Reddit mentions: The best beer brewing equipment

Your recipe sounds like it'll turn out well if all goes according to plan! You may want to add some sweetness back if it ferments dry, but you've got several weeks to figure that out and read the Wiki to get all caught up on the method and terminology to things like back sweetening and nutrient addition schedules. I admire that you're being industrious with your fermentation equipment, I wasn't brave enough to start fermenting with whatever I had on hand with my first batch.

If you think you'll stick with it, here's the equipment I used for my first batch. I highly recommend looking into it if you think you'll do another batch! (I apologize if you aren't in the US, Amazon is my go-to)

• Hydrometer - $15.99 | You'll definitely want one of these first! It'll help you figure out when fermentation is done, plus it's nice to know your ABV when your friends or family ask "How strong is this?" (if you like to share)
  
• One Gallon Glass Carboy with Airlock, Drilled Stopper, Polyseal Lid - $14.81 | A glass carboy could last you forever! These have done very well for me, and the included airlock will give you a great setup for less than $15. The screw-on cap is just an added bonus, I use mine when I cold-crash.
  
• Star San 16 oz - $16 | This seems like the go-to sanitizer for the sub, and I use it as well. If you think you'll do several batches, I recommend going with the 32 oz size instead! It's much cheaper per ounce.
  
• Campden Tablets aka K-Meta (Potassium Metabisulfite) - $6.08 | This will help you preserve and stabilize your mead before you bottle. Some people don't, but it's highly recommended!
  
• Auto Siphon - $13.99 | This makes racking to secondary and bottling much easier! When it comes time to bottling, it's also really nice to have a Bottling Wand - $5.86
  
  All-in-all, this is just about my current setup excluding yeast, yeast nutrients, and extra carboys and airlocks. The list above comes out to about $127.45 USD before tax, which really isn't too bad considering one gallon should yield just shy of 5 standard wine bottles! Most commercial meads I've seen ranges from $15-$25 with some exceptions (There's a winery near me called Oliver Winery that makes a mead called Camelot Mead that sells for about $8 per bottle. Very good for such a cheap mead, you can probably find it at Total Wine & More if you have one nearby).
  
  ​
  
  Sorry for such a long comment! Best of luck in your mead-making adventure!
  
  Edit: If you have a local homebrew store, I would opt for that rather than Amazon. Prices may not be as cheap but you won't have to wait for shipping, you'll be able to support a local business, and employees at homebrew stores are usually really helpful and they can recommend recipes and give you pointers. Nothing beats face-to-face interaction!

Hey there! I'm a beer-lover myself . . . and I've been enjoying homebrewing, which is very rewarding!

If you're interested in a more formal approach to beer tasting, you may want to add _Tasting Beer_ to your wishlist! I just finished reading it myself. It goes into much greater depth than I'll ever really experience, but it gives you a deep perspective on what the most serious beer-geeks and beer-snobs are doing when they take a sip, and it has seriously improved my own appreciation of the ancient beverage.

Also, if you're genuinely interested in homebrewing, in addition to the relatively affordable Mr. Beer (I haven't brewed with it, but I've tasted several people's results with it, and they've been consistently good) you may want to watch for the Groupon deal from Midwest Supplies. It's inactive now, but they do seem to keep bringing it back, and it's a very good deal for getting starting homebrew equipment.

Finally, I saw your discussion with AllOfTimeAndSpace about IPAs, and although I see it's not your favorite style, I thought I might recommend an IPA I tried recently that I thought was spectacularly good: Lawson's Double Sunshine IPA. I imagine it's hard to get outside of Vermont (though I'd be thrilled if I'm wrong, since I don't live there and just had it during a vacation), but it is one of the most delicious beers I've ever tried!

There's definitely more snobbery among wine lovers, but beer is easily as complex, varied, and interesting! Good beer goes great with all sorts of good food, and it's just as rewarding. Glad you're finding so much pleasure in it!

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Haha! I see (having now actually looked at your wish list) that you have my two suggestions on it already. Good show!

I've made some slight modifications to this, mostly to make it easier to follow. I've also included steps that should be quite obvious to someone who's done any homebrewing before, but I wish someone had told me when I first started.

I'd link to the original, for the sake of attribution, but the user who posted this deleted their account not long after I wrote everything down.

This will produce a sweet fruit-mead (or melomel). WARNING this will be far more alcoholic than it tastes, and should not be consumed if you've recently taken antibiotics, or suffered gastric distress, as the yeast culture will still be alive, and will happily colonize your intestines if your gut microbiome is too fucked up.

Equipment: Most of this stuff will be a good deal cheaper at your local homebrew store, but I've included amazon links (also to the yeast).

At least 2 (3 is better, for reasons we'll get to) 1-gallon jugs (I don't recommend scaling this up), glass preferred. Add an extra jug for each additional batch. This one includes a drilled stopper and airlock

Drilled stoppers (or carboy bungs) and airlocks, non-drilled rubber stoppers.

An autosiphon and food-safe tubing.

Food-safe sanitizing solution (I recommend StarSan).

An electric kettle with temperature selector is useful, but not needed.

If you want to bottle it rather than just keeping a jug in your fridge:

Empty beer or wine bottles (just save your empties), capping or corking equipment, caps or corks, and a bottling wand.

Ingredients:

2.5 lbs (1130g) honey, clover recommended.

A cup (approximately 250ml) or so of fruit (I recommend blackberries, and I strongly recommend against cherries, other recipes have worked for me, but this yields a very medical flavor with cherries).

1 packet Lalvin EC-1118 yeast (a champagne yeast notable for its hardiness, its ability to out-compete other microorganisms, and its high alcohol tolerance).

Optional: potassium sorbate (to reduce yeast activity when our ferment is done), pectic enzyme (aka pectinase - for aesthetic purposes). Both are also available in bulk.

Process:

Day 1:

Mix sanitizing solution with clean water at specified proportions in one of your jugs, filling the jug most of the way. Stopper it, shake it. Remove stopper, set it down wet-side-up (to keep it sterile), pour the fluid to another jug. There will be foam left behind, this is fine, don't bother to rinse it or anything. At low concentrations this stuff is totally fine to drink, and won't ruin your fermentation or flavor.

Add honey to jug, all of it.

If you have a kettle, and your jug is glass, heat water to around 160F (71 Celsius), pour a volume into your jug roughly equal to the amount of honey present. Fix sterile stopper to jug. Shake until honey and water are thoroughly combined. The heat will make it FAR easier to dissolve the honey. Set aside for an hour or so while it cools. Add clean water 'til mostly full, leaving some room for fruit and headspace.

If you're missing a kettle, or using a plastic jug, this is gonna be a little harder. Fill most of the way with clean water (I recommend using a filter) leaving some room for fruit and headspace. Fix sterile stopper, shake 'til honey and water are thoroughly combined. This will take a while, and you will need to shake VERY vigorously.

At this point, you should have a jug mostly-full of combined honey and water. To this, add fruit (inspecting thoroughly for mold, don't want to add that). Then dump in a single packet of the Lalvin EC-1118 yeast, don't bother rehydrating it first or anything, it'll be fine going straight in. Add pectic enzyme if you have it (this does nothing to the flavor, it just makes the end product less cloudy). Stopper it up, shake it again. This jug now contains your "must" (pre-ferment mead).

Pour some sterilizing fluid in a bowl, put a carboy bung/drilled stopper in the bowl, with an airlock. Ensure full immersion. Let sit for a minute. Replace stopper with your bung/drilled stopper, affix airlock. Fill airlock with clean water, sanitizing fluid, or vodka. Rinse the stopper, fix it to your jug of sanitizing fluid.

Place must-jug in a dark place, I recommend a cabinet or closet.

Days 2-7:

Retrieve jug, give it a little jostle. Nothing so vigorous as to get your mead into the airlock, but enough to upset it. This is to release CO2 buildup, and to keep any part of the fruit from drying out. The foaming from the CO2 release may be very vigorous. Do this over a towel for your first batch. If the foam gets into your airlock, clean your airlock and reaffix it. Perform this jostling procedure at least once per day, more is better.

Day 8:

Final jostling, I recommend doing this in the morning.

Day 9:

let it sit, we want the sediment to settle.

Day 10: Time to get it off the sediment

Shake sterilizing fluid jug. Affix tubing to siphon. Put the siphon in the sterilizing fluid, shake the jug a little just to get the whole siphon wet. Siphon fluid into either a third container or a large bowl. This is all to sterilize both the inside and outside of your siphoning system.

Remove siphon from jug. Give it a couple pumps to empty it of any remaining fluid. Place siphon in your mead jug, leaving the end of the tubing in sterilizing fluid while you do this.

Take the jug that you just siphoned the sterilizing fluid from. Dump what fluid remains in it. Place the end of the tubing in this jug, then siphon the mead into it. Make no attempt to get the last bit of mead into your fresh container, it's mostly dead yeast and decomposing fruit.

Add potassium sorbate if you have it, stopper the jug, place it in your fridge.

Clean the jug you started in. Clean your siphon and tubing.

Day 11:

Let it sit

Day 12 or later: time to transfer again, or bottle it.

If you no longer have a jug full of sterilizing fluid, make one.

Repeat the earlier steps to sterilize the siphoning system, with a bottling wand attached to the end of the tubing if you want to bottle.

Sterilize your bottles or a clean jug, either with fluid or heat.

Siphon mead either into your bottles or jug. Stopper/cap/cork when done.

Put your jug/bottles in the fridge.

The yeast culture is still alive, and will continue to ferment. The fridge, and optional potassium sorbate, will merely slow this down. I recommend drinking any bottles within two months, to avoid a risk of bursting bottles. The mead should already be tasty at this point, but usually tastes much better after a couple more weeks.

EDIT: Fixed the formatting up a bit.

Mead is super easy and rather cheap compared to other types of brewing. If you have a local homebrewing store they can help you get started and will have everything you need, most major cities have one and I find that the people are almost always very helpful.

The first thing is to decide volume, then if you want to boil or not, and then recipe (which includes batch strength). I prefer to boil my mead to help dissolve the honey and make sure its good and sanitized, but thats not entirely necessary

So Optional Equipment (if you boil)

1 Big Boil Pot - This needs to be big enough to do however much you want as a batch. If you get a 5 gallon pot, this is good enough for 2-3 gallon mead as well as if you got into Extract Beer Brewing. If you buy a 10 gallon boil pot (usually $120 or so) its big enough for 5 gallon All grain beer batches, as well as 5-8 gallon mead batches

2 Burner - If you are doing smaller batches your stove can handle it, if you move up to big batches or beer batches it helps to have a propane burner and propane tank.

Non optional Equipment:

1 Fermentation/Secondary Vessel - There are two options here. The cheaper route is the 8 gallon buckets with a lid and an airlock. A rubber mallet also really helps to get it on the first time (trust me here). They are about $20. The second option which I'd recommend is one of the Speidel fermenters, they are a bit more expensive at $50-$60 but have a nice spigot for siphoning and are super nice. You also need an aging vessel as you need to let it sit for 5-6 months before bottling. For this I recommend a PET carboy or a smaller Speidel Fermenter

If you are doing 5gallon, get the 8g Speidel or equivilant sized bucket. Get a plastic carboy or the smaller speidel fermenter for aging

The downside to not doing the Speidel fermenters is then you need a bottling bucket and a siphon pump to get the mead out of the bucket, I like the speidel fermenters because I can just transfer to it and use it to bottle with.

Bottle Filler and 3' rough of Hose - This is for bottling

Bottles - I prefer the nice flip top ones but they are usually around $30 for only 12 of them. The other option is to buy some bottle caps, and clean

Iodophor / Star San - Cleaner, just google them. You need this to clean all your equipment as well as your fermenters

There are some minor other things, such as a Big spoon for stirring, having a thermometer is a good idea... maybe other things but I think I covered most of it

Recipe: (The recipe itself)
Normal recipes are around 3 pounds of honey per gallon of water, so you need to get 15lbs of honey if you do 5 gallons. More honey will up the alcohol, less honey will lower it

A vial or two of yeast. I like to pitch two of them just to make sure it starts. I use Sweet Mead Yeast

Yeast Nutrient - Mead doesnt have some of the nutrients beer does, so a bit of this added per the instructions gets the yeast going

Optional - Flavoring. I tried out strawberry this time, totally optional but just google it and you can find it. Usually it comes in a tiny bottle

Instructions

First you dissolve honey into water. If you are doing a 5 gallon batch, use 5.5 gallons of water. If you are going to boil, nows a good time. During this process, Add the yeast nutrient. Put the mixture into your fermenter vessel. Cool it down to room temperature (important)

Its fairly important to ferment at 68-70 degrees for at least the first week or two (yeast stuff), so if you don't have central heating/cooling that could be an issue you have to tackle from another angle. At this point, pitch the yeast and seal it up and let them do their job

Wait about a month for it to ferment (the airlock will go bloop bloop a lot). Sanitize the hose and secondary/aging vessel, this vessel should be close to your actual volume so there isn't head room. Then transfer to the secondary, pop the airlock on it and let it age for usually 3-6 months, depending on your patience. At that point, transfer it back to a different vessel (to get it off the trub) and during this process add any flavoring (if any). Finally, siphon into bottles using that little spring bottle filler attached to the hose, and cap it

That was a bit long winded but I was trying to be thorough. if you have any questions feel free to PM me!

Many people start with extract brewing and that's a great way to get your foot in the door and figure out if you want to continue.

I'm gonna recycle a reply I left on a similar post recently, I think it was a good, quick summary/overview of what you'll want to learn about and consider.

• Volume: How much beer do you want to make? You can make even just 1-gallon batches of beer, but that's only 6-8 bottles. If it takes 10-14 days to ferment your beer (pretty standard) and 2-3 weeks to bottle carbonate (also pretty standard) that's a long wait for a 6 pack. If you want to make more, you'll need a bigger pot (we call them kettles) than most people have in their kitchens (8 gallon minimum, though I recommend 10 because that gives you flexibility to do all-grain brewing if you want to).
  
• Equipment: You have options here but either route you take you're going to need some specialized equipment. You'll need a food-grade, airtight bucket to ferment your beer in. How are you going to get your beer into the bottles? You're going to need a bottling bucket (a food grade plastic bucket with a spigot at the bottom). Post-fermentation, there's a thick layer of sludge (fermentation by-product, called "trub") at the bottom of your beer and you won't want to bottle this. So you transfer the beer from the fermentation bucket to the bottling bucket. You'll want to do this using tubing to avoid exposing the beer to too much oxygen, which can negatively impact the flavor, and to avoid collecting the trub. You can use that same tubing attached to a bottling wand to bottle your beer. Additionally, you'll need an airlock and rubber stopper to plug the lid in your fermenting bucket to prevent bugs from getting into the beer. An airlock allows CO2 (which the yeast generates) to escape the fermentation bucket but doesn't allow any oxygen or other bugs to enter.
  
• Fermentation: in addition to needing a fermentation bucket (don't just use any bucket, you need something food-grade that has a lid with an airtight seal, and a hole in the lid for your airlock), you'll need someplace dark, cool and temperature stable to ferment. Unless you've got access to a cool basement, you'll likely need a fermentation chamber, such as a mini-fridge or something, to keep temps stable, esp during the summer. Temp control is very important in making beer as if it's too cold, the yeast will fall asleep and if it's too hot, the yeast will express off flavors (depending on the yeast, but mostly true).
  
• Packaging: You'll be bottling, as kegging is expensive and requires a lot of equipment. Bottling is cheaper but is also kind of a pain in the ass, especially when you're making 5-gallon batches (50+ bottles of beer). You'll need empty beer bottles, caps, a beer wand (that allows you to fill each bottle with ease and in a controlled manner) and a capper (a device that enables you to seal the caps to the bottle).
  
• Sanitization: This step is important at EVERY stage post-boil. You'll need something like StarSan to sanitize your buckets, tubing, caps, ANYTHING that touches the beer after the boil stage will need to be sanitized to avoid contamination.
  
