Buy A Home Brew Kit Or Assemble Myself?

[oldmacdonald]

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...


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:

Sage advice noted.

 

[zoidbergmerc]

Have you started yet? I was lucky and got one of the coopers kits on special at K-mart for like $50. But if I were to do it again I'd go the bunnings fermenters with gladwrap over the top.

Tis the motto around here "Just brew it"

 

[oldmacdonald]

Don't have any brewing equipment at all yet so I'll probably piece it together bit by bit as opposed to buying a kit. Got about half the dispensing stuff and slowly collecting bits.

 

[Armstrong]

Bite the bullet and go out and buy a Starter kit from anywhere.

By the time you have busted your butt piecing together all the little bits just to save a buck, you would have bought another couple of cases of crap commercial beer and wasted more money than you have saved. It's like the guy who drives to the other end of Sydney using $10 of fuel just to save $5!

Additionally, most Starter kits will include a capper, steriliser, hydrometer, bottle brush, bottle filler, fermenter etc and usually ingredients for your first batch ... all of which you will need.

 

[oldmacdonald]

True enough. It's just that I think I'll feel dirty brewing with a kit fermenter after seeing everyone elses' rigs!

 

[jiesu]

I think you will find most people on here use a kit fermenter or bunnings fermenter. All a fermenter is, is a place to store your wort while the yeast eats the sugars turning it into a beer, you could ferment in a bathtub a tin can or the boot of a ferarri and it will make very little difference to the end result, as long as the container is clean and preferably food grade you will have no issues. (also ensure it isn't sealed so the CO2 can escape)

 

[kelbygreen]

I bet half the guys here that produce some awsome beers brew and ferment on average gear. Mines is nothing special and doesnt look like it lol. got a fermenter I got with a starter kit , a water drum from bunnings and a cube from a camping store and thats about it, I have bought a bench capper, bottle tree (at most all you need but can do without them) and also got a 20lt pot and 3 ring burner but I do extract for kit a household kettle and a spoon (usually supplied in starter kit) will do.

You can use a pot and stove to do boils I done that for 3 brews but with my cheap electric stove it takes so long and cost to much money to run.

I think a starter kit is the way to go I got mine for $99 and to me now its cheap, if you buy all the gear in the HBS you pay about $45 for fermenter, $15 for hydrometer, $6 for spoon, $6 for thermometer strip, $5 for bottle filler then you got 30 pet bottles (not sure cost) and then the kit and ingredients say $35

EDIT: Oh and cleaning and sanitising gear to do about 4 batches

 

[MaltyHops]

Bloody hell ...

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

I would recommend getting a refractometer - I got one from:

http://www.beerbelly.com.au/measuring.html

- be sure to ask for one that reads in specific gravity values directly,
excellent tool (I now have a redundant hydrometer). You can also
get a kilo of pure Sodium Percarbonate from them for $5.50.

I started with the Coopers kit but would assemble separately if I
started again.

 

[zoidbergmerc]

True enough. It's just that I think I'll feel dirty brewing with a kit fermenter after seeing everyone elses' rigs!

Pff, I've got 3 kit fermenters, all from mates who thought homebrewing would be lots of fun then got bored after their 2nd batch

Just do it! DO IT NOW!!!

Well... maybe not now, but tomorrow, stop talking about it and make it happen. Buy a kit and brew an average beer and drink it all in one night and get super pissed and think of\read about more fantastic ideas to make more beer.

 

[ledgenko]

Oldmacca, try dropping into your local home brew shop and asking if they have any used cubes. I picked up abot 20 this way and now I can brew away like crazy. I do like the idea of using these cubes as additional fermenters too. Best of luck with your cans of beer. Keep on here and as you can move to partials and eventually to the Mecca - all grain. A wicked journey let me tell you . ;-)

 

[Batz]

Just get one off ebay or the local classies, heaps of people selling them because it was all to hard.

http://tinyurl.com/y4b4l24


Batz

 

[the_yobbo]

Nothing wrong with kit fermenters.
I got my homebrew setup from a garage sale. I had done homebrew ages ago in my uni days purely because it was cheap. It was actually my brother's homebrew setup I used back then. Anyways, popped into a random garage sale while driving by on a Sunday afternoon. They were packing up and throwing most of the unsold items in the skip bin out the front.
I spotted the homebrew drum in the corner and ruffled through the contents to find:
2x 25L fermenters (only 1 lid though)
3x Air lock bubblers
2x Bottle Fillers
2x Hydrometers
1x Hydrometer Sample Tube
2x Unopened packet of caps/seals
1x Glass jar half full with unknown white substance
3x mini funnels
And an assortment of random items like toothbrushes, laundry powder scoop, wooden spoons, etc.

They said take the lot for 50c. For that price, it was too much of a bargin to pass up. And then after purchasing it, I had to use it otherwise it would have been a waste of money. Haven't looked back since.

The only down side is the 25L fermenters (short and larger diameter) don't have much head room on them and are less likely to fit two drums side by side in a fridge.

I've since picked up a new kit from a mate who found it un-used in his old man's shed.

 

[petesbrew]

A fermenter is still a fermenter, whether it has kit or AG in it.
Mine's a coopers one, and it's still going strong after 4years and 50 brews (is that all?)

I've seen the starter kits lately selling between $80-100.
Maybe you can get it cheaper sourcing it yourself, i dunno. I just know it was a birthday pressy that just keeps on giving.

 

[Puv]

Sorry for bumping an old thread but its been a good read for a newbie facing the same decisions.
I definitely won't need bottles or capping tool as going straight to kegs, and still contemplating my first brew as I have an urn so could go straight to AG, even if its not the advised path.
Decisions, decisions, but I think as a newbie today, the resources and others experience available on the web is a huge benefit especially with YouTube and this site.
Thanks to everyone that contributes and makes the content for people like me to follow