There are a few basic essentials that you need to start brewing. Since most homebrewers start with extract recipes, we'll go over these first.
Brew Kettle
Brewing from extract can be done with a relatively small brew kettle. Since you don't have to boil the full volume of the wort, a kettle as small as 3 gallons will work. The idea here is that you boil half of the water along with the extract and hops, and dilute the wort to the full volume with more water in the fermenter. While stainless steel kettles look nice, there is no problem using aluminum or a coated stock pot. If using aluminum, it is recommended that you boil water in it for 30 minutes or so to fully oxidize the metal. I'll go ahead and say if you're buying a kettle, go with at least 30qt so you can grow into it. It's much cheaper that way. And if they have 1/2" NPT ports on it, even better. You'll use those later.
Fermenter
Once the wort is boiled and cooled (we'll go over that), the wort is combined with fresh water in the fermenter before the yeast is added. Most commonly the fermenter is a 6.5 gal food grade plastic bucket with a lid. During fermentation, the yeast will produce CO2 along with ethanol, and that CO2 must escape out somewhere. The lid of the fermenter will have a hole with grommet that you stick an airlock into (below). The airlock creates a liquid barrier so that gas can escape the fermenter, but nothing can get in. Some people may start out fermenting in a 6 gallon glass or plastic carboy (commonly called a Better Bottle). A lot of discussion has arisen around what kinds of material are safe for your brew as well as create a good gas barrier. The main consensus is that food grade buckets made of PP or PE provide good safe protection for fermenting. The safe bet is to buy a bucket made for brewing from a homebrew store (links below). It it important to note that the fermenter should have a volume about 30% bigger than the volume of your wort, since top-fermenting yeast will create a "krausen", or a layer of active yeast and bubbles that will clog your airlock if it gets high enough. We'll get into how to avoid this later.
Airlock
As stated above, the airlock provides a one-way channel for the CO2 produced to escape. There are 2 common kinds of airlocks, the 3 piece and S-type. They both work just fine. It's not a difficult science (sorry Pasteur). If using a carboy, the airlock will fit into a rubber bung and fits snugly into the carboy opening.
Racking cane
Once the beer is done fermenting, you need to transfer it to a bottling bucket. This is easily done using a racking cane, which is a bent piece of stiff poly tubing. Attached to this is a 3-4ft piece of vinyl tubing. A siphon is created to pull the beer up through the cane and into the bottling bucket. Instead of a simple cane, you can use an autosiphon to start the flow, but I've always siphoned by mouth using a small piece of tubing on the end of the vinyl so I don't spit into my beer. Works just fine.
Bottling Bucket
Once the beer is done fermenting, all of the fermentable sugar has been eaten up, so you'll need to add a bit more sugar (dextrose) while bottling so the beer will carbonate in the bottle. A bottling bucket makes this very easy. We'll go into this step later, but by adding dissolved and cooled sugar to the bottling bucket before transferring the beer to it, you can mix the sugar at the same time. The bottling bucket is basically the same as the fermenting bucket, except it has a spigot at the bottom that you attach the bottling wand to. No lid is needed for this bucket since it will only be there for a few minutes, and it only needs to be as big as the volume of the brew.
Bottling Wand
This is one of those things that costs like $5 but makes bottling so much easier. You attach a piece of vinyl tubing to the spigot on the bottling bucket and over the end of the bottling wand. The wand has a little lever on the bottom that only opens up when you press it against the bottom of the bottle. When the bottle is filled, the wand is pulled out and flow is stopped, and the optimal amount of headspace in the bottle is created when you remove the wand. It sure beats slowly opening the spigot to fill each bottle, since you'll have around 50 bottles for a full batch.
Bottles
If you're not kegging, you'll need around 50 amber bottles without the twist-off cap. I say this because you can use any bottle that has a crown cap. So if you've got a bunch of used bottles out for recycling, you can remove the labels and use them instead of buying new ones. They should be thoroughly cleaned and ideally amber because it is most effective at blocking light that may damage your beer. Of course if you keep them in the dark, green or clear bottles work just fine too.
Bottle Caps and Capper
The crown capper is a nice little device that allows you to crimp new crown caps on your bottles. Pretty self-explanatory.
StarSan
Before your sterilized wort and finished beer touches anything, you'll need to clean and sanitize the hell out of everything. Most experienced homebrewers will tell you this is the most important thing about brewing. Your yeast needs the best chance of outgrowing any bacteria that may be present. There are a number of sanitizers out there, and all are very effective, but some are simpler. Iodophor and bleach work well to kill everything (well not spores, but good enough), but it needs to be thoroughly rinsed. Kind of pointless if you're running more unsterilized water to wash it off. I recommend StarSan. Any homebrew shop will have it, and the nice thing is that it is no-rinse. Just dilute however much you need for the day (I usually only use a gallon for a brew day, and I've been using the same tube of it for 5 years), soak everything for at least 30 seconds and drain it out. There will be bubbles left, but theoretically this stuff breaks down and turns into nutrients for the yeast. Good stuff.