  You have a couple of options to gear up. One option would be to pick up a brewing kit. I made a pic to explain what each item is in the beer kit. This is not an endorsement of that specific kit or brand, solely for educational purposes. With a kit, you get everything you need to start brewing and it's all brand new. The linked kit doesn't include bottles. You could find that kit or other kits at a local homebrew store and talk to people there who can help you on your brewing journey. The linked kit is by no means your only option - there are lots of kits out there. Whatever brand you consider, make sure it has the same components as the one I linked. You will need all that stuff.
  
  You can also check Craigslist. People leave the hobby on occasion and put all their gear up on Craigslist for a fraction of the price new. I got everything in that brewing kit above, plus bottles, for $25 on Craigslist from a guy in my area who had been brewing with his buddy, and when his buddy moved away he just didn't feel like going solo.
  
  Just a warning, if you're really into beer, this hobby is super addictive. I started Sept 2018 with the stuff I got off Craigslist brewing extracts in an aluminum pot on my stove and bottling -- and there is nothing wrong with doing this! You can make great beer from extracts. But I wanted to explore other styles and have more control over recipes. Dec 2018 I switched to all-grain (not using extracts). I now brew outside with a fancy brew kettle on a propane burner using all-grain recipes and then use kegs instead of bottling (yeah, we built a keezer). I love this hobby and there is really nothing as satisfying as drinking beer I made, sharing it with friends and family.
  
  If you do decide to give brewing a shot, I have one final piece of advice. Beer is a lot more flexible than people give it credit for. Even mistakes made during the process can be overcome. Giving the yeast more time to work or aging a beer can reverse or lessen the impact of a mistake. When something seems to be off, this is the advice we always give: Relax, Don't Worry, Have a Home Brew (RDWHAHB). It's practically scripture 'round here.
  
  Good luck and cheers!

Don't buy a kit! They sell you all kinds of shit you won't use when there are better options for similar money.

Get a brewing bucket as if you don't have a bottler then this will make your life so much better.

Get 2 carboys (glass is best but better bottles will work too). Check Craigslist for these...you can get some awesome deals.

Get 1 Refractomoeter instead of a hydrometer because they use WAY less of your must to calculate and they aren't mega fragile like hydrometers are.

You will want an auto siphon

You will want a carboy brush that fits on a cordless drill because cleaning a carboy without one fucking sucks (and for 18 bucks this is a no brainer).

You will need sanitizer. I personally like Iodophor because it's super cheap, it doesn't really foam up and it lasts forever. I bought one of THESE bottles like 2 years ago and it is about half full even though I brew between 50-100 gallons a year.

I always advocate people start with beer bottles rather than wine bottles. The reason for this has less to do with the bottles and more to do with equipment. The Ferrari Bottle Capper is 14 dollars while a good floor corker for wine bottles will set you back 60 bucks. In addition, it's cheaper to bottle in 20 ounce beer bottles with caps rather than in wine bottles with good corks. Use of a double lever corker for wine bottles should be considered a war crime...seriously...unless you're a masochist who loves dumping wine everywhere and having to clean it afterwards...then just avoid them...they are absolutely awful.

If you go the wine bottle route then NEVER use agglomerated or colmated corks (the ones made from tiny pieces of cork glued together) as they fall apart and will leave chunks in your bottles. In addition they don't age well, so you are much more likely to lose your brew to spoilage. I like synthetic Nomacorc but you can also buy very good quality solid natural corks as well.

Good oxygen absorbing bottle caps on the other hand are mega cheap. Again...this isn't about one being better than the other, so you can use either one.

For wine bottles, I REALLY like the ones with screw tops because they make it nice and easy to cap your bottles once opened. But for all of your bottles buy these locally...shipping will double or triple the cost of these vs buying locally. I get them for 15 bucks a case a few miles from my house...they're almost 30 a case on Amazon or close to that from Midwest or from Ohio (shipping is like 11-15 dollars a case.)

For beer bottles...I prefer clear, but they'll be tough to find locally so I often end up with brown ones. Again...buy these locally not online due to shipping costs. Your local brewing supply stores buy these pallets at a time so even Amazon can't compete with the lack of shipping costs.

Cool gift idea!

I'd say, first and foremost, that you aren't going to be able to kit out your boyfriend for homebrewing. There are too many styles for different types of equipment, and it gets very expensive... But a basic kit is good enough to brew just about anything, and it gives him the option to buy new items piece-by-piece as he outgrows the starter ones.

If you want to give him a good start in the hobby, get him 3 things:

1. A brewing starter kit
   
2. A good brewing book
   
3. A good beer kit
   
   For a starter kit, it looks something like one of these: https://www.amazon.com/Share-Enjoy-Homebrew-Brewing-Starter/dp/B0179ZH89Y/ref=sr_1_3
   
   You get a plastic bucket to ferment the beer, cleaning chemicals, hydrometer, bottles, bottle capper, siphon, etc. This should be perfectly adequate for him to brew beer dozens of times before he might want to start tweaking his equipment. The best part is you can replace individual parts of the kit any time you want - it makes it a very flexible upgrade path.
   
   
   For a starter book, it's How to Brew all the way. I'm pretty sure everyone in here owns a copy.
   
   
   For a starter kit, you can pick kits off Amazon. You should know there's 3 major types of beer recipe:
   
   
4. Pre-hopped extract kits. These are the beer kits you can buy in every grocery store. They're "fine", but my biggest complaint is that 90% of the work is already done for you, so brew day is almost boring.
   
   
5. Extract kits. (Get one of these). They include barley extract (usually in jars of thick syrup, but sometimes in dry powder form), hops to boil, and sometimes some extra things like specialty grains, spices, etc. Here's an example: https://www.amazon.com/Imperial-Blonde-Homebrew-Beer-Ingredient/dp/B00AC7Q4JW
   
   
6. All grain recipes. All grain brewing is the most hands-on you can get homebrewing, but it also requires some extra brewing equipment. The How to Brew book goes over it in great detail, and your boyfriend can decide if all grain brewing interests him.
   
   
   So, for all of these things, I gave Amazon links, but you don't have to buy them online at all. I'd strongly recommend looking up local homebrewing stores and just walking in. Most of my local shops are cheaper than shopping online, the staff are fun to talk to (because they really care about brewing), and it's nice to be able to examine some of the things before you buy them.
   
   Whether you shop locally of online, everything I listed above should come in at less than $150.

For temp control, use a cooler. This is the cooler I use. It is perfect to hold any fermenter I've seen. Fill with 65f water. Put your fermenter in the cooler. Add frozen 16-oz soda bottles to keep water temps at around 65f. Monitor your fermenter temps (using the stick-on fermometer ... just be sure the fermometer isn't under water!). I've found adding 1 frozen bottle in the morning and 1 in the evening keeps temps exactly where I need them..

If your fermenter has a spigot in the bottom - place the fermenter inside a contractor trash bag (the super thick durable kind) before placing in the water. You don't want to risk infection by having the spigot exposed to the water.

For BIAB and All-Grain ... #1 - BIAB is all-grain. It is just easier. The ingredients are the same. The end result is the same (Beer!). The complexity, cost, and time are different. So, I'll just list out a 2-vessel BIAB-in-a-cooler hybrid system.

• 10-Gallon Aluminum pot with lid - $55
  
• Bayou Classic SP10 burner - $50
  
• Link to pot ... scroll down to the frequently bought together section - it has pot, lid, and the burner ... $103
  
• Cooler for your mash tun ... $30 ... This cooler is the perfect size for 5.5 gallon batches. Any bigger and you'd have too much "dead space" in the cooler which would make heat retention an issue.
  
• To convert the cooler for use as a mash tun - watch this video ...
  
• EXCEPT - don't build the manifold inside like he shows - use a BIAB liner from brewinabag.com - they cost $30. Trust me on this - the $30 is well worth it.
  
• Wort Chiller ... $50 ... this is 100% necessary if you want to save time. If not - you can look in to "no-chill homebrew method". I recommend just getting the chiller.
  
• 24" wire whisk for stirring the crap out of the mash and wort - $12
  
• A double-mesh fine strainer - $17 ... for pouring the cooled wort thru into your fermenter. Serves two purposes - 1 - filters out hops and break material. 2 - aerates your wort as you fill the fermenter.
  
• 1/2" stainless steel siphon ... $8 - used for transferring the cooled wort from the kettle to the fermenter. Get the 1/2" not the 3/8" ... trust me, it saves time. This siphon will also be used for transfering wort to your bottling bucket.
  
• video on using a siphon
  
  Total - $255 shipped to your door.
  
  This setup will be a setup that you can use for all types of Ales. You can even do low-temp ales that ferment at 50-55f by adding more ice/colder water to the cooler. Don't think it would be efficient enough for lagering.
  
  Process:
  
  
• heat 2-gallons of water on your home stove to 180f.
  
• dump this water in your mash tun to pre-heat it. Keep lid closed
  
• heat mash water on your home stove to save propane. (about 5-gallons - use mash calculators to determine water needs ... like the brew365 mash calculator)
  
• Drain the 2-gallons of water from your mash tun. Drain some thru the hose to clean it and just dump the rest out.
  
• Put your BIAB liner in the mash tun (make sure it is clean)
  
• Dump your mash water in
  
• Add your grains stirring like a mad man with the whisk.
  
• Stir for 2-4 minutes. Check temps... you probably want around 151f
  
• close lid and cover lid with a thick blanket (helps conserve heat as the lid is the least insulated part of this cooler)
  
• Begin heating about 4 gallons of sparge water on your stove. You need this to be about 200f.
  
• Wait 30 mins the open and stir again. Check temps. They should be within a degree or two of your starting temp. If the temp has fallen TOO low -like 146 or 147, add 1/2gallon of boiling water.
  
• Close lid and wait 30 more mins.
  
• Open lid - stir 2-4 minutes.
  
• Drain into kettle. I measure volume by draining into a gallon pitcher. Expect 3.5-4 gallons of "first runnings"
  
• if the drain is going SLOW - lift up on the BIAB liner a bit... it can get sucked into the cooler outlet. There are a few solutions for this. Use whatever is handy to act as a screen between the liner and the cooler outlet. An alternative is using the 1/2" siphon to drain the cooler!
  
• Light burner and turn up
  
• Add your 200f sparge water to the mash tun. This will raise grain temps to 170f. This is called mashing out. Stir like a mad man for about 4 minutes.
  
• Let the sparge rest another 5 minutes
  
• Drain into kettle
  
• Stir kettle and take a gravity sample (COOL gravity sample to about 70f in order to get a more accurate reading!)
  
• Bring kettle to a boil (watch out for boil over)
  
• Once a boil is achieved, start timer
  
• I boil 75 minutes because my setup and boil-off rate dictate that time.
  
• Add hops at scheduled times.
  
• At 10mins left in boil, drop in your wort chiller. Careful with the plastic hoses - they melt if too close to flame.
  
• CHECK wort chiller connections for leaks BEFORE putting in kettle!!!
  
• After boil, turn on chiller and begin cooling.
  
• I stir my pot while cooling (with the lid off). Some put the lid on and stir the pot by moving the chiller around. This is KEY to quick cooling.
  
• Transfer cooled wort into fermenter using siphon and strainer
  
• Take a gravity sample - hopefully you hit target goal.
  
• Aerate a bit more IF YOU WANT, by shaking the holy crap out of the fermenter.
  
• Pitch yeast.
  
• Put fermenter in your cooler in a dark and quiet place (bug free!!).
  
• Cleanup and done. (I actually clean as I go).
  
  EDIT - you will need an extra 5-gallon pot to heat sparge water.. forgot that. They can be found anywhere for about $20. As always - check craigslist to save even more $$$$. This is the cheapest and most efficient setup I've been able to put together. If you really want to get fancy - then you can add a stainless steel fermenter from Chapman Brewing Equipment for an extra $99. The fermenter is well worth it!
  
  EDIT 2: As always SANITIZE everything at all stages. Also - with all-grain, you'll eventually want to get into water chemistry. Read up on that. AND a good kitchen scale is needed for measuring out hop additions (and later water chemistry adjustments). Kitchen scales can be had cheap. You'll want one that is accurate and can be calibrated.

Cool add-ons to the Brooklyn Brew Shop 1G kits (which I liked):

• Refractometer !! You won't want to take a hydrometer sized sample of a 1 gallon batch, after you have pitched yeast. IF you are like me you want to know whats going on with your brew, and take gravity readings at the beginning and end to find out how your yeast did. Also to make sure its ready to bottle. Anyway, its just way too much beer to take out and put back in or otherwise lose if you are using a hydrometer and test jar. Alternatively a Refractometer takes only a few drops of beer to measure, even though you have to correct for the presence of alcohol.
  
  http://www.amazon.com/Beer-Wort-Wine-Refractometer-Scale/dp/B006GG0TDK/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1398314617&sr=8-3&keywords=refractometer+dual+scale
  
  
• You probably want a mini auto siphon , tubing, and a spring loaded bottling wand to fit your tubing. This makes getting the beer out of your 1 gallon jug pretty effortless. Anything like the below will make your bottling day soooooo much easier.
  
  http://www.amazon.com/Fermtech-MINI-Mini-Auto-Siphon/dp/B0064ODL1G/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1398314371&sr=8-1&keywords=mini+auto+siphon
  
  http://www.amazon.com/Brewcraft-Fermtech-Plastic-Bottle-Filler/dp/B0064OEE9O/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1398314427&sr=8-2&keywords=bottling+wand
  
  
• Just go ahead and buy some starsan for sanitizing. Much easier than the powder they give in the kits, I got something in my kit that must be rinsed out before bottling or getting beer on it. (not good to drink).
  
  Starsan you don't have to rinse off, and it really helps you to be confident in your sanitizing abilities.
  
  http://www.amazon.com/Five-Star-FS_SS_16-San--16oz/dp/B00FA86OZ2/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1398314939&sr=8-3&keywords=star+san
  
  
• You need a bottle capper and caps. Winged capper works fine and pretty easy to figure out.
  
  http://www.amazon.com/Bottle-Capper-Red-Baron-Homebrew/dp/B000Q6ARMY/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1398315533&sr=8-1&keywords=bottle+capper
  
  
  
• Also, you really need 3 kettles for an easy time doing the BBS kits. 8 quarts is a good size. 1 for mashing, one more to pour it all out over the strainer to collect the wort, and a 3rd one ready to go with boiled, heated water if you need to top up before the boil. I suppose you could get away with 2 if you do kind of a "Brew In a Bag" method. They say 2 is 'recommended' but I say that 3 pots is pretty much necessary the way they write the instructions.
  
  
• Have somewhere to keep the beer at the right temperature. BBS said 70 degrees F was fine. Yes it will make beer. Keeping it constant is supposed to make a big difference, even if a lot of people say you need to ferment around 64F.
  
  http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/fermentation-temperature-control-440670/
  
  Anyway, enough. Don't overthink it. Those kits are so freaking easy to do, my first batch turned out pretty drinkable despite some temperature screw ups during mashing.
  
  You can watch homebrewfinds.com for deals on any items I listed, and you can even better, get them from your local home brew shop.
  
  Note, if you think you want to do bigger batches later, the mini auto-siphon and any tiny kettles are going to be a waste of money... the refractometer, starsan, capper, etc. will still be quite useful.

This beer making kit is awesome for a science loving beer drinker. The science behind making beer is awesome, and it's a pretty neat hobby to get into. This kit is a bit more deluxe.

Molecular gastronomy is also pretty awesome. Who wouldn't love combining chemistry and food? Here is a deluxe kit.

If he likes games, The Art of Science is a big hit.

This smart phone adapter can connect to microscopes and telescopes to make a viewing screen. These are super useful if he uses either of these pieces of equipment.

Thanks! Good question. I definitely spent more than was necessary trying to figure everything out but the most expensive item was the king carousel. I was able to get it for on sale for about $45 brand new Amazon prime. Here it is but when I found it, it was on sale http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0055OWLFI/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o03_s03?ie=UTF8&psc=1.


