New Setup For A Novice

[BlackRat]

Hi everyone, this is my first post on this forum and I am very new to the game of brewing. I love beer and I love the science behind brewing so I guess that makes me qualified to start my own home few setup.
My question is this, as I am a brewing virgin, logic would suggest I undertake a malt extract as my 1st brew however as stated above I really like the science behind brewing and wish to soon explore the world of full grain brewing. Knowing this, would you suggest that a brew kit from my local brew shop would be the best option? Eg plasic fermenter, etc.
Or would you suggest that knowing I plan to quickly develop my brewing, the money would be spent better in other areas, ie I don't want to buy a plastic kit if it will be replaced in 3 months.
I would love to get people's advice and if anyone has any kit in the Geelong area they would like to sell please let me know.
Thanks guys.BlackRat

 

[Matt89]

definitely start off with a beginners set up kit most LHBS will sell for around $80 - $100 which will set you up with what you need for a kit brew

after that your left with the equipment to then move onto full extract brewing & adding your own hops (if you have a pot) handy

if you live in geelong a drive to G&G in yarraville is def worth the trip and they will be able to sort you out with everything you need

 

[ben_sa]

99% of us use plastic fermenters mate... Wether its k+k or All Grain, you still need a plastic fermenter to actually ferment in. (unless you want to buy a stainless fermenter $$$)

 

[kelbygreen]

dont buy a kit if you plan to go straight to AG. you can pick up a fermenter from bunnings under $20, you can buy a long SS spoon (kits come with a plastic one) for about $20. you can make a kit beer with them 2 things and I can tell you a kit and ingredients wont set you back $80 sure they come with a bottle cleaner (prob couple $) some PET bottles (not sure??) and caps, plus some crap cleaners and sanitisers you will never use again.

As I always say to people if you know where you want to go with brewing then start there if you take step by step then you have all this gear you bought that you dont use anymore as you though I just start of with one pot then you get a bigger pot then you get a esky then you get a even bigger pot and esky (but the second pot can be used as a HLT so not all lost) then you relise lifting 50kg+ of wort from the floor has ****** your back so you buy a pump and hoses

Kinda get where I am going?? So say you want to brew less often as you dont have time (like me) you will be looking at doing a double or more batch at a time. So if you buy a pot to suit that need you can start with BIAB and use it as a kettle or a HLT down the track. A good place is a converted keg (use one of these as a HLT) but it will handle single batch BIAB in then and it will also handle double batches as a HLT. Then buy a bigger pot for your kettle and a mash tun then you should only have to make the system better not brew twice and go I dont think its big enough.

Of coarse if you have heaps of time and never want the same beer on tap then do singles and brew often. I should say my brew day was 4hrs 15mins roughly for single and 4hrs 45mins for doubles.

Oh then you got fermenting fridges with temp controllers, cubes (to no chill), keezer and kegging setup as you get sick of cleaning bottles lol

 

[jacknohe]

+99 :lol:

But seriously, as others have said, we all start out with the same gear and add to it as we go. Its good you can do that since the dollars up front for the stuff I've acquired over the years would be rather significant.


Go for it!!!

 

[BlackRat]

dont buy a kit if you plan to go straight to AG. you can pick up a fermenter from bunnings under $20, you can buy a long SS spoon (kits come with a plastic one) for about $20. you can make a kit beer with them 2 things and I can tell you a kit and ingredients wont set you back $80 sure they come with a bottle cleaner (prob couple $) some PET bottles (not sure??) and caps, plus some crap cleaners and sanitisers you will never use again.

As I always say to people if you know where you want to go with brewing then start there if you take step by step then you have all this gear you bought that you dont use anymore as you though I just start of with one pot then you get a bigger pot then you get a esky then you get a even bigger pot and esky (but the second pot can be used as a HLT so not all lost) then you relise lifting 50kg+ of wort from the floor has ****** your back so you buy a pump and hoses

Kinda get where I am going?? So say you want to brew less often as you dont have time (like me) you will be looking at doing a double or more batch at a time. So if you buy a pot to suit that need you can start with BIAB and use it as a kettle or a HLT down the track. A good place is a converted keg (use one of these as a HLT) but it will handle single batch BIAB in then and it will also handle double batches as a HLT. Then buy a bigger pot for your kettle and a mash tun then you should only have to make the system better not brew twice and go I dont think its big enough.

