

...1.25 or 2 L soft drink bottles to hold excess, some brewers use nothing else and they can be reused a few times.

I have one from 2005 - still going strong. The reuse of this bottle gives me almost enough enviro-credit to eat a spit-roasted baby seal.

 

[Bribie G]

:icon_offtopic: Now don't go putting ideas in NewGuy's head.

 

[oldmacdonald]

Thanks guys. I plan to ease into the brewing by sticking with cans, I doubt I'll ever go AG but I bet a few of you said that too when you started.

I'm keeping an eye out for a bar fridge for fermenting. A mate "acquired" an industrial quality temperature controller (like a fridgemate on steroids I guess) purely so that no one else "acquired" it, which is to say that he hasn't thought of anything to do with it. Should be able to get hold of that for a reasonable cost. So, the plan is to have temperature controlled fermenting right from the start at least.

I know I'm probably compromising my apprenticeship by going straight to kegs, but I don't care for washing bottles all the time - would rather clean kegs - and I picked up an ice bank for $40.

Can I rack via a filter from fermenter to keg or am I better off racking to one keg and then filtering into another? I figure it's only $100 or so for a filter and appears to be one of the only foolproof processes in HB and I hate sediment so I might as well filter from the word go. I know kegs will reduce sediment making it into the glass to negligible levels, but it can't hurt to filter right?

Still deciding which way to go with the surplus beer over what a keg can hold. What are the options? Can I reduce fermenter charge to 19L = just one keg, or can I get a fermenter that will do 38L = two kegs? Should I just bottle it? What's the consensus on PET vs glass on here? I'm going to build a couple of garden sprayer kegs that could handle the volume but I don't expect they're up to carbonating beer? Is there anything else I can use to carbonate the leftovers before transfer to the garden sprayer?

 

[Hatchy]

I just had a look at coles & it's $90 for a starter kit there (at the moment). I got a bunnings "fermenter" last week for $15 & a tap for $2. I had to get the brigalow thermometer from kmart because LHBS wasn't open at the time $5 & you probably want a hydrometer which I reckon would be $15. I can't help with kegging, I'm still bottling but from the investigation I've done yr probably looking at $600 + a fridge. I was shocked that the starter kit doesn't include a capper, it does have 30 pet bottles & caps though. You could easily brew 19L batches in a 25L bunnings fermenter or get a 60L fermenter & do 38L batches. I'd recommend bottling some for portability unless you only drink at home. The other option is to go to yr LHBS & ask if they do starter kits. They may be more reasonably priced than the coopers ones at the supermarket.

Edit: I forgot to mention. Don't get a brigalow thermometer. It may be the most useless piece of brewing equipment I own. It's just a sticky black strip with numbers on it. It doesn't actually show the temperature.

 

[mxd]

not too sure where you are, but if you find a good LHBS they should be able to assist with same "good" cans and stuff.

good luck

 

[komodo]

I know I'm probably compromising my apprenticeship by going straight to kegs, but I don't care for washing bottles all the time - would rather clean kegs - and I picked up an ice bank for $40.

Bloody hell $40 for an icebank! I'm looking at going the ice bank route at the moment and the fleebay units are $1300. Sick of going to the shed for a beer and the minister of war and finance wont let me put it in the BBQ area especially as it will make the bench heights uneven / too high where as a long draw system with kegs in the kegerator (500L chesty) and an icebank under bench would make it ideal plus would make my flooded font work beautifully.

As for going straight to kegs - I went straight to kegs. I went the expencive option and bought all new kegs because I wanted kegs that I knew were going to be 100% straight off the bat - I wanted to elliminate the thought of having a dodgy kegs that caused me grief to start with. In future I will buy 2nd hand jobs though as the price difference is rediculous. I'm now slowly doing some batches in bottles because when you homebrew, whilst there are many skeptics, there are a lot of people who want to try your brew. I find a lot of people love homebrew but dont do it because of the effort (if only they knew...). So I have


Now to the fermenter.
Personally I like airlocks. I sometimes use glad wrap for primary but never for secondary but most of the time I use a 30L fermenter and lid and airlock I got from grain and grape. When I started I bought a thermometer, fermenter, hydrometer, tap, fermenter & airlock from G&G. Pretty sure it cost me around $60


$35.95 for 30 L fermenter with tap airlock and grommet
http://www.grainandgrape.com.au/product_in...roducts_id=7348

$13.95 for thermometer
http://www.grainandgrape.com.au/product_in...roducts_id=7469

$14.95 for hydrometer
http://www.grainandgrape.com.au/product_in...roducts_id=7461

I do have a bunnings "fermenter" and yeah it does the job - but I dont like it that much. I tend to use it mostly for cider cause I tend to put cider down and forget about it for a long time.