Fridge I scored for free.


I'd say for the rod extension, coupler, bolts, screws, caulk, fasteners and glue was about $30. Used these to keep the front door closed with the seal they work great! http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00N2H50XA/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o05_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1


The wood was one 8' board 8" x 1" I got at Home Depot and they trimmed to my specs, about $10.


The cost of stain and chalk paint 8 oz cans ~$6 each x 3 (primer for chalk) = ~$20.


I had all the keg lines already I just adapted them from old picnic taps.


Elbow shanks I got for 13.99 a piece plus shipping from Adventures In Homebrew with shipping $36.98 (46.98 actually now that i look back had a $10 credit). http://www.homebrewing.org/Chrome-Plated-Elbow-Shank_p_1187.html


Regulator off Amazon for $114.13 with Prime. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0060NOX40/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1


$29.90 for both chrome faucets off amazon free shipping http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00370AT2Y/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1


Quick Connect I used for the top tap area $6 http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0000DD23N/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1


So I guess when all is said and done 292.01.


But if you have the regulator and other bits laying around it could be around $177.88.


Kinda pricey but I guess I had to use that x-mas bonus somewhere!


Oh - and the thing takes about 6 pounds of nuts and dried fruit to fill. That gets pricey but gum balls sell for pretty cheap in bulk from here http://www.gumballmachinefactory.com/gumballscandy.html

Hello world.

When I don't know what to get someone, I usually go over to mysubscriptionaddiction.com and find a nice monthly subscription box they'd like. There are monthly beer clubs, to fancy foods, and the infamous dollar shave club.


As for something on amazon, me and my boyfriend loved the Mr. Beer Kit. Me and my gal friend each got our boyfriends one of these for Christmas, and we all took a day out to brew beer together. The best part is making custom, inside joke labels with these clear label wraps and then sharing them with friends. Health/Mana Potion and Molotov Cocktail labels are always good for game night.

If beer isn't your thing, there's a wine version and a [cider version](http://amzn.com/B00I5R7MR4
). And if you're living sober, then I'm an ass and enjoy your anniversary! Congratulations. :)

Gonna copy and paste one of my previous replies to a similar question last year. Hopefully that helps a bit.

Your question about ballpark cost is a bit "how long is a piece of string..?". It totally depends on your choices. Mine ended up costing me around $1k all up, but I'm in Australia and everything is bloody expensive over here.

------

Recently built a keezer myself so I can offer a bit of advice. I think the main reason most people shy away from kits is they tend to bundle cheap and nasty parts. Here's a list of parts you'll need and my insights to go with them:

• Gas bottle and regulator. (If you can afford it, get a dual pressure regulator. This will allow you to serve one keg while force carbonating another).
  
  
• Gas distributor. (If you want to serve more than one keg. To add to my prior point, you can get gas distributors with individual low pressure regulators on each output. I got one that also has one-way check valves to stop beer getting back to my regulator).
  
  
• Taps. (Don't skimp here, you want nice taps. I went all out and got the Perlick 650ss, mostly for the flow control. It means I don't have to have kilometers of beer line coiled up inside my keezer to get a good pour. You'll also need shanks long enough to get through your fridge door if the taps don't come bundled with them).
  
• Quick disconnects. (Either ball or pin lock to match your kegs. I use ball locks as they're more common here in Australia but I think pin-locks are cheaper over there).
  
• Hose. (Theres more to consider here than you think and its mostly to do with balancing your system to get a good pour. Read this if you haven't already. Generally speaking though, smaller inner diameter is better. I'm using 5mm ID and 8mm OD. If you get taps with flow control, you can afford to be a little less picky with this).
  
• Fittings. (Generally speaking, you've got two main options. Barb and stepless clamps or MFL. It's really up to you how likely you are to want to move parts around. I just used the barb fittings for mine but if you're likely to change things in the future, MFL is probably smarter).
  
  I'm super happy with my system, the 650ss are awesome and let me use less than a metre of beer line. I also shelled out a little extra for a ball lock gas post and bulkhead to replace the gas-in barb on my gas manifold. That combined with another quick disconnect just lets me easily remove the gas bottle from the freezer and gas another keg for storage or something. Hope that helps a bit, feel free to ask any more questions.

Recipes on the internet! It's basically whiskey and heavy cream. It's not terribly hard to make aside from making sure the cream doesn't curdle and isn't time consuming at all. Just Google "bailey's recipe" and you'll get a ton of versions, all pretty similar. No suggestions on which one as I haven't made it in years, but I just picked one at random from Google. Just don't listen to the ones that say you need eggs, it's unnecessary (and gross) IMO.

Too little too late, but you can make huge batches, get [inexpensive but nice looking glass bottles](Chef's Star CASE OF 6 - 16 oz. EASY CAP Beer Bottles - CLEAR https://www.amazon.com/dp/B011SGS8U8/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_KrVyybC36C3R0) off Amazon, and gift them for a cheap and easy but crowd pleasing present.

Kits are the best way to learn the basics, cleaning/sterilise importance and fermenting process. Find other beer kits like the IPA linked below at $44 - 5 gallon.

Equipment wise (kit below comes with a block party amber?) the USA doesn't do a pressure barrel like the uk though I did find that norcal do a solution(see links below)

The total cost below is sub-$200 for your first 5 gallon/40pints and will provide you all the tools you need to produce multiple batches in future. This equipment can also be use to make wine and cider. You can also rack your beer to plastic 2ltr or 3ltr pop/soda bottle to age and to easily chill in the fridge.

https://www.amazon.com/Share-Enjoy-Homebrew-Brewing-Starter/dp/B0179ZH89Y/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1503185459&sr=8-1&keywords=homebrew+kit

http://www.norcalbrewingsolutions.com/store/Fermenter-Spiedel-30-Liter-7.9-Gallon-Plastic.html

http://www.norcalbrewingsolutions.com/store/Speidel-Ball-Lock-Gas-In-with-Pressure-Relief-Valve.html

https://www.amazon.com/HomeBrewing-Brewing-Recipe-Citra-Session/dp/B00WIGZJQO/ref=sr_1_1_a_it?ie=UTF8&qid=1503185696&sr=8-1&keywords=ipa+brewing+kit+5+gallon

Once you are confident then you can progress on to the more advanced brewing. Not something to jump straight into. The disheartening experience of your first bad/spoilt batch shouldn't put you off, some can even be saved!

Good luck in your brewing. (Personally I found wine a much more forgiving experience when learning to home brew)

To add to what /u/Sintered_Monkey has said, a kit to start can be a pretty good idea, though honestly, you could skip extract altogether^1. I got into the hobby with a 1 gallon all-grain kit from Brooklyn Brew Shop. They're $40 and include everything you need to get started brewing, so long as you have a couple of 8 quart or larger pots and a strainer (you can get by with 2 pots, but 3 can make it a bit easier; alternatively, brew-in-a-bag, or BIAB, could allow you to do this with just a single pot and is honestly easier). You'd also need one of these to cap your bottles. I'd recommend this route because it allows you to jump into the hobby pretty thoroughly; even a basic BIAB all-grain setup is doing all of the fundamental steps of beer-making that the pros use, and any gear upgrades beyond that (and you will end up having gear upgrades, because there are lots of fun toys in this hobby) are just to further refine your process. If you end up not liking it, you're out not even a hundred bucks. If you do enjoy it or just want more info, come join us at /r/homebrewing!

^1 (One of the first steps in brewing is extracting sugars from grains; this resulting liquid is called wort. With all-grain brewing, you do this extraction step yourself; with extract, you're basically buying concentrated wort—more expensive on an ingredient basis, you have less control over the final product, but your equipment costs are less.)

I live in San Francisco and our best local brewcraft store is SF Brewcraft, http://www.sanfranciscobrewcraft.com/. The guys there are super knowledgable. They have several beginner kits, all 5 gallon. There are 3 different options of 2 plastic fermenters, 1 plastic and 1 glass, and 2 glass. I'd suggest going with this one: http://www.sanfranciscobrewcraft.com/product_p/eq101.htm

I got the plastic/glass combo a while back and that was how I got started. You can tell them which kind of beer you want and they'll make recipe recommendations and include everything you need for it.

There are smaller kits on Amazon and other places like MoreBeer if you don't want to go with a full 5 gallon setup.

5 gallon batches is about the biggest you can do on a normal stove top in a kitchen. Any bigger and you can't get enough heat to bring that much water to boil. If you don't have a lot of space in your kitchen, that might also be a reason to go with a smaller kit.

So the kit I recommended is great to get started. In reality, it comes with two plastic fermenter buckets but you only need one for beer these days. The instructions will indicate a traditional two-step fermentation process, but you'll have 2 which is great if you decide to do double batches.

You've GOT to have a pot. If you're doing 5 gallon batches, you need at least a 6 gallon pot with a lid. If you're doing smaller 1-2 gallon batches, you can use a smaller pot. A regular pot is fine, but spending a little more on a kettle that has a thermometer and ball valve is hugely helpful.

Ok but back to specific recommendations since that's what you need:

5 gallon batch recommendations

1. http://www.sanfranciscobrewcraft.com/product_p/eq101.htm. Tell them you want an IPA recipe when you order it.
   
   
2. A pot like this is preferred http://www.amazon.com/HomeBrewStuff-Stainless-Home-Brew-Thermometer/dp/B00JDVPCKU/ref=sr_1_3?s=kitchen&ie=UTF8&qid=1415488286&sr=1-3&keywords=beer+kettle or this is ok http://www.amazon.com/Stainless-Kettle-Welded-Thermometer-Bazooka/dp/B00IT5LTCQ/ref=sr_1_2?s=kitchen&ie=UTF8&qid=1415488366&sr=1-2&keywords=beer+kettle
   
   1-2 gallon batch recommendations
   
   I haven't tried these kits, but they seem to fully be what you need.
   
   http://www.amazon.com/Brooklyn-Brew-Beer-Making-Everyday/dp/B005G20IIG/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1415488462&sr=8-6&keywords=homebrew+kit
   
   http://www.amazon.com/Mini-Monster-Bookshelf-Brewery-Amber/dp/B00AKIUIEU/ref=sr_1_10?s=kitchen&ie=UTF8&qid=1415488614&sr=1-10&keywords=homebrew+kit
   
   You will need bottles:
   http://www.amazon.com/12oz-Amber-long-neck-bottles/dp/B003X4BO64/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1415488782&sr=8-2&keywords=beer+bottles
   
   5 gallons of beer will fill about 48 bottles. Get 2 boxes of bottles. 1-2 gallons, get 1 box.
   
   You will need bottle caps. If you buy from the kit I recommended from SF Brewcraft, caps are included. But if you don't, make sure you get them or that they come in your kit. http://www.amazon.com/Silver-Colored-Polished-Bottle-approximately/dp/B002W2E99C/ref=sr_1_9?ie=UTF8&qid=1415489000&sr=8-9&keywords=colored+bottle+caps
   
   
   Hope this helps.

I am an all grain brewer that lives in a 550 sq. ft. apartment with my girlfriend (including a 50 sq. ft. balcony area). I brew 5 gallon batches, and created by own cooler mash tun using the following link:

http://www.popularmechanics.com/home/how-to/g1580/how-to-build-your-own-home-brewing-mash-tun/

It's a 5 gallon cooler that I got at Home Depot. All of the other parts can be sourced at your local hardware store.

In addition to the cooler mash tun I have the following:

• 10.5 gallon boiling kettle
  
  
• Long stirring spoon
  
  
• Standard plastic 6.5 gallon fermenting bucket
  
  
• Cool Brewing jacket for temp control, because I live in Hawaii
  
  
• Standard plastic bottling bucket & spring-loaded wand
  
  
• Hydrometer & thermometer
  
  
• All required airlocks
  
  
• Auto-siphon & tubing
  
  
• Tons of cleaned bottles with labels scrubbed off (stored in 12 pk cases)
  
  
• Accessories for adjusting water (minerals, pH meter, test strips, etc.)
  
  
• DME and a couple mason jars for yeast starters
  
  
• A collapsible table (~2.5x5 feet) that I store in the bathroom behind the washing machine, good for extra work space on brew day
  
  
• Other odds and ends
  
  
  I list all of that to show the type/quantity of things I am able to store. My girlfriend loves the hobby and participates on brew day (yay me!) so that's a bonus, but I don't think the stuff above is truly prohibitive in terms of storing. I have a section of my standard 2x5 ft closet for the large equipment, and I store a lot of the minerals and water chemistry stuff in my bottling bucket when not in use. Cleaned bottles are stored in the 12 packs they originally came in, stored in a little nook above my kitchen cabinets. The mash tun doesn't take up much square footage, being one of those cylindrical coolers, and I keep that outside (no doubt a benefit of the place I live).
  
  I boil on a pretty standard, probably low-end electric stove. Takes a little longer to get things going, but I do get to a rolling boil. I cool the wort in my sink, which I fill with a party-size bag of ice. I also have a few pounds of hops portioned and stored in the freezer.
  
  I hope that helps ease any concerns about apartment brewing.
  
  tl;dr Apartment brewing is incredibly doable, even for someone like me who does all grain 5 gallon batches in a shared 550 sq. ft. apartment.
  
  [Edit: additional info]

In my experience the quality of your cold brew is also highly dependent on your filtering system. I use the Hario mizudashi because it has a very fine filter and produces extremely clean cold brew. I prefer the cold brew from the Mizudashi even with lower quality beans to simply submerging coffee in water and filtering it later. I use a 10:1 ratio in the Mizudashi and I like drinking it at that strength. 4:1 is meant to be diluted by half, so keep that in mind.

If you're making cold brew by simply submerging it in water and filtering it later, I'd recommend putting the coffee in something like this and seeing if you like it better. However it's still possible to make good cold brew without doing this, just make sure you leave all the sludge at the bottom and filter out the good stuff. A siphon like this which is commonly used for home brewing beer could be the perfect tool.

EDIT: as far as beans go, try making cold brew with the cheapest possible option if you have a low budget. Some grocery store coffee will work just fine as long as it's made well. Cold brew is perhaps the most forgiving method of coffee brewing.

That's actually not bad but as mentioned below, a decent pot will go a long way. I bought a 30quart turkey fryer and put in a ball valve and that's been one of the best upgrades I've made. I have a fermentor now, but I got some free 6+ gallon food grade icing buckets from my grocery's bakery. Spigots, air locks, and bottling wands are $6 on Amazon. Tubing can be found pretty cheap online or at LHBS/hardware store.

Kettle - $25

Ball Valve - $22

Bazooka Screen - $9

Buckets - Free

Spigot - $6

Airlocks - $7

BIAB Bag - $5

Bottling Wand - $5

Capper with Caps - $18

Various Tubing - $15

This doesn't include your first beer kit, but you can pull off an all grain BIAB as long as you've got fire. My second favorite piece I own is my mash tun which is just a 10 gallon cooler with a bazooka screen and ball valve. I don't bottle anymore, but I feel like if I were to do it again that's all I would need to start. Oh, and a thermometer and some StarSan.

So I’m a newbie (and had some explosion issues) but here goes with what I did!

1.) I did 2F for 5 days at room temperature. Longer than the 2 days people sometimes recommend, because I had tried one bottle after 3 days and it was too sweet. (I also bottled 1F at sweeter than I would drink because I wanted to ensure carbonation.)

2.) I used chunks of strawberry, minced ginger, and lime juice. (Also made one with pineapple purée but that exploded!) ((Also made raspberry-lime not featured with mashed raspberry and that worked the best out of the three flavors.))

3.) About 1/4 cup fruit per 16 oz kombucha bottle. (For the featured Strawberry-Lime-Ginger: 1/4 cup finely chopped strawberry, 1 tsp minced ginger, 2 tsp lime juice.)

4.) These https://www.amazon.com/Swing-Top-Glass-Bottles-Chalkboard/dp/B01LB1862A?ref_=fsclp_pl_dp_1

Going forward thing I’m going to try different are:

-Juice over plant matter like someone suggested (except raspberry which worked great!)

• Allowing 1F to get a tad more acidic so I can open at 3 to 4 days without sweetness issue (it had enough carbonation.)
  
  -And I’m going to try to use herbs and perhaps chia seeds in one batch!
  
  Happy Brewing!
  
  
  
  

I'm assuming this is from Brooklyn Brew Shop (I started the same way, have the same carboy :P ). That's pretty normal, it will settle!

What I did for my second kit from them was a cold crash. Stuck it in my fridge for 5 days and then bottled. I was warned this may kill the yeast/make bottle conditioning impossible but it turned out just fine. I can't say it will always work, but for me it did.

My first batch was super carbonated (possibly just too much sugar. Be careful! Small batches mean small miscalculations can make huge differences).

Also, be very careful when siphoning, the yeast can kick up very easily, especially if you don't cold crash. You will want some yeast for bottle conditioning, but the suspended yeast should be enough. If you can, buy a mini auto siphon. Makes siphoning way easier. I won't go back to just a racking cane. Also a clip if you can, or just a steady hand :)

It is fairly easy to get large equipment like vessels and burners locally in India but it's the little stuff that makes your brew day/bottling day easier like the bottle fillers and auto siphons which are kind of difficult/expensive to get hold off. Depending on which city you are in hops, malts and yeast can be easy to source especially if you have any brewpubs around. The selection of hops is again very limited so like like /u/chino_brews suggested you could get bulk hops from YCH. Dry brewing yeast is available (Fermentis, Lallemand) but it is mostly sold in 500g bricks so I would recommend picking up some 11g packets as well. You should definitely pick up a large 16/32 oz bottle of StarSan and a tub of PBW or something similar for cleaning and sanitizing. I would also pick up a hand held bottle capper, a racking cane, a couple of airlocks and a spigot for bottling. Almost everything else can be improvised or jugaad if you're a little handy :)

6.5gal plastic fermentor - $17.88 (Don't bother with glass fermentors!)

6.5gal Bottling Bucket - $18.81

Hydrometer - $12.99

3 3-piece airlocks - $5.00 - trust me, they'll break.

stopper not needed with plastic fermentor

Bottle filler - $5.09

10 ft 3/8th inch tubing - $10.99

Auto siphon - $8.76

don't need a bottle brush with plastic fermentor

144 bottle caps - $5.78

Use any pure sugar for priming - just calculate it right. I use cane sugar without issue.

Wing bottle capper - $15.48

Dial thermometer not really needed if you're slapping on an adhesive one, but definitely get this for a hot liquor tun if you're doing that.

Wine thief - $11.20

I never used a funnel or fermentor brush - you can use anything to clean but I suggest Oxyclean rinses

32oz Star San - $20.70

Adhesive Thermometer - $4.84

Total Cost: $137.52. Not ridiculous savings BUT you get 32oz of star san instead of 4oz of io-star which will last you years and sanitizer is expensive. You get a plastic fermentor instead of glass which is so much easier to clean and keep light out. Glass carboys are good for aging and aging is good for wine or special beers. Focus on simple ales that don't require it first.

The real savings come when you do all grain and make your own equipment. You can save $137 alone if you buy a big stainless steel pot and slap on a dial thermometer with a ball valve.

For small setup, if you eventually want to get into all-grain, you can do BIAB, or Maxi-BIAB. Google those terms for some more info or you can check out this thread to get started. It is a single vessel all-grain brewing alternative to the big 3 vessell setup you may have seen.

For temperature control, you can do a swamp cooler - its basically one of these with water and ice, fermentation vessel goes into it with a towel wrapped around it. It's not precise but it will work.

A better alternative, however, (IMO) would be a Cool Brewing Cooler. It works exactly like a swamp cooler except you don't use water, it will fit in a closet easily, and allows you to keep temps in check.

For blowoff, you don't necessarily need a large tube. For better bottles, you can use the orange carboy caps with a tube coming off the side. Better bottle also does make a "big blowoff enclosure" specific to better bottles - but they are like $30 and difficult to find.

And finally - you can scale down. You don't need to make 5G batches. There are plenty of people who do 2.5G or even 1G batches.

Congrats on the wedding! I would assume the culprit is not capping the bottles right away. Unlike traditional bottling that has bottle re-fermentation happening to carbonate the beers, beer guns rely on the carbonation already in solution from the keg, so if those were left out a good portion of that CO2 may come out of solution. As far as salvation goes, I would say either enjoy your cask NEIPA and Saison, or use a PET bottle cap carbonator when you're ready to drink to carbonate up. I bring my beers to my homebrew club like this and I think it would be the best way to get both a carbonated beer as well as avoid oxidation as much as possible, with the caveat that you would have to pour from bottle to bottle, cap and carbonate when you're ready to drink one of those beers. You could do a couple at a time (if you have multiple caps) and just drink the beers within 24hrs of the transfer. If you did go this route, you could even use one cap, leave the cap on while the CO2 dissolves into solution, then swap for a standard PET cap and move the carbonator cap to the next bottle.

https://www.amazon.com/Carbonation-Carbacap-Coupling-Carbonate-Fruit/dp/B01039C0Z0

Do you ever plan on doing 5 gallon batches? If you have the space it will be more cost effective to just go for a full size keging system. Mini kegs are going to cost you roughly what a new 5 gallon keg will.

That said if it's only a one-off thing you could use some 2 liter bottles and get yourself a co2 tank and regulator and a carbonation cap and force carb that way, it won't be on "tap" but it will be force carbonated.. and you can keep it carbonated if you leave the cap on and top off the bottle with co2 each time you pour from it.


If you have nothing then you'll need a regulator I have this one: (taprite t742hp primary double gauge co2 regulator, brass https://www.amazon.com/dp/B002UZUJ22/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_auBCDbBPZ3V0H)

A co2 tank, something like this: (5lb co2 tank- new aluminum cylinder with cga320 valve https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00HQQ3WWE/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_BvBCDbXPB33KP)

Some 5/16 tubing l, and a ball lock gas disconnect like this (5/16" gas line assembly - ball lock https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0064OI77Y/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_6wBCDbSWZWMNY)

And a carbonation cap like this : (stainless carbonation cap counter pressure bottle filling with 5/16" barb，co2 coupling to carbonate soda beer fruit juice water https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01K4GGYT0/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_BxBCDbK0V3J35)




I also have this regulator for my mobile mini keg set-up: Ultimate CO2 Regulator works with 5 types of CO2 tanks (0-50psi) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B071J9FKVD/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_nABCDbQWF87S3
It works great and I use it with a soda stream co2 tank which are a little pricey for how much co2 you get but they're convenient and available everywhere. This makes a nice compact system since you don't have the big regulator and big co2 tank.

I bought my boyfriend these x-wing ice cube trays fo his birthday and we use them every time we have people over and everyone loves them :) We also have the death star one and there are others.

Loaded Questions is my favorite party game. (adult version.

Star wars whiskey flasks

Everyone loves a beer making kit ;)

crapload of coffee

Don't know if you like cheese, but you can do beer and cheese pairing during game night with these beer cheeses

Happy birthday!! Hope it was great!

I home brew, though my equipment's still in boxes as we've only been living here in our house for about 4 months. I usually brew hefeweizens because the wife loves them.

It's very easy to get into and there are great kits for first timers available online. I believe there are a few brewing shops around here (still new to the area so have to research)

I highly recommend a kit like this

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0179ZH89Y/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_0kGFzbE9CWAYS

You will end up replacing a lot of it over time but this and a beer kit will get you up and running easily without missing some needed equipment, introduce you to brewing, and provide everything to make more beer if you like it.

Once you've gone through a brew with a kit like this, you'll be able to more confidently walk into a home brew store and purchase things you need. Plus you get beer! (About 50 bottles) have fun! Remember you're just boiling stuff, so no need to panic!

ha, loud and clear! I'm on call now, so you lucked out!

I wish I could give you some definitive advice, but without seeing what he's got, I can't comment with authority. He's probably got standard sanke couplers and I've not seen a good solution there. If you live close, I'd pay him a visit and see what you're dealing with. It's probably going to come down to you just making up some new lines to mate with your corny.
We're getting ready for our Strausstoberfest this weekend and over the summer I reconfigured all of my kegging lines to use 1/4 MFL's for an easier change out than barbed fittings. I may have a last minute surprise myself, as a friend has offered to bring a 1/6 barrel to the party, but it will be sanke. Fortunately, I already have a sanke connector and these from Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00C30F75I

If there is anything I can help with, let me know!

Sorry I tend to do my brewing calculations in imperial (Murican) but.. what I shoot for is a ratio of roughly (usually just a tad under) 1 oz/1 gallon when using dextrose.

For a 5 gallon batch I usually use 4-5 oz in most beers/ciders of medium-higher carbonation. Perhaps shoot for the lower side of that spectrum if you think you may have any residual sugars. If a cider is a bit undercarbed in the end it's not so big of an issue in my opinion.

So to convert converting to metric that would put you at about 13g/liter of what I use maximum if I'm not mistaken. 10-12 g/l should be more than plenty.


> Are there any major differences between top to top siphoning between fermenters, and tap to bottle? (Presuming 10 minutes to let the priming solution diffuse.) We would minimise splash and thus oxygenation in both cases.

Sorry not sure what you're referring to with your process. Maybe you could explain a little better what you're looking to do.

Here are the general beginner steps most people use for bottle carbonating:

1. Heat the measured dextrose in a small amount of water (I wouldn't stress the volume of water, just enough for it to dissolve and become an aqueous solution works fine).
   I usually heat it until just before a boil or cut it right as I see a boil. As it cools I start getting everything setup.
   
   
2. Once I'm ready I pour the dextrose water (once it's not boiling hot) into the bottom of a bottling bucket allowing my dextrose to get an even dispersion in the cider when I rack vs just pouring it on top after racking.
   Usually the dextrose mix cools relatively quickly especially as the cold bucket acts as a heat sink. It's best to not rack the cider right onto the boiling hot mixture.
   
   
3. I rack my cider carefully into the bucket.
   A good tip is keeping the tubing just below the surface of the cider in the bottling bucket as it fills so I'm not splashing and introducing larger amounts of oxygen.
   
   
4. Then I use a bottling wand attached to my tubing and fill each bottle from my bottling bucket and subsequently cap them.
   
   Sorry for the wall of text haha. That's a quick little rundown, hopefully it helps! If you have any questions feel free to ask!

I can patiently wait for almost anything, but not if I am in traffic. Anyhow, because I can wait for things, I figure making my own beer would be awesome. This kit should help immensely.

Good luck and stay safe.

Edit: a word

The book How to Brew it's a great place to start doing some research. It's like the home brewer's Bible. There are also a lot of free resources online like discussion boards and how-to guides.

When you're ready to purchase a kit, [Northern Brewer] (http://www.northernbrewer.com/) and Midwest Supplies are both great retailers. I would recommend signing up for their mailing lists as they will often have starter kits on sale.

I would recommend staying away from the cheaper Mr. Beer kits. It can be a cheaper, easier option but it's like the easy-bake oven version of homebrewing. You'll make beer, sure, but you won't learn as much using these kits and there's little room for customization/upgrading if you decide to get more into it.

On Black Friday, both retailers that I mentioned always have starter kits on sale. I've gotten brewing equipment and 2 recipe kits for less than $100. That's enough to make roughly 100 bottles of beer for less than $1/bottle. You don't have to buy bottles, just save used ones, (no screw-offs) rinse them out, and you'll be able to fill and re-cap them.

Finally, when brewing, sanitize everything. The quickest way to ruin a batch of beer is improper sanitation.

Cheers.

50$ isn't too bad of a budget! There have been times when I was extremely financially strapped that I had 50$ to spend on ALL of my christmas gifts together (talking parents, sibling, bf, in-laws, aunts, uncle, bff) - and everyone liked what they got. Just don't worry about the price tag, go for the value! :)

One thing that popped to my mind when you mentioned that he's into eating and drinking (ice cold water in 100°+), is a beer brewing kit.
Here's one with great reviews for $29. And [here's another one for $50.] (https://www.amazon.com/Mr-Beer-Premium-Homebrewing-Making/dp/B001BCFUBU)
I'd take the cheaper one, given the reviews. It will make for a great memory (aka value) and you could add something smaller with it (e.g. voucher groceries for a BBQ/Burger/Steak night, to be used once the beer is ready).

If you think he's not going to like that, let me know, and I'll try to think of something else! :)

Very simple and easy to use.
Goes like this:

• Tank
  
• Regulator
  
• Hose
  
• In-line backflow preventer (optional, but cheap, if you plan to make sugary drinks then I'd recommend it to keep from contaminating your line with sugar)
  
• Carbonation quick-release coupler & cap
  
• 2-liter plastic bottle
  
  At the links above, pretty much everything is shown in the Amazon "frequently bought together" listing down the page.
  
  All you do is fill the 2-liter bottle with cold water, squeeze it (to create some room to expand) and put the cap on while squeezing it.
  Click it to the coupler, turn the gas on, and shake the 2-liter bottle for a minute to mix the co2 into the water (or juice, or wine, or beer).
  
  Done!
  Put in fridge. Make some more!
  
  First time you set it up, play with the regulator setting to get the level of carbonation you prefer, and after that you don't have to mess with it again. Also, cold water carbonates easier.
  
  

Not sure what your setup is, but I found having an immersion wort chiller in my starting brew days was incredibly efficient and time-saving (I did full 5 gal boils). These start ~$50 on Amazon, but you can buy coiled copper piping (the most expensive part) at any hardware store, bend yourself and use some inexpensive plastic tubing (make sure it’s heat resistant to handle the initial wort temp), some clamps and a faucet adapter. Cools wort remarkably fast and if you keep it clean and sterile (like all brew equipment), it will last as long as you brew beer.

Immersion wort chiller

There’s a few other quality of life equipment upgrades I’m sure you’ll find out along the way as you brew, but I felt this was well worth the money for the time and hassle it saved me.

Very cool, looks good! There's definitely a satisfaction that comes with building something with your own hands.

If anyone needs a good cheap chiller, I recommend this one. 25' for $51.50. It becomes an even better deal if happen to need anything else from the same seller. I tacked on an auto siphon, some air locks, and some yeast and the shipping only went up slightly.

I had been adding additional sugar to the bottles for the 3F (or 2F if I skipped the flavoring stage). But that has always been a pain, and is completely hit or miss depending on what kind of flavoring (fruit, ginger, etc.) was used, how much sugar it contributed, and what other yeasts and other bugs it brought with it (I always used organic, fresh/frozen ingredients before this test).

Ginger, for instance, has it's own native yeast that can stall your ferment by killing your kombucha yeast and slowing down the process until its yeast takes over.

What I was doing was transferring the kombucha after the 2F flavoring stage via siphon to my bottling bucket (https://www.amazon.com/Gallon-Bottling-Bucket-Spigot-Beer/dp/B000E62H8I/ -- but these can be had at your local brew shop for about $12), straining out the solids along the way, and adding enough simple syrup (sugar dissolved in a very little bit of water) to the brew, and very gently stirring to mix -- but not enough to introduce too much oxygen (oxidation can stall / prevent your bottle ferment). I then transferred from the bottling bucket using a small hose attached to the spigot that went to the bottom of each bottle... again, as to not introduce additional oxygen.

So came out great, and others never carbed up at all, leaving me with overly sweet 'buch from all the added sugar -- and excessive sugar is something I was trying to avoid by drink kombucha in the first place.

I got sick of it all, and after reading a lot about force carbonation and how easy it is, I decided to not work about carbonation until I get my new kegerator and keg setup up and running. Every time I talk to someone who has done it with kombucha, or who homebrews beer, they immediately say force carbonation in kegs is the only way to go, and that I'll be so much happier not dealing with bottle carbing.

I'm not saying that you can't perfect the carbonation in bottles method... clearly many here have. But even when I didn't use a carboy in between for flavoring and flavored with fruit right in the bottles, the results were always inconsistent, and not worth all the time wasted on sub-par results.

