Ready to start brewing your own beer? Here are the tools of the trade!

There’s nothing like kicking back and drinking a beer you brewed up yourself! But before your able to enjoy the fruits of your hard work your gonna need the tools to do so.

Below is a list of essential equipment along with some key notes for prepping your set up. I also included some websites where you will be able to browse equipment and compare prices. Happy Brewing!!

This list will get you well on your way to brewing great beer:

• Plastic Primary Fermenter with drilled & grommeted lid
• Bottling Bucket With Spigot

   

  

  Example Starter Kit

• 5 Gallon Secondary P.E.T. Better Bottle™ Plastic Carboy
• Airlock & Drilled Rubber Stopper
• Triple Scale Hydrometer and Test Jar
• Thermometer
• Siphon Tube, Hose and Clamp
• Bottle Capper
• Bottle Brush
• Bottle Filler
• No Rinse Sanitizer
• About Fifty 12oz. Amber Beer Bottles(not included in below estimated price)No Twist Offs

This list will set you back a little over a hundred dollars, but should pay for itself after about two batches of beer! Start saving your beer bottles now, each case of 24 bottles will run you about $15.00(see my post about taking care of your bottles)

If you are just starting out I recommend buying a beer kit which includes all the ingredients you need as well as instructions on how to make your selected brew.

Below are a few sites to help you find your equipment:

Arbor wine Beer-wine.com Monsterbrew

Tis the Season, why not share your fresh brewed creation!

The Holidays are upon us and before you know it we’ll be either out and sharing good times with friends and family or celebrating the Holidays right at home.  Why not brew up a batch of great seasonal beer and gift out your delicious creations!  If your asking yourself, without the proper packaging it would be kind of lame to just hand someone a gift wrapped beer bottle or even worse throw six bottles in a plastic bag and say here you go, hope you like it!  Why not get creative and have a custom label made up to stick on your blank six pack carrier.  Here are a couple of websites that can help make it happen for you.  I plan on doing this myself this year and when I do, I will post the finished package for all to see.

Check these two websites out:

Six Pack Carrier

Custom Labels

Carboys! Glass or Better bottles?

I have seen this debate for a while and have decided to post a review based on these two carboys.

First of all, carboys are a wonderful addition to your setup. Whether you’re using it to rack a secondary or to watch the magic of the fermentation process while your beer is in it’s primary stage. I personally use mine to rack to a secondary.

My opinion on glass or plastic is, drum roll please…. The plastic better bottle, and I will explain why! The three biggest reasons are; they are cheaper, they weigh practically nothing and they are extremely durable compared to the glass option. The only downside to plastic is that it could scratch leaving it vulnerable to produce a contamination in your brew. I have been using plastic for a while now and although I am very cautious in my cleaning and storing process, I have never come across a scratch and my better bottle has held hundreds of gallons of beer. People say that plastic is not the way to go because plastic has pores compared to the glass which in turn would or could oxidize your beer producing off flavors such as the taste of card board. The better bottle is made of industrial plastic made for cooking etc.. I have never come across a finished beer of mine that had off flavors. So go out and get yourself a better bottle, your back and your wallet will thank you for it and your taste buds will never know the difference!

What am I drinking, or about to be drinking

At the moment I have a creme ale and a seasonal Autumn pumpkin ale bottled and ready to drink. I also have a Bavarian Hefe Weizen conditioning at the moment and should be ready to drink in about 10 days. This weekend I will be brewing an IPA and will be posting a step by step walkthrough complete with pictures, so check back for that. If you have questions or comments please be sure to post and I will get back to you as soon as I can! Happy Brewing.

Welcome to the wonderful world of homebrew!

This blog is dedicated to homebrew! From beginning to end walkthroughs to beer reviews and equipment testing. So sit back, learn something, share your imput and ideas and most important, let’s have some fun!