Hydrometer
Specific gravity is how brewers tell how much fermentable sugar is in the wort and how far along fermentation has gone in the fermenter. We'll get into the specifics later, but this is an essential piece of equipment. Without it, you won't know when your beer is done fermenting or how much alcohol is in the brew. Hydrometers very simply measure the specific gravity of liquid. Any one made for brewing will work, but make sure they are in the 0.990-1.120 range.
Other Small Stuff
Other small items that you'll need, and may already have, are a large plastic spoon, brushes for cleaning equipment, and whatever else I missed that I'll include later during the process explanations
Starter Kits
Most homebrew shops sell kits that have everything you need to start, usually omitting the brew kettle. I've listed a few online shops to give you an idea of what they contain. You can go as complex as you want to start out.
Northern Brewer
Austin Homebrew
American Brewmaster
More Beer
Brew Kettle
Fermenter
Airlock
Racking cane
Bottling Bucket
Once the beer is done fermenting, all of the fermentable sugar has been eaten up, so you'll need to add a bit more sugar (dextrose) while bottling so the beer will carbonate in the bottle. A bottling bucket makes this very easy. We'll go into this step later, but by adding dissolved and cooled sugar to the bottling bucket before transferring the beer to it, you can mix the sugar at the same time. The bottling bucket is basically the same as the fermenting bucket, except it has a spigot at the bottom that you attach the bottling wand to. No lid is needed for this bucket since it will only be there for a few minutes, and it only needs to be as big as the volume of the brew.
Bottling Wand
This is one of those things that costs like $5 but makes bottling so much easier. You attach a piece of vinyl tubing to the spigot on the bottling bucket and over the end of the bottling wand. The wand has a little lever on the bottom that only opens up when you press it against the bottom of the bottle. When the bottle is filled, the wand is pulled out and flow is stopped, and the optimal amount of headspace in the bottle is created when you remove the wand. It sure beats slowly opening the spigot to fill each bottle, since you'll have around 50 bottles for a full batch.
Bottles
If you're not kegging, you'll need around 50 amber bottles without the twist-off cap. I say this because you can use any bottle that has a crown cap. So if you've got a bunch of used bottles out for recycling, you can remove the labels and use them instead of buying new ones. They should be thoroughly cleaned and ideally amber because it is most effective at blocking light that may damage your beer. Of course if you keep them in the dark, green or clear bottles work just fine too.
Bottle Caps and Capper
The crown capper is a nice little device that allows you to crimp new crown caps on your bottles. Pretty self-explanatory.
StarSan
Before your sterilized wort and finished beer touches anything, you'll need to clean and sanitize the hell out of everything. Most experienced homebrewers will tell you this is the most important thing about brewing. Your yeast needs the best chance of outgrowing any bacteria that may be present. There are a number of sanitizers out there, and all are very effective, but some are simpler. Iodophor and bleach work well to kill everything (well not spores, but good enough), but it needs to be thoroughly rinsed. Kind of pointless if you're running more unsterilized water to wash it off. I recommend StarSan. Any homebrew shop will have it, and the nice thing is that it is no-rinse. Just dilute however much you need for the day (I usually only use a gallon for a brew day, and I've been using the same tube of it for 5 years), soak everything for at least 30 seconds and drain it out. There will be bubbles left, but theoretically this stuff breaks down and turns into nutrients for the yeast. Good stuff.
Hydrometer
Specific gravity is how brewers tell how much fermentable sugar is in the wort and how far along fermentation has gone in the fermenter. We'll get into the specifics later, but this is an essential piece of equipment. Without it, you won't know when your beer is done fermenting or how much alcohol is in the brew. Hydrometers very simply measure the specific gravity of liquid. Any one made for brewing will work, but make sure they are in the 0.990-1.120 range.
Other Small Stuff
Other small items that you'll need, and may already have, are a large plastic spoon, brushes for cleaning equipment, and whatever else I missed that I'll include later during the process explanations
Starter Kits
Most homebrew shops sell kits that have everything you need to start, usually omitting the brew kettle. I've listed a few online shops to give you an idea of what they contain. You can go as complex as you want to start out.
Northern Brewer
Austin Homebrew
American Brewmaster
More Beer
No comments:
Post a Comment