Of coarse if you have heaps of time and never want the same beer on tap then do singles and brew often. I should say my brew day was 4hrs 15mins roughly for single and 4hrs 45mins for doubles.

Oh then you got fermenting fridges with temp controllers, cubes (to no chill), keezer and kegging setup as you get sick of cleaning bottles lol

Can you really get fermenters from bunnings?

 

[Matt89]

Can you really get fermenters from bunnings?

canoe drum bucket 25L for about $16 but its just that.....a bucket you use glad wrap as a seal instead of lid/airlock like on a commercially made plastic fermenter

then its about 2-3$ for a plastic tap drill a hole and BOOM! you have a fermenter

 

[toolio666]

Hydrometer. And a spare.

 

[keifer33]

Hydrometer. And a spare.

Or just grab a refractometer and then can be used to take gravity readings during the mash/boil.

 

[ben_sa]

The 'fermenter' i bought from Bunno's already had a threaded hole for a tap fwiw...

 

[iralosavic]

I have cubes and my coopers style fermenter still gets plenty of action. Nothing wrong with starting out with a BigW kit. The stuff that has no carry over to all grain is minimal and in some kits all of it remains useful. What I did when I started out is I spent my money from the end of production and worked backwards; ie first thing was getting bottles, caps, a capper (and in my case some kegs and accessories), then a fermenting fridge on a temp controller, then all my fermenting gear etc you get the gist. Now I have an electric single vessle AG system and I've got the rest of the process down pat so the learning curve was not as steep. Cheers

 

[BlackRat]

canoe drum bucket 25L for about $16 but its just that.....a bucket you use glad wrap as a seal instead of lid/airlock like on a commercially made plastic fermenter

then its about 2-3$ for a plastic tap drill a hole and BOOM! you have a fermenter

Ah ok, i see what you mean now.

Sadly my girlfriend would confirm that my glad-wrapping skills are less than adequate for day-to-day tasks so they are sure to fail here.

 

[kelbygreen]

glad wrap is not hard, if you think it will fail put a extra layer lol. after all breweries do open fermentation and never seen them racing around with glad wrap to put ontop of the fermenter. Although I think you have to rack it off after its 3/4 done.

 

[bruce86]

glad wrap is not hard, if you think it will fail put a extra layer lol. after all breweries do open fermentation and never seen them racing around with glad wrap to put ontop of the fermenter. Although I think you have to rack it off after its 3/4 done.

Why the irish man use 2 condoms? To be sure to be sure not the jokes thread but hey

 

[iralosavic]

I glad wrap my glass carboy in leiu of a bung and airlock. If the neck is just 5cm like a cube, Jerry or carboy, even a spider monkey could cover it in wrap. Fold over a few layers until it's a 10cm square, give it a spray of sanitiser and fold it over the hole and secure it with one of your lady's hair ties. That being said, if you just loosen the cap on a cube by half a turn from tight, it will allow pressure to release without anything getting in. Spray overflow with sanitiser to wash it away. Bam, and the dirt is gone!

 

[Wimmig]

I would say go the carboy route. With a bung, and airlock or blow off tube...w/e you prefer. Use a siphon or, get a ported betterbottle carboy with tap.

 

[iralosavic]

A vigorous ferment may pop the bung out of a carboy neck - even with an airlock fitted. It's why I switched to glad wrap - as I often don't inspect the fermenter for the first week to 10 days (brewery is not at home). Horses for courses though really.

 

[Truman42]

I have a Coopers fermenter you can have. And I can get it to Geelong FOC. It's only been used twice.

 

[Gar]

Everyone's different but I like to have a lid on my fermenter with a decently wide blow off tube going into a big jar or bucket... makes the aftermath of a krausen volcano a bit easier to clean up, plus it has the added bonus of being able to add a stainless temp probe directly into the wort through the lid.

Also, don't be afraid to venture into all-grain early if the bug bites BlackRat, my first beer was an all-grain beer on a 3 vessel system and I had a blast, just make sure you read up as much as you can and don't get too worried about it :icon_cheers:

*edit* Here's a link to my first brewday if your interested BlackRat http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/inde...=50408&st=0 just don't use the recipe :lol: (it's not the nicest)