Like all of what I've ever done in my kombucha brewing, I'm looking for the most efficient, cost-effective (not cheapest), and replicable processes, with the eventual goal of being able to make a quality, consistent brew every time. And frankly, I love figuring all this out and continually refining the process. It's a huge scientific puzzle with tons of variables, and it's a blast!

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Brew-Your-British-Real-Camra/dp/1852492589 is excellent - gives clear simple advice, as well as having a good selection of British ales, milds, porters and stouts - if that's your thing.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sacred-Herbal-Healing-Beers-Fermentation/dp/0937381667/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1368899642&sr=1-1&keywords=sacred+herbal+beers is also a really interesting book - an anthropological of the history and mythology of brewing, complete with recipes! A lot of the recipes are a bit simple, or sugar-based, but it (like Radical Brewing) is a really good source of inspiration and historical knowledge.

Advice? Get a bottling wand and a vinator and bottle draining rack and shave tons of time off your bottling day.

I’ve read here; I think one of the Brülosophy guys, about using a soda bottle with a carb cap to sort of inject the gelatin solution into the keg via the gas in port.

Here’s a plan I’ve been thinking about:

• Pour warm gelatin solution into clean sanitized soda bottle.
  
  
• Affix carbonation cap. (See edit below)
  
  
• Squeeze out headspace.
  
  
• Add CO2 via carb cap. Purge, repeat.
  
  
• Let sit in waterbath if concerned about getting chilled.
  
  
• Clean and sanitize two gas disconnects and a short length of beer line. Connect two gas disconnects, one on each end of the line. (Think about doing a CO2 purge of that line.)
  
  
• Pressurize bottle of gelatin solution more than PSI in keg; vent CO2 from keg to a low PSI.
  
  
• Connect gas disconnect to carb cap.
  
  
• Ready?; connect other end gas disconnect to the gas in post of the keg.
  
  
• Hypothesis: the pressurized warm gelatin solution shoots into the keg under pressure; squeeze bottle to get all the gelatin out if need be.
  
  
• Pressurize keg (and purge for good measure?)
  
  
• Swirl. Chill.
  
  Potential downsides: even a warm solution might quick-chill on contact with cold metal of gas post and cause a gum-up of gelatin?
  
  Edit: there are various kinds of carbonation caps. If using the one with a barbed part, then connect a line of tube to that and hold upright when sending gelatin in. If using the kind without the barb, hold the soda bottle upside down.
  
  Visual Example of barbed:
  
  https://www.beveragefactory.com/draftbeer/couplers/kmcbcp-carbonation-cap.html?catargetid=320012430000341477&cadevice=m&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI2MiP96363QIVUZF-Ch3HewZrEAQYAiABEgI7KvD_BwE
  
  Visual Examples of ones without:
  
  https://www.homebrewing.org/Carbonation-Cap-Stainless-Steel_p_3061.html?utm_source=google&utm_medium=shopping&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI4-7qraz63QIVmKDsCh3m-wsaEAQYAiABEgK5jfD_BwE
  
  https://www.amazon.com/Carbonation-Carbacap-Coupling-Carbonate-Fruit/dp/B01039C0Z0
  
  Edit 2: rewording
  

Had similar problems early on. Went from 7 day 1F to 10 day solved that for me. I also keep my house in the high 70's-low 80's which i know some people find unbearable (comfortable temp for me).

Also I don't add sugar to 2F, but usually just let them sit for 4 days before refrigerating (though i might go back to 3 since my latest batches have had too much carbonation).

Finally, i started to use these bottles instead and they're honestly amazing. Best seal of the 3 brands I've bought and I'll be sticking with them.

Just kinda brainstorming here, I think I know my options but maybe somebody has some suggestions. I have a tiny crowded apartment, can't get a freezer/mini fridge. It stays pretty warm, like 75 ish. I keep my fermenters in our closet, which i shut the vent to and keep the door closed, but I'm not sure how much that helps. I'm planning on mainly doing 1-2g brews, and i was considering either doing a swamp cooler set up, which i don't really wanna do just cause itd look bad, or getting this which i don't really do because it's kinda expensive and i could probably only fit one of my small batch fermenters in it. There's gotta be some other kinda way to efficiently cool down a tiny 1g fermenter!

In terms of equipment, I started all grain right from the start, thanks to this kit: https://www.amazon.com/Brooklyn-Brew-Shop-Making-Everyday/dp/B005G20IIG/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1485457723&sr=8-1&keywords=brooklyn+brew+shop

No need to buy this kit, you seem to already have most things contained in the kit. My point is that you can read the kit's content description and also other pieces of equipment not contained in the kit. You could compare with what you have now, and convince yourself you already [almost?] have all you need.

The only thing I see you don't have and might need are: strainer, funnel & thermomether.

Moreover, notice in the link to the kit above, only 1 carboy is provided: you can brew great beer without the need of "racking" to secondary; simply leave it in primary (for the same time as you normaly would with both 1st + 2nd fermenters...). Though having a 2nd carboy is cool and you can brew bigger volumes or even 2 batches in parallel.

Hope this clarifies/inspires you :-)

Happy brewing

PS: here are the instructions that come with the kit: http://brooklynbrewshop.com/directions/Brooklyn_Brew_Shop_Everyday_IPA_Instructions_.pdf

Absolutely!

Almost everything came from Amazon, it was a little more in some cases... but you cant beat their support. If something is broken its replaced immediately and I wanted that reassurance.

Here is a list of the important stuff:

Nitro Regulator: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07DY9SBMB/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o09_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1

CO2 Regulator (dual tap):https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0060NOX40/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o08_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Stout Faucet: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000BO1KFY/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o08_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Shank for the stout faucet (beer faucets came with shanks): https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00829HN7E/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o09_s02?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Beer Faucets: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01D6MSELA/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o08_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Thermostat: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0152LYY0I/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o09_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Drip tray: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002NQIROA/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

This was the nitro tank (probably the best deal IMO), its a nitro coffee place but it holds beer gas fine :) - I had to use this specific one because of the space it had to fit into, I wanted everything to be self contained in my build: https://beveragelements.com/beverage_elements_shop/cold-brew-nitro-coffee/cold-brew-coffee-nitro-coffee-cylinders/23-cu-ft-nitrogen-cylinder-nitro-coffee/?gclid=Cj0KCQjwlqLdBRCKARIsAPxTGaVyfeABi5S7mFR-ByXCWkDGRbyimzJ52J-2TXkyxDyYABYQxXios2oaAiDuEALw_wcB

​

Obviously this thin wasn't cheap, but 3 tap kegerators aren't cheap either and this one does nitro! It was a decent investment spread over about 2 months of the build so that eased the pain on the wallet.

​

If you're interested in cider, here's an easy method that doesn't use the kit.

1. Go to Whole Foods, pick up 1 gallon of organic unfiltered apple juice. Costs $8.99, and it comes in a nice glass jar you can ferment in and use again.
   
   
2. Go to your LHBS and pick up a drilled rubber stopper (make sure it's sized for 1 gallon carboys), an airlock, an 8 oz bottle of StarSan (vital) and a package of dry yeast (Nottingham ale yeast or Safale US-04).
   
   
3. StarSan is what you'll use to sanitize your equipment and prevent you from making mold instead of cider. The standard StarSan dilution is 1 oz StarSan to 5 gallons distilled/purified water. This is way more than you need, so add 2 ml StarSan to 250 ml distilled/purified water in a spray bottle. (Remember: always add your acid [StarSan] to water and not vice versa.) Use this solution to lightly spritz your rubber stopper and airlock. Set them aside on some clean paper towels. Give them at least a minute for the StarSan to settle. StarSan is a food-safe sanitizer, so you don't need to rinse it off before using your equipment.
   
   
4. Pour off 1.5 cups of apple juice so you have some headroom. Drink it--you've earned it. Mm, that's good apple juice.
   
   
5. Pour in your packet of dry yeast. A full packet is overkill for 1 gallon, but it won't do any harm to use the whole thing. Reattach the lid and shake vigorously. After it settles, attach your stopper and airlock and fill the airlock halfway with either StarSan solution or cheap vodka. I prefer vodka in case the liquid gets sucked in.
   
   
6. Throw it in your closet and wait 2-3 weeks until the airlock stops bubbling. This signals that the yeast has stopped converting fermentable sugars into ethanal and CO2. Use this siphon to fill your bottles, and this capper to seal them.
   
   
7. Enjoy your dry English cider/apfelwine.
   
   Sweet ciders add another couple steps, but I can go into that too if you'd like. Once you depreciate the cost of the gear over several batches, it's quite cheap compared to commercial cider.

Anchor Hocking Heritage Hill Glass Beverage Dispenser with Spigot, 2 Gallon https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00BWC0E42/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_f4uhAbF8X8STT

1 X Organic Kombucha Scoby - Live Culture by Scoby Kombucha https://www.amazon.com/dp/B009ZW8RP4/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_.5uhAb83TMN5D

Unbleached Cheesecloth 9 Sq ft 100% Cotton Reusable-Great Filter or Strainer for Cheese/Kombucha scoby/Glass jar/Wine making https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01M612PJU/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_j7uhAbFHCHX7S

Adhesive Temperature Strip https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0079JZLP4/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i9uhAbJBGF75D

Red Baron Bottle Capper https://www.amazon.com/dp/B001D6KGTK/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_xbvhAbFY4CJN3

Beer Bottle Crown Caps - Oxygen Absorbing for Homebrew (Gold) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00ZSEH8VW/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_YcvhAbCE0836F

Bottles Free: Just start saving old beer bottles (not the twist on style bottle) submerge them in hot water for 5 min, labels peel right off.

Sanitizer: White Vinegar, I prefer Star san.

Prince of Peace Tea, Black, 100 Count https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00AP70BKC/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_divhAbY9D73AP

With these products, you will be good to go and your volume is 2 gallons, so by the time your upgrading after your first batch. For me a 1 gallon container never cut it. With the capper you don’t have to worry about giving your friends a bottle of your Kombucha and never seeing your $4 swing cap bottle again. Just save old beer bottles or ask your friends for them.

To answer your question, the temps you listed are to low. For all brewing temperatures are very important. You want to keep your fermentation in the 70s. Here’s how you fix the problem without keeping your home heater on 24/7.

Round Kombucha Heater Kit for Continuous Brew Crocks & Dispensers. 10" Brewing & Fermentation Heat Mat, Works with any Ceramic, Glass, Stone or Porcelain Containers (10"-120VAC 7-Watts) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B072S6XBQJ/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_1tvhAb04PYXBK

Enjoy... In the long run you will spend less by starting off with the right equipment.

If you want the best general resource, How to Brew by John Palmer is the standard. Honestly, if you just want to see if it's for you or not, get a one-gallon kit and follow the directions. It might not give you the best beer on your first try, but it'll give you a pretty good idea of what it takes.

Looks like the last piece of the puzzle is the mash tun - you need to convert a large cooler (10 gallons is a good size). If you have one with a drinking spout, you can unscrew the spout and install a ball valve. The inside end of the ball valve then attaches to something you use for lautering (filtering the wort out of the mash).

Ball valves are maybe $5 at Lowe's/Home Despot. You need some PTFE tape to seal the threads, and maybe a neoprene washer or two (although you can probably steal those from the existing spout you unscrewed from the cooler).

For filtration, you have a couple options --

1. Just get the kettle screen - $20 shipped.
   
   
2. Braided steel toilet supply line, with one end snipped off, the hose removed, and the braid closed at that end. This is probably more than $20 worth of work.
   
   
3. Get some copper piping, some elbows/couplings/tees and make a manifold. Cut slits in the pipes with a hack saw (cut them about halfway through the pipe) to allow the wort in; the grain will stay out. You do not need to solder this -- just dry fit in the bottom of the cooler. In fact, dry-fitting is preferable because it makes clean-up much, much easier. This is probably $10 of copper + more than $20 of work.
   
   I also recommend a thermometer, but honestly I think putting one into the cooler is pointless. Get a digital insta-read version like the thermapen, worth every penny of $100, and you can use it in the mash, on the wort, and while cooking. With a hand-held unit you can take temperature readings at different locations in the mash, and the thermapen probe is about 8 inches long.
   

Good to know, I saw a few websites that had calculators for that but just went with what the recipe called for. A refractometer is absolutely my next purchase, and a fermenter bag like this which I've heard great things about. Wish I had the space for a chest freezer to convert in my home. ( http://www.amazon.com/Cool-Brewing-LLC-5B-YTCW-X9LG-Fermentation/dp/B008EKD7CQ)

Stainless mesh hop strainers are amazing for racking liquid off of fruit. Something like this.

I recently made a melomel with 30# of crushed blueberries and about 18# of honey. It hit about the 5 gallon mark. As you can expect it was pretty crowded in the bucket. I gently finessed the strainer down into the mead, put my racking cane inside the strainer, and racked out into secondary. I doubt a single bit of fruit made its way in there and the siphon didn't get stuck at all.

In the end I was able to get about 2.8 gallons of mead without pressing which is pretty much what I was expecting to get. Pretty impressed!

Mine was super easy to build and has served me for about 4+ years now.

• 10 gallon Home Depot Cooler
  
  
• Weldless Ball Valve kit.
  
  
• Bazooka Screen with 1/2" NPT adapter
  
  The cooler requires no modification. Simply remove the plastic spigot, and install the new ball valve.
  
  The bazooka screen is a bit longer than the diameter of the cooler. Simply bend the end up slightly and it should fit. The new nipple on the ball valve fits 1/2" ID hoses.
  
  Brew days go pretty smoothly, haven't had a stuck mash yet. Filters well as long as you vorlauf and set the grain bed. My efficiency is around 75% currently, using the Batch sparge method.

I bought a bunch of 16oz. glass swing-top bottles from a retail place called Chef's Emporium. I put pourer tops on them when in use and seal them with the swing top when it's time to put them in the fridge.

They're all over Amazon. Like this: Swing Top Grolsch Glass Bottles 16oz - CLEAR - For Brewing Kombucha Kefir Beer (6 Set) Bonus Gaskets https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01LB1862A/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_pG0Rzb1GQ3PJY

I would strongly caution against a 35 quart pot. The Bayou Classic 44 quart (11 gallon) pot is only a little more, and it's of dimensions more ameniable to brewing (tall, rather than squat). If you plan to migrate to BiaB, the version with the basket is quite useful; you'll be able to fire your heat source without worrying about scorching the bag.

For ingredients, I would recommend looking around for a LHBS (local homebrew shop). You'll likely not save much money ordering those online, due to their weight/cost ratio, and a LHBS is often the centre of your local community of homebrewers.

With regard to literature, my bible is John Palmer's How To Brew. You can also read the first edition online, but much has been learnt since that was published and the latest edition has current best practices.

That equipment kit is decent, but there are a lot of things in it you'll probably wish you hadn't bought.

You will want:

• 6 gallon primary fermenter carboy
  
• 5 gallon secondary carboy, for dry hopping (can't find any that ship with prime)
  
• A bench capper (wing/emily cappers are cheaper, but it's not worth it)
  
• An autosiphon
  
• A bottling bucket, with spigot
  
• A bottling wand
  
• Sanitizer (Starsan looks more expensive, but a bottle will last a long, long time. Especially if you pick up a spray bottle at the dollar store.)
  
• Two carboy caps and airlocks

I think the kits are good, the first one doesn't have a kettle, but has a thermometer. I don't think the second one has a thermometer but has a kettle, which is pretty important and can set you back around $30-50.

I got this Northern Brewer one from Amazon, but it's pretty similar to the second one you linked.

Very good than. Now you can just piece the rest togethers. For the Regulators, I'd recommend the Taprite T752HP. These regulators are awesome, super accurate and the knobs lock. 20-30' of 3/16" of Bev Line. Buy your gas in and liquid out keg fittings, some hose clamps and cobra taps. You should be able to get all that and a tank for not much more than $200 if you already have the kegs. Faucets will run you $40-50 a piece for a decent faucet and shank.