 

[oldmacdonald]

Bloody hell $40 for an icebank! I'm looking at going the ice bank route at the moment and the fleebay units are $1300. Sick of going to the shed for a beer and the minister of war and finance wont let me put it in the BBQ area especially as it will make the bench heights uneven / too high where as a long draw system with kegs in the kegerator (500L chesty) and an icebank under bench would make it ideal plus would make my flooded font work beautifully.

Right place at the right time. Was at an auction with mostly machinery and building material type stuff and this was one of the 400-odd lots. Was there all day but would have been worth it just for the ice-bank, let alone some of the other unrelated stuff I picked up.

It's 4-coil with font-flooding pump as well.

It will go under the bench, the two doors next to the bar fridge are actually open like a fridge hole for kegs and ice-bank.

I got a 4-way Andale Carlton flooded font with DA taps to go on the bench off ebay for $300.

I think it's about time I went down to the local HB shop to check out a few things. Thanks for all the advice, I'm sure I'll have many more questions as I get closer to putting down the first brew.

 

[bum]

I'm pretty sure someone just volunteered for a case swap?

 

[Siborg]

Right place at the right time. Was at an auction with mostly machinery and building material type stuff and this was one of the 400-odd lots. Was there all day but would have been worth it just for the ice-bank, let alone some of the other unrelated stuff I picked up.

It's 4-coil with font-flooding pump as well.

It will go under the bench, the two doors next to the bar fridge are actually open like a fridge hole for kegs and ice-bank.

I got a 4-way Andale Carlton flooded font with DA taps to go on the bench off ebay for $300.

I think it's about time I went down to the local HB shop to check out a few things. Thanks for all the advice, I'm sure I'll have many more questions as I get closer to putting down the first brew.

Fkn nice setup!

As far as AG is concerned... I would have laughed at anyone 2 months ago who said I'd be doing full AG nowadays. However, kits & kilos, kits & bits, partials, then AG is a natural progression arising from the desire to make better beer, not that you can't make decent beer from any of those methods. Sink your teeth in to some cans, then try some specialty grains... it's easier (and cheaper) than you may think.

 

[oldmacdonald]

I'm working on it. Slowly collecting equipment as I can in between finishing (for now) renovating and dealing with a 3.5 month old.

I've been lurking on here for a while and am all talk and no action at the moment but figure the more I research the less chance I have of getting it wrong. (Note: getting it wrong = undrinkable product at this stage). Already I think I'll be much better as a result of getting on here then simply going with the instructions in the home brew kit.

 

[kbe]

If you are just going to keg from the start, have a look around as you can get 23 litre kegs now, but not as cheap as a used 19 litre one.

 

[zoidbergmerc]

If you are just going to keg from the start, have a look around as you can get 23 litre kegs now, but not as cheap as a used 19 litre one.

But if you only keg 19L that gives you an excuse to drink the rest of it out of the fermenter ^_^

 

[Wortgames]

Still deciding which way to go with the surplus beer over what a keg can hold. What are the options?

Probably the best would be to reduce the fermenter volume (and therefore the amount of sugar/additional fermentables). This will give you a higher proportion of malt extract and hop flavour in the finished brew which is rarely a bad thing. Alternatively you could bottle it, or if you have enough kegs my favourite trick lately is to make up a 'mongrel' with the excess from 3 or 4 brews. It's not going to win any awards but it is surprisingly popular at parties...

it can't hurt to filter right?

Don't want to p on your fire but I reckon the old proverb about running and walking might well apply here. Every additional step you introduce brings with it a whole new set of things you need to try and master - none of which is brain surgery but put them all together and you've got a whole lot of balls to keep in the air, not to mention a whole lot of stuff to work out how to sanitise. No point having a shed full of brewing gear if you decide that brewing is the most frustrating, time-consuming, messy and expensive way to drink infected beer. I'd say keep it as simple as you can for the first couple of brews, concentrate on sanitation, get comfortable with the basic flow of the process, iron out the bugs in your system, then focus your attention on whatever aspect you're least satisfied with.

Good luck :beer: