First Home Brew Starter Kit

[sinidea]

Hello,

Been reading up on home beer brewing for a few weeks now and was looking into purchasing my first home brew kit. Done a reasonable amount of fermentation study at uni (chemical engineering) and from the reading feel like I've got a semi-decent grasp on the basics. Just had a few questions on which kit to purchase.

Was looking at something like:

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/HOMEBREW-STARTER-KIT-By-COPPER-TUN-FOR-89-INTERNATIONAL-PILSNER-/171279584448?pt=AU_Barware&hash=item27e10f0cc0&_uhb=1

or

http://www.countrybrewer.com.au/products/Beer-Brewer%27s-Budget-Starter-Kit.html

Any reason why I should pick one over the other or doesn't really matter? Is there another one I should look into?

Thanks

 

[gTrain]

I noticed neither of these kits include bottles, although they both have crown seals and a hand capper. You will need to get a supply of bottles, either drinking/emptying them or buying new bottles.

The Coopers kit includes 30 PET bottles.

A few brewers prefer glass bottles, but the plastic Pet bottles are good for the beginning brewer. I have a mixture of both at the moment.

 

[Bizenya]

Hey there

I started with a Coopers Kit, which at the time came with no bottles (1996 i think)- however as gTrain stated they now do come with the bottles and practically everything you need-

I have a large supply of glass bottles from many years of 'collecting' (just cleaned 156 longnecks...) but still use a few PET bottles a 'giveaways'.

Grab a coopers kit (sold at K-Mart in SA) and your away.

maybe read up a bit more in regards to the temp to brew at (This forum will definitely guide you in the correct direction) and you'll be drinking HB in no time

 

[sinidea]

ah yes, forgot to mention someone has collected 60 longnecks for me, just need to clean them.

So nothing particularily better or noteworthy about those kits than a Coopers kit I could find at Big W/K-Mart?

Thanks for the replies

 

[chemfish]

They seem pretty similar to the coopers kit I got this year. I would ditch the hand capper and get a bench model though if you do get one of them unless you like the idea of belting caps onto bottles with a hammer

 

[mrsupraboy]

From my experience country brewer is massively expensive for what u get. I bought allot of stuff from them only cruise it was the right place at the right time. But if I looked into it would have gone else were. The ones from big w give u everything u need and even comes with everything u need for a first brew including the coopers brew can.

 

[gsouth82]

I'd personally be choosing the eBay one purely because it has a 30L fermenter with screw on lid. The country brewer one has a 25L pail style one with clip on lid.
The 30L fermenters give u a little more breathing space for higher gravity brews with 'active' fermentation.

 

[sinidea]

Thanks for the advice, keen to give this a go.