Thanks for the advice, I'll definitely try soda bottles. I've also seen easy cap bottles: https://www.amazon.com/Chefs-Star-CASE-Bottles-CLEAR/dp/B011SGS8U8/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?ie=UTF8&qid=1523023099&sr=8-1-spons&keywords=easy+cap+beer+bottles&psc=1

I'd like to try these in the future, if these work how I think they're supposed to, it would save me the cost/hassle/space of keeping caps and a capper. Do you know of any downsides to this kind of bottle?

My post from another question like that, might help you to see what's needed.

From that list the required things are - the keg, CO2 tank and regulator, gas hose, quick disconnect gas side, quick disconnect beer side, beer hose, faucet. You can get picnicking tap.

...........................................

Here, while not basic, but a list that might help. This is a 4 keg setup. Some items are not exactly needed, for example hose clamps, MFL push to connect (you could just get barb ones), but helpful for disconnecting/cleaning. You can save a lot on faucets - my 4 costed me $280 total all in. You could also get a cheaper freezer.

I got a regulator with 2 possible pressures so I can have carbonation pressure plus serving pressure at the same time - also not a requirement.

Name|Price|Quantity|Total|URL

--|--:|:-:|--:|:--
Inkbird Itc-308 Digital Temperature Controller Outlet Thermostat 2-stage 1100w w/ Sensor|$35 |1|35|https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B011296704
Intertap Self Closing Faucet Spring|$1.99 |4|7.96|https://www.morebeer.com/products/intertap-closing-faucet-spring.html
Intertap Stainless Steel Faucet Shank|$32.99 |4|131.96|https://www.morebeer.com/products/intertap-stainless-steel-faucet-shank-4.html
Duda Energy HPpvc025-100ft 100' x 1/4"" ID High Pressure Braided Clear Flexible PVC Tubing|$28.50 |1|28.5|https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00LX6LS7E
Brewer's Edge UX-CAOO-IQIT Keg Lube 1 oz.|$5.98 |1|5.98|https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0064OK99S
Hilitchi 60 Piece Adjustable 8-38mm Range Stainless Steel Worm Gear Hose Clamps Assortment Kit|$12.99 |1|12.99|https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01IOE4RQQ
Taprite T752HP Two Product Dual Pressure Kegerator CO2 Regulator|$89 |1|89|https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0060NOX40
KegWorks Beer Tap Faucet Handle Black|$4.30 |4|17.2|https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000VI753Q
Intertap Forward Sealing Beer Faucet (Stainless Steel)|$31.54 |4|126.16|https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01NAGS3ST
4 Way Co2 Manifold|$42.99 |1|42.99|http://www.farmhousebrewingsupply.com/4-way-co2-manifold/
Accuflex Bev-Seal Ultra (3/16) 50'|$15.99 |1|15.99|http://www.farmhousebrewingsupply.com/accuflex-bev-seal-ultra-3-16-50/
Pin Lock Disconnect- 1/4 MFL Gas Side|$5.99 |4|23.96|http://www.farmhousebrewingsupply.com/pin-lock-disconnect-1-4-mfl-gas-side/
Pin Lock Disconnect- 1/4 MFL Liquid Side|$5.99 |4|23.96|http://www.farmhousebrewingsupply.com/pin-lock-disconnect-1-4-mfl-liquid-side/
1/4" MFL Push To Connect|$3.79 |4|15.16|http://www.farmhousebrewingsupply.com/1-4-mfl-push-to-connect/
5/16 x 5/8 BSPP (Shank Connector) Push To Connect|$5.99 |4|23.96|http://www.farmhousebrewingsupply.com/5-16-x-5-8-bspp-shank-connector-push-to-connect/
Igloo 7.1 cu ft Chest Freezer Black|$219.99 |1|219.99|https://www.walmart.com/ip/Igloo-7-1-cu-ft-Chest-Freezer-Black/31136433
Set of Four 5 Gallon Pin Lock Kegs Used|$28.90 |4|115.6|http://www.homebrewing.org/Set-of-Four-5-Gallon-Pin-Lock-Kegs-Used_p_3179.html
#20 CO2 tank|$60|1|60|craigslist
2 in. x 8 in. x 10 ft. #2 and Better Prime Douglas Fir Board|$9.86|1|9.86|http://www.homedepot.com/p/2-in-x-8-in-x-10-ft-2-and-Better-Prime-Douglas-Fir-Board-604364/206182008
ZMAX 7 in. 16-Gauge Galvanized Reinforcing L-Angle|$3.27|4|13.08|http://www.homedepot.com/p/Simpson-Strong-Tie-ZMAX-7-in-16-Gauge-Galvanized-Reinforcing-L-Angle-L70Z/100375233
||||1019.3.36|

You would also need a wrench if you don't have one yet to unscrew the posts on the keg.

I can fit my 6.5 gal carboy into my kettle (its short and wide) with room for a bag or two of ice.

Frozen water bottles are great if you have a container that will hold them. I use one of these now, its soft and folds up nicely: https://www.amazon.com/Home-Brewing-Fermentation-Cooler-Temperature/dp/B008EKD7CQ

When its occupied and its real hot, I've been using Voss Kevik, which has been delicious even fermenting at 90-100 deg. https://www.theyeastbay.com/brewers-yeast-products/sigmunds-voss-kveik

> The lady friend isn't too thrilled about having a bonus fridge in the living room though.

Yeeeeeeah, I'm running into that as well lol. I picked up one of these a couple weeks ago, which should be more than sufficient along with some frozen water bottles. I'm hoping to start a new batch this weekend, we'll see how it works!

I'm looking for a good beginner's homebrew kit for my SO. Does [this one] (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0179ZH89Y/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_VZGaAbJEF3ETW) look good for a total noob? I know I will need to buy bottles, caps, and a thermometer separately.

I'd like to give him something that isn't too expensive just in case he doesn't like homebrewing, but also something that can be reused if he does end up enjoying it.

Thanks in advance for any advice!

You sya you don't have the tools to make the mash tun and brew pot. I assemlbe my mash tun, HLT, and brew pot with two 10inch adjustable wrenches, a standard dewalt drill, a carbonate cutting bit, a stepped cutting bit, and some cutting oil. If you have the drill everything else would cost around 50 bucks, then you also gain tools with your equipment. The hardest part is cutting holes in the pot for a thermometer.

Either way to make the Mashtun and MTL you would only need 2 10 inch adjustable wrenches.

Up to you, but here is some all grain kits you could look at:

http://www.austinhomebrew.com/10-Gallon-Igloo-Cooler-Mash-Tun-With-False-Bottom-AND-Hot-Liquor-Tank_p_6699.html

https://www.amazon.com/Gallon-Cooler-Stainless-Steel-Screen/dp/B013KJKAC0/ref=sr_1_9?ie=UTF8&qid=1486068034&sr=8-9&keywords=10+gallon+mash+tun

You can make a 10 gallon mash tun for under 100 dollars:

10 Gallon cooler (~$50)
https://www.amazon.com/Igloo-Gallon-Beverage-dispenser-Dispenser/dp/B000F6SHTK/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1486068151&sr=8-1&keywords=10+gallon+cooler

Ball Valve(~$15)
https://www.amazon.com/Eagle-Brewing-Wl301-Stainless-Weldless/dp/B00OC8DXPA/ref=sr_1_sc_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1486068175&sr=8-2-spell&keywords=wedless+ball+valve

Screen (~$8)
https://www.amazon.com/Stainless-Steel-Bazooka-Screen-Fitting/dp/B003ISY2DC/ref=pd_sim_468_4?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B003ISY2DC&pd_rd_r=45GNPGH763R20241728C&pd_rd_w=MCZcu&pd_rd_wg=n4Wsv&psc=1&refRID=45GNPGH763R20241728C

1/2 female npt fitting(~$5)
https://www.amazon.com/Stainless-Steel-Fitting-Coupling-Female/dp/B003GSKXUU/ref=pd_sim_328_6?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B003GSKXUU&pd_rd_r=SMJAVJR6CYZ7P9ZBQBQQ&pd_rd_w=h6v7j&pd_rd_wg=eclPX&psc=1&refRID=SMJAVJR6CYZ7P9ZBQBQQ

Total: 78 dollars. You can buy 2 10 inches adjustable wrenches for 20 dollars (https://www.amazon.com/Stanley-90-949-10-Inch-MaxSteel-Adjustable/dp/B000NIDIXA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1486068379&sr=8-1&keywords=10+inch+adjustable+wrench)

so even having to buy tools its still under 100 dollars to make the Mash tun. The hot liquor tank will be the same price minus the screen, npt fitting, and tools. I personally made mine even cheaper buy using a 5 gallon htl instead of a 10 gallon and that will drop the price 25 more dollars. There is 0 drilling involved you simply unscrew the old plastic tap and put the weld ball valve in its place, it took me less than 10 min to make my new HTL on Monday.

Also, and this is really important to why I say build yourself, any mash tun you buy is going to be put together the same way it just matters whether you put it together or someone else does, either way the quality will be identical.

If you need a sparge arm for fly sparge you can make that out of pvc pipe: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-jgmgbwvg4

My two cents, even though you don't believe in you. I do, if you feel like saving money you can absolutely make all this stuff yourself and it doesn't require you be good at anything more than thinking like a logical person.

Amazon!

Swing Top Glass Bottles - Flip Top Brewing Bottles For Kombucha, Kefir, Beer - Clear Color - 16oz Size - Set of 6 - Leak Proof Easy Caps, Bonus Gaskets, Chalkboard Labels and Pen - Fast Clean Design https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01LB1862A/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_4J.MDbCKXHADR

I picked up both my 9 gallon kettles (one with dual ports) for <$100 bucks shipped on black friday 2 years ago. I have seen other stuff go on sale for pretty cheap. If you can hold out, it might be worth waiting.

As for your regulator. I picked up this dual gauge regulator last week. It appears to be working well. For less than 50 bucks shipped (I have prime) it worked out well. However I don't know about longevity. It looks to be a much better build quality than my last one that went out because of what looked like old age.

Just found my notes:

• 6lb wildflower honey
  
• 6lb clover honey
  
• 3lb coffee blossom honey (hey, looked interesting.)
  
• 1lb frozen blackberries
  
• 1lb frozen raspberries
  
• White Labs Sweet Mead Yeast WLP720
  
• Three or four blackberries from my just-about-finished blackberry bush, plus a pair of blackberry leaves for flavor and because by this time I was fairly inebriated after a long day of brewing an IPA
  
  

1. Put jars of honey in hot water to get gooey while you get everything else ready
   
2. Heat 5 gallons of water to around 180
   
3. Stir honey into water to dissolve (OG: 22.5)
   
4. Cool water down to ~74F (I used a copper wort chiller)
   
5. Siphon to 6.5G carboy
   
6. Add yeast and airlock; I stored around 70F, and it started bubbling happily after a few days
   
7. Rack about two weeks later to get off the seeds
   
8. Drink most of it "just to test it" while it matures
   
9. Bottle once stable; I gave it two months (FG: -2)

I recently switched from using recycled GT bottles to swing tops. It made a world of difference! Honestly, the carbonation increased by 50%.

These are the ones I bought off of Amazon...Swing Top Bottles

You might want to then go more long-term and get him some bottling tools. Depending on how he wants to bottle, or what kind of mead he's making, a wine corker, a case of empties, and handful of corks might be something nice for down the road. Especially if he has something already aging in a carboy.

If it's supposed to be sparkling then you might want to stick with the relative ease of a bottle capper and some campaign bottles. TIL that in North America at least most sparkling wine bottles actually take regular ol' beer caps - which is incredible to learn. Martinelli's apple cider is the only place I've ever seen it done, but I guess it's common. If he doesn't have a regular bottle capper, or has something that isn't as easy on the bottle as one of these then maybe a capper and caps would be good.

Hope this helps!

Relax, don't worry, you made alcohol! isn't it neat?

get yourself something like this, it will help a ton. (your local homebrew supply store is probably cheaper)

1st question: 2 weeks is fine. If you want to wait another week or two that's fine too.

2nd question: see the auto-siphon above. use it to siphon all of the liquid above the yeast cake that's settled on the bottom.

3rd question: For our purposes, I like to think of gravity as a measure of sugar content. Since yeast eat sugars and poop CO^2 + alchohol, the gravity will drop during fermentation. This allows us to measure our alcohol content.

Swing Top Glass Bottles - Flip Top Brewing Bottles For Kombucha, Kefir, Beer - Clear Color - 16oz Size - Set of 6 - Leak Proof Easy Caps, Bonus Gaskets, Chalkboard Labels and Pen - Fast Clean Design https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01LB1862A/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_P6dxDb9CYMEXP

Swing Top Glass Bottles - Flip Top Brewing Bottles For Kombucha, Kefir, Beer - Clear Color - 16oz Size - Set of 6 - Leak Proof Easy Caps, Bonus Gaskets, Chalkboard Labels and Pen - Fast Clean Design https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01LB1862A/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_d6N7Cb4D5PVHC

ungrinch!

What about something like a Home Brewing Craft Beer Kit? Sounds like something fun you'd both enjoy doing together!

As for contest worthy... Ummmm, I assembled my own Halloween costume (late, I know, but I wasn't active on RAoA until recently! :( ) this year and am pretty proud of how it turned out/how all the pieces came together. n_n

Not op but I was only able to bring it down a few degrees using this method. Ended up getting one of these for about $50. It brings it down by up to about 15 degrees depending on how many frozen water bottles you use. It's also pretty easy to dial in a desired temp within a few degrees.

Using two steel kettles like that sounds very expensive. How about an upright cooler with a false bottom? There are kits for converting Igloo-brand coolers in this way, like this.

That being said, if your efficiency is bad with a rectangular plastic cooler and braided hose, I'm not entirely sure that your efficiency will be much better with a different style of MLT. I did find that replacing my braided SS hose with a bazooka screen made things a bit easier since it doesn't get crushed in the grain like my SS braid did.

My favorite is option 3.

With these you can even bottle from a warm keg to check how carbonation is going or how well a beer is aging. It's also nice for transporting beer. Instead of using a growler that will oxidize easily, just purge a 1 or 2L bottle and counter-pressure fill it. Only big drawback is you can't use them for competition beer.

I brewed my first batch this weekend! I used the Mr. Beer brewing system for simplicity and because I want to make small batches (2 gallon) with the least mess possible. (We've all gotta start somewhere!)

I've read that the included beers aren't much to speak about, but I wanted to get the process down. I look forward to using this subreddit for help as I work my way up to better and more complicated brews!

I have seen this beginners brewing kit on Amazon UK with everything I need for a good price the problem is this, it says that the 5 gallon boil pot is the equivalent of 18.5 litres BUT if you type into Google how many litres in 5 gallons it comes back with 23 litres my question is which is right?

I don't want to buy this to make a 23 litre batch of beer & later find out that the boil pot is too small to do so.

Here's the product in question if any of you wonderful people can help.

www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0179ZH89Y/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_LUYIAbN52MW3R

> Proteins are what you're feeling in a 'full' beer, and taking care to ensure they stay in the beer will get you the body/mouthfeel/head retention you're looking for

What would you recommend to do in order to achieve this?

I haven't taken the pH of my water, I've just been using it from the tap. My neighbor brews some of the same exact recipes I did (same LHBS) using his faucet water as well. He does partial mash, but I don't believe he's treating his water/adjusting his pH.

My cleaning process has been pretty light, as far as I can tell. I bought everything new, but I did a PBW clean of my kettle and fermeters before I used any of them. I fill the fermeter with StarSan on brew day and dump that into the bottling bucket just before I transfer from the kettle. I have never used dish soap or anything aside from PBW and StarSan (and then a rinse with water after cleaning) on my equipment.

I've been using the standard red bottle capper, but the thing is really kind of junk (I have two actually). It's always slipping, sometimes takes a few tries to get it right, technique needs to be spot on etc.

I am using (what appears to be )https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00TFVXUC0//ref=as_li_ss_tl?creativeASIN=B00TFVXUC0&imprToken=tPx24TDfjZE4TvrGDKk5Rg&slotNum=4&ie=UTF8&linkCode=w61&tag=villaegbakery-20&linkId=9e883a23a0cbb04c0ca1726a5999b954 Looks like the exact same one here https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001D6KGTK//ref=as_li_ss_tl?creativeASIN=B001D6KGTK&imprToken=tPx24TDfjZE4TvrGDKk5Rg&slotNum=1&ie=UTF8&linkCode=w61&tag=villaegbakery-20&linkId=137e7f2db4bc77fc4b1a6d281597aa42

Any recommendations for a better capper that doesn't suck?

Alright! So the sparge arm is this connected to this.

I only had to modify the mash tun a little. I had to put a hole in for the thermocouple probe (bigger hole on the outer wall) and a hole in the lid for the sparge arm. Other than that, i just put my bazooka and associated fittings through the existing spigot hole.

As for capping, yes, plain old hand capper. Hopefully I'll be doing more kegging though and won't be required to do so many bottles.

$20-$50 Mr. BEER! Who doesn't want to try their hand at it?
$10-$20 Stanley Camping Cook Set Being able to cook on the go is nice!
$5-$10 Mimosa Pudica Touch Sensitive plant that pretends to die when touched, HOW COOL IS THAT?!
$0-$5 Rose Kissed Jasmine Tea You need to be able to unwind with something after playing with all the new toys, right?

A quick Google search provided me this. Seems easy enough. I'm sure there are cheaper prices out there if you do a little more searching than I did. All hail the almighty Amazon. Cheers!

Stand by:

Ball Valve

False Bottom

10 gallon cooler

False Bottom - Valve adapter

Please shop around. I have no doubt you could get some of this stuff for cheaper. I was restricted in that my only form of currency was Amazon gift cards. Especially the adapter could be built / constructed for much cheaper than I paid.

Additionally, instead of the false bottom / adapter, one could simply employ a Bazooka Screen instead of a false bottom, I have just read that false bottoms are more effective and less prone to problems.


DISCLAIMER - Always do your own research and make sure the parts that you are buying are all compatible and properly sized, etc. etc.

Having said that, the parts I listed above are exactly what I ordered and all fit together perfectly, I just needed to go out and buy a female coupler (to attach the valve to the hose from the false bottom) and a washer (per the included instructions with the valve, which had a additional washer for my configuration).

Looks very nice but I think you could have saved yourself a lot of work and easier cleaning by simply going with one of these: http://www.amazon.com/Bazooka-Kettle-Screen-brew-kettle/dp/B003ISY2DC

I'll share what I use. I'm not to sure what you would use to pressurize a 5 gallon water bottle, because even if you could find a cap that would hold the pressure, you have to agitate the bottle while filling in order to get enough co2 into it to do any good. And agitating a 5 gallon water bottle while filling it would be...interesting.

I use one of these https://www.amazon.com/Carbonation-Carbacap-Coupling-Carbonate-Fruit/dp/B01039C0Z0/ref=sr_1_10?keywords=carbonation+cap&qid=1555387830&s=gateway&sr=8-10

and 2 liter soda bottles. I have a 5lb co2 tank that I bought on craigslist from someone who gave up trying to make beer. It came with a regulator, some hoses, and the mating end to the cap I listed above.

There are a ton of different caps on amazon, but most of them are metal and I have found that the threads are too deep and I cannot get a good seal on the 2 liter bottles. While the plastic one I listed above has worked great for the last couple of years. Good luck!

edit: I've always wondered if you could use a commercial paint shaker to agitate the bottles while filling them. One day I will run across one used somewhere and give it a try. But I know they hold 5 gal buckets of paint so maybe one would work for you too.

Check out /r/Homebrewing and just start saving. Even 2 dollars a day with you and a friend and you could be rolling in a couple months.

edit: also start saving glass bottles that require a bottle opener. Those are reusable.

edit2: Things you'll need. Feel free to find similar products.

cooler with spigot

valve(I'm not sure of the size on that igloo)

bazooka screen

bottles(make sure they're brown)

caps

capper

some sort of gas stove. say a propane stove, a turkey fryer, or a kitchen stove.

a large pot

starsan

I'm probably forgetting things.

1. Probably yes
   
   
2. Yes, but the coupler is different for the country of origin of the beer.
   
3. Are you looking at making soda or buying soda? If you're making it, you should do homebrew kegs for it. I do homebrew and use those kegs primarily, but I bought one of these:
   
   http://www.amazon.com/Sankey-Ball-Quick-Disconnect-Conversion/dp/B00C30F75I
   
   So I can hook up sankey kegs to my ball lock disconnect system. Works great
   
   
4. Seems reasonable.

Possibly, but look at this instead. I just bought one, and it's working out great. Cheaper than the one you linked to, as well.

Hey, this might not be what you're looking for, but it's a pretty good solution, and cheaper than a keg.

Ferroday Stainless Carbonation Cap Counter Pressure Bottle Filling With 5/16" Barb，CO2 Coupling To Carbonate Soda Beer Fruit Juice Water https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01K4GGYT0/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_LS8fzbCZGKM80

Wow thank you!

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003WX772G?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_search_detailpage

Clearly states how to even add onto it in the question section.

So reading through the comments, you don't want to give up on beer. Fair enough, we've all got a poison, right? I'd suggest home-brewing. Because the kit is at first, quite expensive - I got a kit that included a keg, sterilisation pills, tubes/equipment and a beer kit for about £70. It's everything you need to start home-brewing. So the upfront cost is expensive. Then I found I could brew roughly 40 pints of beer from a single £12-£15 beer kit. So instead of $2 for 500ml can, you're having $0.65 per 568ml. Plus the satisfaction you made it yourself, and of course you can change up the recipe (different sugars used etc) every batch.

If you can put a few dollars aside from your beer fund for the next few months, buy a kit and have a great time brewing. You can also use old beer bottles to bottle the new beer!

Just found this beer making kit on Amazon for $52.99, less than your monthly beer fund. Worth a shot!

I just performed my first home brew today. I purchased the Northern Brewer starter kit, this one here:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0179ZH89Y/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Just finished the amber ale that it came with. I was following this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5jtCgQOB85E

When I transferred the wort to the carboy (I bought a 6 gallon carboy) it doesn't look like I left behind the sludge like it showed in the video. It looks like the sludge is at the bottom of the carboy. Will this be a problem?

In the video it shows to mix the wort with the water before adding yeast and I totally forgot to mix it around.. Wondering if that will be an issue?

Also I put the yeast in before I moved the carboy and I think it might have mixed it in a little so it's not all laying on the top, will this be OK? Thanks.

Make a beer

Open the beer!


I hope you find him something really great!

Thanks for your detailed reply! By the way, what do you consider a "carbonation safe bottle"? My first inclination was to use the flip-top style that I use for beer like these. Would these be appropriate for carbonating and storing for a month or two?

Oh my Zazzle! Thanks for the contest! <3

Now that he's graduated... maybe time for a new hobby, like homebrewery? Congrats to him, by the way!

I'd love some artwork... a bit overwhelmed by the bazillion choices, but so far, I love this!

http://www.midwestsupplies.com/platinum-pro-beer-brewing-starter-kit.html

or

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0179ZH89Y?psc=1

The amazon costs more because it comes with an autosiphon, which you should definitely have

Both kits come with everything required to brew 5 gallons (40 to 50 bottles) of beer. Just need to buy bottles and you are good to go. It is the holiday season so odds are you may be able to find them even cheaper

I have a couple of questions regarding dry hopping in a keg. I am looking for a more efficient and better way to to do this. I purchased one of these https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01GHSI9WO/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 and my plan would be the following:

1-After primary move the beer to a dryhop keg.
2-Insert the tube with the hops in the keg. Give it some CO2 pressure to seal it.
3-Dry hop for 5 days.
4-prepthe serving keg.
5-connect the two kegs.
6-transfer beer to serving keg.

A few questions:
-I should dry hop at room temp?
-I shouldn't carbonate until the beer gets to the serving keg?
-Any other tips?

Thanks.

I want to buy this kit from Northernbrewer, it's only $99.99. Is it a good deal? Please advise :)

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0179ZH89Y?psc=1

I bought a kit initially just to get past any worry that I would miss something....it got me started anyways. If I would do it over I would just buy a gallon glass jar (wide mouth), some black tea, a starter scoby with liquid, some sugar, a flexy funnel (for bottling), and some flip top bottles. The kit added about 15 extra bucks to the cost if I had bought everything by itself. I also bought a few large glass pyrex jars for scoby hotels and/or to hold the scoby if I don't re-make a fresh batch that day. I also bought fresh cutting boards, saucepan and wooden spoons so I can keep that separate and really clean away from any other cooking I do.
Kit: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00LW7OR4A/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o05_s02?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Bottles: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B011SGS8U8/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

For the cover I have been using a coffee filter with a rubber band and it's been working super.

I've had no issue with mold or worrisome stuff happening to my kombucha. Each time it works perfectly and forms a nice healthy pellicle/scoby for the next batch. I think a few things you can do to make sure it doesn't 'go bad' is to remember to get all liquids to room temperature before dumping it in, don't use metal on it, wash your hands well before touching, don't use antibacterial cleaning products near it, and clean utensils with white vinegar before using. That being said, it appears to be sort of hard to kill it so it's a pretty beginner-friendly hobby.

I use amber bottles, like this one.

Amber beer bottles, like this one, or amber wine bottles, like this one, also work great and might look a little nicer but are harder to label.

You can probably find these bottles cheaper on non-amazon websites too, just do a google search for "amber bottles" and look around. They come in different shapes and sizes too.

If you are willing to look worse but have a much better solution than filling growlers from the keg, use plastic soda bottles (or seltzer bottles, same thing), and get one of these.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01K4GGYT0/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

You can connect the gas and liquid line to it. First crunch the bottle, then fill with CO2. Remove the gas connect, then connect to the keg
using a liquid to tube to another liquid connect (also good for doing keg to keg transfers/blends), and then gently unscrew. As a bit of pressure is released, the liquid will fill the bottle.

You can do a counter pressure fill, which means you lose very little CO2, and get very little O2 exposure.

Non-homebrewers think plastic bottles look a little sketchy. Homebrewers appreciate the simplicity/technical advantages/well carbonated beer.

Since I drink commercial beer from the kegerator when I haven't had time to brew I had the need to use both. I got sankey to ball lock adapters. I also got a 90° elbow for the beer line, so it wouldn't kink against the top of the fridge with the adapters on.
I took the lines off the sankey, put the ball lock quick disconnects on the hoses, and that's it. Works well. I can take a pic of the huge hunk of metal on top of my commercial keg if you would like.

I have a set of fastracks and a set of [these bottles] (http://www.amazon.com/CASE-OF-12-Bottles-AMBER/dp/B005CIFIDO) and they work resonably well together. Every now and then one of the caps gets in the way, otherwise they fit well and are 10 times easier for storage than a bottle tree.

I had great results with a starter kit from Brooklyn Brew Shop. It's a fun time and you learn a lot about the process plus they have more beers available to brew on your own. Then you move on to getting the grain and hops yourself.

Not sure if you have found these yet. They are about $1.60 a piece... The best way to overcome the fewer bottles is to brew more beer =)

http://www.amazon.com/CASE-OF-12-Bottles-AMBER/dp/B005CIFIDO/ref=pd_sim_indust_1

I use a standard CO2 tank, a Taprite pressure regulator marketed for use with beer kegs, and a couple carbonator caps. It's like a soda stream, but with standard interconnects and refills so cheap they might as well be free (I've been using a 20lb tank for 2 years, haven't needed to refill it once)

Yes, ideally you would attach a syphon tube to a bottling wand like this and use that to fill your bottles.

• Get him a make your own beer kit. This one is the current Amazon best seller
  
  
• You could get him these whiskey rocks. Also available on Amazon for $1 more.
  
  
• Or This set JK it's sold out. My bad. But email them!
  
  
• This whiskey set
  
  

I wouldn't drill the lid for a thermowell and ball lock port. There are a combo action of items on Amazon you could get and utilize the bung hole that already exists.

Homebrew #7 Stopper Thermowell

Stainless Carbonation Cap Counter

Home Brew Ohio Solid Rubber


Drill a 1/4" hole in the undrilled stopper for the carb cap and you have a ball lock connector.

The bung with the thermowell works great on my anvil fermenters.

Anybody think buying this wort chiller for $50 is a good deal? 20' of the same tubing at Home Depot is $27 before tax, and I have a $50 Amazon gift card.

I'm looking to purchase the parts for a 2 tap sankey kegerator and wanted some feedback on before I go ahead and order. everything is through amazon because I have a large amazon gift card.

I already have 2 intertap flow control faucets

coupler-kegco KTS97D-W x2

beer line assembly x2

10 feet of gas line

20# luxfer co2 tank

taprite dual regulator

intertap shanks x2


I'm hoping to pick up a used chest freezer on craigslist. Anything I'm missing? Anything I should change?

I recently got on of these guys Dry Hopper

I used it for a tropical IPA for a party last week, and it went rather well. No hop particles and no clogged dip tube. The top is pretty secure on it, too.

White Russians, duh!


Seriously tho, you might consider getting a carbonator cap so you can run thru a few smaller batches before you go all in. I've successfully carbonated stuff like mead, sake, and white whine using this cap and a standard soda bottle. I carbonate at 50 psi or so, which is close to club soda levels of carbonation. 30-40 gives you smaller bubbles like San Pelligrino.

I like the idea of a fizzy Hemingway Daiquiri, myself.

Yeah I'm excited to use these Aussie hops and got a great deal from Yakima Valley Hops.

For keg dry hop I will use this 300 micron mesh dry hopper.

For closed transfer, as I use a Fermonster I have modified a Fermonster lid by drilling two holes and inserting 2 rubber grommets (one for a long stainless steel racking cane, one for carbonation cap). I'll purge keg with CO2, attach stainless steel cane to keg liquid post then slowly add pressure and try to keep the cane above and away from hop particulates in the Fermonster. Not sure how this will play out in reality though but I'm hoping my trub will be compact enough to not give me any issues.

If he were to buy a TWO product dual regulator like the one you link to, then the answer is yes. His pricing indicated that he was only looking at a single product dual regulator like this: http://www.amazon.com/Kegco-Premium-Series-Gauge-Regulator/dp/B003WX772G/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1407323203&sr=8-3&keywords=dual+pressure+regulator

This

&

This

Just take the extra from the ten dollar contest prize if I'm chosen :)

This isn’t fool proof but does the trick for me at room temperature. I cool using some ice packs it comes with.

Home Brewing Fermentation Cooler - Beer Brewing Temperature Control, Keg Cooler, Fermentation Brewing Bag. The Original - Cool Brewing Fermentation Cooler. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B008EKD7CQ/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_Zy9RDb3E513D0

That's beautiful! And it could double as a huge wort chiller :D

So, you want to think about how many kegs you want in service at any one time. As others have mentioned, second-hand and sales are the shit. But there's something to be said for shiny and new.

A quick note in case you're not familiar with regulators. If you are, skip this. Basically when you get a tank of gas, it's holding a shitload PSI worth of gas. Whether or not the gas is in a liquid or gas state varies, but is largely irrelevant for this treatise. If you straight open that valve, it comes out at the highest speed that the nozzle on the tank will allow. So you screw on a gas regulator. The one that you attach to a tank is a primary/secondary combo. The Primary Regulator gauge is the left part of the regulator. It shows how much gas is in your tank. Co2 turns to liquid under pressure, so don't worry too much about what that gauge READS, just know that the internal mechanisms of the primary portion of the regulator are dropping 500-800PSI down to 0-100PSI or so. The second part of your regulator is the top gauge, which shows your Secondary PSI, or the output PSI, if you will. Depending on the sensitivity of the gauge and internal mechanisms, it can max out anywhere from 40-100. The screw on the front is how you adjust what PSI is coming out of that barb post at the bottom. This is the number you care most about. I only go into this much depth because when I first started kegging, I really didn't have a good grasp on these distinctions

If you plan on building a Keezer with space for 6 kegs, but only want to serve 3 at a time, I would get a single primary regulator with a secondary out and run that to an array of 6 Secondaries. That way you can carbonate and serve at variable pressures/volumes. However, even if you build that from scratch from used/new parts, it's still a pricey proposition.

Or, you could use that single regulator above and run the secondary to a 6 way manifold. The downside is each keg would receive equal pressure and therefore all carbonation in the kegs would be the same.

You could also mix and match for a more even approach: get a regulator like this and run the two outputs to two different 3-way manifold so 3 kegs could be X PSI and 3 kegs could be Y PSI. Meaning 3 kegs would be carbing and serving at 1 pressure, and 3 kegs would be carbing and serving at another.

i started with a brooklyn brew shop kit (https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B005G20IIG/ref=mp_s_a_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1495951927&sr=8-2&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_QL65&keywords=brooklyn+brew+shop&dpPl=1&dpID=410e6JNicAL&ref=plSrch) only thing you need in addition are 2 1.5gal pots and some kind of sieve. worked well for me, brewed about 7 batches that way nd they were okay to very good.

I'd like to do 5 gallon batches. I don't think the quantity from the Mr Beer keg is worth it.

How's this look? Total is around $80.

Fermentation bucket

Bung/airlock

Stock pot

Autosiphon

Star San or Idophor (What's the difference?)

Is there any advantage to having a carboy as well? How long would I leave the beer in the fermentation bucket?

So if I wanted to do sours, I'd basically have to get 2 of everything?

Edit - actually, wouldn't this kit be about the same, but with an extra bucket but no stock pot?

Edit 2 - another pot, 36qt is good price, leaving this here so I can find it again.

This is a pretty good standard kit.

There are a couple conversion kits. This one adapts the sanke tap to have ball lock connects. https://www.amazon.com/Foxx-4048Sankey-Quick-Disconnect-Conversion/dp/B00C30F75I


This kit swaps the sanke barb fittings for the flare fittings found on nicer ball lock connectors so you can easily swap lines over.
https://www.homebrewing.org/Kegerator-Homebrew-Conversion-Kit_p_720.html

edited links to not be a mess.

I failed to mention, you'd want to fit the cooler with either a bazooka tube like this http://www.amazon.com/Bazooka-Kettle-Screen-brew-kettle/dp/B003ISY2DC or a false bottom like this http://www.instructables.com/id/Build-an-awesome-Mash-Tun-Less-than-60-Bucks-False/ I've heard the bazooka tubes can clog so I personally went with the false bottom. It would also be prudent to fit a ball valve on the outside of the cooler to attach a hose for draining into your boil kettle.

So, an alternative to kegging if you aren't ready for the expense is the buy those flip top brown bottles like these.

I have those, as well as a keg (which I only use for special occasions/parties right now as I don't have a kegerator) - the flip top bottles remove a lot of the hassle involved in bottling as you don't need to cap them. They are also larger than standard 12 oz bottles, so it takes less time.

Use the auto siphon that came from the homebrewing kit - it's absolutely worth it. Bonus points if you have a bottle filler attached to the other end of the hose.

If you intend to have a sparkling product, you can try flip-top bottles. I have a bunch that originally held beer that I've successfully used for bottling carbonated things.

As others have said, champagne yeast doesn't guarantee a sparkling end product.

I use one too, with similar efficiency. I don't really want higher than mid-70s because that's what recipes are generally built for. Here's one on Amazon for about the same as what it would cost to build a SS braid filter: http://www.amazon.com/Bazooka-Screen-brew-kettle-mash/dp/B003ISY2DC

Plus, it's 1/2" MPT already, so it should thread directly into the bulkhead you attach for your ball valve. Easy peasy.

One thing is that for the 10gal Igloo cooler the 12" are slightly too long. I just bent the last 1-1 1/2" back on itself.

Amazon has this for $100. It’s what I bought for my starter and still use almost all of the equipment.

Brew. Share. Enjoy. Homebrew 5 Gallon Beer Brewing Starter Kit with Block Party Amber Ale Beer Recipe Kit and Brew Kettle https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0179ZH89Y/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_jifeAbQX8JP6A

Easy! You can build the exact same thing, but you'll have to slightly modify your Sanke keg coupler with something like these. Basically, you put those ball lock conversion couplers onto your Sanke coupler and add ball lock disconnects to your existing gas/liquid lines. Now your system will work with the device in the hbt thread, and you'll be able to tab ball lock kegs too!

Mason jars are made to withstand vacuum, not internal pressure. so you're more likely to have an explosion with those than a bottle made to have internal pressure. The Grolsh style beer bottles work great. I also like using 1/2 gallon growlers (get the ploy caps).

No you do not want those. You want these. http://www.midwestsupplies.com/5-16-barbed-shutoff-valve.html

the 4 way should already come with them. You need a way to turn the CO2 on and off as well as preventing any beer from back flowing into your gas lines. These will accomplish that

I currently have this one. http://www.amazon.com/Taprite-Product-Pressure-Kegerator-Regulator/dp/B0060NOX40

That is a good price for the 4 way

Wow, I must be lucky. I have one of these, and used it to bottle two 5 gallon batches to far in recycled bottles (mostly Guinness, Magic Hat, Sam Adams, Samuel Smith), and haven't broken a bottle, and haven't had a leaky cap. It isn't the fastest thing, but it does the job.

edit:

Here is the Amazon product page with reviews.
http://www.amazon.com/Ferrari-Red-Baron-Bottle-Capper/dp/B001D6KGTK?ie=UTF8&psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_search_detailpage

I recently picked up one of these -- haven't used it yet, but I intend to just drop it in and let it sink. I actually like that it sinks so that I know I am getting complete submersion -- I was always suspicious of how much I was getting out of the socks that would float at the top.

To your inquiry of how will it be fastened -- it won't, but I really can't think of how that could be an issue. Instead of retrieving the hops, I would recommend that you push your beer to an empty corny and leave the hops behind -- way better in concerns of exposure/quality.

EDIT: Looked around on amazon a bit more and apparently some come with a small chain, but you still have a valid question -- not exactly sure what it would be attaching to...

I use a gaint carboy sized cooler bag found here. It can fold up pretty small or slide under your bed when not in use so you aren't commiting to bulky fridge or something similar. Putting a frozen 2 liter in there will easily bring you down to around 65 degrees.

Thanks, yes it is a Sanjay keg. Is it one of these I need along with the regular co2 set-up?

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Sankey-Ball-Quick-Disconnect-Conversion/dp/B00C30F75I

Listen to this guy OP, he's the only one that actually answered your question. Those canning jars can't take too much pressure and are not usually perfectly cylindrical, this puts even more pressure on the corners.

They would probably work if you did a short 2F but then you'd have the same problem as you did with the growler, not enough carbonation, plus the added risk of a glassy, liquidy mess.

I'd just order a pack or dedicated swingtop bottles from amazon. If you wanted you buy a couple of 4-packs or Grolsh lager for the same price, and get the added bonus of 2 exta bottles and all of that delicious beery goodness.

Hopefully you're filling with a wand. If not, you should be filling with a wand. When you do, fill to the apparent top of the bottle. The headspace you create when you remove the wand will be a) the correct amount, and b) the same for all your bottles.

http://www.northernbrewer.com/shop/brewing/beer-equipment-starter-kits/essential-brewing-starter-kit.html

$79.99 and includes everything you need minus bottles and a kettle. It even comes with an ingredient kit as well.

If you wanted to start off all-grain and 1-gallon, you can get the Brooklyn kit:

http://www.amazon.com/Brooklyn-Brew-Beer-Making-Everyday/dp/B005G20IIG

If you want DIY, other people will have better suggestions. I prefer to make things as simple as possible on myself!

I've been using this Northern Brewer kit for years: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0179ZH89Y/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_IOVdBbVZ3TRG5

Only grip is it doesn't come with a hydrometer, buy one of those.

• Something that helped me save time and sanatizer. Don't put the Star-San in the bucket and fill the bucket up, mix it up in a spray bottle and spray your equipment. Been using the same mix in my spray bottle for over a year now.
  
  
• If you think you're sanatizing too much, sanatize some more.
  
  
• If you have a dishwasher sanatize your dishwasher rack and use it to drip dry bottles.
  
  
• Don't bother with the secondary, just keep it in the primary. I only transfer to my secondary when I'm ready to bottle.
  
  
• Follow up to the previous bullet point, never use those individual priming tablets, they suck. Mix up your priming sugar in boiling water for a few minutes, put it in the bottom on your seconday/bottling bucket, add a few ice cubes to cool it down, and syphon your beer in.
  
  
• Use this priming calculator: https://www.brewersfriend.com/beer-priming-calculator/

I started with the bazooka screen linked below. I have brewed 12 batches with it and have no intention of "upgrading" to a false bottom. Make sure you select the one that is sold by Arbor Fabricating. For some reason it is only $.50 plus $4.99 shipping right now and it is really well made. I actually just bought a backup when I saw how cheap they are. :)

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B003ISY2DC

These are the bottles I use for second fermentation.

This is the heating pad I use. It's pricey but you have complete control over the exact temperature you want and if it's a hobby you plan on continuing, it's well worth it.

What about one of These for your hubby?

As far as my list goes, my husband does ALL of the housework and I work. He is amazing. My husband would get a heck of a kick out of receiving this coffee mug

Can anyone recommend a particular carbonation cap? I'll be grabbing 1-3 of these for nearly continuous use. I'm hoping that I can still use my kegs for aging/storing the beer, then filling a bottle up and put 1-3 of them in the fridge and ditching my kegerator for a few years.

I've never heard of a wooden capper can you link me a picture? The cheapeast option is something like this but bench capper works way better imo.

I use an auto siphon and one of these guys but it's impossible to set down without making a mess. The clamp would help with that.

I batch sparge. I bought this cooler: http://www.walmart.com/ip/Coleman-70-Quart-Xtreme-Cooler/4807332 and a screen like this: http://www.amazon.com/Bazooka-Screen-brew-kettle-mash/dp/B003ISY2DC

The cooler was on sale and cost me $25. (Looks like they might not be selling it anymore). The screen was about $20. They've lasted me a long time and I can do enormous batches (10 gal batches up to OG 1.080 or so without sugar or extract additions, or any strength 5 gal batches). Efficiency sits around 70%.

For batch sparging, the equipment doesn't seem to matter too much. If you don't grind too fine and are careful with your grain composition (not too much wheat) you won't have sticking problems, and there's no point in being fancy with the manifold since it's a batch sparge.

I am not (yet) qualified to speak on fly sparging. I'm trying to figure out a setup for it but it will take a bit more planning.

Some people don't chill at all, and just leave it overnight to get to room temp. You don't want to put a lid on before it drops to 160ish due to DMS still coming out, but you want to have a lid on by 140 to reduce wild yeast.

Personally I like my IC. And you can get it fairly cheap like here. It's only a 25' one, but that's what I use and can drop 10 gallons of wort to 80 degrees in half an hour (faster in winter, slower in summer).

Freebie: You know how homebrewers (beer/moonshine) in America use copper tubing for heat transfer? They need to cool the beer down quickly.

That shit sells for $60 on amazon Guess how much it costs in China? $15. How much retail? Last time I was in the States... almost $100. What's the difference with a Global 500 company in Ningbo and a small extruder in Montana? MOQ. MOQ is like $10,000. Shipping to LA is $1900. Tariffs and VAT? NONE (HTSUS, anyone?). Amazon fulfillment is like $100/month (if you put ALL of your stock in their warehouse) and $2/product for shipping. Throw it on eBay and you got a stew going. Call 600 niche retail stores in America and get an order of 40 of these at $30 and you're going places.

If you're an English teacher, look out for shit like this. I sell something tangentially related to this product, and there is money to be made with that community. /r/entrepreneur

I have a Balcones barrel as well, bought from the same place. I ended up having to buy a siphon with a smaller diameter that barely fit in the top opening. This one worked: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0064ODL1G/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I used this and these and just use ball lock quick disconnects on all tubing -- works great.

They also have an awesome 5 gallon starter for $109

This is all I use in my igloo, and it works great:

http://www.amazon.com/Bazooka-Screen-brew-kettle-mash/dp/B003ISY2DC/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1406924473&sr=8-1&keywords=bazooka+screen

Brother-in-law; it covers Seahawks and long hours driving.

Uncle: this is a little over your spending limit, but I've yet to find someone who likes beer that didn't see the appeal of making their own.

Fermtech Mini Auto-Siphon https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0064ODL1G/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_pmjzDbV80QZA9

This will fit a 1 gallon growler jug. Haven't seen anything smaller. That looks to be bigger than a gallon so check measurements to make sure it can reach bottom.

Amazon has them for pretty cheap.
https://www.amazon.com/Sankey-Ball-Quick-Disconnect-Conversion/dp/B00C30F75I

Beer making kit It will take a little investment of time at first, but will become beneficial later.

Let's talk about keg to keg closed transfers. My first transfer experience was successful. My second transfer didn't work due to hop matter blocking the dip tube at the top of the keg. Any reccomendations how to avoid this in the future? Something like this or this?

Do you have a porch or patio? I have been way happier since I ditched the stove in my small apartment and moved to a banjo burner on my patio. I also bought a short hose and adapter to screw it into my kitchen sink. So I can run water out to the patio for cooling and cleanup. (It isn't food grade so I don't use it for water used in the brew) Way nicer to be able to just hose everything out when done as well as hose away any spills or boil overs ect.

Even if you don't have a patio or porch, some sort of courtyard or BBQ area in your complex might work if you have access to a hose spigot.

I also don't have room for a temp controlled fermentation chamber but one of these fermentation cooler bags has worked really well for me and it collapses down to store away.

It is a huge pain and if you have a bottle capper like that one get a second one, they can break. I went with the 16 OZ. EZ cap beer bottles.

Thanks! Are these the products you're talking about?

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01N2QZJND/ref=asc_df_B01N2QZJND5365060/?tag=hyprod-20&creative=395033&creativeASIN=B01N2QZJND&linkCode=df0&hvadid=198078807540&hvpos=1o1&hvnetw=g&hvrand=12368553783614370258&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9016563&hvtargid=pla-349513331250

https://www.amazon.com/Foxx-4048Sankey-Quick-Disconnect-Conversion/dp/B00C30F75I/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1518202987&sr=8-1&keywords=ball+lock+to+sankey&dpID=41jBW4GS4IL&preST=_SX342_QL70_&dpSrc=srch

[Used Kegging Equipment - ID and Setup]

Relevant

1. What's the deal with the [Regulator <-> Tank] O-ring here? It's built in (Keg lube and get moving), or replace with something? Looks a little janky.
   
   
2. What "standard" is the connection [Regular <-> Keg] out of the bottom here? If I was going to add a "splitter" to support two kegs (at the same pressure), what would be the smartest way to modify this? It appears to be 1/4".
   
   Tangent
   
   
3. I understand the restriction/pressure-math for [Liquid Side] lines being 3/16", but why are so many [Gas Side] setups 1/4"? Especially when kick ass Taprite regulators are outputting 5/16" naturally? Seems like a lot of run around to get this double-body connected to a Ball Lock - What am I missing?
   
   Thanks!

With standard bottle caps they say the brew remains true for about 6 mo. after bottling. They have oxygen absorbing bottle caps that are supposed to keep beer for over a year. I've also read that you can wax the top of your bottles to prevent oxygen from seeping in. I'm thinking about doing this for my most recent bourbon vanilla porter brew.

NOTE: I've never tried aging beer for more than 3 or so months so I cannot attest to either wax or oxygen absorbing caps methods.

Does anyone know if the standard red bottle capper like this one can be used or modified to work on 29mm champagne bottles with crown seals?

Get a 5lb CO2 tank, a regulator, ball lock valve and a Carbonator and make your own fizzy water. It's delicious.